THE THIRD P3RSON

•Chapter 28•

I fidget with my phone from my seat in the car. Ryan looks at his phone in my left hand. Somehow, I find myself holding it for him when he leaves it behind. He doesn't seem to mind.

"I kinda don't want to go. I have a feeling a few other people are going to show." He takes a left and sighs into the empty car.

"You should go, Ryan. The people that are coming are family, right? You should go see them." I switch the phone to my other hand and place it on his shoulder.

He nudges my hand with his cheek and turns quickly to give it a kiss.

"Don't do that." I smack the back of his head while he laughs.

"I told you that I can't help it." Ryan pulls to a stop, turns off the car and steps out.

By the time I unbuckled my seatbelt, Ryan's smiling face was already opening my door.

"Thanks for being there." I stood in front of him, leaning against his car.

Ryan twists a curl of my hair again, smiling. "It was nothing."

I don't think twice when I step closer to give him a hug. My arms were wrapped around his neck and I had to stretch up to tell him, "Thank you so much. I can't believe you still stuck around after everything. " I pull away.

He tugs the curl he was playing with and smirks. "Even though you know you don't need to thank me, you still do. That's why I like you."

My heart jumps in my throat. "R-run that b-by me again?"

"You act surprised. Why?"

"Uh. I-I've never... I don't know i-if.." I laugh. "Are you sure?"

Ryan nods.

I blink and look up at him. At a steady rate, I felt a blush start from the tips of my ears. He stared back down at me (I'm pretty sure at this point he saw my red face) and I notice that the height difference doesn't bother me like it used to. Ryan smiles and leans forward. I take a deep breath. I close my eyes and lean in too, knowing his tall frame is holding me against the car. I wait and Ryan closes the gap.

For real, this time.

A car honks its horn.

Ryan jumps and I bump my head against the car behind me. I rub the back of my head that hit Ryan's car door. Great. Is this an everyday thing?

"Dang kids these days! Think they can snog in public! Get off my lawn!" The driver of the car beeps again.

Ryan's eyes light up in recognition before he turns angry. He spins around. "Shut up, Dean!"

Add that guy to the list of people that make Ryan mad. "Dean" laughs. I don't know who he was but I wasn't the biggest fan of him. The car shuts off and three people step out. Ryan puts his arm around my waist and I hand him his phone as he leads me towards them. A woman with straight brown hair steps out of the car first. She's yelling at a teenager while angerly wrapping her sweater around her shoulders.

She scowled at the teen in front of her that had his arms raised in surrender. "Don't stick your head out the window, Dean! I told you! If you fall again, I am not stopping the car to help you. " She mutters to herself getting close to Ryan but I couldn't hear a word. She kisses Ryan on the cheek and says, "I'm forty. I don't need gray hairs, dammit, I'm young."

My eyes grow a little wide. Okay...

She looks at me and smiles. She wiggles her eyebrows. "Nice to meet ya." She sticks out her hand for me to shake. "I'm a friend of the family. My name is Ashley. How ya doing?"

"Good," I muttered weakly. "I would've been better without the car beeping."

"Yeah. " She looks over her shoulder at Dean. "ME TOO." She turns back to me. "I'm really sorry about that, Love. Dean is a handful."

Ryan nods. "Where's Alex?"

Ashley looks behind her. "She should be unloading the car." She quickly covers her mouth and laughs. "She? Oh, how he would kill me if he heard me. Don't tell Al I said that." She looks around and nods. "I'm going to run inside to see Grey Hairs. Is he here?"

I smile. I like her. I should have thought of Grey Hairs. Maybe I'll adopt it. Silver Streaks? I snicker.

Ryan looks over his shoulder but I'm pretty sure he can't see if Grey is there or not. "We haven't gone in yet but he should be, though."

Ashley thinks for a moment. She looks at the car, shakes her head, and walked inside.

Dean slides up next to me. "How it do, gurl?"

I give him a look of disgust.

Ryan laughs, but I can tell it's forced. "Hello again, Dean. How is Sophie?"

"Sophie is Sophie. She threw her hairbrush at me when I wanted a towel this morning. How was I supposed to know she was in there? She's always so quiet." Dean looks at me and winks. "She's silent but dangerous. Throws knives and everything."

I shrink next to Ryan but I ask Dean, "What exactly do you guys do?"

Dean's eyes light up. "You really want to know?"

Ryan pushes Dean away from me using the hand he had on my shoulder. I let out a sigh of relief. If meeting new people weren't enough, meeting people like Dean puts me on edge.

"No, Dean, she doesn't want to know." Ryan pulls me towards the car with the last passenger who was pulling out a suitcase.

I didn't push for an answer on what they do.

Dean walks next to Ryan this time and I notice they are almost the same height. Yay for me. I'm the troll next to the trees.

"Dean, shut up and leave Ryan alone. Help me out here." A gruff voice scolded behind the trunk of the car.

Ryan and Dean hurried to help the man lift the other suitcase out of the car.

Ryan makes a surprised squeak. "Alexander, how long is your stay?"

"Greyson asked us to stay until graduation. Thanks to the trouble Dean caused, Ashley only said we should stay until Sunday morning." They get the suitcase on the floor and the man looks up at me. "Ah. Where are my manners?"

"I think Mom wants the answer to that too." Dean quipped.

I can't help but give a surprised laugh.

The man, who I already know should be Alexander, knocks his knuckles against his son's head. Dean laughs it off but all of us saw the flash of pain.

Alexander steps up to me and holds out his hand. "Alexander."

"Julianna." I shake his hand and he smiles.

"Grey has told me stories about you. He says you used to pull pranks. In my field of work, pranks are an art."

I let out a laugh that sounded more like a grunt. "I don't really do that anymore. Visual art? Yes."

Alexander turns his green eyes to Ryan and Ryan gives him a questioning look. Alexander then looks at Dean. "You two have really grown up a lot. From what I've heard, a lot of things have changed." Alexander claps his hands. "Well. I'm going to bring this inside. Dean, help me out here."

Dean rolls his eyes but helps anyway. I look at Ryan. He looks back at me, almost mocking me. He crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue. Yep. Definitely mocking me.

"Are they the only one's coming?" I ask him, making my way inside.

"For now." Ryan laughs from behind me.

I turn to him with my hands on my hips. "What now?"

He takes my hand in his and pulls me towards the stone path. "Julianna, you were stepping on the roses again."