Chapter 26: Daddy Jene

It was Monday and it wasn't unusual for people to be sleepy during class or simply not in mood, for Mondays are that kind of a day. But for some reason, Aiden seemed to be overdoing it. He wasn't sleepy. None of the kind. However, anyone could tell from miles away that he was emitting a strong aura of "Don't fucking talk to me" scaring everyone around him to don't even sneak a glance at him. Being in such a mood made Jasmine wonder. Is he in his period?

Aiden didn't know about these thoughts of Jasmine, and hadn't even noticed that his sour mood had made people flee away from his away lest they get "accidentally" punched.

The reason behind such mood was, of course, Ryder. This was also the reason why Jasmine noticed Aiden in the first place. The guy kept glancing towards Ryder every five seconds during class, whenever they were in the hallways or during lunchtime at the cafeteria. One ought to notice being watched under such "heated" gazes. Even though Ryder was completely unaware of this, Jasmine that was within the scope of the said gaze, couldn't help but notice.

A bad premonition furrowed her eyebrows as she elbowed Ryder. "Don't you think Aiden is being a bit weird today?”

Ryder didn't even look up from her book. "And why should I care?”

"Because he's being creepy and the creep's eyes are on you?” Remy offered, his head resting on Jasmine's shoulder. His eyes were on the notebook in front of him, revising for the upcoming biology exam. Jasmine heard him and nodded. Her eyes were on Ryder but her hands were feeding Remy unconsciously.

"And why should I care?” Ryder repeated, still uninterested. Even though she seemed to be extremely concentrated on the book she was holding, reality begged to differ. To begin with, she had been up until two a.m. trying to wash off the paint from her hair. By the time she fell asleep it was already too late, making that bit of sleep she had seem as if it only lasted two minutes. So, Ryder was actually too sleepy to concentrate on anything… or care about anything. The only thing she could care about was the happenings of last night that she couldn't shoo away from her head no matter what.

"What happened yesterday?”

This was asked by Remy. The young man had been eyeing Ryder for a while now and her act of looking as if concentrated didn't fool him even a bit. Sure enough, Ryder blushed immediately after she heard that question and the indication behind it, confirmed Remy's suspicions.

"I… I went out with him…” The book previously lied down on the table was risen up to cover the red cheeks of Ryder.

"And?”

"I… we…” The more Ryder tried to formulate a proper sentence the redder her cheeks turned, the more reluctant she was to share what happened last night. How could she tell Remy and Jasmine with a straight face what happened? For some reasons, those moments back then felt too intimate. She didn't want to share them.

Flustered so much she felt like she was about to explode, Ryder slammed the book on the table, crossed her arms on top of it and hid her face behind them.

Remy "Did you kiss him?”

Ryder shook her head without lifting it from her arms.

Jasmine "Did he kiss you?”

Ryder shook her head again. "We just… *cough*… were close…” Too close… A sigh spilled from her lips as an unexplainable softness filled her heart. "I think I like him."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "We already knew that."

Ryder shook her head again, blushing even more. By this point she looked almost as if she was bleeding from her face. "No. I don't mean that. I… I don't think I just like him… it's something more."

"You love him?” Remy asked in disbelief. Damn that was fast. This girl doesn't even know who this guy is, and she already loves him.

"Not yet… but I… probably will…” Ryder couldn't even believe the words she was saying herself, but she knew that they weren't just casually said nonsense. The events of the past made her trust very few people, and her nature made her care deeply for the people she trusted. The thing with Midnight was that she trusted him and she cared about him… way too much. However, adding the romantic feelings, she had for him, Ryder couldn't stop at just caring about him. Those feelings developed to such point it couldn't be called only "liking him". Even though it couldn't be said she loved him for love was a too strong of a word for the feelings she currently had, by the look of it, it wouldn't take too long for her feelings to develop in that direction.

