Moon Rise (Ryan Magee)

eleven

y/n

A week goes by without hearing from Ryan. I go through my regular routine as much as possible. I hang out with Tucker a lot. He's not super close with Ryan, and I guess he can tell that something happened with us- but he never asks. 

By the time the next astronomy lab rolls around, I decide to just stick with Tucker and see what happens. Between him, Holly, and Suzy, I've been convinced that I'm a bo$$ a$$ bitch who don't need no man. 

Buuuut, then he walks in. He sits at the other end of the lecture hall, about 4 rows down. 

"I'm gonna try to talk to him." Tucker gets up and walks over to Ryan. I can just barely make out their conversation. 

"Hey, man, what's up?" Tucker asks, cautiously sitting on the floor beside Ryan's seat. Ryan scoffs. 

"Nothing," is all he says. Tucker sighs and looks up at me. 

"Can we talk after class?"

"Nah, I've got plans. I gotta take a nap." a/n- okay honestly me 

"Oh. O-okay. Well, whenever you're over this hissy fit, give me a heads-up. I didn't do anything to you, so I don't know why you're acting like such a prick." Tucker gets up and comes back over to his seat before Ryan can respond. After a short moment, Ryan picks up all of his stuff and storms out of the room, almost running into the professor on his way out. 

I'm honestly at a loss. I can't imagine why he'd be mad at Tucker and me. 

After class, Tucker and I agree to meet at his parents' place to start on our extra credit assignments. 

<time skip brought to you by this muy delicioso grilled cheese I just got>

Tucker and I have spread out across his parents' back deck. We had to remind his parents at least 15 times that we aren't, in fact, dating. It makes us laugh now, honestly. 

He's got all of his paints, canvases, and other random art supplies strewn around the deck, while I've got my photography stuff set up. I have my camera on my tripod, and slowly but surely my timelapse is moving along.

Once Tucker is done with his sketch of his painting, and I've quadruple-checked that my camera is capturing everything evenly, we lay out on two lounge chairs and look up at the sky.

"You know, I don't think I've ever looked at the sky so much. Like, until I took this class," I say, noticing how the stars seem to be brighter out here. 

"Yeah, same here." He replies. We're quiet for a minute before Tucker's mom comes outside. 

"Hey, Tucker, you've got a visitor. It's Ryan. Is everything okay with y'all? I haven't seen him around recently." 

My heart skips a beat at hearing his name. Tucker shakes his head. 

"Uh, I mean, I guess it hasn't been perfect." He turns to me. "I'll go. You stay here, I won't tell him you're here." I smile gratefully at him. 

I continue to look up at the night sky, trying to supress the lingering worry about Tucker and Ryan talking. It has to at least have something to do with me. 

My worrying apparently makes me very tired, because I fall asleep in the comfy lounge chair a few minutes later. 

Tucker wakes me up by tapping me on the nose. I swat his hand away at first, then I realize it's him, and we both chuckle. 

"How'd it go?" I ask, sitting up.

"Well," he starts, sitting down on the chair next to me, "he told me everything. That he knows you saw Callie kiss him, and... he saw me kiss you on the cheek. That's why he's been so pissy." 

My breath hitches. I have a million questions, so I sort through them and start with the biggest one. 

"How did he see us? Why was he at my place?" Tucker smiles.

"That's the thing," he says, "he wanted to apologize for a bunch of stuff. He says Callie kissed him and he pushed her away. He hates her, y/n. He even showed me texts between them. She's hardcore crazy. She was stalking him until he told her for the millionth time that he... he likes you. A lot." Tucker's beaming now. I realize that I am too. 

"Really? So he doesn't like her? Oh, my God, Tucker that's... That is very good news." 

"He thought you'd say that. He's waiting out front if you wanna go talk to him." I jump up and hug Tucker.

"Thank yoooooou," I say into his neck. He wraps his arms around me and hugs me back.

"Why the fuck are you thanking me, you doofus?" I shrug and head out front. Ryan is leaning up against his car, looking at his phone. 

"That psycho Callie messing with you again?" I ask. He looks up at me and smiles. I rush over to him and hug him, tight. "I'm so sorry, Ryan." I say. He squeezes me tighter. 

"Don't be sorry, y/n. I should the the one who's sorry. I was such a dick to you... and to Tucker. I'm really sorry." We part, but he's still holding my elbows, and my arms are on his waist. 

"Let's just both be sorry and hug some more," I say. He laughs and hugs me tightly again. 

"Can we... like, go somewhere? Maybe your place? It's freezing but I don't think Mr. and Mrs. Prescott would like us hanging out in their house." I glance back toward the backyard. 

"Yeah, yeah we can. Let me just grab my stuff and see if Tucker can take care of my camera tonight." 

I turn to leave, but he holds my wrist and pulls me back to him. He puts his hand on my cheek and kisses me softly. It all happens so quickly I don't fully have time to register it. But it happens, and I spend the entire walk to the backyard touching my tingly lips to be sure it did. 

ahh am i actually almost finished with a story woah