DAMN YOUR KISS; ryden

Chapter Thirteen: You're A Regular Decorated Emergency

Ryan didn't recognise the lake.

But that was good. He didn't need familiarisation. That'd probably not help, in any way.

No. It was some lake, somewhere, a place that he'd drive away from when he was done and forget all about. He'd tear up the map he'd gotten from the guy at the gas station, purge the instructions from his mind in some way, and let blissful ignorance wrap its arms around his chest.

He looked down at his feet, overturning one of the sand-colored dusty pebbles, before kicking it away, so that it flew over the edge and fell into the water with a plink.

Pushing his sunglasses further up the bridge of his nose, he reached into his back pocket, where he'd tucked his cell, and pulled it out. Checked it one last time, to find still, no new messages, three days since whatever the hell he and Brendon had experienced - he had since refused to call it 'shared' because that implied they both felt the same way about it - and sighed.

It was no use. He'd had his fingers crossed behind his back, and that seemed to have no effect. Luck was a fucking fake little liar.

So arching his arm back, and mustering up the loudest, most rage-filled roar he could, and pitched his arm forward, hurling the cell phone far away from him, as far as he could.

He watched it sail up into the air, seeming to defy gravity, before arching and falling, plummeting into the water with a definite splash. He thought about it. How he liked to do this when things got tough. Go somewhere remote, somewhere he had no intention of ever going again, and breaking or destroying something. He'd done in when his dad had died, he had done it when he'd been such a stupid fucker and cheated on Keltie, who wasn't right for him, but he shouldn't have treated like that. But there was a difference. Those times, Brendon had been with him.

At his shoulder.

Patting him soothingly, giving him comfort.

Being a friend.

Brendon hadn't been there when he'd done it after the band had split. And he wasn't here now.

"I get it." He said to no one. "I get that I'm not meant to be happy. Or at least for a long period of time. Thank you, cosmic universe for showing me that." He spat the words out bitterly.

Scuffed the dirt.

Got back into his car and drove away.

And had his phone not shorted out as it sunk below the water, it might have picked up the call. And it might just have been loud enough for Ryan to hear the ringtone.

But it had, and he didn't.