Cinderella my Ass

How I was going to justify the fact that I let him in again

"Thank you for helping me Ryder."

I barely slept because of that sentence. It replayed in my mind a thousand times, giving me a bad headache. It was like I could hear his voice whispering that sentence in my ear.

He knew my name.

That is what disturbed me. That was the reason why I couldn"t get any sleep and the reason why I couldn"t forget that sentence. The reason why I couldn"t find peace. He knew my name.

But how?

He could be one of the boys living in this neighbourhood but I would recognize them. They were all flirty and annoying. All the time thinking about only one thing. But yet the boy from last night was nice even though in a pretty bad condition. The reason why he didn"t want me to see his face was something that flew over my head all the time. I was really curious to see his face, but he must have had a really good reason for not letting me.

I found myself worrying about him. If he was fine. If he was in any kind of troubles. For some reasons I wanted to meet him again, but I was sure that even if he walked next to me, I wouldn"t recognize him. I wasn"t even sure if I could recognize his voice.

I looked around the class and my eyes caught Aiden coming towards me. My heart started to beat fast, even though I knew for sure the only reason why he was walking to me, was because he sits in front of me in this class.

He sat on his seat, and I felt a small smile appearing in my lips. I liked the fact that he wore most of the time dark clothes. It made him look hot and somehow dangerous, even though he was nice and sweet the whole time. Nothing about him said dangerous. Maybe he just liked the colour.

"Hi Ryder." I felt my face becoming hot as I knew for sure I was blushing. He was talking to me.

His lips had formed a smile, even though I could see from his eyes that he was tired. I smiled shyly. "Hi."

I knew he was being just nice, but I wanted him to talk to me because he liked me. Because he liked talking to me and not just to be nice with me like he was with everyone.

We didn"t say anything else as the teacher walked in the class and started the lesson.

I slowly went in some kind of a trance not really paying attention to what the teacher was saying. I knew the lesson she was talking about. I can"t say I"m a nerd, but I had good grades and worked for them.

"Pssst!" I turned my head to see Jasmine. I glared at her but she just rolled her eyes and pointed at her phone and then at me.

I took my phone in my hand and unlocked it. She had sent me a message.

Aiden has been looking at you like the whole time.

I blushed at the message and glared at Jasmine thinking she was playing again with me. I turned to see Aiden and he was already staring at me. I blushed even more as he just smiled at me with a light shade of red on his cheeks and turned around facing with the black board.

Holy Dolly!

I turned to Jasmine with a opened mouth like I wanted to scream. She laughed at me without making any sound as I felt like fainting. What does that mean? That he likes me? There is no way he would like me so fast. Maybe he was just interested. But what if he wasn"t interested at me at all? What if he wasn"t even looking at me at all but someone behind me?

I turned around and saw Bob. He was chubby with brown hair and was drooling over the table as his head retested on his arms. Light snores left his mouth. I laughed slightly at the view and turned around, looking at Aiden"s back.

He smiled at me. He was looking at me...

The bell rang and I got up slowly, not in mood to walk home. Jasmine walked to me placing her arm over my shoulders. I didn"t tell her anything about last night. Maybe I should have, because she is my best friend. She is there for me the whole time, and ready to do everything for me. But I felt like I didn"t have the right to talk about it. After all, I knew I wouldn"t meet him again, so what was the point of telling her?

"Look at my little girl. She is finally growing some balls." She said and I punched lightly her in her stomach. Jasmine laughed at me as I stuck my tongue at her. "Hot stuff at twelve o"clock." I turned my head to look at Aiden walking to me. A whole zoo came alive in my stomach and I wasn"t sure if this was a good or a bad thing since I felt like throwing up.

"Hi Ryder!" He smiled to me with so much warmth.

"Hi!" My voice came out shaking and Jasmine pinched my arm for it. That made me jump and let out a pain sound.

"Do you need a ride home?" He asked me scratching the back of his neck as his cheeks turned into a light shade of red.

I gasped.

