"Ryder, you down here?" The voice gets louder and closer

Ryder quickly drops me and pushes me behind a desk. I quickly duck behind it, pulling my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them

Ryder coughs awkwardly his voice hoarse when he finally speaks "I'm here"

"Hey baby" the voice is loud, like it's right beside "I missed you"

"Sheila we broke up months ago" he huffs "in fact we were never a thing, I banged you a few times but I told you it wouldn't be anything more"

"We broke up because you were hanging around with that bitch Talia" Sheila hisses. What she's saying is true, her and Ryder never dated but she 'broke up' with him because she saw me as too much of a threat because we pranked each other. She left because she tried to hit me and on top of everything else she's done she got expelled "speaking of where is she. I saw you leave with her, guess my plan didn't work"

"You pushes her?"

Sheila let's out an evil laugh "For us baby. I had to scare her off, I mean why did she think she could come to one of my boyfriends parties"

I peak out from where I'm hiding. Ryder had his hand around Sheila's wrist "If you so much as touch her again, I swear to god you won't live to see another day. And don't call me your boyfriend because I would never look at you or her in any other way than a bitch and a girl who is so easy to get all I'd have to do is wink"

His words hit me. When did him trying to get rid of Sheila become an attack on me. Did he actually think so low of me? Was he right? I had just kissed him a few minutes ago

"She's the easy one not me!" Sheila shouts and I hear her stomping up the stairs and the door slam

"I didn't m-" Ryder's starts but I get up from where I'm hiding and stand on front of him

"All you have to do is wink?" I shout angrily but I can't help the single tear drop out of my watery eyes

"Talia" he shouts trying to get my attention but it's already too late because I'm half way up the stairs

I ignore everyone as I storm out and get into my car. Once I've driven of one tear turns to two and two turns to god knows how many. Ryder may have been a dick and we may have hated each other but we've never went as far as calling each other such things

I cleaned up my mess of a face before walking into my house. When I walked in Emily was sitting on the couch with Oli on her lap "Hey Lia, can we talk?"

I don't look her in the eyes because the girl knew me inside out and I didn't need to explain my mess of a rivalry with Ryder Smith

"Can we talk later, I've got to get ready for work" I say before walking up the stairs

"Okay sure" she says before directing her attention back to Oli

I go up to my room a close my door behind me. I put my already half broken phone on charge ignoring the notifications I'm getting from everyone.

I worked at a bar not far from where I lived, if was mostly locals that went to it so at times it was quiet and other times I was kept busy

Thankfully where I worked everyone knows the workers so there's not a strict uniform as long as it's mainly black. I put on some comfortable clothes and take off my messed up my make up. My good mood had disappeared a long time ago and I wasn't in the mood to pull myself out of it

When I got to work it was empty with only a few locals hanging around. I had served a few people when Lana and Noah came in. They had met a month ago in the gym and they hit it off straight away. I was working on their first date and since then they've came in every week

"Hey guys" I smile at them my mood lifting. Obviously before they got here I had a smile on my face and was positive towards all the customers, I'm not that bad at my job "table for two, I'm assuming?" I smirk

"Of course" Lana nods and I walk them over to a table beside the window. There was a good view from their seats

"So how's everything going with you guys?" I ask genuinely interested. I mean had they made it official yet? Were they just friends?

"Noah asked me out last week" Lana grins looking at Noah with a loving look

"Oh my god I'm so happy for you guys" I gush "I mean I'm totally the reason you got together without me here to make ye laugh ye'd never have came back" I wink

"Like the time you tripped and knocked all our food"

I cringe "let's not talk about that. This place was so busy"

Noah laughs "well you made our first date"

I laugh "At least something good came out of it"

"So the usual for you guys?" I ask and they nod

I send the orders up to the kitchen but when I turn around my mood is dampened again

"What are you doing here?" I ask leaning against the counter on front of him

"You weren't answering your texts and I needed to talk to you" Ryder shrugs

"So talk" I mutter

"What I said earlier, I swear I didn't mean it. Sheila was just getting under my skin, I knew I had to throw her off"

I shake my head "let's just forget about it. Forget about everything that's happened in the last day, let's just go back to playing pranks and hating each other"

"And that's what you really want to do?" He asks me a look in his eyes I've never seen before

I break eye contact after a minute and shrug "Honestly, I don't know and even if I did we could never happen"

"Why not?"

"Because Sheila's back and I'm not going to deal with her again"

He nods understanding written across his face

"So what are you having?" I ask

"What?"

"It's a bar" I deadpan before sarcastically continuing "usually people drink at bars"

"You make cocktails?"

I nod "are you actually that posh?"

"Fuck no but you work here I want to see your skills" he smirks

I roll my eyes a smile on my face "Coming right up"

I make him one of my best and strongest cocktails, in this bar I haven't made many but I used to work at a party bar so that's where I learnt my skills

I leave it down on the counter and he picks it up holding it up in the air to signal 'cheers' before taking a sip

"What's in this? I'm going to be stumbling home if I finish this"

I laugh "You asked for it"

He smiles and looks at my forehead after a minute "You really should get that checked out, it looks two seconds away from busting open again"

I shrug "I'll get it checked tomorrow"

It was 2am when I got home. When I walked in I seen Emily still sitting on the couch staring into space

"Hey" I whisper and sit down beside her "you're still up?"

She nods before wiping tears away from her cheeks

"What's wrong?" I ask a worried look on my face

She shakes her head "I'm sorry for everything I've put you through since I got pregnant. I realise now how much in the wrong I was, I love Oliver to bits and I guess I only realised that when I thought I was going to lose him" she takes a breath before continuing "I told you, I got pregnant with a one night stand right?" I nod "well I actually had this friends with benefits thing going on with this guy I really liked, well like, but when he found out I was pregnant he wanted nothing to do with the baby so I guess every time I went out it was to see him, to try get his attention but every time it didn't work and I think that made me annoyed at Oli"

She looks at me a sad smile on her face "I really do hate myself for what I done to you, mom and Oli"

I shake my head and grab her hand "we all make mistakes but you've realised yours now, you don't need to try change the past you just need to fix your future"

"Anyway I've gotten myself a job" she informs me "and I'm going to treat you and mom to something really nice when I can and maybe even get a house for myself. Oli didn't ruin my 'young' life, he made it better and honestly I wouldn't change it"

"And as for the boy" she grins "maybe I'll tell you who he is one day"

I smile at her before she speaks again "So what was up earlier?"

I shake my head "it's a long and stupid story"

"Well luckily I've always got time for my little sis"

I sigh before telling her the events of the past day

She laughs "and I thought my life was messy"

I playfully hit her shoulder "Em your not meant to laugh"

She rubs my shoulder and speaks once her laughter dies down "I may not have a good past with the friends with benefits thing but you guys seem to hit it off so I wouldn't blame you if you went there"

"He basically called me a slut Emily" I complain rubbing my eyes

"And you and him both know that's not true Talia. Deep down you know he said it to get his ex off your back, if he even acted like he feels anyway about you, you both know what she'd do"

I nod my head looking down. As much as I hate to admit it I knew she was right. But I said what I said to Ryder earlier for a reason. Whether either of us liked it or not.

"Anyway I should probably get to bed seen as Oli will probably have me up in a couple of hours anyway" Emily laughs standing up

"Wait Em" I stop her when she's half way up the stairs "just so you know I don't mind babysitting whenever you need me too don't feel like you're in this alone. We're a family and we always will be"

"Thank you T"