Hide Me (Ryan Fletcher)

Chapter 8 - Ryan

The sound of Joel gunning his car had been the only noise for the last ten minutes, and I could tell that he was about to snap. His barely contained rage was visible through the way he gripped the steering wheel and slammed his door on the brakes at the last second every time we hit a red light.

The fact that he was angry didn't surprise me; honestly I had expected him to be much worse than he was. The scar above his right knuckle from where he punched a kid who was spreading lies about sleeping with Jessie in high school just showed how far he would go to protect her, and I was worried about how he was bottling up his anger. Even if he just started swearing, at least it would calm him down a little, but this silence was unnerving.

What really surprised me though, was the intense anger that was slowly building inside of me. At first I had followed Joel to his car to stop him from doing something that would get him in trouble, but with each passing minute I was losing focus and starting to want to hit Will, the muscles in my hand protesting as my fists clenched.

"He's a dick." The words flew out of my mouth, Jessie's face as she told us what he did to her burning in my mind.

"I know." Joel's voice was strained as he turned onto a street and stomped on the breaks, halting the car in front of a block of flats that I assumed Will lived in.

"And he really hurt Jessie." I had no idea why the words wouldn't stop falling out of my mouth, but Joel looked dangerously close to hitting me.

"I know. And Ryan she's off limits. I don't want you or the other guys to hurt her." It was stupid; I hadn't even made a move on her but I still felt guilty as I attempted to look innocent and made a noise of agreement.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked, drumming my fingers on the door of the car, wanting to be moving or doing something to erase the thought of Jessie from my mind. She was all I thought about and it was scaring me; I didn't do relationships but I couldn't stop wondering if she was okay. I wondered if Joel would punch me if he knew that I was thinking about her this much. She was basically his sister and no matter what I may be feeling towards her, I was pretty sure she's off limits. he would never be okay with it and I would never go behind his back just for a girl.

Joel glanced at me, shooting me a confused look as he pulled the handbrake to park the car. I basically knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth.

"What do you mean we? I'm going to go in there and you're going to drive us home when I'm done." He muttered, turning back to stare at the run down apartment block in front of us.

"Are you kidding me? Joel what ever you're going to do, you're not that strong. I'm meant to be making sure you don't do anything stupid; how can I do that if I'm out here." I growled. I always had his back in fights and I wasn't going to stop now, especially when this was about Jessie.

"This is about Jessie. It's nothing to do with you Ryan, why are you fighting me on this?" Joel growled and I kept my mouth firmly shut, unable to answer him without letting something slip.

"Get ready to drive out of here." Was all I got in reply to my silence as Joel gave up waiting for me, flung open the car door and stormed into the grey building, leaving me in the car, clueless about what he was doing and who he was going to be facing.

After a few minutes of staring furiously at the appartment, I gave up on trying to work out what was happening. As far as I could see, nothing was on fire and I couldn't hear any sound of a fight which reassured me slightly, so instead of being mad at Joel I clambered over the console to the drivers seat and let my head fall back onto the headrest.

I was worried. Not only about Joel but about Jessie too. She had looked so lost as she finished telling her story and I couldn't stop myself from pulling her into a hug to try and comfort her. I didn't even stop to think about what Joel thought, she looked broken and I wanted to be the one to put her back together.

Pulling out my phone, I typed the familiar password and opened up a games app to distract me for as long as it took for Joel to get his anger out and make it back to the car. My eyes were glued to the screen as I tensely tapped the screen at the right time, smirking as the annoyingly small black ball turned at the right moment and made it around the corner of the zig zag.

My high score was in reach, just three more turns to make, as the slamming of a heavy door and the thundering of footsteps made me abandon the game and curse under my breath. Joel was bleeding from his nose, a black bruise forming under his left eye as he ran for the car. What made me groan though was the guy running after him, whom I assumed was the infamous Will. Quickly sliding the car door open, I was halfway onto the street when Joel reached me, shoving me back into my seat as he sprinted to the other side of the car. As I turned to watch him, my head smashed into the metal frame and a throbbing pain started as Joel slammed his door shut and yelled at me to drive.

"Dammit Joel you broke my skull." I growled as I stomped on the pedals and turned the steering wheel to get out of here before Will reached the car. My head was bleeding and I wiped the warm liquid from my forehead as I flicked the indicator and started turning the car.

"Shut up Ryan." Joel groaned, holding his nose to stop the bleeding, "Why are we at Tescos?"

"We were getting some milk remember?" I laughed at his confused face, unbuckling my seatbelt and climbing out of the car.

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Ily all if you're still reading this and I'm so sorry about my huge writers block. Also I did a competition on my insta (was lawson_is_my_life but is now redskylawson) for people to be the guys girlfriends but I can't remember who you were so if you're reading this then please comment :).

Unfortunately I have exams in a week and I'm probably not going to be updating this during them, but my 10 week holiday will be dedicated to Wattpad.

I'm actually so glad I changed my user because my friends Wattpad got discovered by some kids at school and it sucks because she had to delete everything :(