My Kryptonite (2019)

Chapter Five

That was horrible. Dropping my only brother, the only real family I have left, off in a strange place as he drunkenly cried out to me not to leave him. I barely made it back to Ryan's truck before I burst into uncontrollable sobs. I'm an ugly cryer too.

Somehow I ended up back at his place. For once in our long friendship, I couldn't face Olivia and have to explain to her what I can still barely wrap my head around myself.

"Here," Ryan offers, thrusting a steaming mug of cocoa carefully into my hands as I sit curled up on his leather couch.

"Thank you," I reply in a small, thoughtful voice as he sits down at a safe distance from me.

"Don't thank me," is his simple, monotoned answer.

"How much do you know about mine and Zach's family?" I ask bluntly, cutting right to the chase. "I mean do Howlers have special history lessons or something?"

He laughs at this, taking a sip from his own mug and unfortunately drawing attention to his plump lips in the process.

"I know enough," he replies with his usual guarded expression, looking blankly off into the distance behind me.

"So you know enough to know it's pretty messed up."

"Every family's pretty messed up, some are just better at hiding it than others," he replies frankly, returning his eyes to mine and sending a chilling shiver shooting down my spine.

"I'm just terrified at the prospect of history repeating itself," I sigh, taking another gulp of the warm liquid.

"It already isn't, I mean no offence but from what I remember no one was this fiercely protective of your dad before he ... well you know," Ryan replies with a refreshingly blunt honesty.

He must have still been pretty young around the time of my dad's epic downward spiral and fall from grace in the gang. It wasn't long after that he decided to leave my mom one final voicemail before downing a whole bottle of cheap whiskey and blowing his brains out all over his car's windshield mirror with his favourite pistol.

We sit under the radiating silence as we simultaneously dwell on the past. After a few seconds, Ryan slowly stands up and goes to retrieve something from the cabinet behind me before heading back to me holding a bottle of liquor.

"Want a top up?"

"Please," I insist unfalteringly as I thrust my cup towards him.

We sit for another moment of silence as I inspect him thoughtfully. I don't think I've ever met anyone with such an intense, stoic exterior. Is it stony all the way through? Or is that all it is; an exterior?

"Anyway, I should probably get going, I'll drive Zach's truck and park it near my place," I say, glancing at the clock, suddenly feeling self-conscious that I was just staring directly at him.

Ryan getting up to grab the keys for me is the last thing I remember as the next thing I know, my sleepy eyes are opening to the sound of birds singing.

Where am I?

I groan quietly as I manoeuvre my stiff body up from my buried position on the big leather couch and let my eyes adjust to the surroundings. I almost facepalm hard when I realise that I'm still in Ryan's house, huddled up in a sweaty mess under the soft throw he must have covered me with.

I find my phone tucked tightly in-between the sofa cushions and find a few confused messages from Olivia. I almost experience heart palpations when I read the time before grabbing my shoes.

"Want some breakfast?"

I screech to a halt, almost slamming into Ryan as I hurry frantically towards the front door. He's standing with his arms folded over his naked chest, highlighting his solo wolf tattoo and a small amused smirk on his face.