Knowing she was falling for Midnight, surprisingly, instead of feeling terrified, Ryder was rather calm and too immersed in the sweet feeling this "almost-love" gave her.

Facing such a Ryder, Jasmine could say only one thing. "Damn."

Damn indeed.

After saying such words, Ryder found it unbearable to stay any longer under Remy and Jasmine's gazes so she picked up her things and left the cafeteria with a red face and two barely muttered words.

She wasn't used to talk about her feelings, or at least not about deep feelings that were of great importance to her. However, this time… it was almost as if she wanted to say those words at loud so she could lead her heart to the right direction, so that she could come in terms with such strong feelings that left her muddled.

Ryder seemed to be in a daze for the rest of the day. Forget about concentrating in class, she didn't even know what class it was.

Aiden for some reason got angrier because of this. The unexplainable mood was getting even in his friend's nerves.

“I thought you were already over her matter." Mike whispered.

Greg, who was sitting on the seat in front of him, turned around, completely ignoring the fact that they were in class and added. "Yeah. Besides, that one was your fault, what are you glaring at the girl for?”

Hearing this, Aiden was in a worse mood than before. The reason behind such attitude he was giving, was because of what he happened to witness Friday afternoon. He just happened to be walking pass that damned bookstore Ryder used to go and what he saw was Ryder hugging another guy's waist and jumping on his back. There was no logical way to explain why he was angry. It wasn't jealousy, for Aiden didn't really had any special feelings for Ryder. Rather than that, it was better to say that he resented the fact that Ryder rejected him less than two weeks ago and was already all over some other guy. There were also a lot of other mixed feelings, disbelief with disgust and pique, grievance with malice…

Never in his life did Aiden harbor such dark feelings, but his pride was hurt and he got replaced so quickly. Who was Ryder to play him in such a cruel way?

Aiden wanted to do something. He wanted to snatch her away… and so he did.

After math class was over, before Ryder could run away, he picked up his backpack and walked to her desk. The girl had just snapped out of it and finally realized that class was over. When almost everyone was already out of the classroom, she had just started to gather her things. Her hair messily fell over her face, caressing her slightly red cheeks.

"There is a math competition coming up." Aiden said without bothering even muttering a 'hi' first. Such kind of sudden 'greeting' took Ryder but surprise. It had been quite a while since she last time she heard Aiden's voice and she didn't expect to hear it now out of the blue. That one sentence was said casually, and when she looked up at the young boy, he was looking down on her with an expressionless face. Even though in the surface nothing seemed wrong about all this, Ryder felt a bit alarmed, resulting in her putting her guard up.

“And?” She asked, shoving her things in her backpack carelessly. It doesn't matter as long as she was out of there, away from Aiden.

"One of the team members got sick and won't be able to participate so we need a substitute and the teacher chose you."

Ryder frowned, clearly unhappy about such developments. Nobody asked her if she wanted to join or not. She wanted to protest, even dared to think that there was something fishy about this, for there was no reason why she should be chosen as a substitute for the competition when there's a whole bunch math club member the teacher could choose from. But before Ryder could voice such suspicions, she remembered that the said math club had only eight members and half of them were sophomores. The math competition was for seniors who were clearly lacking on people. Still Ryder was dissatisfied.

"Find someone else, I'm not that good in math anyway."

The expressionless face of Aiden cracked upon hearing such a cold and aloof answer. The corner of his lips twitched and his eyebrows furrowed. "The competition is in two days; we don't have time to look around for someone else."

"I'm busy."

Suddenly, Aiden felt quite violent, but bit his tongue to control himself. "This may not interest you, but it is important for the rest of us. The least you can do is to help us a bit."

"I don't have too though." Ryder didn't have in her plans to be guilt-tripped into such activities. Did anyone ask her if she wanted or not? If she was free or not? She was free, but that doesn't mean she was willing to let go of her free time just because the teacher decided to.

