Kody Keplinger - Lying Out Loud

“Hey,” Ryder said, pulling away a little. “Is this all right?”

The minute his eyes met mine, I felt myself relax. His expression was so soft, so gentle, and it eased some of my worries.

Stop comparing yourself to Amy, I thought. He doesn’t want her, he wants you.

“Yeah,” I said. “Definitely.”

He smiled, then went back to kissing me.

And to trying to unhook my bra. Apparently, this is a very complicated act for boys, particularly to do one-handed, because it seemed to be taking him longer than I’d expected. But he’d almost managed it when —

Crunch!

The snowball smacked into the windshield, followed by a burst of retreating laughter from outside the car.

Ryder and I both groaned.

“Assholes,” I said.

“Why are we here again?” he asked.

“Lyndway Hill is the cool place to make out. At least, so I’ve been told.”

“Right, well, I would argue that my house is cooler.” He eased off me, allowing me to sit up. He smirked at me as I attempted to smooth down my hair. “Might I suggest that we continue this there?”

I just grinned.

* * *

Unfortunately, Ryder’s house was not as empty as we’d thought.

We burst through the door, laughing at the fresh snow that had fallen on us as we’d run up the front steps. He flicked snow from my hair, and I laughed, pushing him away. He caught my arms and moved me backward, so I was pressed against the front door as he leaned in to kiss me.

But our lips had barely met when we heard the loud “Ahem” and jumped apart.

“Mom,” Ryder said, spinning around to face the woman that neither of us had noticed standing in the living room. “I didn’t think you were home.”

“And I thought you were,” she said, her voice devoid of any humor. “Your car is in the garage.”

“Right. I was with Sonny.”

I raised a hand and gave a small wave. “Hi, Mrs. Cross.” Yeah. This was not how I’d planned on meeting his mom for the first time.

“It’s Ms. Tanner,” she corrected. “I no longer use my married name.”

“Right. Sorry.”

I’m not going to lie. I was already pretty scared of Ryder’s mother. She was so strict about how clean her house and even Ryder’s car were kept. And Ryder, despite seeming to think she was perfect, had described her as pretty strict and cold, things that had only gotten worse since the separation. Not traits that particularly meshed with my personality.

As if that wasn’t enough, in person, she was entirely intimidating. I’d known she was pretty from the photo I’d seen of Ryder and his family, with her smooth dark brown skin and dark eyes. But she was also quite tall. And had broad shoulders. And then there was the way she was dressed, in a crisp, neat, expensive navy-blue suit.

“Is that your car outside?” she asked, glancing out the window.

“Uh, yes, ma’am. It is.” And then I tried, perhaps foolishly, to make her laugh. “I named her Gert.”

But she didn’t laugh. “Hmm. Charming. I’m sure the neighbors will be very curious about what a car like that is doing in the driveway.”

Ouch.

I wanted to say something, to defend Gert, as silly as it sounds, but luckily Ryder spoke up first.

“It’s vintage,” he said, laughing. And the fact that he was obviously quoting me made me soften a bit.

“Indeed,” Ms. Tanner said. “I’m sorry. I missed your name. What was it again?”

“Oh. Sonny,” I said. But, because I thought it might be more impressive to her, I added, “Short for Sonya.”

“Sonny,” she repeated. “I must be behind on my son’s love life. Here I was thinking he was interested in a girl named … Amy?”

“Not anymore,” Ryder said. “Sonny and I have actually been seeing each other for about three weeks now.”

“Wow,” Ms. Tanner said. “You sure moved on fast. Must be that Cross DNA.”

Ryder flinched.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, “I brought some work home with me that needs to get done. Nice to meet you, Sonny.”

The feeling was not mutual.

When she’d left the room, I turned to Ryder. “That was … interesting.”

He was staring at his feet, his hands shoved deep into his coat pockets. Clearly, the interaction had been just as unpleasant for him. But I knew not to say anything else.

“Should I go?” I asked.

“You don’t have to,” he said.

But something told me that there would be no getting to second base today after all.

“It’s okay. I probably should. I have a lot of homework.”

Ryder was quiet as he walked me out. When we reached my car, I turned to him. “Hey,” I said, grabbing his hand. “Is everything okay?” I worried that maybe his mother’s obvious disapproval of me and my poor-person vehicle might be enough to scare him off.

“Yeah,” he said. “Everything’s fine.”

And even though there was no hesitation when he leaned in to kiss me good-bye, I knew something had changed. Something his mother had said was bothering Ryder, even if he wasn’t telling me what just yet.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked Ryder.

It was another day when his mother wouldn’t be home until the evening (we’d checked this time), which meant we were at his house, in his room, on his bed. Only Ryder didn’t seem entirely there. Like he was preoccupied with something besides feeling me up.

“Amy,” he said.

I frowned down at him. “Okay. Not the answer I was hoping for.”

He shook his head. “Not like that,” he said. “Obviously. I just feel like I should apologize to her.”

“For …?”

“This.” He gestured between us. “I’m not exactly her biggest fan anymore, but we did have something going on between us for a while. It must be weird that I’m now dating her best friend.”

“It’s not,” I assured him. “She’s totally fine with it.”

Which was mostly true. Amy knew that Ryder and I had been seeing each other for the past month, and she was totally supportive. Happy for me, even. She just thought Ryder was more informed than he really was. And of course, she had no idea that he now considered her to be one of the rudest, flakiest people on the planet. You know. Small details.

