Fighting to go on

Chapter 5

            Friday came around quickly. In English class Ryan offered to drive us to his place after school. Sarah declined, saying her mom would give her a ride, but I accepted after hesitating briefly. I didn’t want to have to walk all the way to his place.

            The morning went by smoothly with nothing out of the ordinary happening. But at lunch, something happened that shocked everyone in the cafeteria, including Charlie, Sarah and myself.

            The three of us had settled at our now regular table, and a couple of Charlie’s friends had joined us as well. Nothing unusual.

            But then Ryan came over and sat next to me. The whole cafeteria went silent, not only because Ryan joined us, but because his group of friends then decided to sit with as well. Within a couple of minutes, there were eleven people crammed around the table.

            I gave Ryan a questioning look. “Uh, what are you doing?” I asked.

            “Sitting with you. I figured since we’re friends, we should sit together and you should meet my other friends,” he said, indicating the five people who had come with him.

            I glanced down at the people who had joined us. They were all guys and all of them gave off the vibe that they shouldn’t be messed with, but not anywhere near as much as Ryan. I looked at Ryan again, a little uneasy. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I said quietly.

            “Don’t worry, they’re all harmless. That’s Chase, Brandon, Shawn, Mike and Cooper.” He pointed at each guy as he said their names.

             I gave them a very timid smile. “Well, you know Sarah, and you briefly met my bother. Those are two of his friends, John and Brad.”

            Ryan nodded at them, then turned back to his friends. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just ate my lunch. Sarah was equally shocked as she sat on my other side. At one point, she leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Is it just me, or are we seriously outnumbered by guys at this table?”

            I glanced around at the table and realized she was right. There were nine guys and only us two girls. I chuckled, causing Ryan give me a questioning look. “We just realized that we are seriously outnumbered here,” I explained.

            Ryan frowned as he thought for a minute, and then understanding dawned. He grinned at me, and I noticed again how much it softened him and made him seem more approachable. “You do know that half the girls in this school are going to be very jealous of you, right?”

            I rolled my eyes. “Sure, they’ll be jealous that we suddenly got swarmed with scary ass looking guys at our table. With the lead scary ass dude sitting right beside them.” I was no longer shocked at how I spoke to him. It was as if he drew out the person I used to be, before my mom died.

            Ryan quirked a brow. “Lead scary ass dude?”

            I smiled at him sheepishly. “Well, you have to admit, you are kinda scary. And while you’re friends are as well, you’re the scariest, because you’re the biggest and you have this look that says approach-me-and-die. I doubt that any of your friends can do it as well as you do.”

            For some reason, Ryan looked pleased about this. “It’s true. None of them can hold a candle to my look.”

            Chase obviously heard him, because he piped up. “Dude, that’s not something to be proud of. That look has lost you a lot of women before.”