Saturday

Once we had checked in at the prison we were waiting behind the glass for my dad to come. I was scared. Hadn't seen my dad since he left. But i also knew he was getting out soon. I thought he might come find me. But i wanted to track him down on my terms. Ryder held my hand. "Are you nervous?" He asked. I nodded. "Don't be, just act cool ask him what happened get his side. Maybe he wanted to come see you. But if he didn't keep focused all you can do is ask him to help and hope he will." he said. I nodded breathing kind of rapidly. "You're right." I said as i saw my dad being led into our booth.

"Are my eyes deceiving me?" He asked. "Whey they told me somebody had come for me i thought it was a joke. Is that my baby girl? Land sakes!" He said taking a seat in the chair. "It's me...dad. Hi. How ya doin?" I asked. "I'm much better now." He said. "Good, this is Ryder my boyfriend." I said. "Nice to meet ya son, you take care of my girl for me okay?" He asked. "Yes sir of course." Said Ryder. "So you're glad i came?" I asked to be sure.

He hung his head. "Leave you and your sister was the hardest thing I've ever done. I only did what i did to try and save the family, i'm so embarrassed." He said. "You have a sister?" Ryder asked. "Yea." I said. "How is your sister?" Dad asked. "She's crazy." I said angry. "What?" He asked. "I'm sorry for being angry but you placated to mom and her stupid addictions." I said. "No i'm sorry i wasn't trying to do that. I knew she was falling but i had hoped that she would get help and i didn't know what to do." My dad said sobbing.

"Look i'm sorry, i'm just...when you brought up London it got to me. When you left mom had a new boyfriend every week to get her drugs. When she was thirteen she got pregnant by one of those guys. And she had an abortion. She felt so guilty after she done it. I was only ten i couldn't do anything and mom just sent her away. I found her last year i went to see her and she was holding this baby doll. She kept calling it her baby. And when i looked at it. She yelled at me to stop looking at her baby. She didn't even recognize me she was completely out if it." I said shaking my head.

"Oh..." My dad crumpled he couldn't even talk. "I am so sorry for everything." He said. "It's okay, i wanted to come sooner but i was so young when you left and i didn't understand everything. And to be honest i guess i still don't." I said. "Well just know that i'm getting out soon and it's going to be a different story. I'm going to get a job and do it right. Get a place and i hope you'll come see me i can cook dinner or something." He said.

"Really?" I asked. "Of course. In fact when i realized your mom was getting worse i wanted to leave but i needed to take care of you girls and keep you safe and i didn't even do that." He said. "Dad it's fine it's in the past and i'm in a safe place now I've left home and it's fine." I said reassuring him. "Well good." He said. "Look i have another reason i came." I said. "Okay shoot." He said. "Well were looking for a guy. Or more than one were not sure. There's a big warehouse. They are selling out tons of drugs to small dealers and rolling in cash." I said. "Hm, i might've heard a few of the new guys talking about it. Guy named Mike or something. I can always ask around." He said.

"That would be really helpful." I said. "Okay, i'll ask around if you promise to come back and see me." He said. "I will of course. And when you get out call me and i'll do whatever i can to help." I said. "I will, thank you." He said. We told him goodbye and we left.

"I didn't know about your sister." Ryder said. "Well i don't like to talk about it. She's really messed up from everything and she's in her own little world and that's where i'd like her to stay." I said. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I had to turn it in but now that i had it back i noticed all these messages. "What is it?" Ryder asked. "Well Let's see...Jake...Ethan..Caleb and even one from Liam." I said. He laughed. "What did they want?" He asked.

"Hey when are you coming home? Whatever's in that crock pot smells good." Jake. "Hey i had no idea what that pot was for...but that smells good. I was going to use it to change the oil glad i didn't. When are you getting back?" Ethan. "Hey S smells great in here." Liam. "Hey the guys keep going to the pot, we can eat soon right?" Caleb. "Oh dinner of course." Ryder said. We got to his truck and i leaned against it. "So how do you think that went?" He asked.

"Eh as good as can be expected i guess." The wind blew my blonde hair around my face. I pushed it out of the way. I put my arms around him and pulled him to me. "But thanks for coming with me." I said. "Of course, i'd do anything for you." He said. He leaned down and kissed me. I could stay here forever. But my phone kept going off. Ryder pulled it from my pocket and turned it on silent. He slipped it back into my pocket. I giggled. "You're crazy." I said. "Crazy for you." He said kissing me back.

Kissing him was nice i just couldn't stop giggling the phone kept vibrating in my pocket. "What is going on!? Is there some type of emergency?" He asked. "Just the guys wanting food." I rolled my eyes.

I typed a response and sent it to all five guys. "Hey, we are leaving soon do not touch my pot! You will not starve!" I slid my phone into my pocket. I rolled my eyes as i climbed into Ryder's truck. "So you think your dad'll be able to garner any information from the guys?" Ryder asked. "I don't know, but like we said it's a risky mission anyways so if he comes up empty were not worse off." I said. "That's true, so what did you cook that the guys were going so nuts for?" Ryder asked. "Brisket." I said. "Oh, maybe we SHOULD hurry home." He said laughing.

Once i got home i started the rest of the stuff for lunch. I liked doing something big in crock pot with lot's of sides so it could double as dinner left overs. Once the table was set i turned around to bring some of the drinks to the table and the guys were already sitting at the table. I laughed. "You guys a bit hungry?" I asked. "Just a bit." Said Liam holding his finger and thumb and inch a part. "So tell us how everything went?" Asked Caleb.

