Chapter 6 The Drive Thru

• [ K A R A ]
• And right at that moment when our lips barely touched...
• "RJ! My man!" we heard a loud yell coming from behind us. We instantly pulled apart.
• A few guys and girls were coming towards us. Thankfully, we were somewhat hidden behind Ryder's car, so they couldn't possibly saw what was happening.
• "We saw your car when we passed by, thought we'd see you here," said a guy in a white t-shirt and jeans. His smile was kind of cute, especially with them dimples.
• "Oh hey, you guys, how's it going?" Ryder nodded at the group of people. These people looked like they came out straight out of an episode of The O.C.
• "Who's this?" The dimple guy turned to me, totally checking me out. And of course, I blushed immediately.
• "This is Kara, my uh, step-sister. Kara, these are my friends." before Ryder could say their names, Dimple Guy moved up and gave his hand out to me.
• "Cameron, nice to meet you," he smiled that mega-watt smile again.
• "Nice to meet you too," I replied politely and took his hand. I could feel that his hand was holding onto mine just a second too long, so I pulled away awkwardly.
• "Kara's new in town, so I'm just here showing her around," Ryder coughed.
• "Oh cool. Will I see you guys at Blake's party tonight? It's gonna be lit," Cameron finally took his gaze off of me, talking to Ryder.
• "Yeah man, totally," Ryder said to him.
• "You're coming too, right Kara?" Cameron turned to me again.
• "What party?"
• "It's kind of a tradition we have around here, on every night with a full moon, we throw a party at our friend's beach house. It'll be fun, you should come," he said again, and Ryder shuffled uncomfortably.
• "Ok, sure," I replied. I had nothing else better to do anyway, I thought.
• "Sweet. I'll see you guys tonight!" Cameron beamed. Waving his hand goodbye, he ran back towards his friends and their cars, and they drove away.
• Being left alone again, Ryder and I shuffled awkwardly.
• "Um, maybe we should start heading back?" I finally said.
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• The car ride back home was filled with an awkward silence between us. There was a fat elephant in that car riding with us, and its name was sexual tension.
• What the hell was that back there? Something almost happened. Was he pulling me in for a kiss? And I let him? Holy mackerel. That could've gone real bad real fast.
• Ryder tried to ease the awkward silence between us as he shuffled a random CD into his car audio. Soon enough, a familiar music began playing. I realized that it was an Ed Sheeran song, 'Thinking Out Loud'. But it wasn't Ed's voice singing it, it was a cover, and a girl was singing it. Just as my hand reached out to turn the volume up, Ryder was doing the same thing. Our fingers touched and I swore there was an electrical static just then. I pulled my hand away quickly and Ryder turned the volume up.
• "So, are we just not gonna talk about it?" he suddenly said.
• "What it?" I played dumb.
• "You know, what happened back there,"
• "Nothing happened back there," I said defensively.
• "Right," he said sarcastically.
• "Seriously nothing happened, right?" I said again, somewhat nervously.
• "Sure, if you say so,"
• Groaning in annoyance, I let out a sigh and said, "Fine. It was just a momentary lapse of judgment on my part, and you were being... well, you. So it was nothing,"
• Ryder smiled at my response. I was totally serious, but he looked amused. I couldn't believe that he found this funny. Guess everything was a joke to him, huh?
• Meanwhile, the song came to an end and suddenly, we heard the girl's voice talking...
• "Hey RJ, I hope you like my Ed Sheeran cover, I made it just for you! I miss you—" Ryder quickly stumbled to change the song.
• I couldn't help but to laugh, out loud.
• "What can I say? Girls love me." He shrugged.
• "Cocky sunnofavitch!" I shook my head at him.
• "Sunnofavitch?" he laughed.
• "Who was that anyway, your girlfriend?"
• "No, no, no. I don't do girlfriends. No thank you. It was just some girl. We fucked a couple of times, no big deal. And to be honest, I don't even remember her name," he replied.
• "Wow," I responded sarcastically. "I don't get it. You're a narcissistic man-slut. Why do girls still throw themselves at you?"
• "I don't know what to tell you, Kara. I mean, just look at me." he motioned to his face and body.
• "Just be careful when you're trying to get out of the car. Your head might not fit the door," I rolled my eyes at him.
• His face lit up in amusement as he said, "Haters gonna hate, players gotta play,"
• "Oh, whatever, Ryder," I said curtly.
• "OK, Little Miss Judgmental, let's talk about this. I think your whole purity ring thing is an admirable cause. Really, that's good for you. But it's a lost cause. You don't know what you're missing out there," he argued.
• "Well, if that means I'm missing out on assballs like you, I don't think I'm missing out on much," I spat, while I held onto my ring tightly.
• "Assballs?" Ryder found my way of cussing to be amusing and laughed away.
• "Well hey, if you ever change your mind, I don't mind helping a girl out," he said as he winked at me.
• "R-Ryder! That is wildly inappropriate!" I gaped.
• "I'm just kidding, don't get your panties all in a bunch,"
• Ugh! That smug bastard.
• "Or am I?" he added, giving me that stupid smirk.
• "Just shut up and drive," I smacked his head and shoved his face back to the road.
• "Ow! New York girls are so violent," he grimaced.
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• - - - - - To be continued - - - - -