Fighting Butterflies (BoyxBoy)

Twenty Nine

It was swift, the way Cain blocked Ryan from getting kissed and pulled him away from Drew. In a matter of seconds, the boy whose head was in Drew's hands had been pulled to Cain's side with the latter glaring daggers at the former. The dark-skinned boy turned to the interrupter, ready to lash out at him until he saw who it was that stood behind Cain.

Ryan, still in a daze and completely shocked by everything happening so far happened to see Drew's slightly widened eyes and turned slowly, coming face to face with Nora. His best friend whom he had tried to keep his "relationship" with Drew from had just seen said boy try to kiss him in broad daylight. That was when it clicked. Nora saw everything. She had seen and heard everything.

As if in slow motion, Ryan watched helplessly as his best friend turned away slowly from him and began to run away.

"Nora!" Both Ryan and Drew shouted with the latter running after her in a split second as if he couldn't wait any moment longer.

For the first time in his life, Ryan wished Drew had never existed. He wished he had never seen the senior from afar that fateful day in first year of high school. He wished he had never crossed paths with him because that would mean that he wouldn't have fallen in love with him in the first place and allowed himself to make all the stupid mistakes he had made which led him to this very moment. Tears blurred his sight and his heart broke at the thought of his best friend hating him. Ryan thought he deserved that, but he wanted to give Nora an explanation, he owed her that at the very least. Yet when he tried to go after her as Drew had done, he got pulled back by Cain who wrapped his arms around the blond boy in a tight embrace, staining his clothes with Ryan's tears.

"Not now," Cain whispered as he rubbed Ryan's hair gently. "Let him deal with it," he added.

Ryan shook his head. "No, I can't! I need to go to her," he cried.

"I know," Cain whispered. "But you need to give her time," he tried to reason with the crying boy. He understood how Ryan felt, and if he were in Ryan's shoes, maybe he'd try to do the same. But Cain was also aware that the pain Nora felt would cloud her judgment and Ryan may make things worse by forcing her to listen to him now.

"I can't stay here," Ryan stated tearfully, voice cracking as he did so. He pulled away from Cain to meet the senior's eyes, hoping that Cain would let him go. He understood what Cain meant. He knew what the senior was asking for and despite everything in him telling him to stay, Ryan knew he couldn't lose his best friend like this, at least not without trying to save their friendship. He knew Cain was right that going after her now could make things even worse, but the boy also knew Nora.

If anything, Ryan knew Nora more than anybody else did. He was very much aware of the kind of person his friend was and knew that Nora would assume he didn't care about her if he didn't rush over to her now. And despite knowing it would hurt Cain to leave just like that, the blond boy couldn't find it in himself to let that chance to make it right with Nora slip away, no matter what the outcome would be.

For the first time in his life, Ryan found himself between two very difficult choices, with his entire body begging him to stay in Cain's embrace and make things right with the senior, and his mind telling him that his best friend was slipping away as the seconds ticked by.

He gulped and shook his head again, meeting Cain's eyes. "I can't just let her go without explaining," he whispered.

"And me? Do I not deserve an explanation too?" Cain grumbled as he let go of Ryan. As soon as the words left his mouth, the tall boy found himself wincing inwardly at how selfish he sounded, yet, he couldn't stop himself from letting out his next words. "You left without an explanation, then you ran away to New York without so much as a goodbye. Do I not deserve to know what that was all about?" He added, his eyes cold and sharp and his hands tightly grabbing onto Ryan's arm as he pulled the boy even closer. "Do I not matter to you at all? Did you mean that?"