The moment she entered the café her nostrils were instantly met with the smells of overcooked meals and body odor of the kids who refused to shower. Scrunching her nose in disgust, she made her way to a table in the back corner hoping that Ryder would see her and walk over when he got there. Across the room, she saw Jake talking to some girl with dark brown hair who seemed to be more interested in the blonde haired guy who had talked during the group meeting earlier.
"Are you really this much of a loser that you can't find anyone to sit with you?" Kitty asked, taking the seat across from Marley just as Ryder burst through the doors. Marley frowned at the girl before her eyes met with Ryder's. He seemed almost relieved at first until he saw the annoying blonde that Marley wanted to hit.
"Now's not really a good time…" Marley trailed off as she saw Ryder turn around and storm out of the room and into the hallway. "God dammit." She murmured, standing up and following after guitar boy.
As she entered the hallway, she saw him sitting with his back against the wall right outside. Slowly, she walked over to him and leaned on the wall across from him. Allowing herself to slide down the wall, she got comfortable before looking at him expectantly.
He didn't know what she wanted him to say. Honestly, he was expecting her to continue her conversation and ignore her, but it appeared like a lot of other things, he was wrong about that. He licked his lips and sighed, looking down the hallway to see if anyone was in hearing distance.
"You could have stayed in there, you know." He mentioned, nodding his head towards the door of the café.
She looked in the direction he was motioning towards before shaking her head in disgust. "Trust me, I'd rather be out here talking to you than in there."
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, making her wonder what he was thinking about, until his eyes relaxed and he seemed to come to a realization. "Don't tell me you're one of those girls."
Now it was her turn to be confused. "One of what girls?"
"The kind that starve themselves." He answered simply as if it was the most common thing in the world. "I've seen tons of them and it makes me sick."
She chuckled a little before shaking her head. "No. Food is my best friend."
"Oh." He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts before the cold look he had been sporting previously returned to his face. "Let's just get this over with."
The thing she hated most about this experience so far was not that she had been partnered with someone who clearly hated her. It was the fact that she could not read him. She'd be totally fine if he hated her guts for no reason. What bothered her was the fact that one minute he acted like a decent human being and the next he wanted nothing to do with her.
"Alright…" She let out, drawing out the syllables longer than necessary. Ryder rolled his eyes at her before finding interest in the girls down the hall who appeared to be practicing some form of dance. "So why are you in here?"
He turned towards her, an surprised expression coming across his face. "Why do you think I'm in here?"
She shrugged, not exactly liking the turn of direction this conversation had taken. She figured she'd ask the big question first, see if he was honest and then decide whether or not she should be honest too. But now the pressure was on her and it could go one of two ways. She could get it wrong and insult him or she could get it right and end up making him feel bad.
"Well… you obviously beat some people up." She mentioned, causing him to furrow his eyebrows in confusion. "That guy in group mentioned it."
Ryder thought for a moment, caught off guard that she had actually been paying attention. She seemed more interested in her hands than anything else and Ryder could have sworn that she wasn't hearing anything that was happening. "You shouldn't believe everything you hear."
"Why not?"
"Sam is a compulsive liar." He answered calmly, again making her question how calm he could actually be in stressful situations. She imagined that if there were to all of a sudden be a fire that engulfed this place in flames, he'd slowly leave the building, not once looking back or breaking a sweat. "That's why he's in here."
"He's a what?"
How the hell did he know that the kid was a liar? Does everyone know why everyone is here? She found the reason she was here to be embarrassing and she prayed that nobody ever found out.
"A liar. One who lies." She allowed his words to sink in before she realized that he was growing impatient with her lack of understanding. "He can't help but lie in times of stress."
"No, no. I know what a compulsive liar is. He just seemed so.." She allowed herself to fade out once she realized that perhaps she shouldn't always say what's on her mind.
"Normal?" He finished for her. "Yeah, a lot of them do."
He was making her think and she wasn't liking it. Did he think that she seemed normal? Or did he already have a suspicion as to what happened to her?
"Well, if you're not in here for beating people up, why are you here?"
"I never said I wasn't in here for getting angry and beating the shit out of jackasses. I just said that Sam is a compulsive liar." His answers were really starting to bother her. What was she supposed to tell Will if he didn't give her anything to work with? "Keep up there Marley."
She wanted to scowl and snap at him for being so arrogantly annoying, but when she looked up she saw him smirking. As much as she hated to admit it, he looked pretty attractive when he smirked.
"Are you going to tell me or not?"
He licked his lips once more before shaking his head and pointing at her. "Well what about you? Why are you here?"
"Why should I tell you?" Her words were sharper than she had planned them to be and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. To him, she seemed quiet and laid back but maybe he was wrong.
As he regained his composure, he stood up with a huff making her question what she had said. Clearly he didn't expect her to bare her soul to him when he refused to do the same.
"Is this how it's going to be?" He questioned, crossing his arms with a glare on his face. She sighed and got to her feet as well, not really in the mood to be yelled at by some guy she had just met. "You want to hear me talk about my problems so you can reassure yourself that maybe, just maybe you're not as crazy as everyone thinks you are!?"