I needed air, but it looked like my lungs didn"t want to work. Like they couldn"t do what lungs were supposed to do. I felt a pinch in my arm again, making me let out a small scream as I jumped again. After being able to breath again I heard Aiden laughing at me.

"So?" He smiled and I needed to breath again. I couldn"t answer so Jasmine did it for me.

"Yes. She needs a ride home." With that said, she pushed me towards Aiden. "See you tomorrow Ryder."

Aiden walked towards the parking lot as I followed him behind quietly not knowing what to say. Heck! I didn"t know what even to think. It wasn"t normal, but I couldn"t help. I really liked him and that made me nervous.

When we were in front of Aiden"s car, he opened the passenger door for me as I got in, blushing. He got in as well and turned on the engine. The car drove slowly out of the parking lot and down the road.

"Where is your house?" He asked and I gave him the directions. We fell in a comfortable silence.

I played with the edge of my shirt wanting to say something but didn"t know what. The fear of saying something stupid or something I shouldn"t say kept my mouth shut. I looked at Aiden who was staring at the road with a frown in his face. Even frowning he looked cute.

"You are a... nice girl." Aiden said to me and I looked at him confused. "Maybe we should hang out..." If he wasn"t sitting next to me, I would have gasped while probably a fly would fly on my mouth. Aiden must have noticed my face as he blushed lightly. "Like friends. I mean if you want."

Do something. Move or say something. Anything.

I nodded and he smiled as the car stopped in front of my house. Was this happening for real? He wanted to spend time with me? I was feeling like touching the skies.

"G-goodbye." I mumbled and got out of the car but tripped on the edge of the road and took a few giant steps, looking like my head was taking me down. After I gained my balance I blushed badly as Aiden laughed at me. That made me blush even more.

"Goodbye Ryder." He smiled and drove away as I stood there staring at the road grinning like an i***t. I made a fool of myself. Yeah fair, but he is so cute and... wait a second. I made a fool of myself in front of my crush. I"m such a disaster.

I entered the house frowning as mom looked at me with an eyebrow raised. "What"s wrong honey?" Her voice sounded worry.

"Oh nothing. I just want to die for being so clumsy." I said and went upstairs walking heavily on the stairs making a loud noise. Mom just laughed at me, and didn"t comment any further.

I slammed the door behind me and threw myself on the bed. My face buried in the soft pillow as I screamed frustrated at it. I should really change. It is so embarrassing to be so clumsy the whole time. Tripping over everything, including air... Falling on the floor... it was annoying, but I could deal with it. But in front of Aiden? That"s too much.

Even though I wasn"t in mood to do anything, I did my homework in some kind of slow-motion . Time after time I found myself grinning as I remembered Aiden wanting to hang out with me. For all I cared, I just wanted to fall asleep and dream about it.

I closed the history book and lied down in the bed, falling asleep.

***

An annoying sound coming from the window was giving me a headache. I really didn"t want to get up and see what was causing it, but it was giving me a horrible headache. Probably it was some branch from that stupid tree next to my window, hitting the glass from the wind, but then I remembered there was no tree next to my window and since I was really pissed off with that sound, I got up from the bed and walked furiously towards the window.

I pushed the curtains away, and let out a faint scream as a dark figure was standing on the other side of the window. My heart almost stopped as I found it hard to breath. But then the dark figure started to look more and more like a boy.

I felt something in my heart when I realized what was happening. Even though I didn"t want to admit it, I was secretly hoping to see him again. I wanted to see if he was fine. The reason why I cared, I didn"t know, but it just felt right.

Again, I couldn"t see his face. The half of it was covered from a hood he was wearing. However I could see his lips forming a smirk. He mouthed something to me as he pointed at the window.

Maybe it was dumb, to help some stranger entering your room from the window. Maybe it was stupid to take care of him. But I could justify my decisions by saying that I was trying to be nice. I was helping someone injured. But I didn"t know how I was going to justify the fact that I let him in again for the second time in my room. For all I knew he could be dangerous. He could try and hurt me or abuse with me. But still I opened the window letting him in.

