The Story of Us

Chapter 3

My dad looks on a little confused, then looks at my knee mutters "Stairs again..." And looks at Ryan. Ryan stands up a bit intimidated and reaches out his hand.

"Nice to meet you sir, I'm Ryan a uh... Friend of Cassie's," my father shakes his hand with one of those, I bet my hand is stronger than your hand, men handshakes. ((Okay if you didn't understand what I said, I apologize but it's not relevant to anything important))

My dad nods,"I'm Jim it's nice to meet you son. This is my wife Sarah, and our youngest, Jayson." My dad seems so awkward I doubt he-or my mom- ever expected me to have a boy over. They probably thought my life goals were to take care of old people and read every book at the public library. Wells joke's on them cause an actual nice looking boy came to our house looking for me. So one point to Cassie.

My mom and Ryan shake hands and introduce themselves, and my mom-when she think Ryan doesn't see- mouths to me, "He's really cute!" My cheeks get hot and Ryan grins at me. Jayson introduces himself, and for being 14 he's a pretty cocky guy. "I'm Jayson, Cassie's uh... Cooler and more popular brother."

Ryan isn't impressed he just nods, "Mmhmm." I can tell he wants to say something back to Jay but doesn't.

I'm very surprised my parents haven't asked why he's here or asked for the complete story of why a stranger is kneeling in front of me holding my leg. My mom speaks up, "Well Ryan, since your here why don't you just stay for dinner?"

"I don't want to intrude..." Ryan begins to protest, but my mother is a very stubborn woman.

"No, no. I insist, just so long as it's okay with your parents you can stay for as long as you'd like." My mom gives this sparkling smile, my mom was prom queen. Why you may ask? Because my mom is probably the most gorgeous woman I've met in real life. When she was 15 she won the pageant at our state fair.

"If you are sure than I guess I'll stay." He smiles back with an almost as award winning as my mom's.

"If you don't mind Jay will show you Cassie's room, I've got to talk to her." Ryan nods politely and Jay and him walk upstairs and Jayson shows him my room and look at my mom, waiting. "Who is that, Cassie?" She smiles. My mom has a tendency to act like a teenager. It's cool, but annoying as well.

"That's Ryan... I met him at the library," I said shortly. Worried that Jayson would've seen Aladin. He is very allergic to cats. (And I'm not supposed to let him in the house anymore! Oops) My mom indicates she wants more details and I shrug. My mom is SOOO nosey. I get up to leave and she looks annoyed.

"Have fun, dinner will be ready soon...." I don't hear the rest of her sentence because I'm already gliding up the stairs, and slipping into my room.

My breath hitches when I see how Ryan has been occupying himself (NO NOT LIKE THAT YOU DIRTY LITTLE MONSTERS, gross). We was reading. Not just reading any old book on my shelf, no he was reading MY books. The stories and poems and random 3 A.m. thoughts that I get. He glances up. "You... You are an amazing author Cassie," he glances down at my pages, and I'm still stunned to see him read what makes up my very soul. He begins to read from the page that I've written, "How can a person ever say a word? How can their voice be heard and their emotions understood, if all that the listener hears, is something it was never intended to be?" his words flow over me and for a minute and I forget it's my work that he's merely reciting. "Nothing is realized the way you mean. People say the eye of a hurricane is calm and peaceful, but how can a person who is surrounded by all the chaos and pain, feel peace? Feel calm? You can't. You can't vocalize your feelings unless you want them to be taken at your own liberty. You say one thing and it is still much, much deeper than what it may appear to be. 'The roots run deep' is a saying used when talking about your family, but in speaking I think it has equally deep meaning. The words can be few, the words can been many, but it will always be taken-the meaning, the feeling you give someone after speaking to them- is much deeper a result than what was meant. So tell me, how can one ever say a word?"

His words had caught, he spoke to me with such a deep intense little feeling that all I felt myself, was him. His voice seemed to vibrate through the floorboards and up into my shoes, through my legs and gave my stomach a twist and a pull, it traveled to my heart and lungs and made my breath seem to slip and my heart flutter. They ran through my neck and made my head spin. He had a voice that could end a war just by a single command. I regained composure, taking back my own thoughts and rendering them mine.

"Why'd you read that to me...?" I ask after a moment, still not noticing that Aladin had slipped out of my window again. He set down my journal carefully and looked into my eyes, giving me the same initial feeling I had when I first met him.

"Because I feel you didn't realize how beautiful it was," and at that I nodded. I hadn't.

My mom called us down to dinner a moment later. I yelled back softly that we would be right down. "Ryan you can head down I've got to do something." He nodded and left not questioning me, which I appreciated.

I walked over to the window and shut it slowly, still overtaken by his voice, but only slightly. It dawns on me as I set my journal back down that he may have just pulled a "the roots run deep". As I carefully left my bedroom, and descended the stairs, I realized just how different Ryan would be from the rest.
•••
As a relatively quiet dinner ended my mom out on the smile one more time to try and get Ryan's entire family to dinner. "Ryan dear, if you'd approve I would love to meet the rest of your family, what about dinner when ever your free?"

He smiled nicely, "I'll just text or call Cassie when I know." The conversation kept going, slow and boring, until Ryan started talking about something, I came back from space camp. ((If you didn't get that either just go ahead and ignore it XD)) "Well I should get going, thank you so much for the dinner, Sarah." He doesn't hesitate to call my parents by their first names, I like that.

He and I get up at a near same time and walk to our front door, he opens it and we slip out onto our porch. "Thanks for bringing home my library card."

"Oh ya, no problem, thanks for supper and all." I nod shortly then he adds. "Can I have your number... I only have your address and unless you wanna pull a Romeo and Juliet-" I stop him by grabbing his phone and punching in my number.

"Hope you don't know too many Cassie's," I say with a short smile and hand him back his phone. There is a pause for a moment then I speak. "I uh guess I'll see soon for super," I smile slowly, and he nods returning the smile.

"Guess so."
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Hi guys! So thanks for reading my story, and I apologize if you don't understand how i word things, and I also apologize for the lack of care in small details and grammar. But please vote and keep reading! :) thanks guys! P.s. When I put words in single parentheses, it's what Cassie has to add, but when I put things in double parenthesis it's what I'm adding, haha thought id let u know! :D
-Mel