Chapter 54 Mine for the night
Uriel's POV
"It's You."
Shutting the door behind my back, I fiddled with the key, locking it - keeping him safe.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Ryder turned away, avoiding eye contact.
I ran after him, blocking his path with my hands on my waist. "Don't do that. It's not going to help us."
"Why do you care?" He frowned, his eyes growing dark.
"I care because it concerns you!" I blurted out, my voice raising up.
His eyes softened, his facial expression straightening. His eyes diverted to the ground, his hand clenching and unclenching.
Carefully, I took a step close to him. My hand stiffly moved up, my heart beating fast as I didn't know how he'd react to me touching him.
A soft sigh left my lips when I wrapped my hand around his, holding tight.
He raised his eyes up, glancing at me and then to the bed that was situated at my back.
"Can I ... Can I hold you?" My voice was a bit shaky, my pulse quickening.
He looked at me, raising my eyebrow, "you're holding me."
Chuckling, I let his hands going, looking pointedly at his torso.
"What do you - oof!"
Ryder's hand hung mid air, his body growing rigid under my touch. I sighed softly into his chest, tightening my hands around his torso.
We both stayed in that spot; that position, listening to our beating hearts - his louder than mine though.
A small smile crept onto my lips when I felt his large palm on the small of my back, grazing that spot like he was so scared that he'll break me if he held me tight.
Whichever way, I liked being in his arms.
"I'm not going to break, you know?" I teased, my grip still tight.
He didn't say anything. Instead, I heard the gulping sound of his throat.
I swallowed hard before speaking, "everyone gets scared, you know?" I started, rubbing my hands up and down his back soothingly. "I get scared when I'm about to take an exam or test. Even when I'm about to check my result. Sometimes, when I'm about to present in front of the whole class."
"You do?"
Nodding, I answered, "yeah I do."
He sighed, pulling me away softly. I watched as he walked to my bed, sitting on it.
"This is different." His tone was hard.
"How different?" Gently, I sat beside him, placing my hand on his thigh.
"It's been long I've been in a competition. You know, been in the spotlight with so many eyes on me, hoping on me." He paused, clenching his jaw. I squeezed his laps softly, encouraging him to talk.
"What if I fail? What if something happens? What if my leg acts up? You know, you saw the text from my therapist. My legs are still under recovery. What if ..."
"You actually hit it without your ...leg acting up. Even though I don't know the full story behind that?" I looked down to his knee where I once noticed a faint bruise lay.
My fingers subconsciously trailed that spot, my eyes on him. His shoulder tensed, his eyes growing hard as they stared back at me.
"Your leg is not going to stop you from winning. Besides, swimming is therapeutic and so far, you've been doing so great in our practice. Come on, you're good at anything you do, Ryder." I praised honestly, not adding extra sugar to it.
That was who he was.
A victor.
"You're just flattering me. Maybe Coach Ben told you to do so." He grumbled, his eyes growing soft though.
"Ouch. I'm offended, Ry." I joked, placing my free hand on my chest. "When you're out there, remember who you are - a top athlete. When you're out there, own the place. Dominate."
"Look, this is your shit. You'll treat it like you're trying to show off to Coach Ben and other teams on your own pitch. I don't know if I'm making sense, but that's how I want you to look at it."
"Whatever happens tomorrow, I'll be out there, cheering you. Whatever position you come out with, we'll all be proud of you. Well, because we know you'll kill it, Champ."
My mouth widened in shock when he pulled me down into the bed, engulfing me in a tight hug, suffocating me.
I giggled into his chest, not fighting it. In fact, this was what I needed...
To be in his arms.
"You're such a sweet talker, it's sickening to listen." Ryder spoke softly.
"Am I?"
We stayed on the bed like that, tangled in each other's warmth, until we slowly drifted into darkness.
\-°-
Ryder woke up quite early. I'm talking 4 AM.
I knew that because when I woke up by 4:20 AM, he was nowhere to be found. At first, my heart beat spiked up, panic creeping under my skin.
But then, while passing to the coach's room, one mind told me to look into the swimming area and there he was, working himself out...
And pretty good.
Though, there were times I felt he was going too hard on himself. Letting him sort himself out after standing for 25 minutes, I went back to sleep.
Not everyone was built with the gift of pulling through despite having little to no sleep.
The sound of the crowd cheering, snapped me back to reality. I had been in my head for long, wondering how Ryder was doing.
We had won the simple lapse, in which Michael and other team members participated.
Now it was time for the big one. The one Ryder was participating in. The one the poor boy had deprived himself of good sleep for. The one that made my coach and I drink way much caffeine than usual.
Gosh.
I couldn't wait for this to be over.
"...and lastly, Achievers High athlete, Ryder Connell, weighing..."
Only hearing his name, sent chills down my spine. My legs bobbed up and down in my seat, so I had to stand up.
Before I could stop myself, I yelled, "go, Ryder! You got this!"
The hairs on my neck stood, alerting me that all eyes were on me but only one pair of eyes stole my focus.
His eyes lit up, his mouth lifting into a smirk. Then he turned his game face on, his jaw clenched.
That's my man!
Ryder dived in and yes, his strokes were good at the beginning until he reached the shallow part and began to lose his speed.
"Go boy. What are you doing?" Coach Ben growled from beside me.
"Please, please, please." My hand shook, my heart almost ripping my chest open from beating too fast.
"Looks like the first is about to be the last, can you imagine that?" The commentator said, angering me.
What was he thinking?
"Ryder! Ryder! Ryder!" I began to hail, nodding at our team mates to join me.
"We got you, Ryder!" I yelled alongside their hails. "Don't let it win over you."
The first lapse ended with him as the third.
"Good one, boy!" Coach encouraged him, clapping his back.
I pulled him to a side, holding him softly, "I'm proud of you. You did so good."
"But..."
I chuckled, shaking my head. "That's just it."
"You're not going to yell at me for coming third? For not hitting it off like you expected? Yeah, right." He scoffed, his tone a bit hard.
"Not at all. You're part of the top 3 and that's enough for us, Ryder." I smiled brightly at him, holding his face. "Get in there for the second half and kill it however you want. You can only go up from here."
He stared into my eyes for a while, holding onto my gaze before pulling away and right back on track.
The buzzer blew off and they started again. I didn't rest; I didn't stop cheering until the last buzzer went off.
Everywhere blurred away, my focus only on one person. My feet were stuck to the ground, my visions blurry from my tears.
Ryder's eyes didn't leave mine one bit as he walked towards me, picking me up from under my butt, swirling me around.
Giggling, I wrapped my hand around his neck. "Ryder!"
"We did it, Kinky. You and I." Slowly, he brought me down. He held my face in his hand, resting his forehead on mine softly.
"You and I." I repeated lowly, letting the tears fall. "You didn't let us down, Ry."
"I didn't." He held my face up, his hand brushing the tears off my cheek. "Are you crying for me?"
"Shut up!" A soft laugh echoed in-between sobs.
"Uriel, I -"
"We're partying tonight!!!" The teammates carried Ryder away, cutting him off.
"Good job, Uriel." Coach praised. "You have that boy on chokehold, don't you?"
Huh?
"Hey! I came back for you." Ryder pulled me by my hand before I could even register everything Coach said. "You're mine for tonight. Don't say I didn't tell you, Kinky."
Gosh, why did that sound so hot.