"Everything all right?" Alyssa suddenly asked me, giving me one of my mom's favorite looks. One that made you feel like there was something heavily wrong with you.

Which it was. Something heavily wrong with me, I mean. Or why else would I be staring at the half-finished bottle of Merlot sitting on our lone kitchen counter like it was my only savior from this horrible horrible day?

"Yeah." I smiled at her, tucking my hands behind my back as I leaned against the wall beside her. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Alyssa softly nudged her shoulder with mine. "Just, you looked a bit pale in the face."

"I'm already as pale as they get, Alys."

"Yeah, right." She huffed good naturedly. "All those years of cheerleading did you wonders, Alice. You're the prettiest of the bunch here and you know it."

A small sigh left my lips as my eyes once again trailed towards the bottle of wine that seemed to be calling my name.

"I'm pretty sure I'm also the only one who looks like I just got stabbed in the stomach," I said.

Alyssa laughed and glanced down at the stain on my sweater. "Why haven't you changed out of it yet?"

Because I don't want to go up to my bedroom which I knew Mom would've changed during the time I hadn't been here. I didn't want to see how much she had changed. I didn't want to see how many things of mine she'd gotten rid of.

"I should, shouldn't I?" I looked over at the lounge entrance, grimacing when I thought of stepping in there--which also happened to be the only way up to my room.

It had been seconds, minutes, or maybe even hours since I'd introduced Mom to Ryder (who wasn't, and I had to keep reminding myself, Ryder at this moment. He was Soren, my boyfriend), and since she'd practically dragged him inside to introduce him to everyone else.

I absolutely did not want to see how Ryder was holding up. He hadn't, however, done or said anything majorly bad yet, since all I could hear were chatters and surprisingly merry laughs from my aunts and uncles.

"Yeah, go ahead." Alyssa broke me out of my miserable thoughts and I saw she was grinning rather mischievously when I looked up at her. "And you can stop worrying about your boyfriend. He's in safe hands."

Safe hands. I smiled anxiously. It wasn't his safety I was so worried about.

Still, I did as she said and practically held my breath as I entered the lounge, only managing to catch a tiny glimpse of Ryder standing by the fireplace before I quite literally dashed upstairs. Before someone could've stopped me.

As if being a bad overall girlfriend wasn't enough, I was quite possibly the worst fake girlfriend as well.

Not like it had been my idea to do this in the first place.

"Don't be so ungrateful, Alice." I reprimanded myself as I walked across the hallway and towards the last closed bedroom door. "He did save you from Mom's wrath." Which he had, because the moment I'd introduced Mom to him, all the suspicious anger had quite literally evaporated from her face. She'd looked stunned and then relieved and then a tad bit suspicious because I'm pretty sure she hadn't been expecting someone like Ryder (tall, dark-eyed, and oh so mysterious) when I'd been telling her all about my sweet boyfriend Soren.

Soren wasn't really sweet though, I reminded myself. He'd cheated on me.

Grimacing, I opened the door of my old bedroom and stepped inside. I couldn't help but look around, letting my eyes wander from one thing to another. There were a few posters that were still there while some were torn off the pastel yellow walls (probably Mom's doing). At least not all was lost, I thought as I walked to one of the two glass windows in here.

The window wasn't one built to open and I remembered how I used to hang all kinds of things from the upper sill. Dreamcatchers, wind chimes, tiny glass prisms. I couldn't help but smile to see them still there, a bit dusty but still there. They used to catch the best of sunrays and cast my entire room with a warm golden glow.

I touched one of the wind chimes, heard a soft tinkle, and turned towards my dark wooden cupboard.

It left me a little rattled when I opened it and found half of my clothes gone. The ones left and hanging in there, I noticed, were also the ones my mother deemed appropriate enough to wear. All kinds of bland colors. I had an inkling of panic brimming inside me but I tried not to pay close attention to it, swiping away my baseball tees and looking down at the bottom where I used to keep the one thing my mom hated the most.

The one thing that had truly belonged to me.

But it wasn't there. The old brown case carrying the delicate instrument wasn't there beside my old leather boots. It was gone.

"No, no, no," I whispered. I did sound a bit frantic right then, now that I think about it, as I wildly searched around, pushing my remaining clothes aside and pulling open each drawer in search of it.

I knew I should've taken it when I'd moved for college. But Mom had been there when I was moving my things to my dorm and she would've thrown a fit if she had seen me carrying that thing around. Brooke had been there when my mother had visited and how awful would it have been if Mom had said something about it in front of my new roommate?

Mom hated that thing.

She hated it and I had still left it here with her. Fuckfuckfuck.

"I'm rather impressed that the night hasn't even begun and you've already chosen to hide."

I turned around so fast that I had to grab the corner of the cupboard before it slammed right on my face.

