*Hands over an Oreo*

I hope you enjoy reading :)

*Three years ago*

It was a joyous night, as people celebrated with their family and friends. People made amends with other people, situations, and their life, in the spirit of Christmas.

People confessed to their loved ones in hopes of celebrating the holiday with no regrets, as the air grew thicker with love and happiness.

Amidst all of this, was a boy who slowly walked in the snow with his hands in his pocket, head ducked and shoulders sagged.

He had taken the long route home despite the fact that the cold air shook him to the core.

With the last ounce of determination, he halted in his step, before fishing a phone out of his pocket and dialled the same number he'd called a dozen times already but this time it didn't go to voicemail.

His head raised in hope when he heard the line connect and he sniffled before opening his mouth to speak, amidst the tears that welled up in his eyes.

"Hello? Ryder?" A voice said from the other end making Ryder close his mouth and hang up immediately.

He'd been dialing that same number for the past two hours in hopes of being answered but now that he finally was, he hung up.

Why?

Because it wasn't the smooth voice he expected it to be on the line. It was a voice that he wanted to hear the least.

Connor.

His last ounce of hope had diminished and vanished as his hands clenched around his phone so tight that his knuckles turned white.

Rage. He felt rage as he turned his phone off, shoving it back in his pocket. He couldn't help but feel like she did this on purpose as his anger grew.

He had taken a seat on a bench, on the sidewalk near his house as he drowned in self pity.

After another half an hour, when the other houses lit up in celebration and feast, he heard faint footsteps and he raised his head to the source of the sound.

A small figure, in clothes which were definitely not thick enough to keep the cold out, limped towards the bench that the boy was perched on.

He already knew who it was. He'd fallen in love with her very existence and could recognise her by her footsteps.

The footsteps stopped right in front of him as the only sound they could hear was her ragged breathing.

The smile that always found its way on his face when she was around, didn't come around. For the first time, he couldn't subside his rage. He couldn't help but feel used.

He looked up to meet her eyes.

She was looking at his pillar, his only pillar in fact.

They both stared at each other with red noses, moist eyes and broken hearts.

But this was the first time that he didn't want to see it. He was so blinded by his own pain that he didn't want to see hers.

"Ryder" she whispered as she trembled in the cold.

He looked away shutting his eyes and got up from the bench.

"You shouldn't be here." He said in a harsh tone, that he didn't know he could muster up, before this.

She flinched at that before stifling a sob. "Ryder, I-"

"Go home, Miles." He said before turning to his house. "Connor must be worried about you." He said facing away from her. He knew he shouldn't say this, he knew he should stop. He knew he was hurting her.

"Ryder please," she couldn't hold her sob as she grabbed his shoulder, gasping for breath. "Please, listen to-" she gasped mid-sentence, when Ryder whirled around suddenly with a look on his face that crushed her already broken heart.

"I need y-"

"I said, go home Emily." He gritted out, glaring at her.

Her eyes widened. He never called her Emily. He always called her Miles. She was special to him but now he looked at her with indifference.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as her lips trembled and two lone tears escaped her eyes. She moved forward to grab his hand as he looked away from her.

"Ryder-" she choked in a sob, looking at him with desperation in her eyes. "Please, you need to listen to me, you're my best frie-"

He snatched his hand away from hers. "I'm not your friend, Emily."

Her hands fell limp on her sides as she looked at him with her lips parted as she felt her world slowly come crashing down.

Tears were now freely flowing out of her eyes as she shivered, cold and hurt.

They had said things like this to each other before, being kids, but never in a situation like this. They were always each other's rocks. They knew they could rely on each other, cry on each other's shoulder.

But today, those words cut deep because the girl was holding on to him as her only hope and that was slowly slipping away.

"What?" She whispered, as she struggled to stand there without the support of his hand.

It's like he pulled away the only physical and emotional support she had when he snatched his hand away.

With that the boy turned away from her, leaving her on the sidewalk with a void in her chest.

"Go away." He whispered, loud enough for her to hear before he walked away.

The boy didn't notice that she had a bleeding shoulder. He didn't notice that he was her only pillar. He didn't know that he was the only hope she was holding on to.

He didn't notice that her already broken heart had been crushed into a million pieces.

He didn't notice when she crumbled on the sidewalk, after he walked away leaving an empty shell of a girl who was once, never afraid of being happy.

He didn't know that she'd actually go away. He didn't know this would become the biggest regret of his life.

Most of all, he didn't know, he'd lose her.

*****

I threw the empty containers of glue in the trash as I heard Perri let out yet another yawn.

"All done." I said rubbing my hands together as I admired my work.

"Was this really necessary?" Lex said, looking around the hallway. "Didn't you already get back at him?"

