Silence

Chapter 13

         It wasn't going to be just us girls. They all thought it would be a good idea to invite the guys who invited more guys."Josie are you going in," Scott asks, and I shake my head. At least if it's just us girls, go I wouldn't care about my body and be all insecure. But guys like girls skinny and flat.

I stand to get something to drink when Scott is charging at me and pushes me in the water.

"Scott what the fuck" I exclaim and push him off. Yasmin apologizes about him, and he gets out of the water, and I assume they go make out.

"Hey," Ryan's familiar voice says, and it's the first time I see him shirtless hopefully not the last.

"Hey," I say back and mentally slapping myself in the face. Ryan splashes me, so I splash him back.

"You're on," he tells me, and I try to swim away, but he catches up to me and holds me captive.

"I'm never letting you go," he says, and then this is the moment where everything disappears, and it's just us, and we're about to kiss.

How about we don't try to sound like a terrible romance novel. I ended up elbowing him in the chest, and okay needs a second to recover.

Oops.

I left him in the pool cause as sweet as he is I need freedom. I'm sorry but telling someone that you're never letting them go scares me. I'm only 14 I have to stop acting like I'm going to marry these people.

"Since when do you know Kung Fu," he says, and he walks over to me. Water is dripping off his body, and I have the urge to jump on top of him.

"I watched the karate kid a lot," I say, and he laughs.

"Let's sit," he says and grabs a bag of chips someone brought, and I find two sprites. It was like we planned this I sat on a pool chair, and he sat next to me. Then it occurred to me what were we going to talk about and how to start the conversation.

"Josie I really like you-you're not like most girls I've met, please give me a chance at least," he says, and I don't know what to do. 

"Ryan I just got out of a relationship I don't think it's a good idea for me to rush into another one. You're a sweet guy, and you shouldn't have to deal with my stuff. But I want us to grow closer as friends and who knows what could happen" I tell him, and he smiles.

"Whatever makes you happy," he tells me, and I check the time.

"How about as our first act of friends we get out of here," I say, and he hops up and goes to grab his stuff and sadly his shirt. We begin to go on a walk and talk about school and Tom Holland.

"I think he's the best Spider-Man," I say, and he tries to give me reasons why his Spider-Man isn't as good.

"He's not as serious as the others," he says, and I hit him in the arm.

"Well he's only 15 years old," I say defending my baby Tom,

"Whatever," he says and rolls his eyes at me.

"Suck a dick," I say and elbow him, and first he winces then begin to laugh.

           Around seven he walks me back to my house, and I ask if he wanted my mom to drive him home. He tells me it's not a far walk and then walks off leaving me and my thoughts. But then I realized I didn't want him to go.

"Ryan wait!" I yell and run down the street being a fast runner was finally being worth it. I then look at him, and he turns around and looks at me.

I hugged him and thanked him for thanking me home, and he hugged me back. I did want to kiss him again, but I needed to be selfless and think about his feelings. As I ran back home so I wouldn't get in trouble

I smiled. 

           Over the next weeks, everything stayed settled down due to an incident with the football coaches at the other schools, so the games were put on pause. I kept my grades up and even lost some weight and started eating healthy.

I got closer to my new friends, and no drama had occurred in our friend group. 

Stasia, Issac, and Dylan and I hung out more and I got to meet Issac's hilarious family. We planned this game to plan his wedding. His dad said that he thought the theme should be black and white.

But his mother said it was going to be tie-dye theme, and we all started to laugh. Stasia and I hung out a lot more, but she still refused to hang out with Davina and all of them.

Dylan still didn't seem to like me but it was fine cause I was going to let that bring me down. I wanted to ask him if he was okay and feeling fine. But he would probably ignore me and make me feel bad about myself.

As my father drove me to school and I met up with Martin and Lena same old same routine. This time I left early to go to Dylan's locker. I watched as he exited the drama classroom and then he made eye contact with me, and I smiled at him.

"Hey what's up," he said surprising me.

"Are you okay you're never kind to me?" I say trying to stop myself from laughing.

"I'm feeling happy these days I guess it's cause I'm not afraid anymore," he tells me.

"Care to evaporate penny for your thought," I say and he doesn't accept my penny, but we walk to the library.

"Well my dad got a job, and my mom might get one as well. Drew and Stasia are good for each other, and I feel good" he says and then my eyes flash to his arm. Did that mean he stopped cutting or that he's not depressed anymore?

"So I'm sorry that I was rude to you before I was going through stuff and I thought you were like most girls" he tells me and I pat him on the back and then the bell rings.