Will and I get into his car; which is like Todd’s except his is white. We pull on our seatbelts, and he says, “So where ya wanna go?”

          “I’m not sure. Somewhere in L.A. though, since there’s not much in Vernon.” I say.

          “True, true.” He says, starting his car.

Will backs out of the parking lot, and onto the street. “Let’s go to The Dairy Bar.” He says.

          “I thought you said you were ‘starving’?” I ask him.

He nods, “I am, ice cream will solve that.”

          “I don’t really think ice cream will help.” I say skeptically, “But okay.”

A few minutes later; Will parks in the parking lot of The Dairy Bar and we both get out. We go up to the door, which I open, and go in.

          “So what kind do you want?” He asks.

          “Umm.” I say, as I scan the board with my eyes, “I want a banana split.”

Will orders it and him a butter pecan ice cream cone, and then pays the $5.75. “I could have paid ya know.” I say to him, as we wait for ours.

Will shrugs, “I know; just being nice.”

          “You’ve always been nice. By far the nicest O’Connor.” I tell him.

Will chuckles, “Yeah, I guess so.” We get out ice cream soon after that and we sit in a booth.

          “So a job?” He asks, licking his cone.

I nod, “Yup. Down at the pier tomorrow; I have to be there at ten a.m.”

          “That’s pretty early.”

          “Yeah; Todd said he would convince Ryder to bring me; but I don’t know. I think Ryder will say no.”

Will shrugs, “I dunno McKenna; I bet he’d say yes.”

          “But he hates me.”

          “He doesn’t hate you. He just likes to play…a lot.”

I laugh, “Yeah I guess so. He hasn’t changed since the last time I’ve been here.”

          “He’s been through a lot in the seven years you’ve been gone. I know he seems like a misfit; but it’s just his way of getting past it.” He tells me.

I push my spoon in my mouth and chew the banana chunk, “What do you mean?”

          “Ask him about it; he’ll tell you.” Will promises, licking his cone.

          “Hmm, okay. I’ll ask him about it when we get home.”   

          “You just referred to Vernon as home. You realize that right?”

I didn’t realize it; and it’s not like the place is growing on me. I still hate it. Nothing against the town except for the fact that it’s so small. I shake my head, “I didn’t realize.”

A while later, Will and I leave. As were in the car heading back to Vernon, Will’s phone rings. He reaches down; taking his eyes off the road for a fraction of a second, and grabs his phone.

          “Yes Asher?” He asks, as he puts the phone up to his ear.

The volume on Will’s phone is really loud so I can easily hear Asher say, “What are you doing?”

          “I’m almost back to Vernon. Me and McKenna.”

          “Oh so you and McKenna are hanging out now?”

Will glances over me for a second and I look out of the window, pretending like I can’t hear the entire phone conversation. I watch the trees whiz by and I hear Will say, “We just left The Dairy Bar.”

          “So you’re coming home now?” He wonders.

          “Yes.”

          “Please tell me you’re still in L.A.”

          “Uh we are. Why?”

          “Well Sierra wants to come over, but her car is in the shop.”

          “Sierra….Sierra....Sierra. Not ringing a bell.”     

I hear Asher sigh heavily, “She’s my new girlfriend. Remember?”

          “Um yeah. I vaguely remember you talking about her. So what about her?”

          “Will you go get her for me?” Asher pleads.

Will groans, “But I don’t even know where she lives.”

          “I’ll text you the address.”

          “You want me to go pick her up and bring her to Vernon?”

          “Yeah.”

          “I thought y’all hung out earlier?”

          “We did; but her parents are gone out of town; and she wants to come over.”

          “You better give me some gas money.”

          “Okay, okay I will. Thanks.”

          “Yeah whatever.” Will says, and then he hangs up. “Slight detour.” He says to me.

A text comes in on Will’s phone and he picks it up. He reads the text and then slows that pace of the car. “73563 Wellington Court.” He says, reading the address.

          “You know where that is?” I ask.

          “It’s somewhere close to the school; that’s all I know.”

Will speeds the car back up; and turns around going towards his school. I look out of the window; thinking about what Will was talking about earlier. The thing about Ryder. I wonder what’s up with him. Something bad must have happened. He isn’t my favorite person; but I figure I’m going to have to learn to tolerate him. So I’ll ask him about it later. He’s so stubborn though; he probably won’t even tell me.

