0.1
Ryder is not the kind of person that you would find walking on a sidewalk in the darkness. He is high-achieving and always busy. He has a happy home life and a gorgeous girlfriend. Or he did. He did before prom night. Before his parents had a fight that Ryder thinks might be the last straw in their crumbling relationship. Before Erica dumped him in the lobby of the venue and went into the party with Kameron. Before Ryder's fractured heart shattered in his chest and he ran. It was a bad idea to run. It was a bad idea to run because the hotel they rented for prom is in the bad side of town and Ryder is unmistakably black. It was a bad idea to run because there have been three young men shot dead on these streets in the past month and a half. So Ryder began to walk. He's walking down the sidewalk now, heading for the nearest 7/11. It's the only place on this side of the city with an outdoor payphone. Ryder brought quarters - his pockets are full of them - in case he needed to make a call. And now he does. He wishes, for once, that he wasn't so well-planned. That he could have an excuse to sit down somewhere and cry his eyes out for the fragile, perfect world that has just dissipated before him. Instead, he's headed for the 7/11's payphone to call his mother. She'll drive over and pick him up and they can go out for ice cream. That'll make Ryder feel better, it always does.

0.2
This 7/11 is not the kind of place that you want to be at 9:00 in the night when the building is dead silent save for the hum of refrigerators from inside. It's not the kind of place that you want to be, yet Ryder is here. Ryder, in his navy blue suit, with his dark, buzzed hair, and his nice leather shoes. Ryder who looks so out of place here that it's almost comical - like a Victorian lady who has joined up with a circus, or a Founding Father who runs a street gang. Ryder is decidedly out of place, but that has never stopped him before. After all, he and Erica are the only two black kids at their snotty white private school. Ryder thinks briefly of the black student who graduated last year. Dominic had been his first love - a plucky trombone player who couldn't care less what the stuck-up rich folks thought of him. He was there on a scholarship (for the sake of false diversity, he always liked to joke) and he never left a bit of his bright personality behind when he showed up at school. He was entirely unlike both Ryder and Erica, who suppressed their true selves to the point of bursting. Perhaps that was why he and Ryder hadn't worked out. But then Ryder and Erica should've worked out perfectly, and they hadn't either.

0.3
The payphone is dingy and dirty and covered in gum and Sharpie scribbles. Ryder pulls his hand out of his pocket and raises two quarters to the slot. A chill goes through him as a night breeze freezes his previously-warm fingers. One quarter makes it into the payphone, but the second falls onto the floor. Ryder bends down, snatching it up. His head hits the side of the payphone and he makes a frustrated noise. He's scowling at the metal when his eyes catch on a name and a number. Teagan, the name reads. Interesting. Ryder checks the time on his watch. Five hours until his curfew. He's single now. One fun phone call can't hurt, right?