THE THIRD P3RSON

•Chapter 9•

I reached my arm out to stretch but pulled it back. No need to feel unconformable now. You drove him home. You agreed to be here. Might as well get some work done, right?

Then my brain decides to panic. The red alert sign flashed and I thought, Where the hell is Grey if he came home before us?

I opened my mouth to speak but I didn't say anything. It felt like I was interrupting something. For some reason, it frustrated me. I hated big houses with no one to interrupt the painful silence. It reminded me of how it's been since Stepmonster Amy moved in. Usually, a car would pass by blasting music and filling the silence but we're in North Gale.

I cleared my throat and let out a huge breath. I whispered most of what I said next to myself. "I guess we are both suffering then."

Ryan heard me and offered me a sad smile.

Feeling regretful that he heard me and wanting to test out how much I could trust him, I opened my mouth with something to say.

I'm trusting you and how you raised this kid, Grey...

"Your Uncle Grey has a big heart, Ryan. He helped me when I thought I shouldn't be helped. My biological father and I haven't been on the best of terms for a while. Grey stepped in and saved my life." I said, typing nonsense onto the computer to keep me from looking at Ryan. "You're super lucky to have someone like him. Most people I know would have told me to suck it up and keep doing what I always have."

"What happened that makes you say something like that?" Ryan sat up straight, trying to catch my eye, when I gave him a look. He raised his hands in surender. "Not that I'm lucky to have him. The part of why you would think he would've told you to suck it up. " Ryan clarified.

"That's about the most information I'm willing to give you right now about that." I gave Ryan a small smile and moved even closer to the edge of the couch. I looked him in the eye when I said,"No offense, Ryan, but I don't want to tell you everything just yet."

"Seems fair." He nodded, thinking. "We'll take turns telling each other simple things. Even though you're supposed to be interviewing Christina, it's clear she doesn't want to do the project. I learn something about you and you'll learn something about me. Seems fair? We'll start off easy. Just simple questions to get to know each other more." Ryan smiled.

I bit my lip nervously. If Christina didn't participate, would that affect my grade too? And would it prevent my opportunity with the scholarship?

Where was Grey when you needed him?

My mind was still feeding itself questions but I nodded again. "Ask away."

So, Ryan asked simple questions like what I think about flowers. He also asked if I like cats or dogs, and what my hobbies are. I counter with a set of questions of my own and find how different we both are. We were laughing at how ridiculous some answers by the other person were and the other person would defend their answer.

It felt weird (but nice) to get the chance to talk to Ryan when he wasn't surrounded by his group or Christina. This morning, I probably caught him at a wrong time, seeing how Christina made him so angry in Spanish Class. He was just a guy going through drama which would explain how he wasn't acting like himself.

This morning, Ryan made it seem like he always acted so self-centered. Though, I have to say, throughout our game of 20 or more questions, the Ryan from this morning made an appearance here and there.

When Ryan seemed sincere when he asked questions about what my goal is for the future, I knew there was more to him.

I shook my head, half wondering what I was thinking.

Haha. Yeah guys. I'm so ready to ride off into the sunset with him now.

I'm sorry but I sounded too cheesy. I needed to save myself.

Grey did show up. He walked in from a random room in the house and headed straight to the kitchen. I sat at the couch, my knees on the cushion with my forearms on the back of it. My mouth was open.

He was here the whole time???

I asked him where he was and why he didn't come out sooner. He said he "didn't want to disrupt our focus but wanted pizza".

Yeah. Grey ordered pizza.

Ryan gets up to go to the kitchen smiling this time. "I'll get plates but this isn't over! I'll be bold enough to ask-"

I teased him. "Bold! Says the guy who loves the Cowardly Lion!"

"Nothing wrong with that!" He called back to me.

Suddenly the house that was quiet was filled with my voice calling Ryan a dork and his laughter.

Okay, so Ryan wasn't so bad (so far).

I was there for a few hours. Grey said he needed to do paper work and went back into his office. He said if we needed anything, all we needed to do was yell for him.

Ryan, keeping his promise to continue, asked me if he was ever going to know what happened with how I met his uncle.

It took me a couple minutes (in reality it took two more hours) for me to trust him enough. I had found baby pictures and wanted to use them for the project which resulted in Ryan chasing me. I tripped because I don't like exercise and exercise doesn't like me. Ryan had caught my arm and saved me from busting my lip.

"See? Now do you trust me?" He had told me. "Whatever you don't feel comfortable enough to put in the project, I won't put it. I'm just curious."

Was saving me from cutting my lip open a fair trade for my deepest, darkest secret? No. Was I going to tell Ryan the story anyway? Yes because I am an idiot who doesn't know when to stop talking so once half of it was out of my mouth the other half followed.

To be honest, a tiny part of me was screaming at him. "Leave me alone. Personal boundaries, Dude. If you cared, leave it for another day!"

But, again, my mouth doesn't seem to listen to my brain.

I remember little freshman me, blushing at every curse word I heard. I remember the new school scarring me. There were guys who were older than me calling me ugly and other names. I remember the teacher in charge of the chess club making me feel even worse than I already did.

The creepy old guy didn't make me feel safe at all with his eyes roaming everywhere. I shivered at the memory.

Now that I think of it, if it wasn't for that horrible moment, I wouldn't have met Greyson Ben Miles.