Author's Note: Hey! I know I haven't updated in a long time, but I've been absolutely dying from all the schoolwork. But now that it's spring break, I've made a little progress on the story, where it left off of next time. So, thanks again to everybody reading it, I would love to hear all your ideas and critiques and opinions. Please review and feel free to share you thoughts with me! Thanks!!!!!!!!

A Little White Lie Never Hurts Anybody

West Tyson glanced around at the room for what had to be the fiftieth time. The walls were painted a shade of royal purple that complemented the dark marble flooring. The couches they were lounging on were meant to be sat on comfortably for many hours, if people wanted to talk privately. Downstairs, was the real club scene. Beats of whatever music was playing floated up into the room, even through the close shut doors.

West shot a sideways look at Ryder, who seemed like he would much rather be on the dance floor, by the way his feet were tapping slightly in rhythm with the beat. On the other side of Ryder, Duke yawned, stretching out his arms.

"Where is she?" Ryder gave Duke a dead-on glare. West couldn't blame him. The three of them had been waiting for at least over half an hour and Jade was still missing.

"How am I supposed to know?" Duke returned Ryder's look with a perplexed look, like Mr. Varner had just asked him why Newton decided to throw an apple and not a pear.

"Oh, I don't know. It certainly has nothing to do with the fact that she's your girlfriend or anything," Ryder said sarcastically, feeling like he wanted to kill himself. This whole thing was a shitload of crap. He felt like such a sissy. Let's all decided on who's in and who's out, a girly falsetto voice said in the back of his mind.

Holy shit, now I can even hear myself talking girly, Ryder thought horrifically. Call him stupid, but he honestly felt like he was losing a touch of his manliness, being around Jade and Arielle and Winter so much. He was a person of simple needs: food, sleep, money, girls, and soccer. Since when did he have anything to do with devising secret plans to secure his social status? That was like saying that there was something wrong with him. Besides, Jade never listened to any of his ideas anyway.

Ryder fully intended to get her a nice journal for her upcoming sixteenth birthday. Then, she could have all the conversations she wanted, by herself. Then, when she was done planning, she could execute them by herself. She wouldn't ever need Ryder again, except to thank him for giving her such a brilliant present.

It was a perfect win-win situation.

"Hey boys, Winter," the voice of the devil herself came from the doorway, announcing Jade's arrival. "Sorry I'm late. Our visitor here couldn't find her way out to the garage."

Ryder glanced up. Huh? Then, he felt a grin twitch slightly at the corner of his mouth. Instead of Arielle, it was that red-head. Jade's soon-to-be step-sister. That girl was so hot, even when she was covering more than she was exposing.

"Sorry," Chase mumbled, scuffing the tip of her boot against the marble floor in a sort of embarrassed way. She looked like she would much rather be doing something else right now.

"No, no," Jade said in a reassuring tone, gently squeezing Chase's arm, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I have to explain to them or else they would be mad at me."

As if the rest of them actually had the guts to do so.

"Chase van Buren, this is the…group." Jade paused for the tiniest second. She seemed to be searching for the right word to describe the rest of them. After all, in school, it wasn't like they had some kind of cliquey name.

"Everybody, Chase van Buren," Jade waved her hand, not even bothering to tell Chase their names. "Thanks for waiting for us, guys," Jade said sweetly. "Now that we're here, I would much rather join the club scene downstairs. It's a little too quiet up here."

Ryder jumped up. Perfect timing. He made sure that he was out of Jade's line of sight as soon as possible, jogging down the steps, where the music gradually grew louder until it became almost impossible to even think. Exactly what he wanted.

"Hey," he said, seeing a random girl with her ass in a pair of shorts that looked more like underwear. The girl appraised him up and down, then slowly stretched into a smile. "Hey," she said back, batting her eyelashes.

"Dance?" Ryder asked, keeping their conversation to a bare minimal.

"Sure, as soon as I get something to drink," she inclined her head towards the general direction of where that was supposed to be, batting her lashes again.

