*Hands over an Oreo*

"What do you mean there's no dirt on him?" Lex exclaimed. "That's not possible. He's a gang leader, Ron knows that right?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Of course he does. Everyone does. Which is why no one wants to get on his bad side."

"So you're telling me there's a side of him that isn't bad?" Lex deadpanned.

"Not for me, there isn't. It's either, be a part of his gang or die." I shrugged, looking down at my phone. "Take a right."

"You say it like it's a normal thing." She groaned making a turn. "How long till we reach there?"

"Ten minutes." I responded. "It is normal, really. We haven't had to deal with the gang shit before but as far as I know about them, this King guy is being pretty patient with us."

"So, that's a good thing?" She asked, stopping at a red light.

"I don't know that. All I know is, he's definitely gonna lose patience and strike soon." I sighed, looking out of the window. "We need to be a lot more careful than usual."

"Tell me, how is going to the carnival, 'being careful'?" She sassed, making me roll my eyes.

"You have anything better to do?" I asked.

She sighed and shook her head.

"Yeah, well me neither, so we might as well just enjoy the day. Anyhow, a dumb gangleader can't tell me when I can have fun and when I can't." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"But you told me that he has eyes on you." She frowned.

I sighed, as memories of, when he was talking about Ryder, flashed through my mind. "He does."

"And don't you think it'll be unsafe for the others to be seen with us?" She asked, making another turn.

"Which is why I suggested that we go to the carnival. He can't attack in public." I said, cracking my knuckles. "And once I lure him out successfully, I'll do what I do best."

"Get on people's nerve?" She scoffed.

"Exactly." I smiled. And just then I got a text.

"You're unbelievable." Lex groaned. "Just don't do anything stupid, for god's sake."

"Define stupid." I said, looking up from my phone, grinning at her, making her shake her head. "Anyway, take a left, we're meeting them at a cafe. The boys are running late."

We took a turn, right before the carnival and towards a small cafe, according to the address Mia sent me.

We found a spot to park right next to a car that I recognised as Perri's.

We entered the small, but cozy cafe to find two figures waving their hands like madmen, motioning for us to go to them.

I rolled my eyes at them and we advanced towards them. As always, a lot of heads turned in our direction.

I was pretty used to it but this time something was different. They were trying to be a lot more subtle, to look at Lex and I.

I frowned but let it go, thinking that I must be feeling paranoid for no reason.

"Hey Em, Lex." Mia said, looking as beautiful as ever.

"Okay, I don't want anybody to panic but I have some breaking news." Perri said leaning forward with her elbows on the table and her eyes wide.

I smiled in amusements. "What?"

"There is a new hottie in town. And..." She said, doing a drumroll on the table. "He goes to our school." She squealed.

"Really?!" Lex joined her. "What does he look like?"

"I haven't seen him yet but one of the girls at our school bumped into him recently and she was a stuttering mess." Perri said, lowering her head, as if exchanging top secret government information.

"Cute." Mia said, simply, taking a bite out of her doughnut, making us roll our eyes.

I raised my eyebrows at Perri. "And you found all that out, while sitting here, having doughnuts..." I said.

"Uh huh..." She nodded. "But I still, would like to know what he looks like."

Before I could respond with a snarky comment, I felt movement beside me as a few figures landed on the empty chairs around our table.

I snapped my head towards the intruders only to face two unfamiliar faces, looking at us with smirks.

I tensed at first, as my hand moved towards my ankle and my eyes scanned their wrists only to find them with no sign of any tattoos.

I let out a sigh of relief before retracting my hand.

"Hello ladies." The guy beside me with the black leather jacket said, making me raise my eyebrows in amusement.

"Uh... How can we help you?" Perri asked, unsure.

"We just thought that we'd give you beautiful women some company." The blonde guy, sitting beside Mia said, with a smirk, trying too hard to fit into the badboy shoes.

"Yeah you seemed pretty lonely." The leather jacket guy said.

"We're anything but lonely. Thanks but you can leave." Lex said, with a sickly sweet smile.

"I don't think so." He said, placing his arm on the back of my chair and getting comfortable on his seat.

