Learning A Lake ✔

- Thirteen -

♢ Laura ♢

I watched as Ryan began to approach me, my heart beating faster with every step he took. 

"Can I have a word, Laura?" Ryan asked me when he reached me and the girls. This was the first time we had spoken since I got angry at him earlier so I felt a bit awkward. We were all sat around one of the camp fires at the lake having a BBQ. I looked up at him and saw pure guilt on his face. I had to admit though, he looked cute when he was guilty.
"Of course, Mr Lake." I said, acting posh and indicating that I wasn't annoyed at him anymore. I got up and followed Ryan towards the woods. Sounds creepy I know.

We sat facing each other on a fallen tree, although we were only about a foot apart. He took a deep breath before speaking.
"Look, I'm sorry about wha-" I cut him off.
"Shut up Ryan" I said laughing. "As much as I still despise your brother, he talked rather a lot of sense into me earlier. I was being a complete bitch. I'm the one who needs to be sorry."
"Phew, I thought you were still mad at me. I thought I had screwed everything up." He replied with a sigh of relief.
"Don't be silly, Jane is to blame. I just wish I could stand up to her." 

He began to relax. 
"Of course you can, you know in Mean Girls when Cady and Janet plan on ruining everything that Regina has, taking away her boyfriend, screwing up her friendships and making her look stupid? You just need to do that to her." He looked at me with a cheesy grin. I looked at him in shock.
"What?" He asked with a laugh.
"How do you know that much about Mean Girls?" I giggled a little.
"Well I used to watch it all the time with-" He stopped for a second. "Lacey." He seemed to shake off a bad thought before continuing. "She would always beg me to watch it with her because nobody else would." He smiled to himself. I returned the smile to show I understood.

"I don't want to ruin her life, I just want her to leave me alone after years of shit from her." I explained.
"Well, look at it this way, she has already lost her so called boyfriend. I made it clear to Jane that I didn't want anything to do with her anymore. I'm just hoping she got the message after I had to tell her more than five times." He rolled his eyes but laughed and gently reached his hand out to take mine. His gesture made me smile.
"Anyway, there's something I've been meaning to say to you." Ryan said calmly as he continued to caress left hand. My heart rate began to increase. 

"Um, okay..." Why was I being so shy all of a sudden?
"When I first told you about Lacey, the fact that you reminded me of her wasn't my only reason for telling you." He began. "You probably thought that I didn't even know who you were throughout high school." I shook my head and he held my hand firmly. "Well I did Laura, on the odd occasion I would see you around school. I even saw you getting bullied. At the time I was full of testosterone and I had a reputation to keep. I didn't let myself talk to you because my mates would laugh at me for it, but deep down I really wanted too." He took a shaky breath.

"But at this moment in time I don't give a shit about any sort of reputation." He tucked some of my hair behind my ear and held the side of my face. Shit, I don't think I am ready to be kissed! "I'm not going to lie to myself anymore. I really bloody like you Laura." He finished with a smile before pressing his lips gently onto my forehead, avoiding the bandage that I still had to wear. His contact sent tingles from my head all the way down to my toes. I felt like squirming with happiness but I resisted the urge, not wanting to seem too desperate for his affection. 

He pulled away and looked at me nervously, obviously waiting for my reaction.

"You'll be pleased to hear that I like you too." I grinned. "A lot." 
If that didn't sound creepy than I don't know what would. I couldn't care less as we reduced the gap between us by wrapping our arms around each other.