The Good Within

Chapter 2: A Storm

The second my lecture ends, I walk out of the building, ready to use the two gap hours I have between classes to go back to my dorm and change before I start sniffing Ryan's sweatshirt like a freak. Only the second my feet touch the last step of stairs, I hear someone loudly call my name.

"Yo, Nell!" Ryan stands before me with a huge grin, two cups of coffee and a brown bag. "Tell me you don't have another class now."

Laughing, I shake my head at him, my heart warming inside my chest at the sweet gesture. Blushing at the attention we have caught by other students, I bite my bottom lip. "What if I do?"

"Then we better make these ten minutes count, beautiful." He grins mischievously, those baby blue eyes filled to the brim woth determination and I can't help but laugh again.

Maybe coming to school was the right decision to make after all. Maybe I am capable of making friends, of being normal. Maybe I can finally live and have fun.

"What do you have in mind, exactly?" Acceptting the coffee, I ask, willing my excitement to stay hidden beneath a calm tone.

"Well, getting to know each other while I walk you to your next class, of course." His answer makes me blush again, and I wonder if he is interested in a friendship, or more.

I would be ecstatic with either, I realize, as I give him a shy nod. "That sounds fantastic. But, I actually do have two hours to kill before my next lecture."

"That's even better!" Ryan's enthusiasm can be heard in his loud voice and I giggle with warm cheeks when I see some students giving him weird looks that he doesn't seem to care about. "I bought donuts, so how about it? You, me, coffee and donuts?"

"Sounds like a plan." I nod my agreement, and he leads me to one of the caveterias around campus. When I mention that I'm a freshman and had no idea that there was more than one caveteria, he acts as my tour guide, explaining what each building that we pass has and doesn't have.

I don't have the heart to tell him that I have already been acquainted with everything here, except the second mysterious caveteria he's taking me to. Instead, I nod my head in understanding, enjoying his outgoing personality and extroverted character a lot.

Because as sad as it is, I've never had anyone talk to me so much before, except for Mom. I'd be stupid to pass this opportunity, this experience.

"So what's your story, Nell?" Ryan asks once we're seated. Fear starts clawing its way up my stomach and to my chest, because that's the question I dreaded the most. Telling someone I just met how awful my childhood had been, how many scars I wear as proof, is almost always a bad idea. And telling a guy whom I could possibly be about to have a crush on that I've been a prisoner in my own home, barely allowed to go outside for 14 years of my life is about the most pathetic thing I can say.

I want people to get to know the real me before they starting adding pity to the way they see me.

"Honestly, it's long and miserable, and I don't feel like going down that road just yet. So let's just sum it up and say that I had a very bad childhood, that my father is no longer in the picture, and that my mother is my best friend." I give him a tight smile, hoping he'd understand, and I can hear my heart pounding anxiously inside my chest, wondering if a red flag might be making its way to him already.

Yet Ryan's eyes shine with something new to me, something I haven't encountered before, and I don't know what to make of that look, not do I dare to ask. But after a moment of silence, he lets out a quite chuckle with a nod of understanding that has me surprised. "Seems heavy."

I laugh, glad that he chose not to pry. "The heaviest. But I'm all good now." The lie stumbles off my tongue faster than I can stop it, but what else am I supposed to tell him? That I'm still a naive, broken girl who doesn't know how to talk to people and make friends?