A Summer Romance

Chapter Forty-One - Ryan

Chapter Forty-One - Ryan

"Memories are bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces."

-Richard Kadrey

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Ryan

I stood in the airport for what felt like hours, but it must’ve only been ten minutes because when I had finally managed to walk back to my car, it was still warm.

Once the car door shut, I just sat in the driver’s seat. I didn’t do anything until I was hit with a thought;

She’s gone.

I punched the steering wheel, causing the car horn to honk, and let out a strangled yell. Skylar was gone. Really gone. As in; I’ll probably never see her again, gone. And my heart ached because of it.

When I opened my eyes again, aside from the hopeless tears in my eyes, a glimmer of white caught my eye. Slowly, my eyes drifted over to it and I sighed.

A letter. A goddamn letter. How much more cliché could this possibly get!?

I grabbed it hesitantly and opened it. When I grabbed the pieces of clean paper, I had to bite my lip to fight back the urge to cry. Despite how cliché this was, it still hurt like hell.

Despite my intentions not to read it; that it would break my heart even more, my eyes couldn’t fight the urge to run over the handwriting;

"Ryan,

I’ve never been very good at these sorts of things, so I’m just going to jump right in.

I love you.

I knew the day that Adam and Genesis set us up, was the day that everything had changed. That day, I had fallen for you. I had secretly fallen in love that night and every day after that, just a little bit more. But I was so afraid to act on those feelings that I bottled them up and locked them deep down where I thought no one would be able to find them. I thought that since everyone in my family was broken, it probably meant that I would remain the way I was; forever broken. I didn’t think that I could be fixed, no one had ever tried and I didn’t expect anyone too. But then you waltzed in and broke down those walls that I had hid those feelings behind.

You changed my life for the better Ryan.

I think that everything happens for a reason no matter how fucked up that reason is, so the day we met, the day that I had tried so hard to hate you, we met for a reason.

I appreciate every single thing you did for me. I cherished every moment we spent together. After everything that we went through, all that you did for me, you changed my output on life. Before, I thought that the world was a fucked up place that was made for people to suffer. I thought that love was just a four letter word that people were dumbasses to believe in. But you gave the word meaning.

I don’t care if our relationship was only a summer romance and we never had a chance in the real world, I don’t care if you get over me in a few days, I don’t care if you’re not crushed that I’m gone. I don’t care if you find a girl that makes you smile and fall for her. You deserve that. You deserve to be happy and I want you to find someone as amazing as you to make you happy.

I don’t care because for those few short weeks that we shared together, you showed me another side of life that I thought I’d never be able to experience. You broke down my walls and dove right into my complicated life, not once leaving my side when I needed you. You welcomed me into your apartment when I needed a place to stay, you stayed up for hours with me, just talking about random stuff. But the most important thing you did was love me.