Chapter 19

I must have still been sleep deprived, because similar to the first day that I was home, I must have slept for at least 15 hours.

When I woke up, Mark was passed out on the floor next to the couch and I was laying across the entire couch.

I instantly felt bad that I'd taken up his makeshift bed for the summer.

But then I noticed that the power was back on and it was light outside.

"Oh good morning. Chris came by about 15 minutes ago. He's just cleaning up around the shack." Aunt Audrey said with a smile from the kitchen. "I figured I'd let the two of you sleep in."
I nodded, pushing myself up from the couch. I didn't bother changing, despite the fact that I was in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

"Mark wake up." I said, poking him with my foot as I stood up from the couch.

My brother mumbled something under his breath, pulling his legs up to his chest.

"Come on. Get up. It's morning." I repeated, walking towards the door.

I didn't wait to see if he'd woken up. I was too shocked by how far up the beach the ocean was.

I stepped into my flip flops and pulled my baseball cap on my head.

"Do you have the keys?" Chris asked as I approached the shack.

I stopped dead. With a slight smile I turned around and ran back to the house.

"Why the hell are you back already?" Mark groaned, leaning against the back of the couch with a mug of coffee in his hand.

I stuck my tongue out at him as I grabbed the keys from the kitchen table.

Mark gave me a weird look as I walked to the door.

"What?" I frowned, crossing my arms.

Mark opened his mouth to say something, but covered it quickly with a smile. "Nothing, nothing. I'll see you later."

"Okay?" I laughed, raising my eyebrows. "Come by for a free smoothie!" I called over my shoulder as I walked out of the house.

"Got the keys!" I called, tossing them to Chris as I got back to him.

"You guys survived last night I take it?" Chris asked with a laugh as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

"Yes, yes we survived." I nodded, giving him a kiss on the lips.

"Good. Now let's open up." Chris said, his arm still around my shoulders as we walked to the door. "But what the hell are you wearing?" He asked with a laugh.

I looked down at the east high football sweatshirt and my grey sweatpants, a top notch grout fit. "Oh I mean it was freezing in the house last night." I shrugged. "So I grabbed the first things I saw."

"Cute." Chris laughed, poking my cheek. "Alright we've got a lot of things to do and we have to fit everything on the beach with enough room between the water and here."

I nodded. "Let's get to work, captain."

Chris raised his eyebrows at me.

"Oh now say that again and we'll have a lot more work to do." Chris winked, squeezing my butt.

~*~*~

"Aren't you dying right now?" Amanda asked across the table, giving me a weird look.

I shrugged. "Sort of. But I don't have the energy to go all the way back to the house and change." I laughed.

"Or you didn't want to take off that sweatshirt." Mark winked.

I gave him a weird look. "Excuse me?" I laughed, taking a bite of my hotdog.

"I would've thought at least one of you would've hinted at the fact that you hooked up?" Mark asked, giving me a weird look.

"One of who? I was with you all night last night?" I frowned at my brother, unsure where he was going with this.

"Not last night you idiot. When we were at home... You're wearing his sweatshirt." Mark gave me the same look of confusion that I was giving him.

"I'm wearing your East High Football sweatshirt." I laughed, leaning against Chris.

"What are you talking about, Marley?" Mark gave me a weird look. "I'm wearing my East High Football Sweatshirt." Mark said, pointing to what he was wearing.

I stopped mid bite, my eyes registering on his sweatshirt.

"You guys are matching!" Haley giggled, finding it absolutely amusing.

I slowly looked down at the sweatshirt that I was wearing. I tentatively brought my arm up to my nose, taking a sniff.

I took a deep breath, pushing my hair back from my face.

"Just a sweatshirt." I said quickly, giving Mark a smile.

"Just a sweatshirt." He confirmed, watching me nervously.

"What's going on?" Chris asked softly.

"Grabbed the wrong sweatshirt, silly me, it's not Mark's." I forced a smile on my face.

"Ah... One of your other brother's?" Chris asked, sliding his arm around my shoulder.

I nodded. "Something like that, you know, all those guys mixing up clothes." I laughed, my voice sounding unfortunately high pitched.

Chris just nodded, kissing my cheek.

I ignored the gagging noise that Mark was making.

~*~*~

"Yes, yes we're fine." Mark was saying into the phone when I walked into the house for dinner.
I gave him a weird look.

"Yes, yes the power is back on. We're alive." Mark rolled his eyes, leaning against the counter.

Twenty bucks that it was my dad on the phone.

"Oh my gosh it was a silly thunderstorm I'm-" Mark stopped, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. "Yes fine here she is."

I gave Mark a weird look as I took the phone.

"Dad will you chill out? Mark and I are fine." I sighed.

Mark's eyes widened as he covered his mouth with his hands.

"I'm not your dad." The person on the other line said quietly.

I gasped, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Mark.

"I know it's lame but I kind of saw it on the news that there was a really bad storm in North Carolina where you guys are and it's stupid but I thought of you..." Logan sighed.

"Of course, no yea that's actually really sweet." I said softly, pushing Mark's head against the fridge as I grabbed his hair.

"So you're okay? Both of you?" Logan asked, his voice shaking.

"Yes yes we're absolutely fine. We spent the storm sleeping basically." I replied, trying to knee Mark in the stomach.

"Ah you mean when you weren't stupidly going out in the middle of a hurricane on the beach?" Logan raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't know if he was okay!" I protested, a gasp escaping my lips as Mark grabbed my leg and pushed me away from him.

"Just please don't do anything stupid okay?" Logan said quietly.

I stopped dead, covering my mouth with my fingers.

"You care?" I whispered.

I was met with silence on the other end, causing my heart to plummet.

I quickly ran down the hall to my room, softly shutting the door behind me.

"Yes Marley of course I care." Logan said softly. "You're my best friend's little sister and if something happened to you because of him he'd be all upset."

I swear I could feel my heart break inside my chest as I slid down against the door.

"Right, right of course." I said quietly, tears collecting in my eyes. "Well don't worry Mark is perfectly safe."

"Awesome great, look I gotta go out with Jenny but tell Mark I'll call him later." Logan said happily before hanging up the phone.

I slowly put it down next to me, tears spilling over my eyes.

Why is it that when finally I was getting closure and moving on, Logan has to come in and mess things up?

Why did this have to be happening to me?

I'm Marley Ryder. I was dating Logan Hamilton. I'm a Ryder.

Ryders don't have shit happen to them like this.

I laid down on the ground, letting out a whine.

Ryders don't get hung up on relationships...
Ryders aren't supposed to get so cut up when things don't work out.

With a gasp, I reached under my bed and pulled out the necklace that I'd been missing.

I sat up, covering my mouth with my hand.

When I was in Michigan, I thought I'd left it here.
But then when it wasn't here, I figured I must have lost it somewhere else.

But here it was.

I turned it over, looking at the seemingly infinite words written on the back.

But they weren't true anymore.

Because there's no way that Logan loves me anymore.

He's with Jenny now. He probably loves her.

And she probably loves him the way I couldn't admit to.

Will I ever get over him?