Ryan took me to the park, where we just lied down next to each other and talked about nothing, really. I wanted to just stay in the open air in comfortable silence and never speak. Ryan understood that thankfully and didn’t ask questions.
After about an hour of quietness, I sat back up and pulled my knees up to bend over and lean on them.
"Do you think we might break apart completely?" I ask, staring into the empty distance.
"I don’t really know each one of them, but I know all of you together. And I believe you're bond is just too strong to break."
"Right now, I feel like it's more fragile than ever—our friendship."
"It's bound that within every friendship, you'll face a misunderstanding or two," he sits up too, "I know for a fact that Dylan and I didn’t lose what we had."
"Right, how do you two know each other?"
"Our fathers are business partners. I always thought we were forced to become friends, but I'm not complaining. He and I got along pretty well."
"I feel like I'm responsible for this," I say.
"No, no, it's not you," he gives me a small smile. I smile back before leaning in and kissing him. He cups my face and caresses my cheeks, while also pulling my face closer if that’s even possible. I dig my hand in his hair and rest the other on his chest.
He pulls my leg on top of his then starts moving his hand up and down the naked part under my ripped jeans. I pull apart and try to breathe normally when he comes in again. I stop him and cause him to frown, "what?" he breathes.
"I can't do this here," I say, "We've got eyes everywhere."
"You mean the trees?"
I look around to find the park nearly empty.
"I don’t know; I just feel uncomfortable."
"Then come home with me," he holds my hand and looks into my eyes hopefully.
"Yeah," I say, causing Ryan's eyes to light up, "Let's just heat things up more than they're already heated, eh?"
"You just popped my happy bubble, you know?" He pouted like a child.
"Ryan, I say let's take a break till I fix things."
"Take a break? We just started," he argued. In his defense, this is barely our first day together and I'm already asking for a break. I can't even keep a boyfriend for a day. What's wrong with me?
"I'm not saying we should break up or anything. I just mean that we should take it slow and chill. We don’t need to rush things."
He gave me an unsatisfied look.
"I promise you, things will get a lot better soon," I cup his face, "just give me a couple of days, alright?"
He nods, "but it doesn’t come for free."
I roll my eyes and peck him on the lips quickly.
"Here's a kiss. Happy?"
"Do you call this a kiss?"
He kissed me, and took his time in it, caressing my cheek and tangling his other hand in the back of my hair. He moved his lips in sync with mine, causing some weird shit to flutter in my stomach. Call them butterflies, dragons, or even fucking fireworks, whatever. All I know is that it just feels marvelous right now.
He pulled away and looked into my eyes with parted lips, "This is a real kiss," he whispered.
I entered the house at 8, almost time for dinner. Kat will either kill me or squeal with excitement if she knows I was out with a guy, who's not Cody, Tyler, Dylan, Jordan, or Kyle. I still haven't talked to her about Ryan but I'm planning to introduce him tonight at the dinner table. I just hope Cody uses the steak knife to cut the meat not my throat.
I sneak up to my room to change into something comfortable. Why do I feel I've been sneaking a lot lately? I decide on a pair of red shorts and a white tank top with lace trimmings. I was putting my hair up in a bun when someone entered my room with not much of permission. I like a person who can just invite themselves in. And it's no one other than Will.
"Glad to know you're getting comfortable around here," I say, looking at him from my mirror.
"I just like to make myself at home," he jumped on my bed and rested his arms behind his head as he lied down on it.
"What's up?" I ask.
"What happened back at school?" He asked back, "Talk about some high school drama." He grabbed a book from my nightstand and flips through the pages quickly, causing the bookmark to fall off.
"What have you done?" I stride toward him with wide-open eyes. I snatch the book from him and, hysterically, try to find the page where my bookmark belongs.
"They both die at the end," he says casually.
"WHAT?!"
"Her father shoots him, so she hangs herself later."
I didn’t even process that he's spoiling the book for me until after a few moments of me just blinking at him. And I realize, I grab a pillow and start hitting him with it. I press the pillow on his face, causing him to wave his arms around crazily. Eventually, I remove the pillow and, before I know it, he moved me to his side and pinned me under him.
We just stared into one another's eyes for a silent moment before I broke it.
"You're just so evil," I say.
"And you're just looking so sexy in this outfit."
I punch his chest hard, but he doesn't even flinch. I think about the beautiful ways of slapping that smirk off his face.
Suddenly, the door cracks open, and Rosie peaks inside. When she sees us like this—Will on top of me with his hands on each side of my face as I lie on the bed under him—she opens the door as widely as her mouth. I push Will away and off my bed. He ends up on the floor, groaning in pain. Rosie smiles and looks between the two of us.
"No, don't mind me," she starts closing the door, "I'm just going to leave you be. Now, go on."
Oh, man, not this too. Is she fucking kidding me? Not only does she think Will and I were doing something funny, but she's also cool with it.
"What? No!" I follow her out and try to explain, "It's not what you think. Not at all."
"Oh, God, you guys are so cute," she cups my face and squeezes my cheeks.
"No, we're not!"
"It's okay. I'm happy for you," she says, still grinning widely.
"Mom, it's nothing," Will says, following me as I follow his mom down the stairs.
"Honey, it's about time you get a real girlfriend."
"No, Mom, for real. She has a boyfriend."
"Oh my God," she turns around quickly and holds my hands in hers. "Tell me all about it."
"Wow! You sure can move on quickly."
"Who has a boyfriend?" Kat asks, preparing the dinner table. "And, Nicole, where have you been all day?"
"With my boyfriend," I answer, unsure of her reaction.
"And you never told me about him?" She says in surprise, "Young lady, we're having a girl talk after dinner."
"No wonder you both are sisters," I look at Rosie and Kat.
At dinner, I explained everything from the part of how I met Ryan to how he asked me to be his girlfriend. Although I barely have any kind of romance in the story, Kat and Rosie would sigh occasionally as I told them. Cody didn’t say a word but ate quickly and left the table.
"Is there a problem between you and Cody?" Kat asks, handing me the wet plates to dry them.
"Is it that obvious?"
"It's definitely not the normal," she finishes washing the dishes, handing me the last one then drying her hands with a towel.
"He's just mad that I never told him about Ryan."
"Is that all?"Kat leans her back against the counter, "Cody gets over such things easily most of the time, so it's got to be deeper than that, am I right?"
I think about whether I should tell her or not. I don’t usually like to depend on other people or tell them my problems. It's burdensome enough for Kat to be taking care of all my needs; I can't let her take care of my problems too.
"Nicole, honey, you can tell me anything," she says, clearly noticing my hesitation, "I'd love to help you out if you need it."
Well, it won't hurt to hear her point of view of this. After all, I think I'm in need of serious advice.
"Today, Cody and the rest started warning me about Ryan, saying that he's bad and all," I tell her
"And do you believe them?"
"Well, I don't think they'll ever lie to me…"
"Oh, man, I sense a but coming on the way."
"But, at the same time, I don't wanna believe them."
"Listen, I don't wanna be all cheesy and say corny, cliché shit here, but if we're having a serious talk now, I can't really help it."
I chuckle. I love this woman.
"So what do you suggest?"
"Listen to your heart. Whatever it tells you, follow it and make it your guide. Let it lead you to your desires."
"…"
"…"
"…"
After a few seconds of silence, we both burst out laughing our asses off until tears come out of our eyes.
"This is some deep shit," I say in between our laughs.
"Man, I need some booze or I'm going mental," Kat declares, wiping a tear away. "You want one?"
What did I say? I fucking love this woman.
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