Falling In Love with a Bad Boy !

Chapter 36- Trouble in Paradise

Annabeth's POV💖

I stand there frozen watching as the guy called James and his two friends or goons or whoever they were, walk away from us. My entire body was frozen at James's words and my brain was still processing it. Ryder got his fiance pregnant. I just stood there motionless, I couldn't move even if I wanted to. I watch in shock as Ryder turns around and he looks at me closely. He walks closer to me and lowers his head to look at my face carefully. "Are you ok?"

I just shake my head at him not able to say anything. I watch as Ryder curses out and he runs his hand through his hair "Look just ignore what he said ok, it doesn't matter" He reaches out his hand towards me "Let's go, I'll drop you off home yea?" 

I just stare at him, a hundred thoughts running through my head. Who is Ryder? How well do I know him? What did he do to this guy's fiance? Did I even know him well enough? He was definitely not a normal high schooler but did I even know what he was involved in? My heart kept telling me that I knew him but my brain wouldn't stop throwing all these thoughts at me. 

I watch as Ryder drops his hand after he doesn't get a response from me and he turns and starts making his way to the lockers. I think he expects me to follow him but even if I wanted to i dont think my feet could move. He takes a few steps and then stops and turns to look at me still standing where he left me, motionless. He jerks his head at me "Come on Anna" and then seeing me still standing there he sighs and comes back to me "What is it?" he cups my face with his hands "If it's about what he said, all you need to know is that I will keep you safe, you dont have to worry about anything" 

I pull my face out of his hands and see anger light up his eyes. I knew he hated it when I didn't let him touch me but right now that was the least of my concerns. I take a few steps back "What was he talking about Ryder, did you take his fiance away from him, did you get her pregnant?"

Ryder just shakes his head and blows out a breath of frustration "No, I did not get anyone pregnant"  He extends his hand out to me "Come on let's go" 

I just stare at him annoyed now "What do you mean by let's go, I need to know what happened, who is he? how does he know about me and my mum, what did you do to his fiance?"

Ryder just stalks up real close to me now and it's evident by the body language that he is super pissed. He grabs my arm and leads me to the offices of the gym where Bryan and Colton are at. He stops just outside the door and looks at me "Look, I told you I'll take care of it, I did not get anyone pregnant if that's what your worried about and you and your mum will be safe" I yank my arm out of his hand and glared at him "That's not enough, I want to know ..."

Ryder puts his hand up to silence me "You dont need to know more" 

I am really annoyed at him now and I glare at him "Says who? You can't just expect me to be ok with whatever information you think is enough for me to know. This is not how a relationship..." 

He interrupts my rant by grabbing me by the back of my head and pulling my face close to his our foreheads touching. "I dont give a fuck as to how a relationship is supposed to be. This is you and me! This is how I am and you're my fucking girlfriend. If I tell you that's all you need to know that's all you need to know..." he growls out

I pull back from him and open my mouth to argue when the door to the office opens and Colton pops his head out and looks at us. I look behind him and see Bryan sitting in the office talking to someone in there. Colton looks at us both questioningly. 

"Keep an eye on her, I need to take a shower" Ryder stalks off without looking back at me. I stand there speechless watching Colton come out while Bryan continues talking with the guy in there. 

Colton shuts the door behind him and looks at me with concern "What's wrong?" Tears threaten to fall out of my eyes "He... won't... i ..some guy called James just came in and he kinda threatened us, and. .and he said that Ryder stole his girlfriend and got her pregnant. Ryder won't say anything much to me, I dont even understand,  I dont know what to do..He wont talk to me..." 

The tears start falling down my cheeks and Colton pulls me into a hug "Shush..you know Ryder, he wouldn't do that to you, you just need to trust him, and give him some time. He's a good guy but he's new to this whole girlfriend business so let him take his time and open up to you ok. Just trust me when I say that he hasn't done anything wrong"  I pull out of Colton's hug and smile at him gratefully.

He nods his head awkwardly and gestures to a vending machine while I wipe my tears. "I'll get you something to drink? Or how about candy?" I nod my head. We walk together to the vending machine and he gets me snickers. I chew on it trying to control my emotions . I trust Colton and if he said that Ryder wouldn't do anything wrong he wouldn't. I still wanted to know more but I decide I would leave this conversation for later. I finish the snickers while I wait for Ryder and I see him walk up to us wearing a white shirt and black jeans his hair still damp from the shower. He walks up to us and bends down and licks off some chocolate from the corner of my mouth. I flinch as he does it although I dont think he notices.

Colton gags "Gross dude" 

Ryder laughs at him "What, she's mine bro..." He pulls me into a hug but I am stiff in his arms .I was still upset and Ryder looked like he had absolutely forgotten about the previous episode. 

Ryder looks at Colton "I'm going to drop her and Ill be back, we need to catch up, can you get the boys to come to the usual?"

Colton nods his head and holds out Bryans car keys "Yep, Ill sort it" He smiles at me reassuringly and I smile back at him. 

We walk out with me grumpy the whole time and Ryder with a protective hand on my back. As soon as we get in the car he starts it and drives off without even a word. I turn around to look at him "Are we really not going to talk about this?" He closes his eyes for a second " I already told you what I had to, everything is fine I will sort it out".

I turn around in my seat and stare at him "How can you say that Ryder, I want to know, why wont you share this with me? I know you have another part of your life that you dont want me to be a part of but how will I ever get to know you If your leading two secret lives and you wont let me in" 

Ryder grunts but doesn't say anything which pisses me off even more and I sit straight and continue"I want to get to know you same as how you want me to tell you everything, I told you about what I go through with my mum.."

Ryder hits the brakes which makes me jerk forward and he pulls the car over and looks at me as he spits out "What about what you go through huh, that your mum puts makeup on you and that she fucking controls your life and doesn't let you date... you think that is traumatic...My mum was fucking beaten to death by my dad in front of my eyes when i was a kid...so yea I may not be in a fucking mood to share my stories with you in one day" he yells the last bit. 

I flinch in shock and inhale a sharp breath "Ryder..I ..I"

"Yea" he glares at me "Thats what I thought, now you dont know what to say right"

I reach out to him but he pulls away from me "Dont..."

We drive the rest of the way in silence, all I want to do is to hug him, but I knew he didn't want that right now. I couldn't even begin to imagine how he dealt  with losing his mum, and I could see that my problems were definitely nothing compared to what he's been through. I felt like such an idiot for going on about my mum when he's been through so much. 

Right now all I wanted to do was to hold him and hug him ,but I knew I had to give him time and not force him to open up like Colton had said. We pull up in front of my house and I look at him one more time. His face was impassive and shut down and I could see a vein throbbing in his forehad as he stares straight ahead without even glancing at me, both his hands were clenched on the steering wheel and his knuckles were white. 

I get out of the car and start walking into my gate. I reach the front door and I hear him pull out and drive off. I had no idea what I got myself into but it was definitely not going to be an easy journey to get Ryder to open up to me. But one thing I knew was that I was not going to give up on us.