Soon enough the car stops in front of a house which must be Sierra’s. I look up at the house and see the numbers proclaiming the address across it. The house is nice. It looks to be two floors; and it has a two car garage. It’s a pale yellow color; and it’s got little garden gnomes on the yard. Will honks his horn, and a few seconds later; the front door opens and a girl comes out. The girl-who I’m assuming is Sierra-is really pretty. She has long blonde hair, and she’s wearing a floral dress with gladiator sandals.

          “Er, what should I do?” I ask Will.

          “What do you mean?”

          “Where’s she gonna sit?” I ask him. He drives a pickup truck; so obviously it doesn’t have a backseat.

          “You can sit in the middle or she can.” Will replies.

I slide over; deciding to let her sit on the outside. She opens the door and climbs in. She pulls the seatbelt over her chest and clicks it in place. “Hello.” She says to the both of us.

          “Hi.” Will and I say in unison.

The ride back to Vernon is short, and silent. Well not silent exactly because there’s music playing from the radio. When we arrive back at the O’Connor house; Sierra thanks Will for the ride and gets out.

          “She’s scarily polite.” I note.

Will nods, “Seriously. I think she’s the nicest sixteen year old girl I’ve ever met.”

I unbuckle my seat belt and slide out of the passenger door. The door is already open; so I walk in and Will comes in a few minutes later. I pull my phone from my pocket and see that it’s already 8:25 p.m. In the driveway I only saw one car.

          “Who’s all here?” I ask Will.

          “Probably just Ryder, Asher, Sierra, you and me.”

I nod and head towards the stairs, “I’ll be in my room.”

Will nods, and goes to the kitchen. I hear his phone ring and him start talking on it. I start up the stairs; and as I’m about to open my door; I hear Ryder’s open. I turn around and see him about to head down the stairs.

          “Ryder?” I call after him.

He turns around, “What’s up Mickey?”

          “Can I ask you for a favor?”

          “You can ask doesn’t mean I’ll say yes, but you can ask.”

Of course. I sigh inaudibly and say, “I was just gonna ask you if you would take me to work in the morning.”

          “You have a job?” He asks as if it’s so hard to believe that I would get a job.

I nod, “I have a job; yes.”

          “Where at?”

          “The Seal Beach Pier.” I tell him.

          “Oh right, same thing that Todd does.”

          “Yeah; he said you go by it every morning.”

          “I do.”

          “Do you have a job too?”

Ryder nods, “I have a job.”

          “What do you do?”

          “That’s for me to know and for you to never find out.”

          “Are you like a secret FBI agent or something?” I ask jokingly.

          “I’d tell you…” He says, as he goes down the stairs, “But then I’d have to kill you.”

I roll my eyes and realize he never gave me a straight answer. I’ll just ask him again later. I go in my room and close the door behind me. I take my phone from my jean pocket and plug it into the wall charger. I go to my dresser and pull out a pair of black shorts of reasonable length and a short sleeved neon green shirt. I gather them up and leave my room going to the bathroom. I knock on it; making sure no one’s in there and then I open it. I go in and close it and lock it behind me.

I take my clothes off and leave them in a heap on the floor. I pull a large towel from the closet and a bar of soap. I feel like taking a bath today for some reason. They relax me for some reason. I turn the water on, and grab the bubble bath from the closet-I swear they have everything in the closet. Tissue, soap, paper towels, hair shampoo, conditioner, razors, shaving cream, tampons-which is weird considering they have one daughter, towels, bubble bath, and washcloths.

I add a lot of bubble bath to the tub and watch as it fills up. It’s one of those large Jacuzzi like tubs. It has jets in and it’s like a huge rectangle. I grab my hairbrush that I brought from my room and pull it thorough my hair as I wait for the tub to get high. I get the tangles out of my hair. When I’m done; I put my hair in a messy high ponytail so it won’t get wet. Then I get my Clean and Clear face scrub and squeeze it out on my hand. I rub it on my face and let it exfoliate my pores. I don’t have blemishes or anything but I mean that’s really the whole point of the scrub; so that I don’t get them.

I turn the water off and inch down into the hot water. I sit there in a few minutes, letting the hot water warm me. I wash my body with the soap for a while, and spend the rest of the time washing the scrub off my face. Someone beats on the door as I’m washing it off and shouts through the door, “You’ve been in there for like two hours McKenna! You didn’t drown did you?” That’s Ryder’s voice.