Right there in the doorway stood Ryder, all tall and not-quite-smirking as he held a half-filled wine glass in one hand while the other was stuffed in his pocket. Sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, every single one of those dark tattoos inked on his skin was on full display.

For a second there, just one tiny second, the overwhelming tightness in my chest loosened a bit before it returned tenfold. Everyone must've seen those tattoos. Maybe even my grandma.

"I am not hiding." I tried to frown at him but must've probably failed.

His gaze, that piercing blue-eyed gaze, raked down my face with a sort of slowness that made me want to squirm and throw something at his face simultaneously. And that in turn made me feel awfully guilty because even thinking like that was so mean.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked a bit sheepishly.

He raised his brows and took a sip of the wine in hand. I watched as he swallowed but I absolutely did not stare any longer.

"I was searching for you, querida."

Exhaling a bit shakily, I leaned down and busied myself with looking under my bed. Right, I told myself. I've still got a bigger problem at hand. I still had my missing brown case to find.

"Got tired of my family so soon?" I asked, my voice muffling as I kneeled down and almost nearly stuck my head under the bed. A cobweb tickled my nose and I got out from under my bed just in time for a short sneeze-fit.

"Not," he stopped momentarily as I sneezed again, "really. I just thought you might not appreciate me knowing all your embarrassing childhood mishaps."

I stared at him in horror as heat crawled up my neck.

"You didn't say something to them in return, did you?" It wasn't surprising that my family had already started recounting my most embarrassing childhood moments. It was scary though because he could've told them anything in return. Anything that could've ranged from that night at Soren's apartment (when I'd found Soren was cheating on me) to that other fateful time, and the only other time I'd come across Ryder. That time when he'd saved me from that creepy underground cellar.

The one incident of my life that I didn't like talking about. That even my own mother, let alone my entire family, didn't know about. My mom and my stepdad knew the safer bits of it because they'd been there when the police officers had told them I was at the hospital. But they didn't know everything. They didn't know the dark parts.

No one did.

And I wasn't ready, I don't think I'd ever be ready to talk even a little about it if that whole topic was touched in my presence.

"Was I supposed to?" He inquired, eyes somewhat curious--no, calculating--as he looked around my room. I didn't understand what could possibly be worth any interest to him in this room.

"No." I shook my head in alarm. "Don't say anything to them."

"That might be a bit difficult--"

"No, I mean, don't say anything that you know might cause a big ruckus in my family."

I wiped the dust off my nose with the back of my hand and turned back to my cupboard, pulling out one t-shirt after another.

"And just be a bit careful around my mother, please," I added softly.

Ryder didn't say anything so I thought he must be at least listening.

"She absolutely cannot know that we're lying to her." I found a pale blue crewneck and decided it would do for now. "I don't even think... We probably do need a cover story if something about Soren's story doesn't match with you. Although I don't remember how much I told her--"

"Alice!" I heard my mother's shout from downstairs. She could've easily been calling Alyssa since it was this constant running joke in our family to call her Alys, while I was always Alice, only if I didn't know any better. But I did know better. Mom never shouted with that level of sheer frustration at Alyssa. Such was only reserved for me.

Wincing, I tugged a little on the sweater I was currently wearing, staring down at the dried stain sadly.

"Here she comes," I muttered. When I glanced over my shoulder and noticed that Ryder was halfway turned towards my dresser, his attention mostly on the photographs scattered on the mirror of my dresser, I sighed. He probably hadn't even cared to hear what I'd been blabbing just seconds ago.

Because obviously, he wasn't doing this without an ulterior motive. The ulterior motive being something that lacked proper description. He hadn't yet told me what it was that he wanted me as a one-night fake date for. A family dinner as well? Highly unlikely, I thought. Why would he need me for that when he can have almost anyone else?

I didn't think desperation was the key factor in his situation, like it was in mine.

"Is it a family dinner as well?" I asked him curiously. "The thing that you need me as a date for."

Ryder didn't say anything, still too busy staring at one of the photographs.

Frustrated, I turned around once again and pushed a few loose strands of my hair behind my ears. "I can't believe I even agreed to do this. You haven't told me anything and I'm afraid... What if it is something dangerous? I can't believe I agreed to it." I straightened up and frowned. "It's not like I was given an option." I had been desperate.

Ryder's silence and his lack of interest was unnerving and slightly scary at the very same time.

"I'll fetch her from upstairs." I almost didn't hear the faint unfamiliar voice from somewhere downstairs amidst the racing thoughts in my head. A voice that I probably should've recognized--would've, if it had been a bit louder.

Tossing my clean crewneck over the cupboard door, I sighed wearily (again) and quickly pulled my ruined sweater over my head. The tank top I wore underneath rose a little, a shiver running down my spine when the cool air brushed my bare skin. Grabbing my pale blue crewneck, I shrugged it on.

Just as my head emerged from the fabric, I stiffened when my eyes all so suddenly met Ryder's, who had gone still. Not so interested in my old flimsy photographs anymore but instead staring at me.

