Love that lets go

Chapter 24 - The assurance

Megan ran her fingers through the damp waves on the top of her clouded head rinsing out the shampoo with just one thing on her mind.

What the fuck just happened today?

She groaned scratching deeper at her roots, trying to scrape off any reminder of the bad events of the day but failed miserably. A lot had happened making it hard to wrap her mind around it. From the girls stalking Greg at the swimming pool, which rendered him ignoring Kayla even more than she anticipated. Trickling down to the weird drink up by the beach that resulted with Brandon's face at the end of Ryan's fist.

She shuddered at the memory of his bloody face laying in the sand. She was never one to enjoy the spotlight on her yet that night had her in the deep end for a show she didn't even audition for — lights - camera - action - queue the freaking confetti and the sound of cameras clicking.

Her mind was wheeling at the scenes that she wished she would never had encountered. She couldn't escape it even if she wanted to.

That's not what she expected when she went to the beach to watch a friendly volleyball match against various campers, it was only supposed to be a stupid team building activity. It wasn't the first time at the camp nor was it going to be the last. But she was aware Ryan was playing, that was one of the main reasons she went, to support him. On the other hand Kayla wanted to see Greg again after their failed attempt in the morning at the swimming pool.

What came as a surprise was Brandon on the opposing team. Since when did he play volleyball? The athletic genes and his competitive streak should have given her an idea, the boy loved to win.

At the beginning of the game she wasn't much concerned that her boyfriend and her ex were on opposing teams until she witnessed the animosity he held towards Ryan. It rubbed her off the wrong way but she couldnt entirely blame him, she knew for a fact she would be sour too if the roles were reversed. The fact of the matter was that she would ignore it even if it hurt, she had been through it before they went to camp, she was no rookie towards jealousy. Brandon was contrast to her though, instead of ignoring it, he choose the lesser route turning things so sour — so violent. It felt like betrayal considering Brandon and her had agreed to hash things out and become friends again not so long ago.

Megan groaned as she ran her fingers over her face remembering how brutal the fight was. The water was warm and soothing yet it didn't entirely calm her nerves, she was rattled. Witnessing that violent side of Ryan had her feelings unprepared, she didn't know the best reaction towards that. She could admit that Ryan's actions were coming from a good place, there was no doubt in her mind he was just trying to protect her from everything that was happening. Victorias snarky and bitchy remarks, fuck her very much by the way, to the whole ordeal with Brandon.

What surprised her the most was how somewhat calm she was through it all. She was in fact over all the petty bullshit and couldn't care less about her old relationship. She was happy in Ryan's arms until that warmth disappeared and the fight started. She couldn't fault him for being protective over her but they needed to talk about it. Set boundaries, because she wasn't ok with it.

When Ryan finally came out of his rage frenzy and walked up to her his whole energy had shifted. He only took a moment to make sure she was ok then he excused himself. He muttered something along the lines "I need some air". Something twisted in her heart not wanting him to slip away from her again. She had witnessed it first hand how he got when he was withdrawing from everyone, her included. Megan felt sick to her stomach thinking 'not again'. If he was planning on bouldering himself inside his head or in his room again she didn't know how she would handle it.

The first time was brutal and she didn't have it in her to go through all that again. She knew how that chapter ended and she wasn't going to sit around and entertain a sequel of events. She was sure it would be the end of them if that happened again.