[Edited 12/23/2019]

*Skylar's POV*

   Pissed off wasn't even close to what I was feeling now and I hadn't even laid eyes on that imbecile yet. Emma and I had been waiting at the movies for a little over 10 minutes now and Dylan still hasn't shown up. I knew I was making a bigger deal out of 10 minutes then I should've, but I was very impatient and he exasperated me to the point where everything he does irked my core.

   Just as it reached the point where I was getting ready to run my mouth off to Emma about how he stood her up and we should just see the movie by ourself, the playboy shows up fashionably late. He smoothly pulled into the parking lot and parked in the first open spot available. My eyes narrowed in on him as he stepped out of his car like he was someone of importance. I didn't even bother to hide my disapproval of him while he walked up to greet us flashing off his smile as if he wasn't late and everything was okay.

   "Hey beautiful," he greeted Emma wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her on the cheek before looking over to me. He clearing his throat and nodding his head towards me in acknowledgment," And Skylar. Sorry I'm late, had a long night and overslept." He explained apologetically.

   "See Sky, I told you he wasn't blowing us off." Emma told me in a I-told-you-so type of way as she snuggled up under his arm content with his explanation.

"Yeah, whatever. Come on, we're going to miss the movie." I said while walking toward the theater our movie was playing.

Excitement surged through me as I walked up the walkway towards the stairs to our seats. I looked back to motion to Emma that I found good seats just to already see her and Dylan settling into seats a couple rows above me. A pang of jealously and anger set in as I watched them get cozy into their seats.

"Why are you guys siting up there?" I asked calling out to them. It wasn't like Emma to sit so far from the screen during horror films. We both lived for horror movies. We always sat next to each other no matter who she invited along, the middle of 4th row always being our favorite.

"Sky, horror films scare me, remember. Don't want to be took close during the scary parts." She told me in her you-better-play-along voice.

"Oh yea, forgot you're a punk." I teased sarcastically playing along even though the feeling of betrayal was setting in as I turned in my seat. Who am I suppose to laugh and joke around with now when something bad happens?

The presence of someone settling into the seat next to me was the icing on the cake as I looked around the still fairly empty theater. Of all fucking places to sit.

   Incensed by the feeling of being the center focus in this unknown person's line of sight, the tips of my nails bit into the palm of my hand as I tried to resist the urge to lash out on them. The longer I felt that burning gaze on the side of my head, the more tense I grew. Just as I turned to finally tell them to fuck off, the sound of the stranger's voice vibrated through my ears and striking blue eyes took me by surprise.

  "Skylar?"

Oh fucking hell.

   "May I help you?" I questioned the hostility clear in my tone.

    "It's me, Ryan, from the cafe, remember? I was nervous I had someone else mixed up with you in the darkness. Phew, thank god it's you though, that would have been so awkward, right?" He said ignoring my blatantly icy attitude towards him. His lips stretched in a genuinely friendly smile, almost making me feel bad for my attitude towards him.

   "Right, so awkward, especially with your annoying staring habit you got going on." I said plainly which only earned a soft breathy laugh from him. The genuine happiness and amusement towards me in his eyes threw me off.

   "Sorry, you just look to be in better shape than when I first met you. I wasn't sure if it was actually you. Glad you're better. couldn't stop thinking about you and wondering if you were doing okay since you left the cafe the other day, and I mean that in the least creepiest way possible." The sincereness in his voice threw me off even more. The idea of someone who knew nothing of me besides my name caring for my well-being was hard to grasp. My own mother, who was suppose to protect, love, and care for me unconditionally couldn't even do that.

   "Uh, thanks. I'm fine now, so you can stop wondering." I said awkwardly. I swiveled my focus away from him back to the big screen, thankful that the commercials were finally over and the opening scene could distract me from the awkward shift between Ryan and I. I felt his eyes linger on me a little longer before a faint sigh slipped between his lips and I was released from the pressure of his gaze.

   As the movie rolled on, I found myself scooting closer to Ryan during scenes that made me jump, almost immediately I would shift back away from him as soon as I realized. When I would hear low chuckles and his slightly funny remarks regarding certain gory scenes we both found amusing, I found sitting next to him wasn't so bad. He wasn't Emma, but I could see he loved horror films just as much as her and beneath the friendliness and smiles, he shared the same dark humor and amusement of people getting chopped to pieces.

   My curious eyes stole a glance at Ryan to see if he's really as into the movie as I am or just making up his interest just to get on my good side, and to my surprise, he was fully emerged into the big screen in front of us. He was leaning forward in his seat, his eyes were wide as if it were trying to take in everything without missing a second.

   I don't remember the last time I had seated this close to anybody from the male species willingly since my first boyfriend, whom I had broken up with a 2 weeks after my parents seperation. The 2 days before I broke up with him was the first time my mother had ever said anything hurtful to me. She said them with ease as if they were plain facts and my mother was my best friend, I trusted her, whatever she said I wouldn't doubt.

I sat in silence as I watched my mother work delicately through my hair from my vanity mirror. She didn't say a word to me, didn't even crack a smile as she use to when I asked her to style my hair for my school's Spring Fling dance tonight. Emma and I were the only freshman's that had upperclassmen dates and I wanted to look my best.

