Chapter 30: Chapter 30

Rylie's POV

I could feel the blood drain from my face and my throat run dry as my eyes fell on my dad who stood in the doorway. I glanced at Blake who looked equally as horrified. I could only imagine what was running through my dad's mind at the sight of his daughter straddling a boy on her bed in her bedroom.

An eternity passed as my eyes darted between Blake and my dad, wondering what would happen next. In reality, it was only about half a minute but it felt like forever.

"Daddy, I can explain," I stuttered, slowly climbing off of Blake when my dad still didn't speak. His eyes darted to me and the look in his eyes told me that I'd better not speak and I didn't, looking away instead.

"You!" he pointed at Blake. "Get out!"

"Yes sir!" Blake responded, jumping out of my bed and bolting towards the door. When he got to the doorway however, he froze since my dad was still blocking the path. I could hear Blake choke out something that sounded like “Could you please excuse me, Sir?”. My dad said nothing and instead shot Blake an intimidating look.

At this point, I was grateful that Blake was tall and was about the same height as my dad but the look in my father's eyes could wilt a rose and I could literally see Blake shrink. Then again, what would you expect from a criminal attorney?

Eventually, my dad stepped aside, giving Blake just enough space to get the hell out of here.

Once he was gone, my dad turned to me, the look in his eyes saying all that needed to be. "So young lady, would you like to explain what I just saw?"

"Uhhh… I love you?" I offered.

"Oh no, young lady. That line's not going to get out of this one." He nodded his head at me.

"Come on, dad! Haven't you embarrassed me enough? Now you want to give me ‘the talk’?" I made air quotes around ‘the talk’.

He sighed as he sat beside me on the bed, taking my hands in his.

"Rylie, you know I'm the last person who would want to stand between you and having a normal teen life but boys... they're well, boys. They have hormones and because they're boys, they-"

"Don't know how to control themselves," we said at the same time.

"I know this dad, okay? And I'm not stupid. I'm eighteen and I'm capable of handling myself. Quit worrying so much," I gave him a light punch on his arm.

"You're right. I just… I forget just how much you've grown. My little Monkey Girl has grown into a fine young lady," he pinched my cheek.

"How about you never call me Monkey Girl again and I'll consider forgiving you for scaring my boyfriend half to death?" I playfully brushed his hand away from my cheek.

"That's fair enough. It's a deal," he shook my hand after considering it for a while. "See you downstairs for dinner, okay kiddo?" he ruffled my hair as he spoke.

"Again with the nicknames. Come on, dad," I groaned. He smiled and headed towards the door. "So does this mean Blake can come in my room again?"

My dad stopped and turned to give me a look that said “Do you even need to ask that?”

"Okay Dad. I get it! Geez!" I crossed my arms across my chest.

Once my dad was gone, I laid back in bed and felt my lips break into a smile as the events that just transpired flitted through my mind. Who would have guessed that someone like Blake would be that freaked out because of my dad?

I knew my dad could be intimidating but still. Seeing Blake like that was probably the highlight of my day to say the least.

***

"Rylie! Rylie! Are you awake?" came the fierce whisper.

Knowing who it was already, I groggily got out of bed and in padded feet, walked to the window.

"Blake, what is it? It's almost one in the morning. Don't you ever sleep?" I snapped, rubbing my eyes.

"Sorry I woke you up. I just wanted to know how things went with your dad."

"Oh yeah. It was fine. Totally fine," I stifled a yawn.

"Really? Because from where I was standing, he looked fit to kill somebody."

"Don't be ridiculous, Blake. My dad would never kill somebody, not on purpose at least," I shrugged sleepily.

"Okay then. Just wanted to see how you were seeing as how things ended on such an awkward note."

"Yeah. My dad can be pretty embarrassing at times," I rubbed the back of my neck.

"It's okay. I get it. He's just trying to look after his daughter… Oh well, good night then. I'd better let you get back to your beauty rest. Not like you need it," he added.

I ignored his last statement and asked instead, "So that's it? You literally woke me up to ask if my dad murdered me?"

"Checked up on you would have been more appropriate but I guess so," he flashed me a little smile. "Unless of course, you want me to come over there so we can finish what we started earlier, huh?"

"Ugh! Goodbye Blake!" I groaned, pulling the window shut. I could hear his booming laughter from outside and him say something that sounded like "Love you too, nerd."

I rolled my eyes and crawled back in bed. His earlier statement when he indirectly called me beautiful crossed my mind and I couldn't stop the smile that followed. I went to bed with the same smile plastered on my face.

What are you doing to me, Blake Weston?

*The Next Day (In School)*

I'd just closed my locker when the bell rang which meant one thing: gym. I groaned and stopped short of punching the locker because I knew it would hurt me more than the locker. I hated gym. It was just too boring and involved way more physical activity than I was comfortable with.

Still frowning, I began dragging my feet to the girls locker room where I would change into my gym clothes before going to attend the class that wasn't a class.

Ugh! Could today get any worse?

***

In response to my earlier question about today getting any worse, yes. Yes it could because it, in fact, just did. As if gym wasn't worse enough, Coach was making us play basketball, one of the worst sports ever in my opinion. Then again, all sports were the worst to me especially when I was participating in them.

While I waited for the first set of players to be done with their game, I laid back in my seat, whiling away time by looking at my finger nails.

"Wow! You do not look good," I heard a familiar voice say and I looked up to the person, a smile already on my face.

"Morning to you too, Blake. You have never looked good," I remarked, a sarcastic sweetness in my tone, as he took the seat beside me.

"We both know that's a lie and I didn't mean it like that. I meant why do you look like you'd rather be scraping gum than be here?"

"At this rate, I'd welcome scraping gum."

"What happened? Not a fan of basketball, huh?"

"Not even in the least bit. I've never liked sports and I hate basketball even more," I drawled.

"Hold on a sec. You hate sports?" Blake arched his eyebrows to show his surprise.

"Not hate per se. I can watch them but participating is a big no no for me."

"Oh okay. Thank goodness," Blake exhaled, his hand on his chest. "I thought you'd say that you really hated sports."

"Would it matter if I did?" I asked to mess with him some more.

"Well duh! Then we'd have to break up!"

"Okay then. I hate sports!" I announced cheekily.

"Ha ha! Not funny! You're not getting out of this that easily."

"Oh well! Worth a try, I guess."

Just then, the first set rounded up their game and unluckily for me, I was called out to be part of the next set.

"Oh well, wish me luck!" I mumbled with a sigh of resignation as I stood from my chair.

"Good luck! You'll do good out there," he gave me a thumbs up as I slipped past him. I flashed him a little smile and walked to the court.

No sooner had I stepped on the court when I heard someone say something like "Rylie, catch!" and just like that, out of nowhere, a basketball hit me smack in the face.

I fell to the floor with Blake calling my name, the last thing I heard before my world went dark...