Seeing that Aiden wasn't achieving anything like this, he changed his methods. "At least give it a try today. Come at my house. I will show you some exercises and mock exams and help you study them. If you're not good enough, I will tell the teacher to find someone else."

A long sigh was breathed out of Ryder's lips. Truth be told, this wasn't the first time she was dragged into doing things for the school. Most of the time she would be sweet-talked by the teachers into decorating the gym or whatever else there is to be done whenever there was an activity. There even was that one time she ended up helping sorting books in the school's library because the librarian had been complaining about her legs hurting for half an hour before suddenly having the brilliant idea of Ryder lending a hand.

Ryder thought about it as she zipped up the backpack and threw it over her shoulder. "Give me the mock exams, I will look at them myself. No need for me to go at your house."

"I don't have them with me." Aiden answered innocently.

"Then go get them."

"They're at my house."

This fucker- Ryder was getting rather impatient. It was quite obvious that this guy wanted her to go with him and she was already regretting to even take into consideration participating in that damned math competition.

"What are you trying to do?” She narrowed her eyes at Aiden.

Aiden still chose to play the innocent. "Two hours. You don't need to stay more than two hours."

"Who's at your house?”

Aiden froze upon hearing this. He didn't expect to be asked such question. How was he supposed to take this? Was she afraid that he would do something to her? Or was it something else? The expressionless face cracked furthermore, his eyes darkening.

"Jeremy and Jake. Leah should be there too." Aiden answered truthfully, closely studying Ryder's face. However instead of having any reactions whatsoever, Ryder grabbed her phone from her coat's pocket and dialed Jasmine.

Jasmine picked up immediately. "What's up?”

"I'm going at Aiden's to grab some math mock exams. If I'm not back in two hours either call the cops or come kill him yourself." Ryder said, ignoring the twitching-from-anger Aiden. With her heart at ease, she gave Aiden a cold smile. "Let's go then."

That sudden violent urge overwhelmed Aiden once more. His tongue would fall off if he kept biting into it like this.

The two of them drove their way to Aiden's house in his car. The drive was awkward and silent, making Aiden feel uncomfortable while Ryder completely ignored the tension in the air. She even started humming a soft song as if to mock the uncomfortable Aiden sitting three feet apart from her.

The car was parked in front of a two-story house with a wide front yard surrounded by white fence. One thing was for sure. It looked way "classier" than her house. Ryder got out of the car the moment it was parked, not even waiting for Aiden to turn off the engine. It was obvious that she wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, which only poured gasoline to the fire of irritation in Aiden's heart.

She was way cute before, how can she change so much so suddenly for no reason? Not knowing the answer to this question only irritated Aiden even more.

He opened the front door and walked inside the house. Yet the moment he stepped on the staircase leading up to his room, Ryder gave him another cold smile after clearing her throat to get his attention. "The living room. We're not that familiar with each other."

This fucking- Aiden couldn't help but curse in his heart. However, he couldn't do much about it. Shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket to hide his fists, Aiden politely answered. "The living room is that way. I'm going to get the mock exams from my room."

"Good." Ryder said and walked into the living room without giving Aiden another glance. The house was quite spacious and cozy from inside. The living room was painted in warm colors, the couches were soft to the touch and quite comfortable to sit on. Ryder was amusing herself with the couch that seemed to absorb her butt when a man walked in. His body froze immediately when he saw Ryder, his face going pale.

Ryder noticed the movement with the corner of her eyes and looked up. "Oh… hi."

"Hi." Jeremy answered awkwardly. "What…” his voice came out hoarse and he had to clear his throat before continuing. "What are you doing here?”

Ryder snorted, not trying to hide the dissatisfaction from this situation. "I got dragged into a math competition. I'm here to get some mock exams from Aiden. It won't take long."

"Oh." Jeremy nodded looking quite in deep thoughts before snapping and remembering that he still had a huge bowl of ice cream in his hands. "Want some?”

Ryder shrugged.