"I'll get one for you," he offered graciously, in sudden need to have something in his system to get Jade's twisted plot out of his head. His plan was to get as much alcohol into his system as possible, then worry about the hangover tomorrow.

The girl smiled flirtatiously, "In that case, thank you," she said, batting away. Internally, Ryder frowned. He was getting pretty damn sick of those lashes, fluttering in his direction. Whatever, it wasn't like he was looking for a relationship or anything. In fact, he didn't even want to hook up with her; all he wanted was one dance where both of them were so smashed that they wouldn't even remember each other the next day.

He spun around, and almost crashed into Chase. "Well, hello, there." Ryder folded his arms across his chest, feeling his biceps push against the shirt he was wearing. Girls went all crazy when he did that. And when Ryder took off his shirt for the soccer championships last year, one girl had even fainted.

"Oh, it's you again," Chase muttered, not even looking at the bulging muscles rippling in Ryder's arms. She was staring at the floor again. Ryder felt a wave of both agitation and curiosity ebb through him. That was not the response he'd been looking for. He had expected more reverence and flirtation. What was so interesting down there anyway? Sure, her legs were great and everything, but he doubted that was the reason she was always looking down.

"What's so great about the floor? Am I missing out on something important?" Ryder snapped, unable to resist himself.

"What?" She asked, leading the way to a spot where the music wasn't nearly as loud, and they could hear each other. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well, you're always looking down. I figured there must be something truly fascinating there." Ryder said, in a slightly kinder tone then the one he'd just used.

Of course the only thing fascinating Ryder found down there were her boobs, but he decided to keep that to himself.

"There's nothing down there." Chase mumbled, looking up. "If you grew up in a place where you had to walk through dark alleys every single day, you'd keep your head down too, if you didn't want anyone to notice and beat the crap out of you."

Ryder snorted. Imagine, someone beating the crap out of him. He practically lived at the gym. He knew the weight lifts even better than some of his friends. "I would like to see someone try that," he scoffed haughtily.

"Oh yeah? Ever used a knife?" Chase raised her eyebrows, and crossed her arms.

"With these babies, I'd like to see anyone try," Ryder said, pointedly nodding at his biceps so that Chase had to look.

She did and shrugged it off carelessly like it all meant nothing to her. "Eh. Think they'll work against real weapons?" She yawned tiredly, like the conversation was already starting to bore her.

Ryder took a small step back, stunned. In all his life, no girl had ever dared talk to him like that. Confusion hit him at first, then slight anger, then respect. While it was disconcerting to feel so low, Ryder felt a small wave of admiration for this girl in front of him, who'd obviously seen more than he could ever imagine.

"Ryder, there you are!" Jared called, slithering sideways through the throng of dancers, most of them so drunk they had already taken off their shirts.

"Ah, Jade. Is there something I can help you with?" Ryder said, deepening his voice impressively.

"Actually, yes. I lost my cell phone somewhere. Help me look for it?" Jade said, smiling at Ryder. "Sorry, Chase. You don't mind, do you?" Jade raised her eyebrows in faux-interest.

"No, go ahead. I'll just be right outside." Chase said, stepping into the crowd of people so quickly that she was swallowed within seconds.

"Okay, now what do you really want?" Ryder said, looking longing after the direction that Chase had took off for.

"Here, come with me to the bathroom. I'll show you." Jade said faintly, leading Ryder by the arm, like her faithful dog.

Ryder drew back, horrified. He had to draw the line somewhere. Planning like crazy with a bunch of girls with nothing better to do was one thing. Going inside a girl's bathroom was completely different. The situation was bordering embarrassing. He could only imagine what his soccer buddies would say if they could see him now. No, correction. He knew exactly what they'd do: laugh at him until he wanted to kill himself from the shame.

"Ryder, you are so slow," Jade remarked, gritting her teeth slightly and glaring at Ryder.

