Because of you (13 page)

“
Well, it didn’t,” I shrug. Ryder shakes his head.

“
Why didn’t you ask me for a ride?” I give him a look, full of surprise. The last time I saw him, he was with Paris, her hands roaming all over his body. I had no intention of disturbing their fun. “Doesn’t matter, jump in, I’ll give you a ride,” he orders as he opens the door, so I can get in. I point my finger up the street.

“
I can walk, it’s not far.”

“
Don’t be stubborn and get in the car. I’m driving you, end of discussion.” Rolling my eyes, I sit in the car and he continues with his lecture. “What were you thinking, going home alone? It’s dangerous outside, especially this late. I don’t ever wanna see you do something so reckless again,” he raises his voice, wagging his finger at me. I laugh, giving him a salute.

“
Yes, mo
m!”
My little act brings a smile on his face and he shakes his head.

“
You’re really something else,” he says, scratching his neck. “But I was serious earlier—if you don’t have a ride, call me and I’ll come get you, okay?”
I don’t want to
argue
with him so I just nod. He stops at the parking lot next to my dorm, and when I get out of the car, he follows. I
give
him a confused smile when he appears by my side. “I’ll walk you to the door—gotta make sure you get home safely.”

“
You already did that,” I roll my eyes as he follows me to the giant door.

“
Humor me,” he says, watching me with his heavenly dark eyes, and I can’t refuse.

“
Okay,” I say as the door closes behind us, and we walk up the stairs to the second floor. I’m surprised to see so many people out in the hallway. Usually it’s quiet when I get home—everybody is either sleeping or out partying. “What’s going on?” I ask, looking at Ryder. He shrugs and we continue walking. When we reach second floor, my breath catches. Students are gathered in the hallway, whispering, and when they see me, everybody is giving me looks of compassion. “Oh my God,” I am horrified to see the door to my room wide open. I carefully walk through the door and I collapse on the ground.

Ryder

“What the hell happened here? Who did this?” I say, turning to the observers. “Who did this?” I ask angrily. They just look at me in surprise, shrugging. Finally a short girl with glasses answers.

“
Umm, well… I was just heading to the first floor when I saw the open door.” Taking a breath, she looks at Aaliyah. “I knocked but nobody answered, and then I saw that everything was smashed and broken. We called the police, they’ll be here any second now,” she says in a small voice. I nod, closing the door a little so Aaliyah and I have more privacy. Aaliyah is still sitting on the floor, an indiscernible expression on her face. She’s completely silent, rocking back and forth.

“
Aaliyah? I’ll lift you up on the bed, okay?” She doesn’t respond. I
carefully raise her on the bed. First, I had to put the mattress back in its place as it had been lying on the floor. I hold her face in my hands, looking into her eyes. Her usually brilliant blue eyes are now completely dull, still staring into nothingness. “Aaliyah? Do you know who could’ve done this?” Still nothing. I examine the room more closely, I’m shocked at what I see. The closets are open, shelves on the floor. Clothes are lying on the floor, the fridge is broken, and both chairs are turned upside down. The only unbroken thing in the room is the
light,
shini
ng abo
ve us.  I walk up and down the room, watching Aaliyah shake, and wait for the police to show up.

“Aaliyah?” I caress her long, soft blonde hair. “The officers want to ask you some questions. Are you up to it?” Blinking a few times, she sits up and nods.

“
Miss Thomas, do you know what happened here?” She nods. I’m curious to hear her answer.

“
Someone broke into my room.”

“
Okay, we can see that, we were wondering if you know why?” She shakes her head at the police officer. He quickly scribbles something down and continues. “Is anything missing? Did they take anything?” She shrugs uncertainly and looks around her for the first time since we came to the room. She covers her ears with her hand. I kneel down and give her a comforting pat on her back.

“
Shhh, it’s going to be alright. They’ll find the person who did this. Shhh.” As she lowers the hand, I see tears in the corners of her eyes.

“
Do you have any idea who could have done this?” For a second, her facial expression makes me think she knows who might have done this, but she quickly shakes her head. She blows her nose and wipes the tears, running down her cheeks. I get up and walk the police officer to the side.

“
She’s in shock, she’s not able to tell you anything. I think it’s better you leave her alone for now.” The policemen exchange glances and nod.

“
Here’s our card—if she remembers anything, she should give us a call.” I take the card, put it in my pocket, and watch as the officers walk around the room, taking pictures of the scene. “Does she have anywhere else to sleep tonight? We’re not going to be finished anytime soon, she needs rest and it’s already late.” We all turn to Aaliyah and I nod.

“
Yes, I’ll take her home with me and you can continue.” Aaliyah is still sitting on her bed motionless when I lift her in my arms and take her to my car. “You’re coming home with me so you can get some sleep.” During the drive I call Addison, but she’s not answering, so I send her a text instead, telling her to stay with Jackson and that I’ll explain everything in the morning.

She fell asleep in the car, so I carry her to my bed. I carefully put her down and look at her. I scratch my neck, I don’t know what to do—I’m sure she’ll be uncomfortable sleeping in what she has on. She’s wearing tight black pants and a pink blouse, and I already took her coat off when I laid her on my bed. I walk to my closet and pull out a T-shirt. I’m sure she’ll be much more comfortable in this. “Aaliyah?” I shake her gently to wake her up. She mumbles something but keeps sleeping.
Shit, what should I do? I’m not going to let her sleep in that.
I carefully approach her and reach for her blouse. I pull it up over her head. Even though I’m trying not to stare, I can’t help noticing a tattoo on her left collarbone. Hope, that’s what it says. I quickly dress her before I can sneak a glance at some other part of her body. Now that she’s wearing my shir
t, which
reaches down to her knees, I open the button on her pants and take them off. Much better. I cover her with a blanket and sit
into
an armchair in the middle of the room and watch her.
Why would anyone do this to them? Who would break into a room of two students?

