Let Me Save You ➸ Ryden

Two

- Brendon -

I walked down the school hallways, the bell had just wrung and I had to get to my next class. But, that's not where I'm going to the hospital, so I can see the boy, Ryan, that I met yesterday. He had brown hair and lonley eyes. He was skinny but it was from the anorexia and his arms had many scars, I had wanted to ask him about it but I knew better than that.

I walked past people in the halls, they used to smile at me, say hi, or give me high fives, now people just gave me dirty looks or called me a loser. I was rarely ever in school anymore I skipped so many times to see my sister, Sophie, in the hospital. Every day since she got diagnosed 4 months ago, she had become less like the happy ten year old she was, each day I could see more hope drain from her eyes, the bright blue eyes she once had faded to more of a grey. My parents were more stressed, more bills were piling up, Sophie had been to 3 hospitals within the four months my parents were hoping that this hospital will be able to help. They fought more now, well they really never fought before, I rarely ever slept nowadays and all I could hear is them fighting. My other sister, June, who was only four, didn't know what was going on and that's what worried me the most, she was such an upbeat and happy kid, she couldn't understand what was wrong with Sophie.

I pushed open the school doors, and walked out, the hospital was only a few blocks away I could easily get there in fifteen minutes, which is just enough time I needed to get to the hospital to see Ryan.

"Brendon," I heard someone say, turning around and realizing it was Spencer, my best and one of my only friends I had at the moment. "Leaving again?" He asked, he already knew the answer, I didn't know why he proceeded to ask.

"Yes," I told him, "Just going to see Sophie, like always," I said, which was partly true, I would probably go see her after I saw Ryan.

"Okay," he said in a sad tone. Spencer didn't really have any other friends besides me, even before Sophie got diagnosed. He only really talked to me or Jon, Jon was friendly and nice, he had plenty of other friends and we didn't really get why he hung out with us and not them.

"I'm sorry I have to go now, I'll see you tomorrow," I said running off to go to the hospital.

***

Almost fifteen minutes later I showed up at the hospital and sat down on a chair in the lobby, trying to catch my breath.

"Hey," Ryan said, it seemed like he had suddenly appeared next to me. He had a small smile resting on his face, his lonely brown eyes looking right into mine.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked him, raising a brow.

"Well, I wanted to show you something," he said, his smile widening, he reached his hand out for me and I put my hand into his and got up. His hands were soft and gentle, I could feel the temperature in my cheeks rising as a held his hand. He led me through a few hallways, and to the back of the hospital.

"Where are we going?" I asked him, hoping he wouldn't turn around and see the blush on my face.

"You'll see," he told me, opening the back door and leading me outside to what looked like a forest. He led me through some trees which took a few minutes to go through and I thought we had gotten lost, until we came to what looked like a meadow with many flowers and a beautiful lake.

"Holy shit," I said in awe, "This is so pretty," I said looking into the crystal lake.

"I know, I come here a lot to be peaceful," Ryan said, and let go of my hand and sat down in the grass, close to the edge of the lake. He patted the spot next to him gesturing me to sit next to him, so I did.

"So does anyone else come here?" I asked him still in awe of the beautiful meadow.

"No, only a few of the nurses and doctors know about it and they don't come here anyway, I haven't really told anyone about this place either," he said, "You're the first one I've told, I mean showed" he tells me.

"Well I'm glad you did, it's beautiful," I said and Ryan smiled widely.

"So tell me more about yourself, like what you like," Ryan says, picking a daisy that was in the middle of us and twirling it in his fingers. At my house daisies would always grow in my backyard and Sophie would love to pick them and give them me, they were her favorite flowers, I would probably take her here if I'm able to without the nurses noticing.

"Well I like singing, people used to say I was the best in school before my sister got diagnosed and I got kicked out of Chorus for skipping school too much to see her," I tell him, I didn't know why I told him all this, I mean I just met him, but he was different. I don't know what it was about him, I just felt like I could tell.

"I'm sorry about your sister," he tells me, with a comforting smile. He carefully picked a petal off of the flower and let the wind take the petal and release it into the lake.

"It's okay," I say, looking down at the grass below me.

"I'm sorry we don't have have to talk about her if you don't want," he says, looking at me, with apologetic eyes.

"It's fine," I say, giving him a reassuring smile. "So what do you like to do?" I ask him.

He hesitated for a moment, I could tell he didn't know what to say, "Well, I like helping out some of the kids," he told me, "but there isn't that much that I like," he said looking down at the ground again, twirling the daisy around in his fingers again. I looked at the lake, and a smirk grew on my face as an idea popped in my head. Ryan looked up as I stood up and took my shirt off.

"Brendon, what are you doing?" Ryan asked, I could see a blush growing on his face. I smiled widely as I ran and jumped into the lake. As I submerged into the cold water, I could feel goosebumps slowly creeping up on me. I resurfaced and touched my toes to the bottom of the lake, the water up to my chest, I ran my fingers through my now wet hair and looked to where Ryan was and smiled.

"Come in," I said and gestured him to come in.

"I don't know...," he said trailing off, and scratching the back of his neck. I could tell he's probably self-conscious.

"It's okay I don't bite," I told him with a reassuring smile, "or maybe I do," I said playfully.

"Okay, fine," he said with a fake smile. He pulled his sweatshirt off and slowly pulled his shirt off. He walked over to the edge of the lake, his arms trying to cover his upper body. He slowly slid himself into the lake, moving his way towards me. When he was only a few feet away from me I splashed him. I laughed with a smile plastered on my face.

"Hey!" He yelled, a fake angry expression on his face. I shrugged and he splashed me back. Soon a full out splash war had started.

After a few minutes Ryan said, "Okay, okay, that's enough I surrender, I surrender," he said with a small smile. I waded over to him with a smirk.

"Surrendering that easy? Are you a coward?" I ask playfully, with a smirk. Moving closer to him, so we were just inches apart.

"Maybe I am," he returns just as playfully, with a wide grin. I look into his lonely eyes, he wasn't that much taller than me, maybe a few inches. I don't know what made me do it, maybe it was on the spur of the moment, but I kissed him.

I could tell he was shocked, but he kissed me back. A warm feeling rushed through my body, the cold water no longer feeling cold anymore. After about a minute he pulled away.

"Wow," he said breathily, a huge smile on his face.