So far, I hadn’t had to do much work to keep the truth from coming out. It wasn’t as if Ryder and Amy hung out ever. And with the way Ryder felt about Amy now, I didn’t think it would be too hard to keep them separated until graduation in May.

But Ryder and his damn conscience were going to ruin everything.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I just … I don’t want to be like my dad, you know?”

“How can you even say that?” I asked.

“You heard my mom the other day. Cross DNA.”

“Are you serious? Ryder, you didn’t cheat on Amy. You two never even kissed. I know you guys had a virtual connection …” Believe me, I knew all too well. “But, like you told me, there wasn’t really anything there. She knows that. You’re not like your dad.”

“I hope not,” he said, burying his hands in my curls as he leaned up to kiss me.

“But … speaking of your dad …”

He flopped back onto the bed with a groan. “Okay. Definitely not what I want to talk, or think, about when there’s a girl in my bedroom.”

“Sorry, but you started it,” I said. “I was just curious if you’d heard from him lately.”

Ryder sighed. “He called yesterday. Left a voice mail. The same old thing. He apologized and pretty much begged me to call him. He says he wants to see me. Thinks I should come to DC for spring break.”

“Maybe you should.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you miss me?”

“Of course,” I said. “But I’m sure I can find someone else to make out with while you’re away.”

He gave me an exaggerated, playful frown, and I laughed as I leaned down to kiss the tip of his nose.

“Seriously, though. You should call him,” I said. “I know he screwed up pretty terribly. But my dad has done some bad things, too. Prison-worthy bad things, in fact. But he’s still my dad. And I’m glad to have him back in my life. And that’s because of you.” I smiled as I found his hand and twined our fingers together. “I owe you for that, so let me return the favor here. Give him a chance.”

He sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” I said, knowing that even that was serious progress.

“In the meantime …”

I squealed with laughter as he flipped me onto my back and placed a long kiss on my lips.

“No more talking about Amy,” he whispered, his mouth a fraction of an inch from mine. “Or my dad.”

I nodded, the kiss having left me breathless. “Deal.”

But Ryder had barely gotten his hand up my shirt when his cell phone began to ring from the dresser.

“That’s my mom’s ringtone,” he said, rolling off me.

“Of course it is,” I said. “The universe is determined to keep me clothed.”

“The universe is awful,” he said. Then he picked up the phone. “Hello, Mom.”

With the mood sufficiently killed, I climbed off the bed and began walking around Ryder’s room, investigating areas I hadn’t yet. Like his car, it was immaculately clean. Serial-killer clean. Even the DVDs and Blu-rays on his shelf were in alphabetical order.

“Yes. I’ll be sure to do that…. See you tonight, Mom. I love you.” He hung up the phone and turned to look at me. “Did you want to watch a movie?” he asked.

“Maybe. But only if we can watch …” I grabbed the DVD off the shelf and spun to face him, grinning. “Clueless?”

Ryder’s eyes went wide. “I … um …”

“Or Cruel Intentions? Or maybe 10 Things I Hate About You?”

“Okay, I get it.”

“She’s All That? American Pie? Can’t Hardly Wait? That one wasn’t even very good.”

“It’s not bad.”

“I thought you didn’t like mainstream Hollywood films?” I teased.

“Yes. All right. You caught me,” he said. “I have a soft spot for nineties teen movies. It’s a guilty pleasure. I’m not proud of it. Happy?”

“Ecstatic,” I said, waving the Clueless DVD. “This proves to me that you are, indeed, human. And if we’re being honest, it makes me like you so much more.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I walked over to where he sat on the bed and kissed him. He smiled against my lips, then tugged on my hand, pulling me closer, but I took a step back. “Oh, no,” I said, holding the DVD up again. “Now I actually want to watch this.”

And, at least for the moment, the subject of Amy was dropped.

But it didn’t stay that way for long.

* * *

Everything fell apart on Valentine’s Day.

Ryder hadn’t dropped the whole apology thing. No matter how many times I assured him that Amy was cool with us dating, he kept bringing it up. I could have killed his mother for planting the seed in his head and making him think he was anything like his dad.

Keeping them away from each other was becoming increasingly difficult. I felt like a character in a sitcom, constantly juggling the two and keeping my stories straight.

So when I saw him walking toward us in the hallway at school, I knew shit was about to hit the fan — a metaphor that never failed to gross me out a little.

“We should go ice skating this weekend,” Amy said as we walked to lunch. “The rink in Oak Hill will close soon, and we haven’t gone all winter.”

“That sounds fun,” I said. “But I think I already have plans with Ryder. Valentine’s Day weekend and all.”

“Valentine’s Day is a day, not a weekend.”

“It can be a weekend if you do it right,” I said, grinning.

“Oh.” Amy looked down at her feet. “Yeah. I should’ve guessed you’d be busy.”

I was about to suggest we watch a movie or something Sunday night instead, when Ryder walked up.

“Ryder,” I said, forcing a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“I go to school here?”

“Right. I just mean you’re usually not in this hallway.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway, we’re just heading to lunch, so —”

“This will only take a second,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. There was a good chance that was the last kiss I’d ever get from him. “I just need to talk to Amy.”

“Me?” she asked, surprised.

“You really don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “Everything’s fine. Hey, let’s go get some bad cafeteria lasagna.”

“Amy,” Ryder said, completely ignoring me. “I know these past few months have been strange, but I wanted to apologize and make sure there were no hard feelings about me seeing Sonny.”