It's been a few weeks since Ryder met- well first talked to 'Katie' and well he's told her pretty much everything that's happened with his father and his personal life in general. In return, she did the same for him. In the past few weeks they've told each other everything.
However, he was the only one who thought the relationship between him and Katie was 'healthy'. The only other people that knew about it were Blaine, Sam, Kitty, and Jake and they didn't like it. For all they knew it could be some 30 year old guy who is looking for some innocent kid to 'have fun' with.
Blaine, Sam, and the rest of them have been trying to find out who Katie was for weeks and still nothing. They really wanted- needed to find out who she… or he really was. Before something bad happened to Ryder. Maybe something even worse than what was already happening behind the walls of his own home.
Anyway, Ryder told this person all his secrets and all of them. Even ones he never trusted with anyone. His father, Marley, not even Blaine. No one knew. He really felt close to this person even though he was in love with someone else, he just like for the first time he wasn't alone. That someone knew how it felt and had his back. But the Glee club had his back no matter what. He just didn't know. Or maybe he just didn't want to believe it.
Blaine, Kitty, Sam, and Jake were in the choir room. Blaine had to talk with all of them since they were the only ones who knew about this Katie and they were beyond determined to find out who it is.
"You all know why you're here, right?" Blaine asked them.
"Yeah because we're trying to find out who dyslexic boy's mystery fake rape loving friend is." Kitty said and everyone turned to her with not so kind looks. "Sorry, I'm worried. I get like this when I'm threatened, worried, or depressed."
They understood. It made sense now why she was constantly insulting Ryder and Marley. Marley was the pretty, smart, and loveable girl that all the guys liked. She was obviously threatened. She was probably also depressed by the fact that the two guys she liked was into Marley instead of her.
"Anyway, yes, we're here because we want to find out who this Katie is." Blaine reviewed.
"And we're the only ones that know." Jake added and Blaine rolled his eyes. "Look, it's not like I'm saying I was forced into this. I mean Ryder's one of my best friend's." He added and they nodded.
"And Ryder is cool. I've gotten to know him better while we've been you know… studying." Sam said, awkwardly.
"You act like you two are secretly gay and are f*cking in between classes." Kitty said and everyone chose to ignore that comment.
"You know, we're both dyslexic so… I've been helping him. Trying to help him get better." Sam explained.
"Isn't that a tutor's job?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah… I guess you could call me his tutor." Sam said.
"A real one that is not a dyslexic and doesn't have the worst SAT scores in history of the school." Kitty said. "Better yet his parents. He does have one right?" Blaine flinched. He knew Ryder had his father… well not really. From what Ryder told him, his father should deserve that title.
"Not in the best of terms." Blaine mumbled and they all looked up at him.
"What?" Jake asked.
"Nothing. His father isn't much. He has a really important job so he isn't around as much." Blaine lied. He knew his father was home enough if he had the time to beat Ryder every single day.
"Anyway, do we have any leads on who it could be?" Blaine asked and nobody said anything. They all looked at each other. Hoping somebody had an idea on who Katie was, but nothing.
"Nobody has anything?" Blaine asked.
"You're not exactly asking us to find a supermarket in your area, hair gel queen." Kitty said. "We're looking for this person that is obviously lying about who they are on Facebook. I don't think they just give out their address. It's not easy." Blaine knew she had a point on that. It wasn't easy, but he thought- or at least hoped they have some sort of lead or clue by now. It's been weeks and nothing. They had other stuff to worry about too. Like Regionals coming up on Saturday.
"I know, but I just really want to know. He doesn't deserve to be played like that. I mean he's been through a hell of a lot." Blaine said and realized he was almost giving away the secret that Ryder made him swear not to tell. "You know about his dyslexia, being bullied, and… his mom." Blaine said.
They all agreed, he was lucky. That was a good save as they continued to think about what their next move was. "Anyway, I know that we also have been under a lot also because of Regionals in a few days." Blaine said.
"It'd be easier if miss allergic to roses would hurry up and write the song that was supposed to presented so whoever is singing it has time to learn what ever struggles she wrote about." Kitty said.
"Ignoring you, Ryder I think is more important than a competition don't you think?" Jake pointed out.
"Yeah, Jake's right. We don't want to see one of us get hurt. It's worse than losing at Regionals. I think one our members… family is more important than this competition to everyone… well maybe not Tina, but you get the point." Sam said and they nodded in agreement.
Then Marley appeared at the door and they looked up. "Marley. What are you doing here?" Blaine asked as she walked in more.
