Saving Panic's! Ryan

Chapter 8

It was getting late now and I felt my sadness weighing on me as each second ticked by. Why did Ryan have to leave? Why couldn't he stay more than one weekend? These last 48 hours have meant more to me than anything. If I could only repeat one moment for the rest of my life, I would choose our moment in the kitchen this morning, fooling around and spilling pancake batter. Just thinking about it made me smile.

Ryan settled in on the floor, getting ready to go to bed. I was laying under the covers in my bed, looking down at him. He caught my eye and looked at me with a smirk. "What?"

I patted the covers on my bed. "I don't mean to sound weird, but why don't you sleep up here tonight? I don't want you to have sore muscles on your long drive tomorrow."

"I don't want to overstep my boundaries or anything."

"Overstep your boundaries? Ryan, I'm offering." I laughed.

"Maybe I could lay up there for a little while." He got up off the floor, bringing some of his blankets with him. I scooted over and draped my comforter over both of us. "I'll get back down when I start to get tired."

I snorted and he looked at me with a puzzled expression. I took the hint and started to explain myself. "I don't understand why there's a stereotype when it comes to sleeping in a bed with someone else. If we were sleeping next to each other on the floor, it wouldn't be weird, right? So why is a bed any different?"

He shrugged and turned to me. Our faces were so close now. I silently admired his fluffy hair and sweet eyes. "I don't know. I don't make the rules. Doesn't it feel weird though? To be sharing a bed with me right now?"

"Not to me. Why? Does it feel weird to you?"

He sighed. "It's not that it makes me feel weird or uncomfortable, it's the stereotype I guess. I just feel like I shouldn't be doing this. Everyone else would probably scold me for sharing a bed with a girl that I met less than 48 hours ago."

"And I'm sure even more people would scold me for sharing a bed with a boy that I met less than 48 hours ago."

"In that case, we'll show them!"

"Yeah!" I added on. "We'll show them that it's not weird at all."

"I mean, maybe it's a little weird." I could tell he was joking and I reached over and flopped one of my pillows over his face. He laughed, throwing it back over to me, and soon we found ourselves in a pillow fight. Actually, it was more like a bedding fight. Pillows and blankets were being strewn around my room and we were chasing each other around like crazy, dodging the incoming missiles.

As we stomped around my room, I heard my dad walk down the hallway and stop near my door. Ryan and I froze. "What are you doing, Abby?"

Luckily I thought of something quickly. "Just some cardio before I head to bed!"

"Alright. Well, don't stay up too late."

"I won't. Night!"

"Night, Abby."

Ryan and I took this as a sign to settle down and started picking up my bedding, plopping it back down before crawling back into bed ourselves.

"Like I said," Ryan began. "As soon as I start to fall asleep I'll get back on the floor."

He did not.

Ryan fell asleep shortly after our little bedding fight. He must have tired himself out. I snuggled closer to him, thankful that he had fallen asleep before he could move away again. I wanted to stay like this forever.

Part of me wished that he was still awake so we could spend some more time talking, and the other part of me was content to just lay near him, thinking about our weekend together. I thought back to when I first talked to him and I instantly regretted it when I offered him to stay at my place for the weekend. It turns out that my silly little fangirl question was one of the best decisions I ever made.