A Summer Romance

Chapter Thirty-Three - Skylar and Ryan

Chapter Thirty-Three - Skylar and Ryan

"Everything happens for a reason."

-Anonymous

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Skylar

"So, what are we gonna watch?" I questioned, searching through the movie rack after work Friday night, "Fight Club, or Taken?"

Ryan came out of the kitchen and shook his head, "Neither, we're gonna go somewhere."

I eyed him carefully, "Where exactly?"

He shrugged, "Get on your shoes and you'll see."

I rolled my eyes and he chuckled, grabbing my car keys and waiting for me patiently to get on my shoes and jacket. But when we hopped in the car and Ryan started to drive downtown, I was overcome with nerves, "Uh, where exactly are we going?"

Ryan shrugged and squeezed my hand over the center council. "You'll see."

When we pulled up in front of an old building, I glanced at him confused, hoping out of the car as he cut off the engine. When he grabbed my hand and I got a chance to read the sign it clicked.

"Oh no." I tried to pull my hand away but Ryan held a firm grip on me. I glanced around at the cars in the parking lot and the sign above the bar's entrance, "I am not going in there and singing."

Ryan sighed and stepped closer to me, "Skylar, I never said that you had to sing. I just brought you here to watch some of the other artists, no matter how much they suck." When he saw that my panicked look hadn't gone away, he wrapped his arms around my waist, "Look, of course I want you to sing because you're fan-fucking-tastic, but if you don't want to, you don't have to."

I looked up at him embarrassingly, "Promise?"

"Promise." He nodded.

I sighed, "Okay, fine. Take me away, Gray."

He smiled and pulled me along the parking lot and through the door.

I was immediately his with the smell of wood polish and the sound of guitars being strummed. Ryan pulled me through the crowds of people and to the bar, "Hey, Dakota."

My eyes snapped to look at the guy behind the counter and, sure enough, Dakota stood there, smiling at me and Ryan with a know-it-all smiled. "Hey guys, what can I get you?"

"Two Cokes."

He nodded and when I turned back to the front of the bar, watching people sing and drink around me, I was overcome with an absurd feeling.

"You okay?"

Ryan glanced down at me worriedly and I smiled, wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning against him, "Yeah."

But, with Ryan standing beside me, the feeling became more intense, but then it disappeared.

The ultimate feeling of déjà vu.

* * *

I don't know how Ryan managed to do it, but I'm happy he did. One second, I was listening to a terrible singer and the next, I was staring at Ryan in the crowed of people standing in front of me.

I blushed as I held the guitar in my arms, I had chose to go acoustic instead of doing karaoke, and I was overcome with a selfconscious feeling, but once Ryan's eyes met mine and he smiled his beautiful sideways smile, my worry flooded away into oblivion, and I managed to start the first few chords of the song that I had chosen to sing;