They Weren't Kidding

Chapter 9

I knew my senior year was going to be the best year that I had since preschool. I was super optimistic about the entirety of the year. I couldn't fight the feeling that it would be the best year I had in all the years I had been in school up to that point. It surged through my brain, to my heart and through my veins. There was no use trying to bring the past years into my mind to convince me otherwise.

I was more excited to start school than I had been in years. I couldn't wait to see Ryan more often than I ever had before. I figured that I was going to finally have someone to consistently talk to and who would actually be okay with hanging out with me. In the prior years, I didn't really have friends to have who would talk to and hang out with me all that often. So, this difference was fantastic.

The first day of my senior year, I walked into the building tired and yet still excited. My excitement only grew when I saw the most beautiful girl in the world, Ryan (if that wasn't obvious), sitting outside in front of the door, waiting for me. The moment I saw her, I couldn't get out of the car fast enough.

The moment I stepped out and walked toward the door, she walked toward me and greeted me with a hug. I more than happily returned the hug, smiling wide at the affection so early in the morning when, I'm sure, she would've rather been asleep. Ryan appeared just as tired as I felt.

As we walked inside the building, we exchanged greetings and "good mornings." We continued to walk and talk. I followed Ryan to her first class of the day which was Spanish in the computer lab downstairs. It was closer than my class so we both hung out in the hallway until the clock hit 7:40 in which I had to walk up the stairs so I managed to make it to my class.

Our days didn't really deter from that routine, although, it would change between who had class downstairs as first period and who didn't. Either way, the one who did not have class downstairs, stayed with the other until five minutes before the bell would ring, signaling class beginning.

It was great to see her every day. I had more time to talk to her, see her, and be with her. It made school not completely horrible. Normally school would be monotonous and boring. At least, I was able to look forward to seeing Ryan and talking to her everyday. We also had quite a few classes together which made the days that much more bearable.

You'd think that being around her more would make it harder to hide my feelings and only make me fall harder for her. Well, you'd be right. Seeing her every day was great and awful at the same time. It made me want her to be mine even more. The only way I made it through this time was to convince myself I wasn't absolutely in love with her. Let me tell you, I had to do some major convincing. My feelings would not stay down. They were ever pressing in their desire to make themselves known. It was slightly irritating when trying to act as though I was not in love with the most important person to me.

As the days passed, Ryan gave off the appearance that she was more excited to see me than the day prior. I couldn't ever tell why she was so excited to see me. However, I wasn't going to complain about it despite the fact that it caused quite a bit of confusion in me. I figured often that I was just reading too much into it. Though, I was just happy that she seemed so excited to see me. She would often run up to me, almost tackling me into a hug.

"Someone's happy to see me," I would chuckle out as I returned the hug of the chick in front of me.

"Yeah," Ryan would respond, "Why wouldn't I be?" she asked as if it were obvious.

I hadn't an answer to give to her question, mostly due to I had no clue why she would be so happy to see me. I had every reason to want to see her, but besides the fact that we were best friends, I couldn't tell why she would be so excited. It didn't seem reason enough to me to be so excited for me to show up. The best friends I had in the past were never so overjoyed to see me at the places I was expected to be, or even in places we would randomly run into each other.