I could easily crush his wrist bones into crumbs but with all these people looking and the girls still here, that wouldn't be the best idea.

"How about you give us your numbers and we can plan something that we can all enjoy." The blonde guy said.

I scoffed. "Not even if you approached us like normal guys do. You're not my type." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Aw don't be like that beautiful." The guy in the leather jacket said, making my jaw tick. "I could show you a good time."

The guy's smirk widened as he moved his arm from the back of my chair to place it on my shoulder.

I retracted and cringed at his attempts.

"And I could mess your face up so you won't recognise yourself in the mirror, if you don't move away from her." A deep voice growled and in a flash the guy was picked up off the chair by his collar.

I gasped, looking up to see a very livid Ryder holding the guy an inch off the floor by his collar.

I rushed to his side quickly and grabbed his hand. "Ryder." I said, in a warning tone. "Let go."

He didn't budge and kept his glare on the guy in the leather jacket, who was gasping for breath.

The blondie had stood up from his seat too and looked at Ryder with horror in his eyes.

"What? Got nothing else to say?" Ryder growled, tightening his grip, making his face turn a light shade of blue.

"We- we didn't know that she was spoken for." The blonde guy, stuttered, motioning towards me, making me frown.

Before I could correct him Ryder cut me off. "Well, now you know." He glared at him making him flinch and me, gape.

Unbelievable.

I noticed people turning to look at us and turned to Ryder again.

I grabbed his face, turning it towards me. "Ryder. Please."

He looked at me with troubled eyes as his gaze softened when it landed on me.

After a moment, his grip loosened and the guy landed on the floor in a heap.

The other guy rushed to him.

Ryder turned to them with a glare. "Fuck off, before I change my mind." He barked making them pick themselves and stumble out of the cafe.

I looked as everyone slowly turned their attention away from us, making me sigh.

I felt movement behind me and suddenly I felt hot breath hit my ear.

"Out of everyone, I never expected you to be the one to stop me." Ryder's deep voice made me shiver slightly as I turned to look up at him.

"There's a time and place for everything." I said, and I noticed him studying my face. "Look around."

He moved his eyes to look around at the small crowd.

"You don't think I would've kicked his ass if we weren't in public?" I said, smugly, making his smirk.

"Fine then. I'll be incharge of doing that in public." He winked at me, making me raise my eyebrows in amusement.

"All this flirting is making me feel extra single, you guys!" Lex groaned, making me roll my eyes.

She's right though. Since that day at the after party, Ryder and I have been pretty flirty with each other.

We haven't talked about that kiss yet or the very obvious question about what it makes us but something between us has surely changed and I know that everyone noticed.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay Ryder?!"

I couldn't help the groan of frustration that left my mouth as Ashley's shrill voice reached us.

Ryder noticed, and looked at me with a guilty look. "Right, I completely forgot. Mom suggested that we bring her with us."

"As if I care." I scoffed before turning away and taking my seat, as I noticed her run up to Ryder and scan him.

"Are you okay?" She whined. "That was so scary and dangerous."

"Nothing even happened." Dylan muttered taking a seat beside Mia, making her shove a doughnut in her mouth in panic. "Woah slow down there Mia. I wasn't going to snatch it away from you."

Perri narrowed her eyes at him making him shake his head in frustration. "I swear I wasn't going to. My appetite is pretty much gone because of a certain someone." Dylan said, under his breath, looking at Ashley from the corner of his eye.

Cole approached us, throwing a weird look at Ashley. "Hey."

"Hey." Everyone at the table responded.

"Hi." Perri's small voice said, avoiding eye contact with Cole, as he hesitantly took a seat beside her.

"Oh hell no!" Lexi exclaimed, looking at Perri and Cole.

Ryder had finally reached the table taking a seat beside me, leaving Ashley to huff and take the only seat left, that was between Dylan and Lexi.

"Something happened between you two!" Lex laughed, pointing at Perri and Cole. "Come on, tell us. We're your friends."

Everyone turned to look at Cole and Perri who sat there wide-eyed like deers caught in headlights.

