“Does it, though?” I asked. “I mean, he’s been slowly looking like shit for over a month now. And he’d been dating regularly. Do you… do you think he’s sick or something?”
God, now I was really freaking out.
Emma sat up and put her knitting down. “But wouldn’t he tell us?”
“Not necessarily.” Luna stretched and gathered her knees against her as she sat on the floor. “I never got the impression that Ryder was an open book. He’s secretive about his relationship whenever you ask questions about it. He keeps saying he’s fine when you ask him if something’s wrong. I don’t know… Something serious is going on, and I’m worried.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
“What do we do? I may be the oldest roommate, but I don’t have a clue. If Ryder’s that closed off, I don’t want to be intrusive and force him to talk when he’s not ready.”
I sagged onto the couch next to Emma. “I just feel bad for not noticing it more until now. I’m a terrible friend.”
“It’s hard. We’ve known Ryder for almost a year, but he works so much. We’re still learning about each other. There’s a balance between being intrusive and caring, and we don’t fully grasp Ryder’s boundaries yet, other than he doesn’t share a whole lot of himself,” Luna explained.
Emma nodded and resumed her knitting. “I think he’s just shy.”
“He sure does blush a lot,” I agreed. “He’s a country boy who’s come to the big city, so he’s probably still figuring shit out.” I stood and paced again. “What I know is that he’s a big sweetie. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Washington, DC, chews up and spits out people like our Ryder. I hope it hasn’t changed him too much.”
Forget his need to be alone. He needed his friends.
I headed straight to his bedroom door and pounded on it. “Rye-Rye, talk to us. Come on out. We know something’s going on. Please. We’re here for you.”
I tested his door, but it was locked, so I knocked again. “Come on, hun. Talk to us.”
There wasn’t one sound, not even a ‘go away.’
I turned and left back out to the living room. I shook my head. “He’s completely ignoring me. I don’t know what to do.”
A knock on our front door startled us. Emma stood to answer it. “Can I help you?”
“I’m Finn, here to see Ryder.”
“Are you the reason he won’t come out of his room?”
Luna and I walked to the door to see what was going on and why Emma was so tense.
Finn, being a supermodel, looked the part with his dark blond hair and green eyes. He was stunning.
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
“Because something is wrong, and now you’re here. I’m just putting two and two together.”
After convincing us he wasn’t the reason for Ryder’s problems, we let him through to see if he could get Ryder out of his room.
“Are you sure he’s even in there?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes, we saw him use the bathroom earlier and head back into his room, completely ignoring us. He… didn’t look so good. We’ve been trying to get him out and talk to us, but he won’t make a peep. But we also don’t want to be intrusive.”
“Be fucking intrusive if he’s being unresponsive!” Finn snapped, shocking the three of us.
He brushed past us and straight to Ryder’s room, where he pounded on the door. “Ryder! Open the goddamn door this instant!”
Finn’s sudden panic made me panic. Shit. What if something worse was going on and we missed it? Oh, god.
“I’ll pay for the damage,” he said.
Emma’s eyes grew wide. “W-what? Wait!”
