Losing Her Wings

Chapter 12

What no-one knew was that Waldo had arrived on campus to see Ryan that day, after he had kissed Skylar, hoping to talk through the tricky Ruby situation with him. He was hoping to resolve it at some point but when he heard the gossip about Ryan’s kiss and how he had used the new girl, he was confused as to what to think. He had thought he was so completely cut up by the break up that there was no chance of a reconciliation but it seemed obvious that bad blood wasn’t the only thing keeping them from making up after the misunderstanding. He made his way through the campus only to be sent to the dorm rooms by some jock who said he was likely to be found there. He knocked on the door but when there was no answer and he heard a thud from inside, he got a little worried about what was going on inside. He knocked a little more thoroughly and began shouting on Ryan but to no avail. With a sharp nudge of his shoulder and some determination he got the door open, only to find a young girl lying on the floor with the chair it appeared she had been sitting on tipped onto its side.

“Hey…are you alright?” He asked, crouching down to the girl and checking her pulse, relieved when after a few moments she came to sharply, looking as if she had just woken up with a start. He repeated his question and helped her to her feet, relieved to hear her pass it off as nothing and admit that she was okay. He waited until she got settled, choosing to sit on her bed instead of the fallen chair that he very graciously placed back in front of the desk. “I was told I’d find Ryan here…Ryan Palmer.” Waldo explained, confused at finding a random girl instead of his old friend, looking around the room as if he was about to jump out of a cupboard somewhere to surprise them. But she knew it would only disappoint him if she told him that he wasn’t likely to find Ryan anywhere because she had no idea where he was and he wasn’t about to show up anytime soon.

“Ryan? I don’t know why he’d be here unless he was trying to kiss me again…” Skylar’s words came out with the stain of an unconscious disgust that Waldo found amusing as she gestured for him to take a seat, which he did at the comfortable distance of her desk chair. He realised that the rumours he had heard were true and for some reason Ryan hadn’t taken his break up with Ruby as seriously as he claimed he had. The fact that he had blatantly lied about it made him angry because it had been his anger and feelings of betrayal that had stopped him from bringing up Ruby again.

“I take it you’re not exactly happy about it? I’m a little surprised myself. The last I saw him he was really cut up about Ruby. Maybe you don’t know about her…” He guessed that she didn’t know but the look on her face said differently and when she apologised for how badly it had affected them both, he couldn’t help but smile and agree that it was hard for him to get over but from the sounds of Ryan’s activities of late, it didn’t seem the same for him. She agreed with him easily, with a soft smile before admitting that she hoped he was simply bottling it up in order to get through it better. “Yeah, that’s not really Ryan though. He doesn’t do masking his emotions. I’m beginning to think he’s not got any left. Before Ruby…he was his usual self but now that I hear how he’s been acting, after telling me he loved Ruby and couldn’t get over the betrayal…” His words trailed off into silence that made Skylar realise how mad he was at his apparent friend, and she wasn’t surprised when he replied to her simple suggestion that he talk to Ryan, by saying that he would if he could find him. Again she had to apologise for not knowing where he was but admitting that he could stick around for as long as he liked if he really expected to find him in her room at some point.

“I don’t expect to see him around here anytime soon and if he did show up, I’d turn him away within a second. But, if you want to leave a number then I can get him to call you…” She smiled, offering him a contact point with the thought running through her head that she had to get Waldo back with Ruby and make them both happy. He accepted her offer and used a notepad and pen from her desk to jot down his number and address, only to see from her look that she wasn’t finished. “Or you could hang around town for a few days and speak to him yourself.” Her suggestions wasn’t exactly impossible but he knew that if he did stick around and keep coming to campus to see Ryan he was bound to bump into Ruby at some point and somehow Skylar could see that thought in him and decided to explain how she saw it to give him another option. “You know Ryan’s made her life here hell…he’s told everyone she’s a liar and a cheat, that she’s a whore. I seem to be the only one to see how mixed up she was, being his girlfriend and then meeting you. It’s understandable that if you had an instant connection with her that you should be together, she was just too scared to break it off with Ryan and now I can see why. He’s more vindictive and spiteful, more…popular and mean than I expected him to be.” She explained it all so well and told Waldo things he never knew in such a way that all he could do was admit that maybe it was a good idea for him to stay after all. This girl, this amazing girl who seemed to see right through him and Ryan equally, was trying to tell him that Ruby was heartbroken without him and that Ryan had done that to her by being spiteful and cruel to her, unable to believe that she had been afraid of hurting them both by admitting the truth. And if that was the case, there was nothing for him to do other than stick around and talk to Ryan before approaching Ruby and seeing if she could forgive him and understand him as well as this Skylar person could. Because if she could, then he knew they could go back to where they left off, be a real couple and be together just as they both wanted to be, regardless of anything Ryan said or did or felt about it.