The Ribbon Campaign

twenty two || of doubts and happy meals

We spend the next two days in the hospital. Ryan is making great improvement- it hurts him a lot less to talk and he's gaining back his strength. After the doctors confirmed the build up from fluid was the body's bad reaction to the allergy medicine he had been taking, my mother was quick to be informed exactly what is safe and not safe for him to take to avoid something like this happening again.

Right now, my father is grabbing what he needs from work and my mother is picking up Fiona from school. Caiden is asleep on the hospital bed, his head on Ryan's stomach while I sit on Ryan's other side, distracting myself with a thread from one of the hospital sheets. Ryan is running his hand through Caiden's hair, a faraway look in his eyes.

Ryan finally breaks the silence between us. "So I never really got to ask; how was New York?"

"It was great," I answer truthfully, turning to face Ryan. He still looks like he just came back from the dead, but not nearly as bad as he looked before.

Ryan rolls his eyes, "Details, Ellie. And you promised me pictures!"

I roll my eyes and take out my phone, showing him the pictures I got. That's how we spend the next hour- me showing him pictures from the trip and telling him the stories behind them. Eventually Caiden wakes up when we can't keep our talking quiet but doesn't say anything, just listens as his chest rises and falls with heavy breaths.

"How's Bryce?" Ryan asks me eventually.

I bite on the inside of my cheek to keep a blush from appearing. Just the thought of Bryce sends butterflies through my stomach now. "Good," I practically squeak.

"She's blushing," Caiden murmurs.

"She's blushing," Ryan agrees.

I blush even more. "I'm not blushing!"

"Don't lie to me, Ellie! What happened between you two? You guys seemed really close after that trip," Ryan grins.

I feel my cheeks warm up. "I don't really know... things just happened. A lot of them." Ryan and Caiden continue to stare at me expectantly, pressuring me into blurting out, "Okay, we kissed!"

Caiden shoots up from where he was cuddled into Ryan, "Did you actually?"

"When and where?" Ryan demands.

"Calm down, both of you," I roll my eyes, but feel myself unable to stop smiling now that I think about our first kiss. I don't know why- maybe because Ryan is my brother and Caiden is pretty much too or just the fact that I really want to tell someone the story, I tell them what happened on the EmpireStateBuilding.

When I'm done, Ryan says, "So are you guys dating?"

I chew on the inside of my cheek. "I don't know... We didn't really talk about that. We just kind of kissed a lot. That doesn't mean we're dating though, does it?"

Ryan shakes his head. Caiden settles back down beside Ryan, hugging the arm that isn't bruised from the IV that was previously in it close to him. Caiden bites his lip, looking like he wants to say something. Finally, he slowly says, "Just... Be careful, okay Ellie?"

I furrow my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Luca and I played basketball together so I saw Bryce quite a bit. If he wasn't together with his ex girlfriend, it only took him a couple of weeks to find a new girl to make out with. I'm not saying he's going to cheat on you or something just... just be careful, I don't want to see you hurt."

Caiden's words feels like a cold knife to my heart. I find myself stuttering, "B- But he hasn't hooked up with any girl for a while. He says he doesn't really want anything to do with a life like that anymore."