Mia was busy clicking selfies with the pictures on the lockers across the hall while Perri was getting ready to take it to social media once we were done here.

We were right on time as we saw students slowly trickling in through the school gate.

Yes, I was in school, with the girls before school starts on a Monday morning. And yes I hate waking up, but I had a lot of motivation to do that today.

I called up the girls yesterday to tell them to reach school at 6 as I needed their help with something, and I didn't include the boys because I can't trust them with my plan.

Mia and Perri were sceptical at first, but when I told them my plan, they were more than willing to help me out.

So, here we are standing in the middle of the hallway with all the lockers covered in a picture of Ryder sleeping with his mouth open with the sketching from Saturday all over his face.

'He still managed to look presentable in the picture.'

Ugh

If he thought I'd be done with simply drawing on his face, he was wrong. He messed with me thrice, two times on purpose, by pulling me out of my dream of marrying the love of my life and I wasn't gonna let that slide.

A slow smirk grew on my face as I saw some students entering the school and staring wide eyed at the masterpiece. "Very necessary, Lex."

"This is literally so cool. I swear my loyalties to you if you ever need my help in the future." Perri cheered, looking around.

Mia chuckled before placing a hand on my shoulder, looking around herself. "I gotta admit, this is totally worth waking up at 5:30 on a Monday."

"I can't wait to see Ryder's reaction, to be honest." Lex laughed as students started gathering in the hallway, clicking pictures to of their newly decorated lockers. "He's gonna fuh-reak!"

A triumphant smile grew on my face at that.

"Okay guys Cole just texted me, they're here." Perri said looking up from her phone.

We moved to take out places in the gaps between the lockers and the girls fished out their phones, turning on their cameras.

About 5 minutes later, the murmers near the entrance grew louder as the students snickered.

The sea of students parted, making way for Ryder, followed by the twins. They had confused looks on their faces because of all the sudden attention.

When Ryder came into view, I had to use all the self control in me to not burst out laughing.

His hair was covering his forehead and he wore a facemask in attempts to hide the drawings that probably didn't come off completely yet.

The girls had a hard time controlling themselves as well, as a few giggles slipped out of their mouths.

Once the boys took a look at the hallway, they froze. Literally stopped in their tracks.

They stood there with their mouths hanging open. Dylan was the first to break character and burst out laughing.

He stepped forward, scanning the hallway and touched a picture and raised the hand to his nose.

"It's super glue." He laughed, barely standing straight while Ryder stood there, not moving. "This is epic!"

Cole shook his head at his brother while a small smile grew on his face. He placed a hand on Ryder's shoulders, snapping him out of his trance.

"What the fuck?" Ryder's voice echoes through the hallway, making everyone turn to look at him again.

I couldn't help it anymore and burst out laughing, followed by the girls doing the same. Their faces were red from holding in their laughter for so long.

Heads snapped in our direction, including Ryder's. His eyes narrowed as they landed on me and I stood up straight, still chuckling at his reaction.

So worth it.

I wiped the tears off my eyes before offering him a sweet smile of mine as his intense glaring continued.

I slowly inched towards my bag, picking it up as I saw Ryder's body tense up.

"You're so dead." He said with a dark chuckle before sprinting towards me.

Right at me. He didn't even spare a glance at Mia, Perri or Lex.

How did he just assume it wasn't them?

'Maybe something to do with the fact that, you signed the pictures : love, Miles.'

Ugh

I knew the smart move would be to run away and never face him because an angry Ryder can make anyone wet their pants and well, I wasn't ready to face that yet.

So I ran.

*****

I shut my locker, as I sighed, tired of life already. And it was only Monday.

And then there was Dylan, who was blabbering away, even after a whole day of school. Like why is this kid always high on sugar.

The whole school now knows about the little stunt I pulled this morning. The boys tried to pull the pictures, missing their first classes but since we used super glue, there were still a lot of them remaining.

Ryder tried chasing after me for a while but I outran him, hiding myself in crowds of students. I saw him in some of my classes, glaring at me while I took the seat farthest from him and ran out, as soon as the bell rang.

All that running has made me tired and to top it off, Dylan won't shut up about how cool that prank was and how we should include him next time.

Cole simply shook his head but when Ryder wasn't around, he high fived me for my creativity.

The school authorities couldn't take any action because there was no student named Miles and the cameras in the hallway were out of order.

I doubt Ryder would snitch on me, as that's against the prank war rules.

We were joined by the others as everyone was done putting their books away.

"I get it Dylan. I'm amazing. Now shut up." I said rubbing by temples.

He frowned before turning to Mia. "You knew about this and you didn't tell me? You know how much I love pranking people."

Mia rolled her eyes. "It wasn't my place to tell you Dylan."