My date, Jamie, and I had been dating since he asked me to homecoming in the beginning of the school year and today made 5 months. It's been two weeks since my mother kicked my father out and it been the worse 2 weeks ever, but tonight I put that to the back of my head, because tonight was going to be a good night.

   "Jamie and I make 5 months tonight ma." I informed her with a hopeful smile breaking the silence between us.

   Her face stayed fixed to the emotionless serious expression, not even a tiny twitch of  the old smile she would've had breaking through. "You guys won't last any longer than that."

    "Why do you say that?" I asked slightly disheartened. Since finding out about my father, my mother turned cold, but she's hurting and I wanted to be there for her. She never lied or sugarcoated anything before and I didn't think that would start now just to hurt me.

"Because you're nothing. Just a virgin he can toy with until he gets you to open your legs."

Her words caught me off guard stabbing at my heart while my brain tried to process what it just heard. I had never even thought about losing my virginity to him. I wanted to doubt what she said, but she has always been a good judgement of character leading me away from toxic friends. I looked at my mother through the mirror once more as she nearly finished curling and pinning my hair. I looked for any emotion that she cared, even just a tiny peek at the softness and reassurance my mother use to have when she would have to deliver bad news to me about my company.

"What's worse is, once you do give it up to him, you'll really be worthless." She add as she finished pinning up the last curl which drove the knife deeper and twist at my heart.

I looked away from her, blinking with heavy lashes coated with tear that were threatening to break free. I wanted to deny it and tell her that she's wrong and that Jamie isn't like that, that I'm special and not nothing, but doubts started to formulate in my head. I was only 13, what did I know?

I looked back at mother mother catching her eye in the reflection and when she saw the hurt on full display on my face, the corners of her lips finally turned up in a smile. It wasn't her soft, sympathetic smile, it was different. It was a cold, satisfying smile, almost like the pain I was feeling was a enjoyable sight and with that smile, she left my room without another word leaving me and my tears to ruin my make up.

   A loud bang and black beady eyes filling up the big screen pulled me out of my head causing me to jump and bury my head into Ryan's chest. I felt his muscles tense up under me, probably out of shock, before relaxing and wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

   "Don't worry I won't let the scary girl get you." Ryan whispered teasingly into my ear.

   "Oh, shut up." I whispered-yelled at him whacking him lightly in his arm. Lightly shrugging his arm off from around my shoulders, I repositioned myself in my seat mentally slapping myself for that out of character moment. I was just thankful he got the hint and didn't get his hopes up to make any advances on me like most guys would have.

  Once the movie came to a close, I was honestly kind of disappointed. We both began boasting and praising the movie as we pack up our belongings. We went back and forth on who was more scared then who, laughing and teasing each other about moments we got scared. The feeling of enjoying a male's company and laughing and smiling genuinely was foreign to me and set of red alarms in my head, but I realized having Ryan sit next to me didn't ruin the movie at all, quite the opposite in fact.

   "Skylar, can you stop flirting and hurry up." Dylan call for me at the bottom of the stairs.

Stupid prick.

"It was nice to see you again. I better go meet up with the other guys." Ryan told me as we walked down the steps.

"Ditto." I told him before hurrying off to Emma and Dylan by the door.

"Excuse me miss, who was that?" Emma questioned me as soon as we stepped into the main corridor.

"Just a guy I met recently. I'll tell you about it later." I told Emma.

"You better. He's  hot, good eye Sky." Emma appluaded me.

"Oh hush!" I responded giving her a playful shove.

"Wait up! Skylar!" I turned around to see Ryan running down the stairs toward me with his friend walking behind him." I forgot to ask you if I could have your number." Ryan panted out nervously. I looked around him towards his friends and saw them snickering and pointing at us.

"Uhm sure, why not." I pulled out a pen from my bag, taking his hand in mind. Every voice in my brain was yelling at me that this was a bad idea as I finished writing down the last 4 digits, but I thought back to what Emma had told me yesterday in the kitchen about actually giving people a chance before disregarding them. I heard his friends cheer and woot behind him once I pulled away. I saw he was starting to blush and I flashed him my best smile.

Emma gawked at my unusual decision while Dylan stood beside her his eyes narrowed on Ryan and a deep scowl planted on his face. I walked past both of them in the direction of my car with Emma immediately following behind on my heel.

"Uhm, what the hell was that about? When did my best friend start giving her number out?" Emma questioned me as soon as we got into the car.

"Nothing, I just recalled someone telling me that I need to give people a chance" I told her simply as we pulled out of the parking lot.

____________________________________

(A/N)

Ok I know this is a short chapter but I'm going through major writer's block and I'm really tired. I'll going to post the second part of the "hang out" soon. Anyways what do you guys think about Skylar and Ryan. Also I know that there might be a lot of errors so I'll try to edited it later. Sorry I'm not as excited and hyper as usual but I'm really tired so good night.

[Edited 12/23/2019]

Rereading this bland and overly grammatically chapter was honestly so cringey to me. I hope you guys like the improved version with the added flashback and way less grammatical errors (please if you see any point them out!). I'm truly having blast revising and editing these chapters though and seeing my growth as a writer and learn what works and doesn't work! Please leave your feedback and thoughts and let me know how you feel about the story and characters and what you love and don't love. I really love reading them and it motivates me so much. I am so grateful for all of you reading and that has kept reading to this point and are continuing to read. Thank you so much and happy holidays!!

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