[ K A R A ]I was hoping I wouldn't run into Ryder this morning, spare me the awkwardness, please and thank you. I still didn't know how to deal with him, so I was super glad to see that he wasn't in the kitchen when I walked in, it was just Peter and my mom."Morning honey, we missed you at dinner last night," mom said."Yeah, sorry, I went out with a friend,""You've been spending a lot of time with this friend of yours. When are we gonna meet him?" she gave a teasing look."Mom. It's not like that,” I rolled my eyes at her. “We're just friends,""Sure, they all started that way," she said again with a wink."Lacey!" I hissed."Fine, fine. So what's your plan for the day? If you're free, you should come with us and watch Ryder compete,""Oh I can't," I quickly said. "I have plans," I lied, I didn't have any plans. I just didn’t want to see Ryder right now."Oh, plans. With that friend?" my mom smirked naughtily."Mom!""Just kidding,” she giggled away. “Don't be home too late, honey

[ K A R A ]I spent the entire night reading and rereading Ryder's notes over and over again. His poems were honest and raw. He wrote so beautifully. I never would have imagined the same mouth that said all those dirty jokes could write such romantic things.And okay, I don't mean to sound narcissistic, but are these poems written about me? Am I… ‘K’?Not trying to get a big head or whatever, but my name started with a K. Also, a lot of the things he mentioned in his poems were like they were taken from our daily lives. I wanted to believe that theory, but I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Ryder had said it from day one, he didn’t believe in love and all that crap. This book and his personality was a total contradiction.Maybe he didn’t write this book? Or maybe he did? What is happening?* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *For the next few days, I hadn't seen Ryder at all around the house. Things ended somewhat awkwardly at our last

[ K A R A's P O V ] To say that the past few weeks were fun... was a wild understatement. After our mutual understanding that Fourth of July, Ryder and I spent all our days together since then. It was just Ryder and me, two people against the world. We spent the whole day out, exploring the island, jumping off of waterfalls, swimming in the ocean, and Ryder even taught me how to surf, in which I gave up after a good 20 minutes. Surfing is really hard, and you must be in a really good shape! Which luckily, Ryder is… Speaking of good shape, Ryder and I spent the whole night together too. We would sneak out through the back door and to the beach, we’d get milkshakes at the drive-thru, and we watched the Godfather and Fight Club, Ryder's favorite movies, in his room when our parents were asleep. And after that, we would make out until the sun rises and do it all over again. I didn't know how we weren't sick of each other yet, we literally spent every waking moment together. Not to men

[ K A R A ]  I didn’t know how it happened, but time was flying by so fast. I blinked and all of a sudden it was already the week before the wedding. Lacey and I had been pretty busy lately, running around all over town, trying to get all the details for her wedding to the tea. Today we were picking up our dresses from the tailor. We debated between several colors for my maid of honor dress, and then we settled with this a soft and silky ivory maxi dress. It was a simple design, yet absolutely gorgeous, and it fitted me perfectly. "Honey, you look beautiful!" Lacey exclaimed as she watched me spun around in the dress. “Oh my god, you looked all grown up!” “Mom, I’m eighteen,” I laughed. “Yeah, but I’ve never seen you in a dress like this,” she argued. “You didn’t even go to your prom,&

[ K A R A ]  Confession time. I had to be honest. I knew I told everyone that I was waiting until marriage because I wanted to find a guy who was willing to wait for me, but that was a lie. It was just an excuse I made up. It was just a wall that I built because I was afraid… of love. My own dad ran out on me and I saw my mom got her heart broken time and time again. I was scared. I didn't want to fall in love. I had always thought that love was for suckers and people shouldn’t be trusted. So I made up all these rules and lived strictly by them, thinking I could live my life hurt-free, unscathed. But that didn’t work. Now if you want to know another confession, I got one more. Meeting Ryder had changed me and challenged all my beliefs. For the first time in my life, I wanted to feel things. And even if I got hurt in the end, I might be okay wi