Changed For The Better

­­Leaving the party early

Ryan and I stood outside in the dark, waiting for Mai Lee to come and pick us up. We gave her a ring and said we had had enough of partying,  and just wanted to go home. we agreed to not tell any of the others about everything that went on at the party, they would only mock us for it.

Ryan was stood behind me with both his arms wrapped around me. I was holding onto his arms and we were slowly rocking from one foot to another. It was freezing cold. I'm so glad I brought the trainers mind.

"Oh yeah I forgot to ask" Ryan started. "What did Molly want you for earlier?"

"Well" I sighed. "I figured out why I was invited in the first place"

"Oh yeah, why is that?"

"She had her mum on the phone. Turns out, she only invited me, and let me bring you, so that she could tell her mum that someone responsible was coming. Not because she actually liked me or wanted me to be there"

"Oh Marie, don't worry about it. We don't want to get involved with people like that anyway. But yeah, she you had to speak to her mum on the phone?"

"Yeah, she asked if everything was okay, I said it was so Molly took the phone off me and left"

"So what took you so long?"

I had forgotten that Ryan won't know about all that happened. I hid it from him last time, but I need t be straight with him. He deserved to know.

I spun around in his arms to face him, so I was still wrapped up in his arms. I sighed.

"I'm going to be honest with you. But you have to promise to trust me and not be angry with me"

"Marie? What is it?"

"I was trying to find you again, but all the crowds, and the lights and the people, I started to panic a bit. Harley was there, he took me to the side and helped me calm down. Then he started talking to me and he, well..he..."

"What did he do?"

"He tried to...kiss .. me." His expressions stiffened and his jaw clenched in anger. "But I pushed him off. It didn't happen Ryan"

"And then?"

"And then I told him I was leaving and came to find you"

He paused for a few moments. The silence was he worst thing. "Ryan? Please say something?"

"I trust you" he said, repeating what I had said to him earlier. "You saw what was happening to me, the exact same thing that Harley did to you, and you didn't even need an explanation. You trusted me enough to not want to know. So I trust you too. And I'm not mad. That was Harley, not you"

"Thank you Ryan. I'm glad to have told you. It was eating me up a bit"

"Well we're good. Now look, here comes Mai Lee. Let's go home and have a nice night in instead of a bad night out, yeah?"

"Yeah"

"Oh and Marie?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time you're invited to a party, let's not go, okay?"

"Okay" I smiled warmly at him.

We released each other as Mai Lee pulled up by the side of the pavement. We again climbed into the back seats beside each other and Ryan took my hand again.

"What happened then?" Asked Mai Lee.

"What do you mean?" I responded.

"Well, the party isn't supposed to finish for another two hours. Why are you leaving early? Oh no what happened? Did someone break something or start a fight?"

"No nothing like that" Ryan sighed with a giggle.

"Well what happened then?"

Ryan glanced to me, as if asking my permission to answer. I nodded gently, knowing that he wouldn't say anything too close to the truth, he isn't like that.

"Well, there were a lot more people there than we expected. It was a bit too crowded and a bit too loud"

"Oh I understand. I'm glad you were sensible and came home, rather than saying somewhere you weren't enjoying yourselves. Well done for knowing your boundaries guys"

I don't get why she congratulated us to be honest. We didn't feel like being social any more so we left the party early without saying a word to anyone. We were basically scared away from a very normal situation because of people we wanted to be friends with, okay I wanted to be friends with.

The rest of the journey home was pretty much silent. Ryan had his hand wrapped warmly around mine and kept rubbing circles into the back of my hand. I was happy to have told him about Harley. I'm happy that he understands it wasn't my fault and isn't mad at me.

I know I'll have to talk to Harley though. As much as I don't want to, I have to tell him about Ryan and I. He might not like it, he might think I was stringing him on which will cause an end to our friendship or whatever it is we have, but he deserves to know.

After everything, I don't think he would tell anybody either. Not if he cares about me like he claimed to. I just hope he doesn't try anything on Ryan. I can't picture him as the jealous type, specially after everything he has been through with his friends.

We arrived back at the house and walked in as quietly as we could since all the younger ones, and probably some of the others were in bed already. Ryan said he was going to get a drink but told me to head up to get changed for bed. We are both exhausted.

I nodded and went upstairs. I received a shock as I opened our bedroom door and saw Carmen sitting there with Tee.

"Hey what are you...!?"

"SShhhh!"

They both got up and pulled me into the room, closing the door behind me.

"How did the party go? Any gossip?" asked Tee.

I turned to face Carmen. "You told her? Carmen nobody was meant to know it was a party because they weren't invited!"

"It's only Tee calm down. Anyway, spill"

"Nothing happened."

"Oh come on, this is one of Molly's parties you're on about. Something must have happened"

I had a flashback of Harley pushing me up against the wall and whispering on my skin. It made me feel nauseous just thinking about it.

"Ha you're blushing! I knew there was something! Go on, tell me all!"

"Wha...no! You know what it really isn't your business Carmen! Why are you even here? You're going back to college tomorrow so you should probably be packing or something? Go on get out both of you!"

"Marie I didn't..."

"GO!"

"Alright! Jeez you're gonna wake the others. Come on Tee"

Tee gave me a guilty look as they both left. Before the door had a chance to shut, Ryan walked in.

"Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine" I said through gritted teeth.

"Babe? What's the matter?" he asked as he placed his drink down on the bedside table. He stood in front of me and placed one hand on the small of my back, the other he intertwined with mine.

"Sorry" I sighed. "It's been a long night. I think I just need to get some sleep"

"Yeah you look tired. Go wipe that makeup off and lets go to bed"