Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time - Ryden

7

The liquor store was run down and not exactly in the best part of town, but neither of us seemed to mind. Part of me was saying 'hey Brendon, you shouldn't be here' but I was like 'eh, fuck it'. You know?

Ryan was grabbing a bottle of Jack Daniels. He handed it to me with ease as we walked to the counter to check out. He must have been here before because the guy smiled at him like he was one of Ryan's oldest friends.

"Another wild night, Ross?" He chuckles. The man is older, with wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and laugh lines around his cheeks. His skin is tan, and despite working in a run down liquor store, he looks pretty put together. But then again, maybe that's the alcohol impairing my judgement.

"I guess you could say that." Ryan chuckles back, wrapping his arm around my waist as I start stumbling slightly. I smile at him as a thank you.

The man laughs and puts the bottle in a brown paper sack, wrapping it up tightly before handing it back to me. "Thank you sir!" I tell him, smiling like an idiot.

"How much do I owe you, Bill?" Ryan asks, eyebrow rising slightly.

"Nothing. This ones on the house."

"Bill..." Ryan shakes his head. "Let me give you something."

Bill rolls his eye and leans into Ryan, shaking his head. "After what you did for me? No. No charge."

I perk up at that, raising my brows as I look up at Ryan, then over at Bill. "What did he do for you?" I look up at Ryan, who's shaking his head at Bill. "What did you do?"

"I'll let him tell you that." Bill grumbles, patting Ryan's shoulder. "You two should get going. It's almost 2am." Ryan nods quickly and moves me towards the door, hand still tight on my side.

"What was that about?" I ask, climbing back into our shopping cart so that Ryan can push me.

"Bill is my neighbor... He's a really good guy but he's been struggling a lot lately and I..." He sighs, shaking his head as he lets his sentence trail off.

"You...?" I continue for him, turning so I can see his face.

"I kind of paid of his mortgage for him. It was his Christmas present." He shrugs like it's nothing, like it's the equivalent of letting someone borrow his leaf blower. He must see me staring at him in awe because he quickly adds "it was only a few thousand. No big deal."

He moves his eyes to look somewhere else, but I can't keep mine off his face as it turns a soft pink. Ryan was always generous. He was always the guy who would buy you lunch if you didn't have enough money, or he would buy the weed for the entire group, or he would lend you his guitar if you accidentally misplaced yours (it was only one time).  I think it came from him never having much as a kid. Once he started making money he started giving it away. I remember him once saying that he had too much and needed to get rid of it somehow, so he just gave it to the people who really needed it. He didn't do it for praise or to be looked at as a good person. He did it because he could. I silently wondered if he did it as much as he used to, seeing as he was living off royalty checks now.

"That was nice of you." I say softly, smiling to myself. Ryan just shrugs it off, but my smile lingers. I can't help but be reminded that stuff like this is the reason I fell in love with Ryan in the first place. He's hard on the outside, but on the inside he's a giant teddy bear.

I'm about to comment on his charity again when I hear two voices from behind me, screaming "OH MY GOD ITS RYDEN!!!"

Fuck. Shit. Damn. Shit. Damn. Fuck. Bitch. Tits. Fuck.