The next morning, Ryann dazedly rose from his resting place and readied for school with a lethargic step. He ignored his brooding father at breakfast, not having the heart to forgive him for what he’d done.
His father, the tense air making his morning coffee taste sour, opened his mouth to retort something, but Ryann abruptly stood from his seat, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and slammed the front door behind him on his way to school.
With a slow, heavy sigh, his father shook his head at the diminishing figure of his son before the window. “He’s just as stupid as I was…” he muttered, sipping his bitter coffee.
Dragging his lead-heavy legs to school, Ryann shielded his eyes from the sun’s harsh rays, scolding the weather for being so bipolar this week. Then his fiery gaze rested on a pair of students who had whispered his name between them, slipping morsels of gossip among their hungry lips. He continued his crawl to homeroom, ignoring the judging stares.
He hadn’t the feeling to talk to anyone, for his heart was still anchored to his soles. His fingers gripped around the photo in his pocket as the hole where his heart should have been threw up a sludge that stunk of hopelessness.
"Hey, Ryann!" That familiar voice came from the last person he expected to show him any empathy.
Cole straightened from leaning against the door to home room upon sighting his friend. The crinkles of his chocolate brows were in the shape of a question mark. “There’s some lady looking for you. She said she needed your help to look for someone?" His head cocked to the side like a questioning puppy’s.
Ryann’s fazed conscious had no idea what Cole was talking about. Why would some lady be looking for him? Which lady would it be? Who had gone missing? Then, like the turn of a key in a lock, it clicked, and his scattered mind quickly pieced together. He turned to Cole with a serious expression. "Where is she?"
"Home room." Cole answered with a toss of his chin. "Do you know her?" he asked, puzzled.
Ryann hadn’t the composure to answer his friend, and instead rushed into his homeroom with a sudden surge of life, his eyes darting across the room until it lined up with Rebecca’s frantic gaze. He marched to her side, demanding to know what was wrong.
"It’s Myah. Is she with you?" Rebecca croaked, her voice thin and raspy, her eyes swollen and red.
His heart suddenly began climbing along his knotted insides, rooting itself back in his chest with heavy panting from its gigantic climb. Ryann gave her short, slow shakes of his head. “Why…?” His voice trailed. He was almost too afraid of the answer to even ask, his clammy palms gripping the photo in his pocket.
Rebecca gave a quiet whine, brushing her fingers anxiously through her tussled dark hair. "Right after you left with your father she ran off! She hasn't come back and I don't know where she is!" Rebecca explained in her hoarse voice, tears welling down her puffy eyes. “The damn police won’t file a report until 24 hours have passed, but I know something happened to my girl. No one wants to help me, Ryann, and I don’t know the island. Please, if anything happened to her I’d never forgive myself! Please help me find her!”
Ryann felt his body tremble in its spot. There were no words to describe how helpless and hopeless he felt right now. He shook his head, desperately trying to get the black thoughts out of his mind before responding to the distraught foster mother.
“No.”
Gasps echoed across the classroom, and all eyes turned toward the back of the class where Cole stood, his usually cool composure upset. His wide, calming hands were bundled into tight fists, and his lips puckered in concern. A moment passed where everyone was too stunned by his outright disapproval. “No one will find her. If we’re lucky, that witch had returned to the sea that cursed her, and we’d never have to deal with her again.
Ryann,” Cole directed his attention to the glowering best friend he so desperately tried to protect. “Just let her go. Maybe this is how she was meant to be.”
Rebecca pounced with a snarl that was only outmatched by a grieving tigress. “Now you listen here, brat! Myah did nothing to deserve such scorn and prejudice from such people! It’s a mystery even to me as to why everyone hates her so passionately! It’s practically your favorite pastime, and this disgusting! I swear, if I hear—”
Rebecca was quieted by a gentle push to her side. Ryann walked forward to square off with the taller Cole, an icy fire in his amethyst irises. He sucked on his teeth as he turned away for a moment, completely disgusted at the sight of soft ‘concern’ in his best friends eyes. “We’re best friends, Cole.” He stated anyway.
Cole blinked back his surprise, caught off guard by the innocuous statement, before giving a curt nod. “Yes, we are. That’s why I’m trying to protect you.”
“But that’s why we became best friends. Not only because you protected me, but you protected everyone who was being bullied.” Ryann turned up to him with a scowl. “Now look at you, bullying the one person who probably would have needed your help the most.”
A weighty breath flailed through Cole’s nostrils, his only response to Ryann’s blunt truth that struck him like an arrow.
Ryann nodded lightly to himself, as if agreeing that the next words out of his mouth was to be final. “You’re the most disappointing out of all of them.”
Cole turned away, hot anger beginning to spill from his eyelids as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. He shook his head vigorously with a shrug. “If you really feel that way…” He swept an arm towards the class door before taking his seat, hunched forward over his desk like a wounded bear.
Ryann stayed as he was, his heart still laced with a bit of hope that his best friend would turn around and take back all that he had said. He still had hope that they could make it out as best friends should.
Cole never stood back up from his desk. Instead, he turned expectantly to the teacher, waiting patiently for his lesson today.
His shoulders drooping, Ryann turned back toward the door and dashed out of the classroom into the humid sunlight, racing toward the beach.
ns 18.68.41.139da2