Chapter 11

Aaliyah

Daylight shining through the window wakes me up. I stretch, yawning, and open my eyes. Shocked, I quickly sit up in bed and examine the room. Where am I? How did I end up here? I turn my head the other way and find Ryder’s dark eyes watching me. “What are you doing here?” I look around the room again.

“What do you mean, what I’m doing here? This is my room.”

“
Oh my God.” Only now, I notice I’m not wearing my clothes. “Oh, God,” I repeat, pulling the covers higher. “What happened? Did we…?” Chuckling, Ryder gets up and comes closer. He sits beside me on the bed, and I pull away a few inches. With his hand, he reaches to my face and tucks a stray lock of hair behind my ear. Ugh, I’m sure I look terrible. I quickly fix my hair as much as possible without a brush.

“
How are you feeling?”
Huh? Why is he as-…

“
Oh, shit.” I cover my mouth with my hand as I remember last night. “I have to go home,” I say, getting out of bed, and start searching for my things.

“
Hey, hey, slow down,” he grabs my shoulder, turning me toward him.

“
Where are my things?” He points his finger toward the chair where my clothes are folded. I hurry to the chair, grab my things, and just as I am about to take my T-shirt off, I remember I’m not alone. “Umm, could you turn around so I can get dressed, please?” His gaze skims up my legs before he turns around. I quickly put on my clothes and reach for my bag. “You can turn around now,” I tell him when I see he’s shifting from one leg to another, both hands in his pockets. “Fuck, I have to call Addison. What did she think coming home to the mess in our room?” I am jumping on one leg while putting on a shoe on the other leg.

“
She doesn’t know about that yet.” I raise my head.

“
Who doesn’t know what? What are you talking about?

“
Addison. I told her to come here after the party. She’s with Jackson, I’ll tell her once she wakes up.”

“
What time is it?” I quickly reach for my phone to check.

“
Eight, why?”

“
Damn, I’m late for my classes.” He gives me a weird look.

“
You’re joking, right? Somebody broke into your room, and you’re thinking about classes?” I sit down
in a chair.

“
You’re right, I have to go home and check if anything’s missing.” I’m certain everything is still there, no one could have done this other than Caden. But how did he find me? I was sure I
would
escape him this time. “The memory card,” I say out loud and quickly rise from the chair. He looks at me with surprise.

“
What?”

I wave my hand. “Nothing, I have to go home. Could you give me a ride? Umm, never mind, I can call a cab.” I see him grab his keys and head toward the door.

“Let’s go,” he says.

“Thanks,” I call after him as I shut the car door and run to my room so he wouldn’t follow me. I stop in front of the door to my room that’s still hanging off its hinges, and the police tape is all over it. I bend down
under the police tape and enter the room
. I look around, shocked by the mess he left behind. I run to the bed and grab the pillow that’s without its case. I hid the memory chip inside the pillowcase. I don’t know why I put it there—probably because Addison came in the room as I was watching the footage and it was the first hiding place I thought of. “It’s gone,” I say out loud, disappointed and disheartened.
At that
moment, Ryder comes in the room. “Didn’t you go home?” I watch him, afraid he saw me examining the pillow and pillowcase.

“
What? Did you think I was going to just leave you? What if the perpetrator came back? Have you thought of that?”

“
He’s not going to come back,” I try to ensure him convincingly.

“
What makes you think that?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

“
I just know.” I’m sure now that he’s found what he was looking for, he won’t return. I’m his target now. I drop my gaze to the floor and Ryder approaches.

“
Aaliyah, are you in trouble? Is something wrong?” Eyes wide, I frantically shake my head.

“
No,” I respond sharply. “Why would you think that?”

“
I don’t know, you’re acting kind of weird. I just want to make sure you’re going to be okay.” I put my hand on his strong bicep.

“
Yes, I’m going to be alright, I just need to clean up this mess so I can sleep in my bed again.” Speaking of bed and sleeping—shit, where am I going to sleep tonight? Addison is spending the night at Jackson’s, and it is a weight off my chest knowing she’ll be safe. The police still need a day or two to physically inventory and photograph everything that is destroyed, and that’s it. Ryder notices my fidgeting and glancing toward the bed. He gives me a comforting stroke on the back, causing my stomach to fill with butterflies, my knees shaking, and I close my eyes.

“
Don’t worry, until this is all resolved, you’re more than welcome to stay at my place.” I offer him a small smile.

“
Thank you,” I say, averting my gaze downward, straightening the hem of my shirt. “Umm, I better bring some things with me, then,” pointing at the closet, “not that I don’t like wearing your T-shirts, I mean, it was very nice, but you’ll need them, too.” Ugh, I’m babbling. Why is he making me so nervous? And the T-shirt smelled like him, I barely forced myself to take it off and dress into my own clothes.

“
Hey, I don’t mind you wearing my shirts—you look way better in them than me,” he says, winking at me, and I turn red. I mentally kick myself. Could I be any more pathetic? Why does his every compliment make me blush?

When we get to Ryder’s house, we tell Addison everything that happened. Cursing, Jackson hugs her from behind.

“
Honey, I’m glad you weren’t there when it happened. What if he hurt you?” She hugs him back, and they’re standing wrapped in each other’s arms for some time, motionless. Okay, this is my cue to leave the room. Ryder follows and we end up in his room.