A/N: Hey y'all. I'm here with another Ryley story. It's my first first-person venture. This is just a little set up. It will be an eventual daddy!Ryder story and Ryley end game.

You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job. -Laurence J. Peter

Introduction

Ryder's POV

There's a running joke with the guys in my family. "It all was going fine until I met the girl." Well, for me, it seemed to be the opposite, at least as a six year old. Marley Rose moved in across the street that year. We connected immediately. Our families thought we were going to get married. Seriously, it didn't even seem to matter that she was a girl. At the age where the boys in my neighborhood still thought girls had cooties, I had one of the coolest best friends on the block.

We did everything together. We went from flashlights and walkie talkies through the window to cell phones and pantomiming long after midnight… until high school.

We had illusions of course. Doesn't everyone though? We even signed up for the glee club together. Everything changed when I made the football team and met Haley West.

Marley's POV

I thought we'd conquer the world together. It was easy to think that. Ryder made it easy. I'll admit it. I even had a crush on him at a few points, but when you grow up with someone, it crosses your mind then becomes a gross and unimaginable thought, like kissing your brother. High school came next. I still remember our shared 8th grade graduation party, held in the cul-de-sac that separated our houses. We promised each other then, sitting under the Lynn brothers' tree house that we'd be friends forever. We'd still stick together no matter what. It didn't happen that way. It seemed like it at first, but then sophomore year happened and Haley West got pregnant.

A/N: Oh boy, so what do you think? The story is going to start during sophomore year, and then there will be a time jump, maybe after six or seven chapters in high school. Anything you'd like to see? Predictions? Feedback?