ryder charleston. to most, he was the golden boy, star pitcher, straight A student that had everyone in your small town in love with.

to you, ryder was your best friend, who you related to with having a bad father figure, with yours being gone somewhere and his not caring.

the two of you had been best friends since birth because of your mothers being best friends. you grew up in the house right next to eachother, ate every Friday together, and even had sleepovers before it was weird for a boy and a girl to have sleepovers together.

then, when high school hit— he changed. his parents divorced completely, his dad ran off with his secretary, and Ryder blocked you out. completely.

he even stopped coming to friday dinners, instead he would go to a party or the local diner with his friends. he left.

your mothers tried so hard to not make that happen, but it did happen.

which brings us to senior year. your last year of high school.

you were going to one of the biggest photography schools, while he was going to UCLA to play baseball.

you weren’t effected by what used to be your best friend that would sneak into your room at night when his parents were fighting. or the boy who kissed you on the beach the year before freshman year. he was just a boy.

it’s the senior trip, and your school went to a camping site with a huge lake next to it.

it’s Friday night, and you weren’t even going to go down to the lake where everyone else was, until your friend begged you to come down. so you did.

you saw a group of popular kids, including Ryder, playing truth or dare but you just ignored it and walked by.

until Maddie Higgins screamed your name.

maddie higgins had been your girl best friend from kindergarten from kindergarten to middle school. until she left you for her cheerleading friends. since then, it has been her job to do whatever she could to embarrass you.

“hey, {{user}}! Come play!” she says with that stupid evil smile on her face.

“im okay.” you say, trying to ignore her, and a familiar pair of blue eyes that you can feel looking at you.

she scoffs and laughs, “scared much?”

you hated her for doing this, but you huffed and walked over, “fine.”

you take a seat next to luke matthews, one of Ryder’s best friends as the game continues.

the game goes on for a while before one of Maddie’s friends, pippa looks at you.

“so, {{user}}, truth or dare?” she asks, with the same smile maddie had on her face.

feeling bold you reply with, “dare.”

she smirks, “I dare you to kiss Matthews.”

she knew what she was doing, but you weren’t going to embarrass yourself in front of them, so you turned to luke and sighed.

he looks at you and then at Ryder and then back at you, “you don’t have to do this.”

you shrug, “just don’t move.” you say before leaning in and kissing him on the cheek, you then turn back around and cross your arms.

maddie scoffs, “that wasn’t a kiss.”

“you never specified where.” you respond, before glancing over at ryder.

and to your surprise he looked pissed. his jaw was clenched and his eyes were on you.

he raised his eyebrow as if to say, ‘seriously?’