"Well i asked my dad for help. He's gonna see what he can do." I said. "Oh i'm sure this wasn't easy for you." Liam said. "No, but it was good. I mean he seemed happy to me so ya know." I said. "Right that's good.

-----------------Monday at School---------------

I climbed out of Calebs truck and we headed towards the school. "Thanks again for the ride, Ethan said my car should be ready any day now." I said. "Good, and i really don't mind." He said. "Oh ew, Caleb why are you hanging out with that thing." "It's good to see you to Jenna new hair?" I asked. "Whatever, so Caleb prom is coming up...i don't have a date. Wait Ew are you two dating?" She asked taking a step back. "No, i have a boyfriend. Caleb and i are just friends." I said. "I find it hard to believe anybody would want to date you soon now shoo." She said trying to get rid of me.

"Actually we were just leaving but good luck finding a prom date." Caleb called out. "Wait, you have a date to prom?" I asked. "No but i don't want to go with her." He said. "What about her, that girl who's been staring at you." I said pointing. "Who Sarah?" "Yea, she's in my third block she's nice." I said. "She is but i don't know we've never really talked." He said shrugging. "I gotta go talk to coach before class. See you later." He said waving.

I turned and looked back at Sarah. She looked away when i looked in her direction. "Hey Sarah." I said walking over. "Oh hey Sydney." She said. "I couldn't help but notice you looking in Caleb and I's direction..." "Oh i'm sorry , you two aren't dating are you?" She said embarrassed. "No i totally have a boyfriend. But i know for a fact he doesn't have a date for prom yet and it looked kind of like maybe you liked him." I said.

She blushed pushing her long light brown hair over her shoulder. "Well kind of i mean he's so nice and sweet and he'd never be interested in a girl like me." She said shaking her head. "Right, but maybe we could sway his opinion. How about we go shopping after school we need prom dresses. We'll go get our hair and nails done. And then i'll get my boyfriend to bring him and we'll all go to dinner." I said.

"Oh are they friends?" She asked. "Yea well we all kind of live together. And three other guys." I said. "You live with your boyfriend? But you're in high school...why?" She asked. "Uh well things at home weren't...uh good and i took out an ad for a house and it just happens to have five roommates that are guys and i fell for Ryder while i was there." I said "Oh goodness i'm so sorry. That's tough." I waved her off. "It's fine, it's better this way. So shopping after school?" I asked. "Sure, and this is really kind of you don't really have uh any friends...i'm just so shy." She said shrugging.

"Hey i'm lacking in the friend department myself i've got five best friends all guys. Okay i'll meet you out here after school, my car is still being fixed but if you've got your car we can just ride together and i'll ride home with Ryder." I said. "Great. See you then." I waved and walked off pulling my phone from my pocket.

"Hey, i need you to do me a favor and not ask a lot of questions." I said once Ryder answered. "Well that sounds ominous." He said. "Well maybe it is. I need you to bring Caleb and meet me at Fazolie's at six." I said. "Why?" He asked. "Well there's this girl who kind of likes him. And so i thought if they spent time together he might ask her to prom." I said. "Oh, okay yea i guess i can do that. So prom you say?" He asked.

"Mhm, you're gonna come with me right?" I asked. "Of course i wouldn't dream of missing it." He said. "Oh good, well okay i have to go the bell is about to ring. I'll see you later. Once school was over i waited in the parking lot for Sarah she came out minutes later and we headed towards the salon. Once we had our nails and toes done she hopped in the salon chair. "I was thinking we just cut a smidge off the ends and add highlights nothing to crazy, and maybe wax the brows?" I asked. "Oh okay sure i've never done any of this before." I smiled at her reassuringly.

The girl also put a bit of makeup on sarah's bare face. She looked great. Then we headed to the mall to look at prom dresses. We had an hour before we had to meet at the restaurant. I pulled my phone from my pocket. "Hey Ethan can you go pick up pizza or something for dinner?" I asked. "Sure thing, where are you?" He asked. "Town i'll be home later, thanks." I said "No problem, have fun." We started looking at dresses.

"I can't believe school is already almost over." Sarah said. "Me either, Ryder and Ethan are both graduating this year." I said. "Oh that's fun! Do they go to our school?" She asked. "Ethan goes to Ridgeway and Ryder is doing a homeschooling program." I said. "That's fun are ya'll going to do anything for graduation?" She asked. "Well i'd like to take them out for dinner. And i got them cool gifts. See Ethan is really into cars. And one day while i was getting the laundry i saw this paper in his room. It had a car circled and it said where are you. I found a car. Took some doing but the guy agreed to sell it to me. It'll be here in a few weeks." I said.

"And i got Ryder a dummy that has eyes that light up when you hit him in the right places. And a bunch of mats. He is considering opening up a self defense studio. Maybe that's lame but i didn't know what else to get him." I said shrugging. "No i think that's a great gift. Okay so pink or purple?" Sarah asked holding up a few dresses. "Pink is pretty." I said. I picked up a jade green dress with sparkles. She chose the pink one with a full skirt and rhinestones on the top. Finding any dress to fit my curves was difficult. While i was then generally i was curvy in some places.

I tried on dozens of dresses but in the end went with the green one and Sarah selected a beautiful flowing red dress. We had just enough time to make it to the restaurant.