5...4...3...2...1...0. "10 seconds are over." she said immediately, and pushed me away. Shit! Why did I let myself do that? "Someone else can choose the next person. I'm done playing." she said as she stepped out of the pool and went into the living room. She left and I didn't run after her. I couldn't. I couldn't let myself love her again. If I did, she'll be in way too much danger and that risk is too big of a risk to take. I turned to face everyone, to see everyone looking at me with wide eyes and some glares from Harper, Grace, Ethan and Daniel. "Go after her what are you doing?!" they yelled at me. "Ethan, I can't." I said through gritted teeth. He knew exactly why and so did Daniel. "You'd rather break her heart? Again?" he raised an eyebrow at me. "Fuck no." I sighed and jumped out of the pool and walked into the living room, to see all her things gone. I jogged out of the house and saw her sitting in her car, still soaked from the pool, trying to hold in tears. God damn it! I hurt her! Again! I ran up to her car and shot her door open. I grabbed her arm and pulled her right out of her car before she could do anything to stop me from doing so.

"Why the hell did you walk out?" I asked calmly, letting go of her arms and standing in front of her car, preventing her from getting in and driving away. "Was I supposed to stay after I had to kiss the guy who broke my heart?" she said as a single tear escaped her eye without her realizing. "We're still friends." I sighed, looking for a way to get her to be less sad.

"Are we? Do friends kiss like that for dares? Why didn't you just let me do the forfeit?" she asked, breathing heavier. "Because I don't want you to go on a date with Jeremy." I huffed.

"Why don't you want me to go on a date with Jeremy?" she asked, wiping tears away.

"Because you are mine! You are my girlfriend! You can't go out with another guy!" I yelled in annoyance. "I was. You left me remember? And you didn't even have the decency to give me a reason. And you have the audacity to rub it in my face everyday?" she yelled, pushing me even further into her car's door. "If I didn't rub it in your face, I wouldn't be a part of your life at all! I don't want that to happen!" I shouted in frustration.

"So you hurt me? Every fucking day?! Is it so hard for you to apologize?! Is it so easy to hurt me?!" she said, breaking down, now sobbing and yelling. "Do you have any idea how much it kills me to hurt you everyday? Do you?" I asked as I grabbed her hands, holding them in mine.

"God, Ryder! Why did you kiss me? You can't just do things whenever you feel like it! I-" she was shouting but I cut her off. "I want you back, Mia." I said calmly. Waiting for her reaction.

"Why? Why now? Why 6 months after?" she asked, confused and upset.

"Cause knowing that I fucked up! And knowing that I lost you! Because I thought I wasn't enough to protect you, kills me! I left you cause I was too weak to keep you safe! I still am!" I yelled, my eyes getting watery, tears threatening to escape my eyes. "Then what changed?" she asked, a little more calm now. "I realized that I should be able to protect you if I want you. If I love you, which I still do. And I'm willing to take the risk if you are. Because neither of us are safe. And I mean it. And I'll tell you soon what the hell I mean but until then, I need you to trust me." I pleaded.

"You're asking me to blindly trust you?" she scoffed.

"That's exactly what I'm asking you to do." I begged.

She sighed, taking a minute to process everything that I just said and I'm assuming, make a decision. She turned her back to me and began walking away, she walked over to the yard of Ethan's neighbor's and stood there, breathing heavily. I looked at her, as she contemplated what decision to make. I looked at her, and saw her running towards me. She sprinted to me and hugged me tightly, making me sink and crash into her car door again. She threw her arms around my neck and took deep breaths. "I trust you. I would trust you blindly any day." she huffed as I hugged her back, wrapping my arms around her waist. "But, you'll have to work for it. No lies. No betrayal. No heartbreak. Promise?" she asked with hope glimmering in her eyes under the moonlight as she held her pinky finger out. "Promise." I entangled my pinky with hers and then she pulled hers away, hugging me tightly again. God I missed this. I missed us.

"I mean it, Ryder. You're going to work just as hard as you did before I ever was your girlfriend. You're going to put in the same amount of effort that 13 year old Ryder did. And I'm going to reject you, and play hard to get, just as many times." she sighed as she pulled away and stood in front of me, looking me in the eyes as she said that dead seriously. "Does that mean I have to embarrass myself in front of my friends trying to impress you just as many times?" I groaned.

I had done plenty to try to impress her at 13 when she became my girlfriend. I liked her for a year and began trying to get her to go on a date with me when we were 12 years old and she denied for an entire year. When she turned thirteen, I asked her out on her birthday and asked to just go out with me once and I swore to her that if she didn't like me and didn't enjoy the date, I would never bother her again.

I took her first for ice skating, then we went to a drive through with the help of her dad and got some mcdonalds and then to finish off the night we went stargazing in my front yard. But I didn't end the date there. The next morning, I woke her up at 9 and I took her to the town's famous diner, Cookies and cream, and we had a breakfast date, with pancakes. After that I walked her back home and before she could go back into her house, I asked her one question. Did she like the date and did she like me? And she answered me and said, that she's always liked me. After she said that, she quickly kissed my cheek and ran into her house.

For our first kiss, I was out on a date with her, it was about our 6th date or so, and we were walking home from the movies and we had abruptly stopped a few street lights away from her front door because she said her dad was in the overprotective phase of his daughter being in a relationship. I remember so vividly, she was ranting about how I make her nervous and she was telling me how she tends to rant and bite her lip when she's nervous which I already knew from observing and catching her do those things when she was nervous. I remember she was caught so off guard when I suddenly interrupted her and kissed her. I kissed her for 5 seconds. A clock ticking in my head. I pulled away and all she said was, 'You interrupted my nervous rant.' and that immediately made me laugh and then I finished walking her home and then I walked over to mine, which was right next to hers, and always has been.

For our first anniversary, my 14 year old, corny ass self, went to her house in the morning and surprised her. I remember buying her that huge ass teddy bear and staying in bed with her the whole day. I really loved her since I was 13.