Free The Rush by Rachel Higginson

to be home alone, or worse with Nix and my mom.
    I turned for the door and decided that I was done wallowing and needed to get over myself when it was suddenly thrust open and Ryder came strutting inside. My hand flew to my neck instinctively and I took a few beats to steady my breathing. My pulse thumped wildly against my fingers and I tightened my grip against my throat. Ryder and I assessed each other from a few feet apart, his eyes were cool and calculating, mine were wide and frightened.
    “You scared the hell out of me!” I finally yelled at him.
    A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and his eyes softened into careful amusement. “Sorry,” he finally relented. “ Kenna was worried about you. She asked me to check on you.”
    “And that meant storming the girls’ bathroom?” I snapped.
    “I was waiting outside, but you were taking so long I started to wonder if Kenna had a right to be concerned,” he explained. His gray eyes were heated in the low lights of the bathroom but full of excited adrenaline from being on stage. The ends of his hair were damp from being under the hot lights and curled around his neck and over his ears, slick with sweat. His shirt clung to his body, sticking to him from the performance. He was full of feral energy; his presence was completely intrusive and demanding. His energy was infecting the room, reaching every molecule and atom around me, making the air bounce off the walls in excited frenzy.
    He was overwhelming.
    And for once in my life I was the one get pulled in.
    “ Kenna’s sweet, but as you can see, I’m fine,” I broke the silence that had settled between us. It was in no way comfortable. Being alone with Ryder felt dangerous and explosive.
    “Yes, I can see that,” Ryder nodded, pulling in his bottom lip with his teeth.
    After establishing that I was fine I expected him to escape. I could tell he wasn’t comfortable being around me, which only made me want to explore this phenomenon all the more. He was dominating in the doorway, he took up so much space. But it wasn’t just physical, it was like his presence hovered in every empty space in the small bathroom, pressing against me, crowding me. Pushing me out of the way.
    I sucked in a breath, needing to brea k the silence, “You guys were….” I paused, not sure what to say. Any compliment I could give him didn’t feel like enough, there wasn’t a word for how great he was. But at the same time, saying something nice felt like a betrayal of everything that I was. He didn’t even like me! I couldn’t give him that.
    I was saved by a pack of girls stumbling into the bathroom and directly into his back. They burst into giggles when they realized he was a boy and then glanced between us with knowing looks.
    “Sorry,” one of the girls announced on a laugh. She was petite and tiny, with a short blonde bob highlighted with pink and purple streaks. “We didn’t mean to interrupt.”
    “It’s no problem,” Ryder announced benevolently, but his eyes had yet to leave mine, making me feel like they actually were interrupting something.
    I just didn’t know what.              
    “ Oh my gosh!” another girl announced. She had red hair not at all like mine, vibrant, blindingly red and obviously from a bottle. “You’re Ryder Sutton! You’re from Sugar Skulls!”
    And then the three girls squealed in unison.
    “Oh my gosh, you’re Ryder Sutton !” I intoned obnoxiously, taking a step forward and laying a hand on his chest bravely. I was annoyed with the girls, both for their intrusion and the way they were ready to drop their panties for him. “I didn’t know it was you!” And I went to move past him. I pushed through the crowd of groupies, but left my hand on his chest. His skin was hot and muscled underneath my hand, holding me to him like an intense magnet, locking my skin to his.
    He turned with me, apparently not minding that we were causing a scene. His hand wrapped around