The Year I Met Ryan (Editing)

Chapter 11: The secret is out

CHAPTER 11: THE SECRET IS OUT

I stared up at the sky which was now covered with dark clouds. Even the clouds were crying. Maybe they were conflicted just like me. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I had thought I was the last one left at school. I turned half expecting to see Ryan. Diana?

"What do you want?" I asked her, rather rudely. I was still angry about what happened today. It wasn't her I was angry at, only a little since she could have warned me. And I was angry because only the other day I had heard her telling someone that he should do that, little did I know that they were talking about me. I wiped my now runny nose with my sleeve.

She looked down at her feet, shuffling them in the process. "I'm really sorry."

Had I heard wrong? I thought she said sorry. "Sorry doesn't change what you did. I heard you tell Damien to do that."

I hadn't expected her to go off on a rant. I hadn't expected an explanation. Hell, I hadn't even expected an apology. But she went ahead and she gave me an explanation.

"Look, I'm not a bully. No one in our school is a bully. Not even Nicki! Sometimes she's mean, but she tries not to bully. She just doesn't like that you're after Ryan. We all know what she did the first day of school and no one can account for why she acted that way. Maybe she was having a bad day. But all I know is that ever since then, ever since Ryan stood up for you, she doesn't like you, and she made sure that everybody else was that way too. That's why we've all acted cold towards you. None of us hate you Beth."

My head was running with a million thoughts right now. What Diana was telling me actually made some sense. "But that doesn't account for your actions, and aside from that, you guys shouldn't be afraid of her."

"Look, we're not exactly afraid of HER. We're afraid of what she is capable of doing. She has dirt and information on a lot of people. and when she doesn't get her way, its a scary thing. There are things that are private that nobody wants out in the open. And maybe because I'm an only child now.."

At this point she looked past me and stared off into the distance for a second, before she snapped out of her trance.

"I have nobody to mess around with. I agree that what I did was over the line, and I am truly sorry for that. I guess I just realized a litte too late that Nicki should grow up and learn that not everything goes her way. Just because Ryan likes you-"

"He doesn't like me."

"Doesn't give her any right to treat you wrong."

Had she not heard me at all? She continued her long apology and explanation.

"I don't know what else to tell you, I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry. Maybe we can be friends. I understand if you wouldn't want to, especially after what I did. But I could really use a friend, and you seem like a great girl, I'm being completely honest." She gave me a little smile, a smile that conveyed hope.

I smiled back at her. "We can be friends."

She smiled really big and pulled me into an embrace. "Thank you thank you THANK YOU!" She started walking past me. "I'll see you after break okay? Oh here's my number if you want to talk!" She gave me her number and then walked away with a wave and a smile. Who would have thought that Diana would be my friend. No wonder everyone had acted cold towards me. What did she mean Ryan likes me?

I  walked over to my car and unlocked it. I took off my sweater and grabbed another one from the back so I could put it on the driver's seat. I didn't want to get my seat wet. I drove home listening to the radio, trying to process everything that had just happened.