Triple Trouble

26|| A Ryder Holiday (P2)

r y d e r

It was time. I was finally going to pour out my feelings to Mia and possibly humiliate myself to a great extent if she didn't feel the same way.

That and I'd probably lose my bad boy side forever. Let me tell you, I didn't think I'd lose it so early in my life. I always thought I could keep it until I was like twenty five or something. I was having a serious crisis too early in my life to be a mid-life crisis, that's for sure.

Well, I hoped so.

Mia was, as cliché as it may sound, sitting on a swing at the park, the wind blowing her hair slightly, just very easily letting our conversation go on.

Honestly, it was probably a horrible idea to go through this plan. It would possibly be best if I just went home and move on from her, find someone else to have feelings for, someone who wasn't my best friend.

We were just calmly swinging , me trying to act as normal as possible without looking more stupid than I already did. Truthfully, my heart was beating quite frantically as we talked about the most random topics, ranging from butterflies to clowns.

Mia seemed very much into the conversation we were having, laughing almost every five seconds about another stupid, corny joke I said. God, she was beautiful.

A few moments later, I sat on the grass right beside the swing she was on. Soon, she also sat on the grass beside me as I continued our ongoing conversation about monkeys. I told you, random. It was a mystery how we got to that topic, but we did anyway. 

"You just don't get it, M. You won't understand my fear of them unless you actually experience going to the zoo and have an angry monkey jump on your head."

"I just don't know how it could've even happened to you, Bear. It sounds crazy. All animals in any zoo almost anywhere you go in the world are either caged or trained. How is it possible that the monkey just jumped onto your head like that? Wait, let me guess, you took a picture with it?"

"Well, yeah, but to my defense, no one ever told me that it wasn't allowed. At least my fear is reasonable, unlike my brother. He's scared of getting a shot and not a gunshot. No, a vaccine shot. He's a twenty five year-old that looked like he'd cry every time we had to get a flu shot. Beside that point, monkeys creep me out. They all look like they wanna kill me," I reasoned.

It wasn't like he was scared of needles either. My brother actually had a few tattoos and a piercing. He was just scared of injections.

"Okay, fine. Be scared of monkeys all you want, but you have to admit, the monkey drawing Luke's brother gave you the last time he went to your house is adorable," she finally said, somewhat agreeing with my argument, ending our debate about monkeys once and for all.

Why couldn't she just like bears? Or pigs or something? Why did she have to love the one animal I was afraid of? That was just amazing.

I took the flower she was playing with from her hand and tucked it, along with her flowing hair, behind her ear.

I was grinning when I told her, "Keep your hair away from your face, M. It keeps me from seeing how beautiful you are." 

And even if I didn't want to, I knew it was time to say something, "It keeps me from seeing the beauty I think I'm slowly falling for."

Those words were pure and genuine.

"Is that your way of saying you like me, Ry?" she stared into my eyes, "Well, it's flattering and all, but I don't think I'm the kind of person that should be with you. I don't know if I'd be able to handle you. I think we'd be better off as friends, partners. I'm sorry, I really am, Bear."