voice came from behind me.
I screamed in response, completely surprised. I whirled around on the bench, the smooth wood making it easy to spin around and face Ryder.
“What are you doing here?” I gasped. My heart still beat frantically in my chest and my hands flew to my hair which I knew was disheveled and frizzy.
“Looking for you,” he said simply. His eyes swept over me with something hidden in them. He made me nervous. There was something different about him today, even from last night. Something I couldn’t place. Like he was lighter today, weighed less or something. But not in pounds… like he wasn’t tied down to gravity today, like he would just float away at any given moment.
And at the same time he was more intense, more…. intent with me.
“So you had to scare the bejeezus out of me?” I demanded. I slipped my hands under my thighs and rocked forward so that my hair covered my flushed face.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Ivy,” he said patiently. “Sorry. It’s not like I snuck up on you or anything, you were just making a lot of noise.”
I laughed a little hysterically. And then it turned into more laughter. Good grief, maybe I was the one that was unhinged.
Ryder walked over to me and held out his hands. I retrieved mine from under my thighs and slipped them into his and let him pull me up. We were just inches apart when I was standing, our bodies so close together I could feel the heat from his chest and then his minty breath fan over my hairline.
“Someone’s here to see you. They’re in the office,” he explained.
“Is it my mom?” I asked in a small voice. I could just imagine what she was doing here trying to pull me out of school. And then panic set in, what if she was here to take me to Nix. What if I ran out of chances and last night was the final nail in my coffin?
Oh, no.
“No, it’s not your mom,” Ryder answered.
“Is it Nix?” I whispered, full hysteria setting in.
“No, it’s not. I’m not sure who it is. Tanner just caught me in the hall and asked me to find you since you weren’t in class yet.” Ryder must have seen something in my eyes because his grip on my hands tightened. “Ivy, are you Ok? Are you expecting someone?”
“No, I’m not,” I tried to relax. If it wasn’t my mom or Nix, I had no idea who it could be, especially who would come visit me at school. But as long as it wasn’t one of them, I felt a little bit safer.
“Ready then?” He asked, although he made no effort to move away from me.
“Sure,” I nodded my head and he finally stepped back.
As we left the still empty music hall I asked, “How did you know I would be back there?”
“I didn’t. I looked everywhere else I could think of first and called your cell. I actually thought maybe you decided to ditch today. But then I remembered you took all that sheet music, so I thought maybe you went to practice, since you weren’t at lunch.”
“Oh.”
“But you weren’t… uh, practicing.” Ryder slanted his gaze at me, taking me in, all of me in, in just a quick sweeping gesture, but still my skin felt hot from his attention.
“No, I forgot about the sheet music, honestly. I was, um, it’s like therapy,” I admitted. “I was expressing some frustrations.”
“No kidding,” Ryder chuckled. “I hope they’re not all about the band. Because we’ll take this slow. I don’t expect you to play like next week. And seriously, Ivy, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”
“No, I want to,” I was surprised by my own conviction. My mom would kill me if she knew I was in Ryder’s band. It was Ok to spend time with any kind of boy. And technically it was Ok to go to concerts, although my mother might have disapproved of what I wore. But it was in no way Ok to associate myself with a boy band. Or any kind of band. My talents were strictly cultivated to enhance my beauty and nothing more.
Gag.
“I want you to, too,” Ryder admitted.
“Hey are you alright?” I asked, intuition niggling in my stomach.
“Why wouldn’t I be alright?” Ryder asked softly.
“I don’t know,” I admitted with honest humor. “I just had this feeling that you needed to talk. But maybe I was