Chapter 4 Ryan's Pov

I saw her the second she walked into the backyard with tense shoulders and arms crossed over her chest like an armor. Her eyes were fixed on her phone as if it were the only thing keeping her from unraveling. The wind tugged at her braid and the edge of her hoodie was tucked tightly into her palm like she needed to hold on to something-anything-just to stay standing.

Skylar. She was a like storm dressed in silence tonight.

And damn it, how I noticed everything when it came to her.

I always had noticed her. Even before her world cracked open like a raw wound under the weight of Caleb's ego and betrayal, I had noticed her

Back then, when we were just teenagers hanging around ice rinks and parking lots, she was chaos and sunshine and sarcasm wrapped in one impossibly magnetic girl. I still remember the summer she followed Ethan to practice every day and tried to skateboard to impress us and then busted her wrist on the second day and made me sign her pink cast with glitter gel pens she borrowed from her Hello Kitty pencil case.

I signed my name crooked and drew a tiny heart next to it.

She'd rolled her eyes and said, "Gross, Ryan," but I caught the smile she tried to hide.

That smile had haunted me for years.

Even when she started dating Caleb...even when she sat in the stands cheering for him like he hung the damn moon, she haunted me even though I kept my mouth shut about it. I bit my tongue to keep shut until it bled.

I kept shut because Ethan was my best friend. Because I thought she'd never look at me that way. Because Caleb was already there and I was just...the background noise.

But tonight?

Tonight I saw her not as Caleb's girl.

I saw her as Skylar.

And I couldn't keep pretending anymore.

***

An hour later, she was standing near the grill, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. A soda can untouched in her hand. Every time someone came to talk to her, she smiled with her mouth and not her eyes. She wasn't just heartbroken. She was humiliated...shattered in that quiet, brutal way you only notice if you really see someone.

And I saw her. God, did I see her.

Ethan had dragged her here thinking it would help. And maybe it would've. But not like this. Not with whispers still floating in the smoke of the fire pit. Not with people lowkey recording her when they thought she wasn't looking.

She didn't belong in this circus of half-sincere apologies and secret gossip.

She deserved better than this.

Better than him.

And maybe-just maybe-I was done pretending I couldn't be the one to give it to her.

"Dude, you're staring," said Lucas, one of the rookies who nudged my arm with a half-eaten kebab.

"Was not," I muttered as I reluctantly tore my eyes away from her.

He raised a brow in response. "Ryan. You've been staring since she got here. It's kinda obvious."

I shot him a look. "Mind your business."

He grinned. "You know, she's single now."

"Shut up, Lucas."

He laughed and wandered off toward the keg and I wondered if he was probably already planning a TikTok about me being emotionally constipated.

I ran a hand through my hair as I felt very frustrated. What the hell was I doing? What was I thinking? This wasn't just any girl. This was Skylar Hayes, Ethan's little sister. The girl I'd loved in absolute silence for years. The one who made me feel like gravity had favorites.

Could I do the very thing I have longed to do for years now?