          “I’m almost done!” I shout back.

I hurry and wash the scrub all of and get out of the tub. I let the water out and dry myself off. I pull my clothes on and grab my clothes from the floor. I open the door and nearly trip over Ryder; who’s sitting on the floor on his phone. “What are you doing out here?” I ask him, as I regain my balance.

          “I was waiting for you to come out.”

          “You could have just waited in your room.” I tell him.

Ryder stands up, “You take really long baths.”

          “Most girls do.” I say. I believe that this is the longest Ryder has ever spoken to me without making a joke at my expense.

          “Right well,” He says, gesturing to the bathroom; indicating towards the bathroom.

          “I’ll just let you…do whatever it is you do.” I say, as I leave and go to my room.

I go in my room and plop down on my bed. It’s 9:20. Technically I was only in there for about forty five minutes or so. Ryder’s such an over exaggerator. I lie down in my bed; even though it’s a little early for me to go to sleep. I’m not even tired.

An hour later; I’m still tossing and turning in my bed. I throw the covers back and get out of the bed. I pad across the carpeted floor and pull my door open. I walk across the hallway, to Ryder’s room and knock on the door hesitantly. He’s probably asleep.

          “Yeah?” He calls from inside.

          “It’s McKenna. Can I come in?” I ask through the door.

          “Uh, yeah.” Ryder replies.

I twist the knob on his door; and push it open. I walk in his room, and close the door behind me. Ryder’s room is surprisingly neat. When we were younger; he would always keep his room dirty. It closely resembled a pigsty. The walls are an off white color and the floor is a jet black carpet color. He has a TV similar to mine, but it’s turned off. The light is on; leading me to believe he wasn’t asleep.

          “Hey.” I say.

          “Hey.” He repeats, as he sits up in his bed. “What?”

          “What what?”

          “What do you want?”

          “Oh.” I say, remember why I came in here, “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

          “Talk away.”

          “Can I sit down?” I ask him.

          “Yeah.”

I sit down on Ryder’s bed, and pull my knees up to my chest. I look across at him and he raises his eyebrows, “What's wrong?”

          “Your brother told me something.”

          “Which one?”

          “Will.”

          “Of course he did. What’d he tell you?”

          “He told me that you like to play because it’s your way of getting past it or something.”

Ryder sighs and mutters something under his breath. “What happened?” I ask him.

          “You don’t wanna know.”

          “I do wanna know.” I tell him.

          “It’s pretty depressing.”

          “Please?” I ask, looking at his shirt.

          “When I tell you this; I don’t want your pity, okay?”

I nod, “Okay.”

Ryder sighs again before he clears his throat, “It was two years ago. I was seventeen. I was still in high school-I was a senior. There was this girl. Her name was Scarlett. She was really nice and sweet and pretty. Scarlett was one of those girls who never talked to anyone. I mean, she wasn’t antisocial or anything; she had friends and stuff, but she was never the one who talked a lot. Scarlett and I had a few classes together; like a lot of them. She was really smart too. So I asked her for some help in Statistics class. So we started hanging out and she would tutor me with it, and all that kinda stuff. After about four weeks of that; I asked her out. Like I said, she was really nice and pretty and all of that. So she said yeah; and we went out on a date. We started dating sometime after that; and ugh, well it was really great.” Ryder’s voice breaks and he blinks a few times.

          “Are you okay?”

Ryder clears his throat and nods, “Yeah. And so it was really great. We hung out all the time, and went on dates and all of that kinda stuff. Well I was kinda popular in high school. I played on the football team; and I had a lot of friends. Naturally girls were throwing themselves at me, but I didn’t want any of them. Just Scarlett. Scarlett was really insecure about herself. She said she wasn’t as pretty as all of the cheerleaders who were always trying to get with me. I told her that wasn’t true; that she was beautiful, because she was.” Ryder clears his throat again; and I can’t help but notice that he’s talking about this Scarlett girl in the past tense.