Perri let out a nervous laugh. "What? No! Between us? No way!" She said, taking a huge sip from her coffee.

Cole joined in on her nervous laugh. "Exactly! There's no way. Why would you say that?"

Lexi scoffed before rolling her eyes. "It's my superpower. I can tell this kind of stuff just by the look on a person's face."

"Well, you're wrong on this one." Cole said, with wavering eyes, making me raise an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Oh please, I'm never wrong." Lex said, narrowing her eyes on them. "I can tell that you two hooked up."

Perri sputtered out her coffee, coughing it out, while Cole patted her back with wide eyes.

"No!" Perri exclaimed, as soon as she recovered from her coughing fit. "We so did not. We just kissed." She yelled, eyes wide in panic.

Everyone's eyes widened, including Perri and Cole, while Lexi leaned back in her chair with a smug smile on her face. "I knew it."

"W-what? But you just-" Cole stuttered.

"I lied. If I had said you guys kissed, you wouldn't have admitted it." She said, while I turned to her with a proud smile.

"I taught you well." I sniffled, patting Lex's shoulder.

"So, what does that mean?" Mia asked the question that has to be addressed by two other people at the table. "Are you guys dating?"

"No." Cole said quickly, making a foreign emotion flash through Perri's eyes, before it was gone. "I was just too drunk and it sort of just happened."

Perri nodded in agreement, looking down at her coffee. "He's right."

Cole turned to look at her but she stood up from her seat before mumbling. "I need to use the washroom."

"I'll come with." I said, noticing the change in her demeanor but as I stood up from my seat, she turned.

"No that's okay. I won't be long." She smiled before walking away.

I sighed before looking down at Cole. "You can be dumber than Dylan, sometimes."

"Hey!" Dylan complained.

Cole frowned. "What? Why?"

"Forget it. It's really not your fault." I rolled my eyes. "I'm gonna get some coffee for myself, anybody want something?" I asked motioning towards the counter that had a small line.

"I'll take an iced americano." Lex said, making me nod.

"I'll come with. I need something too." Ryder said, getting up from his seat.

I noticed Ashley frown and move to get up from her seat, making me turn to her with a sickly sweet smile. "Do you need something Ashley? I'll get it for you."

She froze, looking at me before settling back down in her seat. "I'll take a cappuccino." She muttered, mirroring my expression.

I nodded. "Sure."

I moved to walk behind Ryder towards the counter when Lexi's arm reached out and grabbed mine.

I looked at her in confusion while she smirked.

She pulled me down to align my ear with her mouth. "You know my superpower applies on everyone right?" She whispered, making me part my lips and look at her with a guarded expression.

"I was waiting for you to tell me yourself but I can't wait anymore. I need details later." She winked, before patting my shoulder and nudging me towards the counter.

I sighed, rubbing my temples.

Unbelievable.

We stood in line to place our order when Ryder let out a chuckle making me narrow my eyes at him. "What's so funny?"

He looked at me with a smirk and pinched my cheek. "You're cute when you're jealous."

I scoffed. "Jealous, my ass."

"Well, that works too." He said tilting his head to the side.

"Do you want to get your ass beat?" I raised my eyebrows. "Besides, I've tried to be civil with her, but I can't. She's too annoying."

"That's true." He said, making me look at him in disbelief. "What?"

"You find her annoying?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, and took a step forward and notice that we're next to place order.

"Somewhat, yeah. And that's surprising, why?" He asked, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets.

"So let me get this straight..." I said, with a look of disbelief. "A girl as pretty as her, throws herself at you and you don't like it?"

He shrugged. "Why would I like that?"

I scoffed and noticed that it was our turn and stepped forward, turning away from Ryder. "Because you're a guy?"

I looked at the guy taking orders as Ryder responded. "Well, some guys have their eyes on someone sp-"

He was cut off by a gasp that escaped my lips and looked at me in confusion.

I was staring right ahead at the person behind the counter, with my mouth wide open.

The cashier looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

I couldn't see Ryder's face but I heard a small hitch of breath from him.

"Connor..." I breathed out.

Unbelievable.