"And we weren't sure if you'd be loyal to us, anyway. You're one of the guys." Lexi said placing an arm on Mia's shoulder, backing her up, making Dylan's frown deepen.

In midst of them bickering back and forth, I saw Ryder approaching us.

I sighed. "Okay I'm tired now. I can't run anymore."

He approach with an amused smile on his face. "Why were you running anyway?"

"Because I've made a meme out of you in front of the entire school?" I said. "And I probably shouldn't have reminded you about it just now."

"I remember what you did, Miles and we both know that the ball is in my court now. Why would I run after you and waste time, I'll get you, when you least expect it." He said slowly leaning down to my height, as I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Come on, we should get going babe." I turned to see Logan placing an arm around Perri's shoulder, making Cole look away frowning.

Perri nodded, waving goodbye at us.

The hallway was pretty much empty by now.

"Don't you guys have activities to do?" I asked everyone fishing out my phone.

"Nope. Our meeting got cancelled today." Cole said shrugging. "Mia has about 15 minutes till her tutoring session starts."

He pointed at Mia who was still bickering with Dylan, along with Lexi.

I turned my head to Ryder. "Practice in 10." He said.

Before I could respond, I heard a loud bang and some noises from around the corner of the hallway.

We exchanged confused glances before curiousity got the best of me and I stepped towards the source of the sound, the others following closely behind.

When I reached the corner to another hallway, what I saw made my blood boil.

I couldn't help but feel a lump rise in my throat as I swallowed, looking at the scene before me.

There by the lockers was a guy, sitting down, towered by four figures, two guys and two girls. Two of those people were, Jason and Jennie.

Of course. Why did I think things would've changed in this school?

Just because I was stronger and bolder, I didn't realise that there must be students who still suffer the same fate I did, before I turned into what I am today.

I saw as they snatched his folder out of his hands and threw it on the floor making his papers fly. When he tried to reach for his folder, Jason grabbed him by his collar, picking him off the floor and slammed him against a locker, while Jennie and the other girl cackle like crows.

I didn't realise when I advanced towards them. I didn't realise when I grabbed Jason by his hair and pulled him back by so much force, he fell on his knees.

I kept my hand on his hair as everyone looked at me wide-eyed. Jennie and the other girl shrieked as I flexed my arm, making Jason groan in pain.

The other guy noticed this and moved his arm to mine that was on Jason's head. Before he could touch me, a larger, more muscular hand grabbed hold of his wrist, bending it in an angle that made him squirm.

"Don't even think about it." Ryder growled at douche number 2 and threw his hand back as he cradled his wrist wincing, like a baby.

I had almost forgot about my friends. I didn't even notice when I left the group and marched forward to cause a scene.

I looked down at the boy who was on the ground looking at us wide-eyed. "Go" I simply said, making him scramble off the floor and collect his papers and folder before turning to me.

"Th- thank you." He said pushing his glasses up his nose, while I nodded in response, as he ran away down the hallway.

A warm hand enveloped mine that was on Jason's head making me snap my eyes towards the owner to be met with bright grey ones staring back at me in understanding.

"Come on, Miles." He whispered to me, making me look at Jason with the most hateful glare I could muster up.

"I see, you're still the douche you were all those years ago." I said pushing him to the ground as I snatched my hand back, at the same time Ryder wrapped a protective arm around my waist, probably holding me back from grabbing Jason by his throat this time.

I'm glad he did, though. I'm glad he stood up for me. I know he understands why I'm reacting the way I am right now and I'm glad to have seen this side of him after so many years.

Even though we're not exactly on good terms right now, I'm glad he still had my back.

"You bitch!" Jason winced as he slowly got on his feet, advancing towards me.

I was suddenly behind a human wall, as Ryder pulled me behind him, standing between, Jason and I.

That made Jason stop in his track as he stared up at Ryder. "Say that again. I. Dare. You." Ryder gritted out, taking a step forward, making Jason take a step back almost on instinct.

Jennie took a shaky step forward, trying to hide the fact she almost pissed herself just seconds ago. "Are you really defending this psycho?" She said, giving me a disgusted look.

"You really don't know when to shut up, do you?" Lexi's voice echoes as she stepped beside me. "Do you have a death wish?"

Jennie scoffed, giving me one last look before turning around with the other girl who was too shaken up to talk, and stumbled away.

Douche number 2 pointed at me with his good hand. "You're gonna pay for this." He said slowly backing away, patting Jason on his shoulder as a sign to back away as well.

"What? Too scared to talk to me on my face, Locke?" Ryder tilted his head at douche number 2.

I rolled my eyes at his attempt to threaten me as I turn to grab my bag from Lexi and walk towards the exit, feeling overwhelmed.

My feet moved on their own and I found myself in front of a familiar store room, behind the school.

Memories from the past flooded my mind as I sighed, walking in.