"I think I have the answer to your Ryder problem." Marley said as she stepped in the choir room, with a taller girl next to her. They looked at her, they recognized her, they have seen her before, but couldn't remember who she was exactly. She looked a little too old to be a high school student.
"H- how did you find out about this?" Blaine asked Marley.
"I kind of filled her in. I knew you guys were trying to find out who 'Katie' was. You're all apparently friends of Ryder, trying to help him." The girl said. "Well, you were looking for Katie and well, here I am." She said. They had found Katie. Well they were right about the person being older than a 16 year old.
Marley and the girl then sat down in front of Jake, Kitty, Sam, and Blaine. "I don't know if you remember- well know me at all. I'm sure Ryder never would talk about me." She said, then she was cut off by Blaine.
"Who are you?" Sam asked.
"My name is Courtney Lynn. I'm Ryder's older sister." She told them and Blaine remembered Ryder mentioning his sister a couple of times. She was the golden child. The one their father loved more. Well, liked at all. She was the smart one apparently. And she was catfishing Ryder? Why? What did she get out of it? Did she find out about the abuse from someone?
"You're Katie?" Kitty asked and Courtney nodded. "What the hell are you getting out of this? And why are you doing it to your brother? I mean are so some kind of mental freak who f*cks their siblings or something because their boyfriends are…" Kitty asked, she was freaking out. Her way of freaking out was colorful.
"I'll explain everything." Courtney said and they all let her talk.
"Well, I think this was accidental but some hospital called me saying that had bruises all over him in places and talking about broken ribs." Courtney said and Blaine cringed. It was his fault, he never paid the bill. His dad still wasn't back in town yet.
"Anyway, they must have thought I was his mother or maybe they meant to call our father but called me. I'm glad because I wondered, ever since the funeral of mom… well Ryder had seemed shaken up and not just because of the death. Something else was going on. I knew it. Anyway, I had a feeling abuse was the way to go about it." Courtney said.
"Wait, if you got the call, why didn't you ask Ryder about it? Don't you have your own Facebook account?" Jake asked.
"Yes, but Ryder wouldn't have told me anything. He hates me because I usually am a bitch to him. I do to make him want to fight more, but I didn't know about this. Also he blocked me off his account so I had to get clever." Courtney continued. "So I created a fake account and I found this nice picture of a girl that goes here. Her name was Marissa I think. I wasn't going to use her name. He'd figure something was wrong. He's probably knew her name." She said.
"What about the picture?" Kitty asked. "You didn't think he'd recognize the picture?"
"Good thing I dug deep. I asked her and she said she's seen him, but he didn't know her. So I knew it'd be great. So I created the fake identity to get close to him. I made up the abuse story to get him to talk and it worked…. Then he started telling me things. All about what our father did and somethings that happened to him when he was younger and how he felt and such." She said, she didn't sound too fond of the thoughts.
"Like what?" Blaine asked.
"Ryder was molested when he was eleven. That's why he doesn't really like many girls. He doesn't really like to be out there much. He's shy. So Marley was a surprise to me when I heard this." Courtney said. "Anyway, he also told me his feelings. He's felt so alone and worthless. Especially after Char- mom died. He talked about wanting to be with her sometimes. Kill himself. But he didn't want to give our father satisfaction." She told them and they didn't like what they were hearing. Blaine and Marley especially.
"He's thought of killing himself?" Marley asked and Courtney nodded. Marley felt like crying. "I can't believe this. He seems so happy… well, I just don't understand. None of us knew about this, right?" Marley asked them and they all shook their heads, except Blaine.
"Blaine?" Sam asked and he shrugged.
"You knew?" Marley asked and Blaine sighed.
"He told me about a month ago, but made me swear not to say. I was afraid… of these things. These thoughts your telling us about." Blaine said. "The only reason I know is because my dad worked with his mom and I was with him one night when Ryder was hurt and…" He tried to explained.
"What kind of hurt?" Jake asked.
"Just a loose tooth or something. I can't remember. Anyway, the next day I found him in the bathroom, some jocks slushied him. His ribs were broken and I took to the hospital and we lied about the bruises and how the ribs broke." He said.
"I guess that explains why I got the call." Courtney said.
"I was going to pay, but… my dad is still out of town. I'm actually living by myself. I wanted to ask Ryder to stay, but I knew he wouldn't agree. Not with this." Blaine said.
"It's okay." Marley said. "So, Courtney contacted me and told me everything. I didn't believe it until she forwarded the texts to me. And I just… I still am having trouble processing."
"So are we telling Ryder?" Blaine asked and Courtney and Marley nodded.
"That's why I am here." Courtney said.
They all went up to Ryder in the hallway. "Hey guys, Marley." He said, kissing his girlfriend, without noticing his sister.
