Bounce Back

Chapter 34

Ryan's POV

Since the night that I spent at Tyler's we had been closer. We still hadn't completely talked about Rob but Tyler had calmed down about it and had said that they hadn't heard from him again. I knew that he wasn't convinced that he was gone for good.

He, James and the rest of the basketball team were all away at State Champs his week. We didn't bother trying to convince Coach to let me come and help because I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

He had been texting me about the games and how they had been going and so far they hadn't been tested yet and all their games had been pretty easy.

Jordan had decided that instead of the go to the library afterschool we should go out and do something. I knew that it was mostly aimed at me so that I wasn't going to overwork myself but we all agreed to his plan.

For once I followed all the other students out of the classrooms and out of the school building to wait for my friends outside. Drew was already there and moments after I joined him Morgan and Jamie joined us.

"What are we doing today?" Morgan asked Jamie.

"We are going to watch a movie," he smiled.

As we headed out he told us about some superhero movie that someone had told him was good. I wasn't completely convinced but I agreed to watch it. The local cinema wasn't far from school so it wasn't long until we were paying for food and tickets.

I send a last text to Tyler so he knew that I wouldn't reply for a while before switching my phone off and pocketing it. The movie was slightly average but James was right that it was good way to get my mind off everything else.

I had a couple of texts from Tyler that I didn't look at as we headed out.

"We should all go out for dinner," Jamie suggested.

"I can't. My brothers are in town," I said.

"All of them?" Drew asked in disbelief.

I was just as surprised when I heard because to get three guys, two of which play professional basketball and another who plays at college is pretty much impossible but I nodded because it was true.

"How come?" Morgan asked.

"To discuss what I am doing next year. In other words, them all trying to tell me to do something else," I complained.

All three of my friends groaned at that. I knew that it was going to be a difficult discussion with five of them on the same side arguing with me.

"If you need someone to talk to you can call us," Jordan said.

I nodded before leaving them to head home so that I could make it home in time. As I walked I texted Tyler a couple of times as I walked. I had already told him about the upcoming dinner and he had offered the same thing that my friends had.

I stood in front of our house for a minute before pushing the door open and heading to join my family in the kitchen. All three of my brothers were already there and I got tightly hugged by all of them.

Mom had just finished making dinner so we moved to the table. For the first ten minutes we all caught up what the other three had been doing but we all knew where the conversation was going to be going.

It was especially obvious when Jamie started talking about the really interesting thing that he was doing in one of the classes. I don't know what their problem was but I didn't say anything. No one properly broached the subject of college.

At last we started talking about it once we were all finished dinner.

"Of course Ryan, we still have to talk about what you are going to do next year," Mom said.

I nodded and no one knew exactly what to say.

"You've heard it from our parents but you haven't heard it from us but Dan, Jason and I have been talking about it and we aren't sure about what you want to do," Jamie said.

"No one said anything when any of you guys went to college so why is it a big deal now?" I asked.

"Because we know that you are really smart and we want you to go study something that is going to get you a job," Dad said.

"But this is what I want to do. Isn't it my decision?"

"Of course it is but as your Father said we want to make sure that you are making a sensible decision," Mom said.

I wanted to bang my head on the table because every fucking time that we had this conversation we would just go around in fucking circles.

"And we are a little worried that you might just be following Tyler," Jason added.

I paused for a minute and when I glanced around the table I knew that everyone else had thought it but Jason was the first one to say it.

"I'm sick and tired of this conversation. I have a full scholarship so I'm going to go to UCLA and study what I want to study and you can either stop complaining or leave it alone," I snapped.

No one said anything and I grabbed my plate, dumped it in the sink before fleeing upstairs. I shut the door behind me so I couldn't hear any conversation the rest of my family was having.

I reached for my phone and dialled Tyler's number. I was so pleased when he answered after a couple of rings.

"How was it?" he asked immediately.

"I'll tell you later but I really don't want to talk about it now. I'd rather just listen to you talk," I said softly.

I think that he nodded because he started to talk about the games that they had today. I could feel myself calming down as he talked about this one player who couldn't shoot anything and another who fouled out in one quarter.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep as Tyler talked. What he was telling me was barely registering anymore as I felt my eyelids shut. I think that Tyler must have realise this too because he said one last thing.

"Look after yourself Ry. I'll be there in a couple of days."

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The Wise One