She was taken aback at first by how much anger he had inside of him and she bit her lip nervously in response. She hated being yelled at by anyone let alone guys.
"I-I wasn't trying to…" She started until she caught herself off when she realized that she really didn't know what to say. The teenagers who had once been occupied in their own lives turned to watch the potential fight take place. Marley turned bright red and looked down at her shoes, hoping that this was all just a dream but sadly she knew it wasn't.
"Whatever…" He grumbled, turning around and stalking down a hallway. Eventually she heard the sound of a door slamming and winced, the loud noise making her mind wander to a less-than-pleasant time in her life.
She stood there completely dumbfounded for what felt like years. How could he be such an ass, especially when she was nothing but nice to him? Looking down at her feet in fear that when she looked up she'd be confronted with a thousand teenagers staring at her, she started to walk in the direction the boy had gone until she felt someone touch her shoulder again.
"Don't touch me!" She screamed, jerking away from whoever it was that dared touch her. When she looked up, she saw it was Jake and that most of the cafeteria had emptied to see what Ryder was yelling at. To her it seemed like he yelled a lot so she didn't quite understand how everyone could still be intrigued by it.
"Marley… I just…" Jake stuttered out, pulling his arm away from her and awkwardly letting it hang by his hip. He seemed genuinely concerned and she hated herself for yelling at him and more importantly she hated Ryder.
"Don't. I-I'm sorry." She shook her head and started stalking down the hallway, following where Ryder had previously gone.
She passed people who had left their rooms to see what the commotion was with her head down in fear that they'd judge her otherwise. For the most part she could handle people talking about her behind her back but when she was right there it made her feel completely out of place. All of a sudden her arm was grabbed and she was yanked into a room that wasn't her own.
Screaming, she pushed and shoved the person hoping that he or she would just let her go. Fortunately for her, he or she did but Marley was already out of breath and the tears were already pouring out of her eyes.
"Just leave me alone.." She whimpered, keeping her eyes on the floor because she knew it'd be better if she didn't look them in the eye. She had learned that the hard way.
"Fucking hell." The boy spat and Marley looked up subtly to see Ryder there holding his arm as if she had stabbed him. "Why the fuck did you scratch me?"
"Why the hell did you drag me in here?" She argued, crossing her arms as he turned to glare at her. Something about his facial expression changed and instead of the cold look he normally sported, he looked as if he pitied her. Another thing she hated was pity.
"I don't know. I just… I wanted to see if you were ok." He stammered out, rubbing the back of his neck and licking his lips. She noted the small gestured that he appeared to always be doing whenever he was nervous.
She was surprised that the kid had a caring bone in his body but seeing as this wasn't the time to bring it up she nodded her head and faked a smile. "I'm fine."
"Then why are you crying?"
Reaching her hand up, she brushed the tears away before looking down at her shoes nervously. "I'm not. I just… I have allergies."
He scrunched his eyes in confusion. Surely she honestly didn't believe that he was stupid enough to believe that lame excuse.
"Why don't you like being touched?" He asked, mostly out of his own curiosity but also because he genuinely cared. He wasn't sure why he was so concerned with her life and problems, but something about how innocent she appeared made him wonder about her. "You freak out every time someone touches you."
"I just don't like it." Her lip was starting to get raw as she was constantly chewing on it, but still she kept her teeth pressed down on it as she waited for him to say something in return. Anything. She just wanted him to speak but instead he just stared at her sympathetically as if he had any idea what was going on in her life. "Why do you get mad and freak out at the simplest things?"
He frowned and shook his head. "I don't know."
Whether she believed him or not, it was the honest truth. He wasn't always this high strung. When he was growing up he was the happiest kid. He always smiled and he rarely threw a temper tantrum. Recently however, that all changed and he didn't know why.
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I just get mad…" He wasn't exactly sure what had happened between the hallway incident and now but he almost wanted her to ask more questions. "and I can't control it."
She thought about his words for a second before sighing. "My dad died when I was 10."
"How?"
"Car accident. Did you beat someone up?"
"Yeah but I had good reason to." He turned around and walked to the other side of the room, taking a seat on his bed. "Why don't you like to be touched?"
"After my dead died, I just kinda learned not to trust people. What was the reason?"
"Some dickhead was harassing my autistic neighbor. I figured I'd get him to stop by making it so he could barely walk."
The two talked for three hours before the security guards made Marley go back to her own room. Their conversation ranged from where they see themselves in 20 years to what their favorite color was currently.
As Marley was escorted back to her room she began to think that maybe this rehab center wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. Maybe she could handle it.
But then again, she was wrong about a lot of things so far. Why would this be any different?
Some of you mentioned badass Ryder and I honestly have the hardest time writing for him because on the show he's so sweet. So you got to see the nice side of Ryder but don't think that he's going to be nice all the time now. He's still got a lot of issues to work through before he can ditch the mean guy within him. :) Thanks for reading and please review!