I stepped back, making enough room for him to enter in. He didn"t take the hood off, which was covering his eyes from me, and again I could feel his eyes looking at me with curiosity. I would do the same if I was him. What kind of dumb girl would let a stranger in her room in the middle of the night?

"You are amazing Ry." His voice was low and I noticed amusement on it. He took a few steps forward, wrapping himself in the darkness of my room. He took off his hood, running his hand through his hair, making them messy. I just stared at him feeling scared and regretted my decision of letting him in.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him with a low shaky voice.

His smirk changed into a small smile as he sat on my floor crossing his legs under him. I sat like him and waited for him to answer me. "I wanted to thank you." His voice was soft and for some reasons, it reminded me the silk as I heard him using that tone, that voice with me.

"How are you?" I asked him smiling at his answer.

"Fine." He simply answered, the smile never leaving his lips. I didn"t realize I was staring at them. "I"m sorry if I scared you."

I shook my head lightly smiling.

"Why my room?" That and many other questions haunted me the whole day. Maybe I was going to get answers.

"I didn"t knew it was yours. But I"m thankful it was. I must have scared you and I"m sorry about that."

For some reasons I felt comfortable talking to him. I didn"t know him. Probably he didn"t know me either. Maybe it was helping the fact that I couldn"t see his face. But that annoyed me. I wanted to see him. Maybe I have seen him before. Maybe I knew him. I could turn on the lights and caught him by surprise, but I would feel like betraying him.

I know it was silly to think like this. He was a stranger for me. As I was for him. And still I couldn"t find myself thinking about him like that. Maybe the fact that he was hurt, had something to do with this. I knew that if he didn"t need help, I would scream, making a scene. A scene that would lead to me traumatised and him in jail. But he needed my help. Maybe he was trying to save himself from something. Or someone. It could be the police for all I knew, but seeing him like that... I just wanted to help.

"What happened to you last night?" I noticed his lips forming a small frown.

"I fought with a guy as he tried to take my money." He stopped talking and took a deep breath. "Someone called the police, but this guy left before it arrived and somehow the police chased me thinking I was the bad one in this story." The smile appeared again. "I noticed your window open and decided to hide here. Maybe it was fate."

"How do you know my name?" I knew I probably sounded like a police officer making all of these questions to him, but I needed answers.

"I have seen you around." The words came out of his lips, which were tugged up in a smirk. I knew it wasn"t the whole truth, but if he didn"t want to tell me...

"Can I see your face?" I asked him and he frowned.

"No."

"Why? I won"t tell anyone who you are. I promise."

"Maybe an other time. Just not now."

"Then tell me your name." I insisted crossing my arms over my chest, probably looking like an angry kid.

"Hmm... Call me..." He looked up at the corner of my ceiling trying to think of something. I figured out that he didn"t want to tell me who he was. Maybe I knew him and that was the reason why. But if he didn"t want to tell me then fine.

"Okay, then. I got it. You don"t want me to know your name." He looked at me with a smile in his face as everything, his movements, his actions... told me he was curious. "I will find you a name." I thought about something. Of course I couldn"t call him George or Tom or I don"t know. It would be stupid. So I tried to find a nickname.

Okay... let me think about it. He was young. As old as me. He was injured when I saw him for the first time, but I couldn"t call him Wound or something like this. He was wearing a hood tonight... But calling him the Hood would sound too much like my favourite TV show The Arrow and it wouldn"t be original from me to call him like that. I looked at the clock in my wall. It was midnight. He came in my room in midnight. Again.

"Midnight." I said with a small proud smile on my face.

"Midnight? Hmm... I like it. It sounds mysterious and dark and... I like it." He said leaning against the wall. I could feel his eyes glued to me and I knew I should have felt uncomfortable. But I wasn"t. Instead I smiled at him. "I better get going. " Midnight got up, hiding his face under the hood again. "After all... I came here just to thank you."

He leaned outside the window and I walked closer to him. "Will I see you again?"

Midnight smirked and I felt like frowning. "Do you want to see me again Ry?" I blushed at the name he called me.

"Yes." The word escaped my mouth before I could think of stopping it. A smile appeared in his lips.

"Then I will come again. I promise."