**Brice P.O.V.**
"I think it's time that I tell you about what happened between me and Ryan."
The look on her face let me know that she knew exactly what I was talking about. She kind of tensed up when I said her name but I guess that comes from what they have against each other.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I mean, it's your business and it has nothing to do with me. I totally understand if you don't want to tell me, but if you do, I'm happy that you can trust me. I don't want this to feel like I'm pressuring you into telling me or anyth-"
"Tyra, please shut the hell up," I said while covering her mouth to keep the word vomit from spewing anything else. I laughed a little when I dropped my hands and saw her face.
"You didn't have to say it in such a rude way." She pouted and crossed her arms. I turned away quickly so I didn't have to look at her pouting. Facing towards the t.v., that was now turned off, I spoke again.
"I'm sorry, you were just going on and on, rambling about nothing really. Its my decision to make and I want to tell you."
"Ok fine. I won't talk anymore, I'll just sit here and listen. All questions saved till the end."
She pretended to zip her lips shut then threw away the invisible key. She then folded her hands and put them into her lap because she was still sitting criss crossed on the couch facing me.
I took a deep breath before facing back to the blank screen of the t.v., getting ready to remember and spill all of my horrible secrets and mistakes.
"I guess I have to start from the beginning," I let out a humorless chuckle and started again, "the day before my 11th birthday, it was a Friday, I was so excited coming home from school. My mom had been clean for 3 years and we were going to spend the while weekend together to celebrate her sobriety and my birthday. I was walking home and when I was just down the street from my house I broke into a full sprint. I wanted to get home so fast so that we can start our 'mother/son weekend adventure'. That's what we started to call it. I busted through the front door looking for my mom, hoping that she had everything ready to go. We were going to the movies that night then the next day we were going to go paint-balling, an arcade, laser tag, just anything we could have thought of," I smiled thinking of all things we had thought of that whole week. Shaking my head, I continued the story.
"I found her about 5 minutes later, in her room drunk off her ass, faced down in her bed. Being the stupid, naive, little kid that I was, I just put a blanket over her and went to my room. I thought she would be better in the morning and we could go. She wasn't. The next day when I woke up, I went straight to her room first thing, and cracked the door open to see if she was still sleeping. There was a man in there with her. I don't know when he came or how he got in, but he was there. He started to yell at her and throw things off of her dresser. I got scared and tried to back away but he saw me. He came running to the door and I tried to escape but I didnt make it far. He grabbed onto my shoulders and shook me really hard. My mom came out of her room and when she saw me she started to cry. She jumped on the man and started to hit him in any open place she could find. He let me go and threw her off, he turned around and started to hit her."
I felt a hand grab mine. Looking to my right I saw that Tyra had tears in her eyes. I looked away because I needed to finish and if I saw her crying over my past, even when it's only the beginning of the story, I wouldn't finish.
"After he started to hit her, I attacked him. I kicked, punched, and bit everywhere. Somehow he grabbed me from behind him and threw me against the wall. I hit my head really hard but I still tried to help my mom. She kept telling me to stop and leave so I wouldn't get hurt anymore, but it broke my heart to see her getting hurt. With both of us fighting, we finally got him to leave. We cleaned up ourselves and the house so that the memory wouldn't be there. The same guy kept coming back but after that he never hit us again, he would always just yell and throw stuff. This continued until I was 14, freshman year. I couldn't handle it anymore so I just left. I left my mom, I left my home, I left the few friends that I had, I just left everything. I moved in with my uncle who didn't live too far away. He was my dad's best friend but I still considered him family and he treated me like family.....that's where I met Ryan. She was the first friend I had made at the school that I had transfered to. For the whole freshman year we were inseperable. We went eveywhere together, the mall, movies, everywhere. Close to the end of the year, I asked her out and when she said yes, I was so excited. It was my first relationship and she was my best friend."
I started to get angry when I knew what was coming up next. I closed my eyes took a deep breath
"We were together for 3 years, up until junior year. She told me she was moving but we chose to stay together. At first I didn't think it was going to work, but she kept assuring me it would. When she left, I kept hearing from all these guys about how good she was in bed or how she would give the best blow jobs. I would get pissed at first but when I would talk to her on the phone about it, she told me that none of it was true and that I should believe her. Of course I chose to believe her because she never gave me a reaon not to. She never told me the new school she went to but we did meet up from time to time. One day when we were supposed to meet at a local mall, I couldn't find her anywhere. I called her phone multiple times and she wouldn't answer. I was so worried, I kept calling and calling until finally someone picked up, but it wasn't what I expected at all."
By this time, I was furious all over again just thinking about it.
"Some guy answered and told me that I had the wrong number and to not call 'his' girlfriend again. I went straight home after that while trying to think of a way to talk to Ryan about all of this. The next day I saw one of her best friends at school and asked if she had seen her or knew where she would be so I can talk to her. She told me that she was coming to her party that night and that I should go too. Later on at the party I was looking for her. I went upstairs and looked in everyroom, or so I had thought. When I passed by the second to last room, I heard people giggling and talking. I knew it was her because of her voice, so I pushed the door open a little," I had my hands in tight fists, my eyes were screwed shut, and I clenched my jaw so hard, I thought it would shatter from all the pressure.
"You dont have to continue if you dont want to," I heard Tyra say, it was such a low whisper, I'm suprised I even heard it. I just shook my head.
"When the door was open wide enough for me to see into the room, I saw them. She was shirtless and making out with one of my teammates from football. At the moment all I saw was red and I couldn't control myself. The next thing I knew, I was being pushed into the back of a cop car and the EMS were wheeling a stretcher with the guy on it, to the back of an ambulance. Later when my uncle bailed me out, I found out that the guy had a broken nose, he broke his arm in 3 different places, and his shoulder was dislocated. Everything else wasn't as major, but I felt horrible. I did that to someone and it killed me on the inside. Ryan came up to me the next day, at my house, smiling like none of that shit happened. She told me that she was glad that I got him 'out of her hair', and now she can be with me like she always wanted. I couldn't take her back so I told her to leave. She didn't leave right away. She got in my face and told me that I wasn't good enough for her anyway, that she was glad that she fucked the whole school because I wasn't doing or giving her anything. Right before she walked out the door she said that she hoped me and my mom rot in hell together and I was going to end up just like her. God, I hate that I told her anything about my past. After that, I started smoking, drinking, partying, just doing anything to get my mind off of everything. My uncle couldn't handle it and sent me to rehab. It took a while, but I got better and decided to move. That's why I'm here now."
I was still staring at the blank screen of the t.v., afraid that if I looked at Tyra, I would see how disgusted she was with me, and I couldn't blame her.
She leaned over and wrapped her arms around my torso and put her head on my chest. I lifted my arms and wrapped them around her and closed my eyes.
"I'm so sorry all that happened to you, you didn't deserve it," I could feel her tears wetting my chest. I couldn't say anything after that so we just stayed like that for a while. I'm glad I finally got all this shit off my chest, I don't think I would have held up any longer, not after seeing Ryan again today.