Jeremy placed the bowl of ice cream on the coffee table and smiled at Ryder. "I'm going to get another spoon. You can start eating. That spoon is unused." Before Ryder could reply, Jeremy had already left the room.

When Aiden came back downstairs, he saw Ryder with a spoon in her mouth and her phone in her hands. A bowl of ice cream had appeared out of nowhere right in front of her. When he walked down the stairs, he bumped into Jeremy rushing upstairs but when he saw Aiden he stopped in his tracks and run back down to the kitchen. Such behavior was strange, but since Aiden has seen this guy do stranger things, he didn't question it. Now he understood why he walked to the kitchen.

"I got the mock exams." Aiden announced trying to get Ryder's attention, but the girl didn't move her eyes from the phone. She only removed the spoon from her mouth.

"Good. Then I will be leaving." Ryder finally put down her phone. She took another spoonful of ice cream from the bowl before putting the spoon down on the coffee table and getting up.

She was leaving. Understanding this, Aiden frowned. "Let me explain some things about the competition first. There's no need for you to leave so quickly."

More time to eat more ice cream. Ryder rolled her eyes and sat back down, grabbing the spoon once more. Aiden sighed in relief and handed her the mock exams right when Jeremy entered the living room.

The two of them regarded each other as air, one continuing to talk to Ryder without even reacting to the additional person in the room, while the other sat not far from Ryder, stuffing his mouth with ice cream quietly listening.

Ryder stared at Jeremy for a moment. He was just the best friend of Aiden's brother, yet this attitude was a bit odd. After all this was Aiden's home. Ryder looked at Aiden then she changed her mind immediately. Meh, he probably thought Jeremy was his boyfriend and announced it to the neighborhood without his consent. It's not like that would be a first. Maybe Aiden had a habit of making people his lovers without even asking them first.

"There are four people in the team. You will be the fifth. The previous competitions…” Aiden kept explaining, but Ryder had lost interest a while ago. Her eyes were on the sheets of paper filled with math problems and her mind temporarily stopped. She knew how to solve three of this problem. What was left could be divided into two groups. One with problems she knew to solve only halfway and one with problems she had never seen in her life before. What are these? What language are these? Mandarin? Arabic? Russian? Japanese? No, no, no. This wasn't a job for her. Ryder now felt extremely grateful for her grades in math. If these problems were given in class, she would not doubt fail on spot.

“I don't think I…” Ryder started to say but she didn't get to finish her sentence, because a loud voice came from upstairs accompanied by sweet and cute giggles.

"Daddy Jene, Leah said that Moon pooped in your shoes again." The voice was that of a male, but Ryder's brain had already stopped working. Firstly, it clearly was the voice of a young man. Secondly… why is this young man running around yelling Daddy in such a childish voice? And most importantly…

By her side, Jeremy froze and turned pale like a sheet. His lips parted, but nothing came out. Ryder understood. Jeremy was Jene.

Yet, as she was looking at Jeremy, the voice of the young man was heard once more, this time it came from the hallway as he apparently was making his way to the living room. "She also said that she wants to braid your hair…” The voice trailed off by the end of the sentence as Aiden's brother froze in front of the door of the living room.

Ryder had no idea what to say. In front of her, Jake was only wearing a pair of gray sweatpants. He was barefoot and his bare chest had all sorts of childish drawings painted on, rainbows, butterflies and even some stick figures with pink skirts and red hearts of all sizes. In his arms was Leah holding a paintbrush in her hand, happily giggling as she painted another red heart on Jake's cheek while a black kitten with its right ear white, rested on his left shoulder.

Upon seeing Ryder, Jake's face flushed red, but he seemed unable to move. Clearly, he was embarrassed.

The cute little girl was unaware of the embarrassed Jake and kept giggling, poking the paint brush on his cheek. "Daddy, Jay said that he will buy me chocolates if I paint your nails pink."

