Butterfly Years

Chapter 16

***VERY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!! Heya guys! :) This chapter is dedicated to radbealison, who is the best author EVER. If you read her short story Beautiful and understand it, you would agree with me too. Can you guys do me a favour and read it? It's honestly beautiful :) Thankie! And here's your chapter***

"Why me?!" I asked in a hushed whisper, glaring at Tia.

"Because you're the one who's in love with him!" she whispered back.

"I am not-" I began to protest, but Tia cut me off effectively by ringing the doorbell.

"Good luck, chica," she hugged me before turning around and walking across the road.

So here I was, standing outside Ryan's new house, completely clueless as to what I'm supposed to tell him.

Alone.

"Tia!" I called after her desperately, but she just waved at me over her back.

John explained that his grandparents were living next door to Ryan’s new apartment, and he was sleeping over at their place when he saw Ryan moving in. After he gladly gave us the address, Sabby called his sister and had her drive Tia and me over here. I really wanted Sabby to come with us, but he had to babysit his younger brother since his parents were out.

Tia was headed to John’s grandparents’ house, where John was waiting for her.

A second later, the door flew open, zapping me out of my thoughts.

"Syaz?!" a young voice yelled disbelievingly. I smiled happily at Jen, who didn't waste much time wrapping her arms around my waist. Honestly, having Rosie drive us all the way here just to meet Jen was definitely worth it.

Sadly, that wasn't the sole reason I was here.

"How are ya, little princess?" I asked her, crouching down to her height.

"We moved!" she exclaimed, "But mom's with us now! I'm so happy!"

And with that she hugged me again. I squeezed her back, incredibly happy that she was happy.

"So where's Ryan?" I finally asked her. Jen tugged me into their little house and beamed at me.

"Are you here to talk to him?"

"Wh- Yeah," I stammered.

"He's upstairs," she stated, somewhat proudly. "I told him you'd come."

I couldn't stop a grin from slipping onto my face. "What did he say?"

"He said that he was afraid you wouldn't come and that he missed you," she replied, before practically pushing me up the stairs.

"Okay, okay, I'm going," I laughed.

For some reason, I wrapped my jacket tighter around myself as I walked up the stairs. I was definitely nervous. When was the last time I had seen him?

Thursday?

Friday. I last saw him on Friday. And since today was Wednesday, I hadn't met him for...

A grand total of five days.

And I missed him already.

Wow.

Once I was on the top floor, I looked around. There were two rooms to my right and another staircase to my left.

“Jen!” I whispered, searching below me for her.

“The first bedroom!” she whispered back, appearing at the base of the steps only to wink at me. I grinned to myself as she disappeared yet again; Ryan was certainly rubbing off on her.