Chapter Three.

Ayla.

I walked into the living room and cringed as I saw my parents kissing. They pulled away hearing me cough making mum blush and dad give me a cheeky smile.

"Uhh- I'm just going to go upstairs-" I said slowly and made my way up the stairs wanting to wash my eyes out.

"Nonsense sit down with us darling, I have some news." My dad said and waved me over. I walked back awkwardly to them and my dad chuckled. "Princess don't be like that, its completely normal, how do you think you were made?" He smirked and mums blush deepened. I shook my head, "Baba just tell me news before I run upstairs." I threaten.

I took a cookie from the coffee table and nibbled on it waiting for dad to announce his news.

"Well, I wont spare all the details but a wealthy business owner came to our Kensington branch and dined with us. This was a few weeks back and then asked to meet with me and we arranged a deal to have his company cater our food." He said and my eyes widened, I jumped onto him and screamed. "Dad that's amazing! I'm so happy and proud of you!" He embraced me tight and I heard my mum laugh, she joined the hug and kissed my cheek. We released our embrace and I grabbed some water. "Oh Ayla be ready for six we're going to celebrate at their house." Dad states, "Who's house." I ask sipping my water.

"The owner of the company, he invited us over." Dad replies.

I peered at the time and it was already almost five, "I should start getting ready. " I say to them and leave to go upstairs and start my shower. After I had rinsed and washed myself I planned what I should wear. I decided on a black dress with red decals not wanting to over do it. After some selfcare I applied a little makeup and wore some jewellery. I then parted my hair and left it as normal not bothering to do anything to it

Before I went downstairs I sprayed some perfume and picked out a small bag placing my things into it.

Mum looked gorgeous as usual, wearing a red dress that synched in at her small waist and flowed out until her knees. I help her apply some lipstick and dad comes down, he wore a fitted black shirt with black trousers. My mum whistled and dad chuckled before wearing his coat and grabbing his keys. Sometimes I wondered if I would ever find a love like theirs, whilst relationships and falling in love weren't a priority of mine, it did sound nice to be able to be comfortable with someone and give your heart to them.

We began making our way and I played music whilst reading an assigned book from English. Clearly te grind does not stop, especially when majority of your year group s predicted to go to Oxbrigde of all of the leading universities in the UK.

Once the car stopped I looked out of the window,  in awe at the beautiful house in front of me. It was dated in age but timeless in beauty. This had to easily go for millions, whoever lived here was lucky bevcause the views from the balcony had to be amazing. "Wow." Mum said and held my dads hand, I shivered, mentally scolding myself for not bringing a coat as the harsh autumn wind penetrated my skin. The sun had set not too long ago and the lights of London had shone brightly through the dark teal sky. It was a view to savour.

Dad buzzed the gate and security took his name.

"Stephan Salvatore." My father states and the gates opened a second later. We walked to the door and knocked. A woman opens it, her uniform similar to a maids from a movie. Jeez these people have to be ultra rich, a maid in this economy does not come easy.

"Hello, Mr. Salvatore. If you will, please follow me." We did as told, following closely behind the woman and if you thought the house was pretty on the outside it was magnificent on the inside. She led us inside where a man who looked to be in his early forties sat, I pondered as he looked weirdly familiar, but I wouldn't be too shocked since he is a rich businessman he probably is in our textbooks or something. Next to him was a woman, she was very pretty. Her appearance made me think she was young but the way they were sitting must've meant they were companions so she could've been in her mid thirties. Unless she's a trophy wife, I mean I wouldn't be surprised because she was stunning.

The man stood up and went to my dad. "Stephan, so glad you could make it, lets go to the dining room. I do apologise as my sons a little late." The man shook my dads hand and the woman hugged my mum.

I stood awkwardly as they exchanged words and hugs. I quickly learned that his name was Giovanni and the womans name was Leia.

"Sorry for being late I-" I heard and looking to my right I see Ryder making my heart halt and my stomach sink. He looked at me shocked probably wondering why the girl he despises was in his foyer. I put two and two together and realised that his dad was 'the owner of the company.'

"As I was saying I had trouble with my tie." My eyes averted to his neck where the crooked tie sat, I stifled a giggle and looked down. His father glared at him and I raised my eyebrow in confusion. Maybe he hates late people, he should see Ryder in school, that boy has no sense of punctuality. After the introductions were finished we went to the dining room and sat down. Much to my dismay Ryder sat next to me on the right side, mum and dad on the left. At the head of the table was Ryder's dad and opposite was his mum.

