This is dedicated to fellow wattpad user Melissa, or bauer20melissa! I hope you like it! :)
"Melissa." I hear a voice hiss.
I turn around to look into the pleading gaze of Ryan, my current archenemy. I give him a hateful glare and he pouts at me.
I think the look he was going for was dejected puppy, however he looks more like a constipated weasel.
I turn around before I can laugh and blow my cover. See, yesterday at lunch, he stole one of my gummy bears. I've been shunning him ever since. I'm not really that mad at Ryan, but I figured I'd make him suffer a little bit. And boy, is he suffering.
"Melissa!" His voice is louder this time and causes the school librarian to glare at him over the rim of her glasses.
"Mr. Sierocki, if you don't mind, this is a quiet studying area. Either you stop talking or you leave." She snaps, her tone filled with menace.
"Sorry, Mrs. Fitzhapen." He says, guiltily.
I snicker silently.
After a while, I hear paper tearing and then a small paper ball lands directly next to my binder on the table.
I don't want to pick it up, but eventually curiosity gets the better of me.
I pick it up and unfurl the paper slowly.
On it is a roughly drawn puppy staring up at me with hopeful doe eyes, then "I'm sorry" in Ryan's messy scrawl.
My lips twitch up slightly. I don't have the heart to throw it away, so I stick it inside my binder's front.
The bell rings right that moment, signaling the end of the period and I quickly gather my things and scurry out of the library. Ryan follows close behind.
He catches me before I can escape to my last period Chemistry class.
"What?" I say, haughtily. I avoid his gaze. It was getting harder and harder to be cruel to him. And seeing those big brown eyes and soft, shaggy dark blond hair would only make me capitulate. Must stay strong, Melissa!
"I'm sorry, Mel." He says, genuinely.
I sigh. Looks like I've lost this battle.
I'm about to tell him it's okay, when he speaks first.
"I'll buy you a whole new pack."
I look at him, coyly.
"Oh?" I say, demurely.
"Yeah!" He says, eagerly. "I can even take you out, ya know, if you want."
I look at him then, surprised. Did he just ask me out?
He turns beet red.
"Sorry, that was the wrong thing to--"
"No. I mean, yes." I laugh. "Yes, we should go."
He looks at me, and his eyes light up.
"Great. This Friday? At 7?"
I laugh at his eagerness and nod.
He smiles goofily at me.
"I'll see ya later." He says.
"Yeah, yeah." I say, smiling softly.
Before he can leave, I say, "And don't think this exempts you from getting me those gummy bears."
He laughs. "I wouldn't dream of it."
*-*-*-*
Friday night rolls around pretty quickly.
I opt for a loose fitting blue blouse, skinny jeans and a pair of black ballet flats with the over the phone help of my good friend Abby. She was rather excited that Ryan and I were going out and told me repeatedly that she'd always known it would happen. As if.
Ryan knocks on the door at promptly 7 o'clock. I rush down the stairs to open the door and my little sister, Amanda, and I reach the door at the same time. I give her a warning look before opening the door.
I smile widely at Ryan, who stands there, looking ridiculously nervous.
He smiles faintly at me and the looks at Amanda, and smiles even wider.
"Hey, Melissa and Amanda." He greets. Ryan and I have known each other since we were both 3 feet tall, so he knows a lot about me, including the fact that I have a sister.
He's wearing a pair of dark jeans, a blue button flannel shirt and a pair of sneakers. You could tell that he'd tried to get his shaggy hair away from his face, but one curly strand had fallen back across his forehead. He looked positively adorable.
My mom strolls down the hall and her and Ryan greet each other warmly. After we've been through all the niceties, Ryan and I leave and walk to his red Honda civic.
He takes me out to dinner at Panera and we talk and laugh about old times. He reminds me of the time in 4th grade when our entire class pranked the sub, using different names. And I remind him of how he used to steal my cookies in second grade.
"Old habits die hard." He says with a wink.
We talk about sports; him and basketball and me and softball. And all that talk about sports leads to the talk about my accident and my shoulder surgery. He sympathizes with me, telling me that he really hopes everything goes smoothly and that he'd be there for me if I needed him. I smile and thank him, telling him how much I appreciate it.
We leave Panera at around 8:30 and on our way to the car, he tells me that all that's left is grand finale to our evening.
"And what's that gonna be?"
He grins. "Well, if I told you, silly, then it wouldn't be as exciting."
I roll my eyes at that, fighting a smile.
After a while of driving, he makes me promise to close my eyes and swear on my life not to open them.
We reach a stop.
"Make sure you keep your eyes closed, okay?" He says.
"They're closed." I reassure him.
He gets out of the car and runs over to my side to help me out.
He walks with me for a short while, one of his hands over my eyes and the other holding my hand.
"You know, this is getting disorienting."
"Shhhh, we're almost there."
We go through a few doors and he turns me around before he leaves me to stand alone and scurries off somewhere.
Then I hear stadium lights turning on and him calling out to me, "Open your eyes!"
I do immediately and look around to see that we're in our towns softball stadium after hours. A few feet in front of me is a brown teddybear with a bow tie and... and a big bag of HARIBO Gold-bears.
I turn around to look at him and my face almost splits in half from my way too massive smile. He smiles back at me modestly.
I run over to him and fling my arms around him.
He laughs before wrapping his arms around me as well and pulling me into a tight embrace. I smile into his shoulder.
"Glad you like the Grand Finale." He says.
I pull away to look at him and then say seriously, "Ryan, I don't like the Grand Finale, I love it."
And then he kisses me. My hands move up to run through his hair and his arms pull me closer to him. He smells faintly of cologne and his lips are soft against mine. We pull apart and he moves a hand to my face and brushes a thumb across my cheek.
He smiles and I smile back at him.
"Thank you." I say, softly.
"It was my pleasure."
I disentangle myself from him and run over to the center of the stadium to retrieve my teddy bear and gummy bears.