His eyes seemed as dark as the night sky I'd taken a peek at earlier from one of the windows.

Blinking, I straightened the crewneck and blurted out a little embarrassedly, "We should probably go downstairs."

Ryder's brows pulled together in the slightest of frowns, eyes still on me. I heard the heavy footsteps and muffled laughter of someone walking upstairs at the same moment Ryder tipped his head back and swallowed the rest of his wine, placing the empty glass on the dresser beside him.

And then he was crossing the room towards me.

My eyes widened and my heart raced. Fear, alarm, embarrassment, I didn't quite know. "Um..."

My back pressed against the closed cupboard drawers, the drawer handle digging uncomfortably into my spine, and Ryder didn't stop, not until he was right there standing before me and leaning down until our eyes leveled the same. I leaned back out of instinct, my heart hammering in my chest, and the back of my head nearly stuck between the clothes currently hanging in my cupboard.

Ryder placed his hands on either side of me, on top of the closed drawers just behind me, and his blue eyes narrowed as he drew even closer. My breath hitched and got stuck in my throat.

"Phone." He spoke.

I swallowed, eyes still wide, as I tried to understand. But he was close. Close, close, close. And his eyes resembled a quiet, impending storm that was bound to ruin everything, and I didn't understand.

"What?" I breathed out shakily. I was unable to break my gaze away from his, not when he was this close, and he wasn't even...he wasn't even touching me!

A surprised sound formed at the very back of my throat, almost escaping, when the tips of our noses brushed--just a feather-soft touch that left me rattled.

"Your phone, querida."

I tried pulling back my head just an inch, my neck nearly cramping at the effort. My wide eyes darted across his face, between his eyes, so confused and scared and...and dreading the voice in my head that chose right this very moment to remind me that he was actually my boyfriend for the night.

Fake boyfriend! my mind yelled, trying to reign in all of those other wandering thoughts.

"I...erm...I have no idea?" I stuttered helplessly.

His eyes narrowed even further, almost as if I was the threat here. He wasn't even touching me, just standing so close, and my heart was pounding in a way that was just fucking pathetic.

"Where the hell is your phone?" He demanded lowly, his voice quiet but still strangely threatening. I didn't understand why all of a sudden he was mad at me. Was he mad at me?

Heart beating so wildly, I slid my clammy palm into the back pocket of my jeans, inching forward from the drawers behind me and feeling myself press against Ryder, the heat of him, only for the briefest of moments before he let out a frustrated--ragged--sigh and pulled away from me in an instant.

A flash of disappointment went through me but I didn't pay much attention to it, not right then, and held out my phone. "Why...why do you need my phone?"

He snatched it from me and switched it on and my eyes flew to the tattoo starting from his wrist, above his wrist at the inked vine--thorns--letters, a name? My attention was snatched away when I saw him typing in my passcode just as quickly without a flicker of hesitance. I stared in horror.

"How do you know my passcode?" I exclaimed, eyes wide and heart racing for an entirely different reason now.

He didn't bother sparing me a glance, too busy tapping something on the screen. "I saw you open it earlier."

"That doesn't..." I shook my head a little frantically then. "What else... You can't just do that!"

He held up my phone and my eyes darted to the screen, realizing that I was staring at a new contact. "That's my number," he said. "I'll send you the details."

I blinked and my mind raced to try to catch up with everything that had happened in just these past few seconds.

"Of...of what?" I asked him weakly, furrowing my brows.

"When and where I'll need you to repay the favor." He replied.

Favor. He knew my passcode. He knew my house address. My stomach lurched. "But--"

Someone knocked on my opened bedroom door, cutting me off in a voice that conveyed the grin on their face, "Found you."

Both Ryder and I looked over at the door at the same time, and I blanched--my heart nearly fucking stopped right there when I saw who it was.

Those dark curls, those eyes, that godawful smirk--my stepsister's ex-boyfriend. How in the world--

"Micheal!" Alyssa appeared from behind him, joining him in the doorway of my bedroom and grinning as well, her eyes moving from him to Ryder and I.

I stared, wide-eyed, from him and to Alyssa and then back to him.

Alyssa laughed and linked her arm through his. They were...hadn't they broken up? "Oh my God, you look like you've just seen a ghost, Alice. I suppose it must be a surprise to see Micheal again since the last time you did see him, we'd broken up."

No, I wanted to say. No, that wasn't the last time I saw him.

"But he's here again because..." She smiled sheepishly but I noticed the excited glint in her eyes just as well. "Well, there's an announcement to make. We should all go downstairs first."

Micheal grinned and wrapped his arm fully around Alyssa, his eyes finding mine. I was quite perfectly well still frozen solid right where I stood.

"Nice to see you again after so long, Alice." Michael told me.

Oh. My throat squeezed in warning. I was going to be so sick.