Strong ✅

WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE

E

veryone had been in Aaliyah's hospital room for five straight days. The doctors said that Aaliyah should wake up either later today or tomorrow. Rosa and Ryan had been having a reunion since he hadn't seen his second mother in so long.
Jordan was always by Aaliyah's side, talking to her. He'd been doing this everyday. Ryan remembered when he used to be by her side all the time, but anyone with eyes could tell that Jordan was in fact very much head over heels in love with Aaliyah. Jordan reminded Ryan of himself when he was with Aaliyah.

Everyone had their own way of dealing with Aaliyah's condition. Jordan prayed everyday and always talked to her. Axel had been cracking his stupid jokes that have gotten him hit in the balls quite a few times. Axel said that his jokes always got Aaliyah to smile and he hoped that they would wake her up. Ashley had been going all scary mama on all of them. Her reign consisted of getting hit, punched, slapped and any other type of torture. She had been taking turns with Jordan on watching Aaliyah and on the inside, Ryan knew that Ashley was just scared that she would lose her best friend. No one should ever have to think that. Danny and Ethan had been getting food for everyone all week since they wanted everyone to be okay. They didn't want anyone to starve, worrying about Aali. They'd been going to the cafeteria and talking to everyone. They were just trying to cheer everybody up from the horrible situation surrounding them.

But Ryan, Ryan had been taking care of Rosa. She was in horrible condition. She kept on mumbling about losing all of her children. It broke her when Mateo died and Ryan couldn't stand a woman as sweet as her being so broken. Ryan been keeping her at the house and giving her updates on Aaliyah. When Ashley was with Rosa, Ryan would be with Aali and he would sing songs to her and talk to her about the past. They were certainly not together anymore, but Ryan would always love Aaliyah, only not the way that he used to.

Violet really worried about Ryan though, and she had been going to see Aaliyah too, since they were mutual friends. Ryan still felt broken. He used to love Aaliyah. He loved her with everything in him. She was gis rock and it pained him to see Aaliyah lying there in the bed, almost lifeless.

Today Ryan was watching her and he finally knew the perfect song to sing to her.

"Hey, love. So, I'm hoping you'll wake up soon. It breaks my heart to see you lying there. I want to see your chocolate brown eyes and hear your sassy remarks. I just want my Aali back. Please wake up." Ryan begged, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Say something, I'm giving up on you. I'll be the one, if you want me to."

"Anywhere, I would've followed you. Say something, I'm giving up on you."

"And I, am feeling so small. I'm still learning to love, just started to crawl. And I, will swallow my pride. You're the one, that I love, and I'm saying goodbye."

"Say something, I'm giving up on you. I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you and anywhere, I would've followed you."

"Say something, I'm giving up on you. Say something."

The tears fell from Ryan's eyes to Aaliyah's hand. Throughout the song, he choked on his words a bit. He couldn't help it, though. He loved her. No matter what, he would always love her and now he was risking losing her, but he couldn't lose her. Not now, not ever. As the thoughs spewed in Ryan's mind, he felt pressure squeezing his hand and he looked up to see Aaliyah beautiful eyes.

And he wasn't sure if it was the mixture of missing her and worrying about losing her, but Ryan did the one thing that he knew he shouldn't have. He kissed her and to make matters worse, she kissed back. This was not good. Well, sure it felt good, but the situation was not a good one to be in. Just after they parted lips, Ryan heard a cup drop to the floor. Ryan whipped around to see Danny. Ryan let out a sigh of relief. If it were to have been Jordan, Ashley, or Axel, then he would've gotten his ass kicked.

"What the hell, Ry?" Danny said.

"I--um--well--you see--unicorns and puppies." Ryan rambled.

"Ryan kissed me, but I kissed him back, so we're both at fault here." Aaliyah said as Ryan remained speechless. Aaliyah was going to make a comment about how Ryan was speechless because of Danny's beauty, but she decided against it. It wasn't the time.

"Doesn't matter whose fault it was. I know that you guys have chemistry, but Ryan, you have a girlfriend!" He whisper-shouted.

"I know, I know." Ryan said in a guilty voice. He put his head down and looked at his shoes.

"And Aaliyah, it's great that your awake, but you're engaged and you have that thing going on with Jordan, whatever the hell it is." Danny glared.

"I know. I'm gonna talk to my mom about breaking up the engagement, but if she doesn't agree, we'll both just have to move on." She admitted. Ryan nodded.

Ryan hated the mess that has become their life. Ryan wished that everything was simpler. He wished that he'd have never fucked up and kissed Aaliyah, but he most especially wished that he could be faithful to Violet.

Aaliyah groaned after Ryan left the room with Danny. She wished that she didn't have to marry her best friend. She wished that she could just be with Jordan, but everyone knew that that wasn't how reality worked. God dammit, when did her life become a fucking soap opera? She hated this. She hated how complicated this was.