Seasons Changing

What is This

I left for the party with Jeremiah and found the girls that Belly and I were sat with at the deb tea. Belly had already found them.

"Hey Ryan!" Nicole says with a hug. "Hey, this set up is so cute" I complimented. "So are you and Lucas a thing or what?" one of the girls asked Nicole. "I think 'or what'" she answered sadly.

"Wait, you live with him. You should know what he's up to. Has he been hanging out with other girls this summer?" a girl asks Belly. "No, he-he's always off by himself. And uh, he doesn't like 'live' with me. I mean he spends the night like every night. But he's uh, he's Ryan's brother" she rambles. "Yeah um, he hasn't hung out with any other girls. Your only competition is maybe Steven" I assure her. "Okay well, new topic" Nicole starts to say as I walked off.

I ended up outside and saw Jere, Con, and Cam playing cup pong. "I got winner" I say excitedly. "You don't even have a partner Foster" Conrad says with a slight laugh. "I don't need one to beat you" I say confidently earning laughs from the table. "We'll see about that one" Conrad laughs.

Belly then comes out and asks Cam to leave. After he leaves Jere invites me to join him against Conrad and his teammate. "No, you said you could beat me alone, you didn't say anything about Jeremiah" Conrad says. "Well he invited me. I don't need him" I argued. "Whatever" Conrad says as he throws the ball.

After Jeremiah and I won the game, Conrad grabbed me by my arm to pull me aside. "Wanna walk home?" "Uh, yeah that's fine." I say as we start to walk.

••••

We headed towards the beach on our way back. "I've always loved walking the beach at night. The stars lighting up the sky. The only thing you can hear are the waves." "I think it's calming. You're alone with your thoughts" Conrad admits. "Yeah? What are you thinking about now then?" I asked him.

He plops down on the sad and I join him. "Do you- do you remember that time when Luke and I convinced you Justin Bieber was at the beach? So you woke up at like 3am and started running" Con laughed. "Oh my gosh. I got in so much trouble for that. I didn't tell my mom or dad where I was going." "We made up for it though". "You and Lucas bought me a Justin Timberlake cd-" "It's the thought that counts". "Whatever" I say as I roll my eyes and shove him.

"Your mom's coming up for the fourth right?" "She should be. Speaking of the fourth, Lucas thinks this will finally be his year against our dad". "Really?" "Yeah, I think that is my favorite tradition. Watching Luca get his ass handed to him every year" I laughed.

"You ready?" he asked as he tilted his head in the direction of the houses. "Yup" I say as I hold out my arms waiting for him to help me up.

"Can I stay at yours tonight?" "I don't think Luke's over there. I'm quite sure he's gonna stay at Nicole's". "Why do you do that?" "Do what?" I asked while stopping in my tracks. "Act completely oblivious. Why would I walk home with you and want to stay the night at your house for Luke, but not even leave with him"? "Because this is a cycle every summer. It starts slow then we're all over each other. The next thing you know, summer's almost over and you distance yourself. So excuse me for wanting to spare my feelings" I burst as I kept walking, passing him.

"We live seven hours apart Ryan" he says as he catches up to me. "Well, when you go to school you can shave thirty minutes off of that" I rebutted. "What does that mean?" "That maybe I could have done long distance. You left me out of that decision. But, I guess it's okay. We're almost to the houses".

"Ry-" "What? What is it that you want? You say you trust in me, presumably because you told me not to tell Lucas. Then proceeded to say he knows something I don't. So that's a little confusing. Our yearly cycle. It's just too much. So what is it that you want? From me. What is it that you want from me?" "Ryan-" We were in between our homes whatever he said next would determine how the night would go. "I think I'll just go home" as the words left his mouth I felt my face get hot and tears begin to run down my face. "Okay," I sniffed, "I think that's for the best" I say as I wiped my tears and ran inside.