As they all spoke I began feeling bored and lonely, I turned to Ryder to see him on his phone.

"Did you finish the English homework?" I asked politely. He shifted his eyes to me, he looked annoyed and awkward. "No, and don't talk to me. " He said quietly but rudely making me as he always does, upset.

"Okay." I said timidly and looked down at my hands, focusing on my nails.

"So Ayla, you go to the same school as Ryder?" Ryders mum asks and I nod. "Yes Mrs. Costello." She smiles and replies "Dear you can call me Leia." I nod again with a small smile, it felt abnormal to say her name as I didn't even know her yet. "Your house is beautiful. Thank you for inviting us." I say trying to be nice, I hear a small ever so quiet scoff from Ryder making me want to roll my eyes. I was being polite unlike some people. "Thank you, Ryder why don't you take Ayla on a quick tour until the food arrives." She says, wait no, I don't want to be alone with him. I panic and look at Ryder with pleading eyes. He smirked and stands up. "With pleasure." No, no, no. Oh god no.

I got up anyways because I couldn't refuse his mum. That would be rude and awkward to say the least. As we left the room he pushes me into a wall, "Ouch." I say in discomfort. He rolled his eyes and looked at me as if he won something, as if I was little prize. I mean he had me all to himself ready to torment.

"Look at you so weak." He said antagonising my fragile state, I mean is he dumb? He's like a giant, and obviously much stronger than me, I don't know why he expected me to become Hulk and shove him out of the way. I blew the hair out of my face but my efforts were to no use. 

Unexpectedly, Ryder placed my unruly strands away from my face and I averted eye contact. "Thankyou." I say. "You look horrible, why would you go out of the house like that." Well that hurt, I thought I looked nice. My eyes welled up and I tried to get out of his hold. "Stop." He said and held me in place. "Why so you could bully me even more." I retorted, he smiled at me as if proud that I stood up to him. It was rare to see Ryder smile, it was so genuine and showed another side of him. 

Doesn't erase the fact that he's a psycho who feeds off my pain.

"Now let's get on with the tour." I said and he rolled his eyes, finally letting me go he begins to show me around. As we walked through the house I admired it all, the furniture, interior and how put together everything was.

After a little while we stopped and entered a room, which I'm pretty sure was Ryder's. It was quite dull in comparison to the rest of the house I thought. Everything was black and white and basically had little to no personality. I stood at the door as he went to the mirror. I stared at him and began appreciating his looks, although an absolute dick, Ryder was extremely good looking and that black ensemble was helping add to his attractiveness. He walks towards me and stands in front of me, I frowned as I had to crane my neck to look up at him. Glancing at his tie I bring my hands up to it and fiddle a little to fix its crooked state.

My stomach growled interrupting us, I laugh and blushed from the embarrassment. Finally fixing his tie I remove my hands from him collar and walked over to the other side of his room.

On his shelf were stationary, some trophies and books. I looked closely to see a piece of paper. I picked it up and analysed it. I realised it was a picture of me and Ryder from year seven. I was sitting on his lap smiling and he was looking at me. I remember the exact moment Myles had taken the picture, we were all laughing and joking around. Who would've know the a mere couple days after the pic was taken me and Ryder would stop being friends.

All of a sudden the photo was taken out of my hand, I turned to see a annoyed and very angry Ryder. "Don't touch things, you're a guest know your limits, the food should be ready go downstairs." He demands with a harsh tone and I nodded slowly. I made my way down the spiraled stairs and went to the room we were previously in. "Where's Ryder?" His mum asks. "He's fixing his tie." I said flustered, why was he so bothered? This guy was truly unpredictable, I mean I could be angry at him for having a pic of me but no I didn't say a word.

A couple minutes later in walks Ryder with a smile his manner completely changed from a few minutes back.

The rest of the dinner went great, but he wouldn't talk to me at all and not even a insult was spewed at me. Weirdly I felt more alone when he wasn't being rude to me, but Leia was a doll and kept me in good spirits from our conversation. After dinner Mr. Costello had gone into his office with dad to talk more about the deal, mum and Leia were chit chatting and I sat alongside them uninterested. Ryder had gone upstairs and hadn't come down at all leaving me to sit alone.

Eventually we left for home and a part of me missed Ryder's presence a little, I just wished I knew why he had reacted the way he did. As I came home I did my usual night time routine and went to bed but as I drifted to sleep I couldn't help but wonder why Ryder had that photo.