So what changed in six days?
I scroll through his Instagram pictures a little further, looking for women, mostly. Why else would I stalk his social media? From what I can tell, Shade gets around. It’s a known fact. He’s a rock star in the world of freestyle motocross racing. But, he’s never pictured with one unless it’s a night out and there are women all over him.Still, he never posts a picture of them and tags #bae like all the other dumbshits out there who think it’s clever to cut the word babe in half. It’s not like it’s that long of a word, people. Stop hashtagging it.
Anyway, the only girl I see is a picture from two years ago. It’s one of him in Seattle, on the pier and I recognize the white and pink logo of Cupcake Royal behind them. Looking closer at the girl, she’s pretty, in a girl-next-door way with strawberry-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and freckled cheeks. She’s wearing a black and white trucker hat backward, and he has his arm loosely around her. I can’t see his eyes to tell if he’s happy or not because he’s wearing those damn sunglasses he always has on.
She’s happy though, her smile so bright and wide as though this is the happiest day of her life. It’d be mine too if Shade had his arm around me.
I look for the caption underneath it. There isn’t one.
I scroll through the comments and only one catches my eye. @roughrideboyz damn Ry, haven’t seen a smile like that in a long time. Looks good on you.
Ry? Who’s Ry?
Her name isn’t mentioned anywhere. . . other than someone calling her Ry or in one case, Rhya. So her name is Rhya?
Sometime after three in the morning, I check his Twitter page and that’s when I see an article he’s tagged in. A news article.
That girl I just saw on Instagram. She’s dead.
@dukessawyerboyz91
@shadesawyer Sad to hear about Rhya’s passing, man. I can’t believe she killed herself. Keep it together for us, bro.
She killed herself?
My hands shake as I try to hold my phone steady and not let it fall. My heart twists, pulls, beats to a pain I know. A pain I’ll never forget as long as live. I know now why I’m so drawn to Shade’s sadness. We share it without even knowing it.
Tears burn my eyes, make me blink carefully as I push on, continuing to read through them, though I’m not entirely sure why I am. That tweet is the nicest I come across. The rest are downright fucking rude, and exactly what I expect to find on Twitter from the nameless, faceless bastards who tweet insensitive shit.
Like this douche.
@iaaiclv_2
Noooo Nooooo! I can’t believe she did that to him! He’s struggling enough this year to perform.
Eat a dick @iaaicle_2. No seriously. Eat. A. Dick. I bet you’ve never even attempted to ride a dirt bike, let alone do a backflip midair. And I guarantee you’ve never known anyone who’s taken their own life if you say that kind of bullshit.
@SoCalheat_sawyerfan
She was a crack head. Probably high when she pulled the trigger. Damn tho she was only 20. Too young.
Okay, well at least that one is nicer, but still, crack head? Was she? The girl in the photo didn’t look like a crack head. . . but then again, that was two years ago. Time changes you. Even I know that. I also know a picture can lie. I have one on my phone that does. The only picture I have of Asher. He was as high as the sky, but you’d never know it looking at the photograph of the boy who taught me how to love and then ripped it away just the same.
You’re wondering who Asher is, aren’t you? I’ll get to him in a minute.
I can’t handle looking at Twitter any longer and google Shade Sawyer. A story pops up immediately fromUSA Todaydated an hour ago, but I’m not sure of the validity of it. I still read it though. Who wouldn’t?
BREAKING NEWS OUT OF LOS ANGELES –
Rhya Sky Morgan—longtime friend to Shade Sawyer— (X-Games gold medalist and current X-Fighters competitor and points leader) was found in her Los Angeles apartment unresponsive by a mutual friend of the pair with a self-inflicted gunshot to her head.
Morgan, who had battled substance addiction since she was sixteen, was just released from a Santa Monica rehab center that Sawyer had apparently paid for days prior to her death.
Sawyer and Morgan had been friends since they were young kids. Shade is often quoted telling the press Rhya’s a friend and nothing more when asked if the pair was romantically involved. Sawyer, who’s never been tied to any one woman in the past, has yet to respond to the news.
He’s currently in Seattle Washington where he was set to meet with Red Bull regarding the upcoming NW Street Tour set to take place this July in the streets of Seattle.
When contacted, Sawyer’s publicist declined to provide details or comment.