Jake's red face turned pale immediately as he covered Leah's mouth. The movements made the black little kitten jump from his shoulder and run back into the hallway.

On the other hand, the only one left unfazed was Aiden. Ryder was blushing because a half-naked man was in front of her, Jeremy looked as if he wanted to jump out of the window but this was the first floor and the height wouldn't kill him.

“Don't mind him. He's probably high again."

The eyes that were on Jake turned on Aiden.

"What?” Ryder asked.

Aiden looked at her, shoving a notebook with solved problems in her hands. His expression hadn't changed the slightest ever since he walked into the room. Her reaction seemed a bit off from his expectations, given the fact that his friends had reacted quite differently when he told them that his brother took drugs. "He's probably high…” Aiden repeated again, but right then Jeremy snapped.

"What nonsense are you saying?” His voice filled with anger exploded loudly and powerfully, scaring both Ryder and the little girl on Jake's arms. Leah dropped the paintbrush and hugged Jake closer. Her face was buried in his neck as she muttered with teary eyes. "Jay, daddy is angry at Aden again."

Jake bit his lower lip and hugged Leah tighter in his arms.

On the other hand, Aiden seemed to have finally found a way to vent all those dark feelings accumulated in him, howling at Jeremy angrily, but in his heart, he was happy to have the chance to yell it all out. It was always like this. Every time he fought with Jeremy, or even Jake, even though it would get messy and he was angered to death, there was always this weird feeling of happiness whenever it happened.

"Who's talking nonsense? Isn't it true? It has been years and he still act as if he is the one who died, playing the victim for attention, taking drugs and whatnot."

The hands holding Leah shook. The already pale face of Jake turned even whiter, all color drained from it. Ryder saw this and understood that things had taken a turn for worse. Even though things were vaguely said, she understood that Aiden had brutally touched a very sensitive topic with that last sentence.

"You fucking ungrateful brat!” Jeremy couldn't hold back anymore and punched Aiden in the face. Right then Leah started to cry at loud, making it impossible for Jeremy to engage himself into beating the shit out of Aiden. He only glared down at him before rushing to Leah and taking her into his arms.

“Shah. I'm sorry, baby. Daddy is sorry. Daddy didn't want to scare you." Jeremy tried to pacify his daughter. He walked out of the living room, leaving there only the knocked down on the floor Aiden, Ryder and Jake.

Jake hadn't muttered a word all this time. He couldn't even if he wants to. His eyes moved from Aiden who was holding his bleeding nose to Ryder who didn't know what to do with herself, before turning around and leaving. At first it was only two or three slow steps, then Ryder heard him run up the stairs and a door slamming, after that there was finally silence.

Ryder looked down at Aiden and truly didn't know what to say. So, no words were said. She picked up her things and walked out of the house. The front door slammed behind her, making her jump up. She hadn't taken even five steps away from the front door, when it opened and Jeremy walked out of it, Leah still in his arms. She had already calmed down, but her big onyx round eyes and small cute nose were still red from crying.

"Ryder, wait!” Jeremy called after her. "Let me drive you back home."

Ryder nodded without saying anything.

The drive back to her house was even more awkward than the one with Aiden and this time Ryder couldn't just play it off by humming. Leah was sitting on the back in a baby car seat, watching cartoons in a tablet while Jeremy kept nervously tapping his thumb against the wheel. The knuckles of his right hand were bruised and the skin was broken in a few places, red blood coming out from there.

"I'm sorry you had to witness all that." Jeremy broke the silence.

"MH." Ryder nodded once more unable to see him in the face. Her eyes were firmly locked on her hands.

After such a lukewarm answer, Jeremy didn't dare say anything else. The car fell once again in silence, the only sounds heard were from the cartoons Leah was watching.

When the car was finally parked in front of her house, Ryder breathed a sigh of relief and got out of the car after muttering a 'thank you' at Jeremy, still avoiding looking at him.