Ryder gulped inaudibly. Maybe he would just make sure nobody told his soccer buddies.
Jade sighed as she pushed open the door to the girl's restroom. Ryder stared at the stick figure on the door sign. It seemed to be mocking him

Jade slowly put her bag on the marble counter and took out her lipstick, applying it in a way that made Ryder think of the grim reaper. It made Ryder mad to see Jade taking her sweet time. Every minute here was a minute of slow, painful, internal death. By the time she even opened her mouth, Ryder would be nothing more than a little pathetic puddle.

When Jade finally finished, she took out a bottle of perfume and stroked the glass lovingly. "So, tell me Ryder. Are you falling for the little vermin?"

Ryder blinked, and quickly stared to his right and left, trying to plan his escape if things should get violent. "No," he said unconvincingly.

"Don't lie to me," Jade laughed with an edge of severity underneath.

When Ryder opened his mouth to deny it, she cut him off, spraying her hair, neck, and wrists with the bottle of perfume. "Oh, don't deny it. Don't get me wrong. I think it's lovely that the two of you are hitting it off so well."

Her tone was slightly derisive as she sniffed her own wrists. Ryder's brain went crazy, just trying to figure out if she was serious or not. "Oh, that's cool, right?" he finally said lamely, because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

She ignored him, except with an amused glance. "You see this?" she held up her bottle.

Ryder looked at it briefly. It looked perfectly normal to him. Jade's customary Dior bottle: rectangular, and see-through. Nothing special.

"Yeah?" Ryder said uncertainly, the word coming out as a question.

"I wonder what happens if I accidentally let it," Jade dropped the bottle to the ground with a shatter so that the broken fragments scattered on the tiled floor and the liquid inside leaked out, filling the room with a sickly, over-sweet odor of way too much perfume at once.

"What?" Ryder stared at Jade like she'd gone crazy. Nobody purposely threw glass to the ground. What if the next person cut themselves or something?

"You see," Jade kicked away a large piece of broken glass. "some things are completely replaceable." She withdrew another bottle of the same perfume from her endless purse, and sprayed it into the air, test-sniffing it.

She looked dead-on at Ryder. "Some things, however, are not."

"I don't get it," Ryder said stupidly, with no shame at all. In his opinion, Jade's plans were normally very complicated. He didn't have the energy to figure out all her little intrinsic details.

"You feel this," she walked over to him and put her hand against his heart, so that she could feel the thumping noise.

"You ever wonder what it would be like if it just…stopped?" Jade smiled viciously, enjoying the slow spread of horror across Ryder's face.

"You want me to…kill her?" he asked hoarsely. He backed away horrifically, seeing Jade in a whole new light. In the dimness of the bathroom, she looked evil. Definitely evil enough to propose something like that.

"Of course not," Jade rolled her eyes, wiping her hand on her jeans, like Ryder's shirt had been contaminated. "What I'm saying is," she paused to roll her tongue once around her lips, "some things are better off dead than broken irreparably. Wouldn't you say?" She looked at him significantly.

"Holy shit Jade," he whispered. Why did she always remind him of that?

It was as if it gave her a secret pleasure every time she brought it up. Seeing his face crumple alone would make her happy.

"Keep my secret, and I'll keep yours." Jade looked at him right in the eyes, so that Ryder could see her very soul in those grey eyes. And what he say scared him.

"What do you want me to do?" Ryder asked, hating himself for caving again to her whims.

"It's very simple. Make Chase fall for you. I heard you're quite good at that." She paused for effect and eyed him significantly. "Make her give it all up for you. Then, leave her with nothing." Jade hissed, her voice sounding eerily soft.

"Do that for me, and I'll let you know something. It might just take away some of that hurt you're keeping inside." Jade kissed his cheek demurely.

Ryder turned away. Jade's kisses were nothing but knives that she plunged deeper into him every time. "About Kate?" he asked for clarification.

"About Kate." She confirmed, kissing his other cheek, in a demonstration of her mental control over him.

"Deal," Ryder steeled his voice, and cleared his throat of the unwanted lump.

"Make sure you can keep it," she threw at him, a last sympathy warning, before exiting out of the bathroom, leaving Ryder alone as the spilled perfume slowly flowed onto the floor as surely as the bloodshed and tears he would soon have on his hands.