"Courtney?" He asked, finally noticing her.
"Hi Ryder." She said.
"What's going on?" Ryder asked.
"Ryder, we found out who Katie is." Blaine said. "Who she really is." Blaine said.
"What do you mean?" Ryder asked.
"I'm Katie. I made up this girl to get close to you. Well, so I could get some answers…" Courtney tried to explain but Ryder began shaking his head, in disbelief. Even though it was true.
"No, you're lying. She's real. She is just like me. She can't be fake. She can't be you." Ryder didn't want to believe it. He didn't want it to be true either." He said, but then Courtney took out her phone and sent a message out and then Ryder's phone beeped and saw a message from Katie. Courtney handed her phone to her brother and he read the texts. The proof was right in front of him.
"The hospital told me some things and I wanted to know for sure. So I did this so I can find this out and it worked." Courtney said. Ryder was still in shock. "Ryder, I want to help you. These guys do to, that's why I reached out to Marley and…"
"You told them?" Ryder asked, looking at Blaine and Courtney.
"I assumed Marley knew, but I guess not. And well, I guess Blaine was the only one with the luck because of his dad."
"If it wasn't for his dad, my- our mom would still be here!" Ryder yelled. "Like you care. You have dad. You're his world!" Ryder yelled.
"Ryder, that's not true." Blaine said.
"Ryder, we want to help you." Marley said, but Ryder pulled away.
"I don't need you help. JUST STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Ryder said and then ran off.
They all sighed. Marley had tears forming in her eyes. "Don't worry, he hopefully will get over the shock soon. You know he didn't mean what he said." Courtney said. She hoped she was right. This time she wasn't so sure.
Ryder ran home and slammed the door and rested on the door behind him. He panted, closing his eyes, but then before he knew it, he wasn't on the ground anymore and he felt something yanking him up. He knew his father must be home and this wasn't going to be a great early welcome.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Logan yelled.
"Schools over. No tutoring today." Ryder lied. He just needed to get out of there after hearing about Katie being his sister who was fine. She wasn't even being abused by her boyfriend. Like that would ever happen to her. Her life was perfect. Like her. She would never know what it's like to be Ryder Lynn. He was alone.
"HAVE YOU TOLD ANYONE ABOUT ME?!" He yelled and Ryder shook his head. How did he know?
"YOU LIAR! YOU MUST HAVE BECAUSE I GOT AN EMAIL ABOUT SOME HOSPITAL VISIT FROM OVER A MONTH AGO!" Ryder sighed. At least he didn't know about the other stuff.
"I got my ribs wrapped. I told them some guys beat me up at school. I didn't say anything." Ryder said. He was terrified. He hated this. He just wished he could have one day.
"YOU BETTER NOT HAVE OR I DON'T THINK YOU WOULD WANT ME PAYING YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS A VISIT!" He said and then punched Ryder in the stomach and then dropped him on the floor.
"I know all about them. One of them is the son of that no good guy Charlie worked with. Brian Anderson. His son's name is Blaine. And I'm sure this 'tutor' you told. Or maybe this girl, I hear about." He said and Ryder's eyes closed.
"NOW YOU ARE A NO GOOD PIECE OF SHIT! THIS WEEKEND IF I EVEN SEE YOU OUT OF THIS HOUSE I WILL F*CKING KILL YOU!" He said and gave a few more punches to Ryder's stomach. Ryder began to shake and tears fell as he processed his father's words. Regionals was on Saturday. He couldn't miss it.
"Regionals." Ryder mumbled and somehow his father heard him.
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU GET STABBED IN THE BACK. IF I SEE YOU OUT OF THIS HOUSE I WILL KILL YOU. OR IF I GET ANGRY ENOUGH I MIGHT JUST KILL BRIAN AND HIS SON!" He yelled and Ryder ran up to his room, holding his stomach.
He couldn't risk it, could he? His life? Brian's? Blaine's? He said things to them earlier but didn't mean them and certainly wasn't going to risk their lives by going to some competition. What was he going to do?
Ryder didn't know. He locked the door and fell to the floor and cried.
What did you think? I know, don't worry, nobody got it right anyway. Everyone thought it was Marley and Logan, but nope.
It was hard. First when I planned this it was going to be Logan, but I changed it to Courtney. She needs to be in this story somehow. And well even though Marley would have been interesting, I think his sister makes more sense.
Anyway, what do think will happen next?
Will Ryder go to Regionals? Will he risk it? You'll have to wait and see. The Regionals chapter is next and I think you'll like it!
Anyway, please review! They are love!