          “So I told her not to be so insecure. I loved her. I told her that. It was April 21st 2010. I was at home; and I got a text message. It was a picture of Scarlett. A nude one. After I saw it I called her; I told her that she shouldn’t send pictures like that over her cell phone because it could like get out of something. She said it was the only way for her to prove herself to me. She was so insecure. So insecure. Well the next day I went to school; and in the locker room some of the guys were showing me their phones. They had the picture of Scarlett on their phones. I didn’t know how it got around Mickey. I didn’t send it around; I swear I didn’t. People were teasing her about it, and stuff. She played volleyball but the picture somehow reached the coach’s phone. The coach had to kick her off the team. Scarlett thought it was me who sent it even though I told her I didn’t. It wouldn’t stop. It was like everyone in the school had seen that picture. It went viral in like five days. Scarlett switched schools; but it was worse there, so she came back. We had been broken up for some time. She blamed me, and that’s why we were broken up. April 30th 2010. That was when it happened. Scarlett didn’t come to school that day. I was worried; but I knew she was mad at me. I should have gone to her house; checked on her. Even though she broke up with me; I still loved her. So I rode by her house. I was gonna keep going; but I saw a bunch of yellow caution tape. There were polices and an ambulance, and the coroner was there. I got out, and I went past the tape. I found her mom. She was crying, and talking a police officer. I asked her what happened and she told me that,” Ryder’s voice goes up and octave and he clears his throat, “She told me that Scarlett had committed suicide.”

My eyes go wide and I put my hand over my mouth. Ryder looks up at the ceiling and continues. “She overdosed on Oxycodone. I don’t know if you know it; but Oxycodone is really powerful and strong. Scarlett’s mother had recently had some kinda surgery, and the doctor gave it to her. Scarlett found it and she took it. They said it was a purpose overdose. They said there was no way Scarlett could have accidently overdosed.  She had like 900 mg of it in her-which is a hell of a lot. That’s like six pills. She left a note. She left three. One for her parents and two for me. I never read them; I couldn’t bring myself to do it. They found her in her room on her bed. Her mom thought she was asleep; but she never woke up.” Ryder takes a deep breath and looks at me signaling the end of the story.

          “Oh my God Ryder. That’s horrible. I’m so sor-“

Ryder cuts me off by saying, “You said you wouldn’t do it McKenna. You said you wouldn’t give me your pity.” He says.

          “I know I did Ryder. But that’s jus- I didn’t think it was that bad.” I tell him.

          “You look a lot like her actually. She had you hair exactly. Hers may have been a little shorter than your; but you two look a lot alike.”

          “So you kid around a lot and like that's your way of not thinking about it?”

Ryder nods, “Kinda. That and I’m just immature. I just feel like if I hadn’t made her feel like she wasn’t good enough, she wouldn’t have sent that picture, and she’d still be alive. And ya know I just find that when I kid around a lot; it's easier to foget it.”

          “Ryder; you can’t blame yourself for it.”

          “But it’s my fault McKenna. Don’t you see that?”

          “It’s not.” Then after a few minutes I say, “So how did the picture get around?”

          “Someone hacked into Scarlett’s phone, they sent it around. But they used my phone number; so it was on my phone record which is why everyone thought it was me.”

          “But it wasn’t.” I finish.

          “Right.”

          “We all have it hard sometimes Ryder. You know that, don’t you?”

          “I know that.”

          “You can’t take your anger out on everyone else.”

          “I know that too.”

          “So why do you?”

          “I don’t. I just don’t like people.”

          “You don’t like people? How can you not like people?”

          “They suck. They’re always in your business, and they always want something from you.”

          “I don’t want anything from you.” I tell him.

          “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Ryder says, shaking his head and looking down.

I nod, “Okay. We don’t have to.”

          "Well I'm kinda tired; so I'm gonna go to sleep now.” He says.

I stand up from his bed, and walk towards the door, “So will you take me to work in the morning?” I ask him.

          “Yeah. But you better be up on time.”

          “I will. Thanks Ryder. Goodnight.”

          “Goodnight McKenna.” He says, smiling a very small smile as I leave his room.

I go back to my room and lie in my bed. It’s 11:00 now. I know I should get to sleep pretty soon. I can’t believe that happened to Ryder. I mean; he’s not a nice guy, but he doesn’t deserve that. It was obvious from the way that he was talking that he was in love with the Scarlett girl. It’s obvious that he still is. He’s a mean and he likes to play jokes at other’s expenses. But I guess Will’s right; he’s not a misfit. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not suddenly in love with the guy; I just don’t hate him as much as I did before. Now that I actually know why he does the things he does; it makes him that much easier to understand. 

Author's Note: Asher over there! -------->