Hold on for the Ride

Part One

"Hey Ryan, whatsup?"

"Oh not much Rose..."

I heard some shuffling and then a sniffle.

"Ryan, are you okay?"

"Um yeah, I'm good. Just listening to some music."

There was no way he was just 'listening to music', I heard all kinds of noises around him.

"Come on, you've got to tell me what's going on!"

"Rose, it's kinda hard to do that through the phone."

"Where should I meet you?" I was beginning to become worried.

"Um how about Moe's?"

"Okay, be there in ten."

I hopped out of bed and grabbed my car keys. When I pulled into the parking lot I noticed Ryan hadn't gotten out of his car just yet so I ran over to the car window to scare him, that's kind of how our friendship worked. Before I pulled through with my act, I noticed he had a black eye, I knew something was up! I threw open the passenger door.

"Oh, Ryan!" I said, trying too hard not to sound like his mother, but completely failing.

"It's not as bad as it looks, just a little scratch, I'll be fine."

"What happened?"

He looked dazed, confused.

"I don't really remember..."

"Wait wha-"

"I uh, got knocked out, but DON'T FREAK OUT!"

"No, what? How? Who?"

"I," he swallowed hard, "I don't remember."

"Oh my goodness, why didn't you tell me? Do you think you have a concussion?"

"Well it just happened, I think. And no, I'm fine."

"Want me to drive you to the ER?
"Rose, it's just a black eye, I'll be fine, okay?"

"Okay, can I at least drive you home and then we can pick up your truck before school tomorrow?" I didn't want him driving.

He nodded, looking straight ahead. This was honestly not like Ryan at all. He was usually pretty excited to see me, and not this mellow. It must have been whatever fight he got into this time. I tried not to meddle with his life, but sometimes it was so hard not to. We pulled into his driveway and I was going to walk him up to his front door like I usually did, but he just waved his hand and said thanks. Something was totally wrong, but again I didn't want to seem like that clingy, annoying friend.

Once I got home, I poured myself a glass of orange juice and plopped down on the couch. I was still worried about Ryan, but tried to get my mind off of things by turning on the TV. I really attempted to focus on something else but it wasn't working. This wasn't Ryan, normally he showered me in thanks if I just grabbed him a napkin during lunch because he always seemed to forget one. But when I drove him home, all he did was stare straight ahead at the road. It wasn't like he was angry or upset, but scared. The blankness in his expression only meant he didn't want to show it. I decided to put in my headphones and lay down on my bed for a bit thinking things through and I woke up the next morning with the same playlist cascading through my ears.

I looked at my phone, it was only five in the morning so I decided to grab my bike from the garage and go for a quick trip down to Sal's Cups of Coffee, my local coffee shop.

"Hello Ms. Rosalie, coffee with cream and extra sugar?" said my favorite middle aged coffee barista, Carrie.

"Yes m'am!"

"What brought you here so early?"

"Oh nothing, just needed some time to think!"

"Gotchya, here's your medium coffee! Get thinking, I'm sure this caffeine will help," she said with a wink.

I sat down at one of the round tables and pulled out my phone, there was a message from Ryan. It read, "hey sorry bout last night. it was a bad one, thanks for the ride man." I smiled, his texts seemed to do that to me a lot, even if they were apologies. I replied, "it's alright dude. you sure you're doing okay? hoping your eye isn't swollen shut!" "yeah I'm good." Wait a second, why was he replying at five in the morning? "did you sleep last night?" "mmm sorta, not really. again, it was a bad night." Okay something was definitely up and I needed to know what. Last time I tried to help Ryan he kind of pushed me away. Not physically, he would never do that to me. But the more I tried to help him, the more he distanced himself from me. That's why I've been less clingy lately. I let these things go through my head for a little and it made me think. What matters more, Ryan liking me, or Ryan being okay? Would he push me away again? Would I even be able to help him? I mean I didn't even know what was wrong. All I could do was sip my last bit of coffee down, put my feet on the pedals, and hold on for the ride.