The Better Life // Ryan Ross

Chapter 25

     After standing outside the door in shock of what just happened, I opened the door and walked up to my room ignoring my mothers voice telling me that lunch was ready. Once I got in, I sat on my bed and placed the stuffed duck, that my grandmother gave me all those years ago, across from me and stared at it, playing back what just happened.

     "Just friends," he says.

     "Just friends." Those two words said one thing but his actions before that said another. Did he not feel anything to make him say that or was he just playing with my mind? Did I even kiss back or just stand there in shock? Did he plan on doing it or was it just in the moment? How did he-

     "Honey, I said dinner was ready. Did something happen?" my mom asked as she walked into my room.

    "Oh, sorry. I was distracted and I'll tell you later," I answered.

     "Okay." With that she started walking out of my room before asking if I was going to come downstairs for lunch which I responded to with a 'yeah'.

     After we ate, my mom took all of our plates to the sink to wash later and helped Bronx out of his chair so he wouldn't hurt himself. When Bronx left the kitchen, our mom blocked the door so I couldn't leave and asked me what was wrong.

     "Can we sit down so I can tell you then?" I asked.

     "Okay." She made her way back to the table and sat down watching me like a hawk. "Now, what happened between you and Ryan?"

     "How do you know it involves Ryan?"

     "You were just with him."

     "Maybe I lied and went outside with someone else."

     She let out a soft chuckle before continuing our conversation. "I saw him at the door when he came. Now tell me what happened," she said sternly.

     I took a deep breath to think about how I would word what I had to say. "Umm, we broke up," I said quietly looking down at my lap.

     "You what?" she asked getting slightly angry.

     "Mom, it's not like that! Trust me. We're not mad at each other at all. We both wanted to break up."

     "Then why did you go up to your room without a word?"

     "Because. . ." I said not wanting to tell her that he kissed me.

     "Because what?"

     "He kissed me," I mumbled trying to hide behind my black hair.

     "What?"

     "He kissed me before he left," I said louder now looking at her not showing my lips.

     It took her a while to take in what I just told but when she did she told me to never tell Dad because he would overreact and probably throw a brick at Ryan if he ever saw him again. My mom decided not to ask anymore questions and let me go back to my room. Hopefully we could both forget about that whole situation.

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     The next day we had school. I walked through the doors with Andrea because ever since the incident, her parents or my parents would drive us to school. Andrea and I went our separate ways once we were at the eighth grade part of the school. Andrea said goodbye as she walked walked into her classroom which was science while I continued walking towards my geometry class.

     That class was the only geometry class because there wasn't many people who took algebra the year before which made me feel even more like a nerd. Once I got in the classroom, I walked over to my small group of my friends that were in that class because we had roughly fifteen minutes to kill.

     My group of friends in that class consisted of two girls, Afifa and Claudia, and two guys, Jordan and my species, Jamie. Afifa was the 'popular' one out of all of us but we all knew that if something ever happened,  she would pick us over them any day. Claudia was probably the smartest one out of us, heck probably out of the whole class because it was rare when someone would get a better score than her on her tests. Jordan was the quiet one out of all of us and looked like someone you probably shouldn't mess with but he was actually pretty funny and had an amazing hidden talent which was drawing. Now, Jamie, also known as my species and James is the wisest and knows how to talk back if someone messes with him. I was basically the one who laughed at everything that anyone said and the musical one. After talking about what happened during our weekend, which was Afifa getting new sneaker wedges, Claudia eating rice (her words not mine), Jordan's older sister dying a strand of hair on the back of his head white, and my species doing nothing (just like I did). Our teacher, Mr.Smith, decided to start class when our conversations died down.

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     Halfway through the day, Andrea and I met up after our fourth period to go to civics together. While working on our civics project during class, Andrea kept talking about this new guy who started school today and that she invited him to have lunch at our table. She said that his name was Kevin and that he was from Ohio. Fifth period ended which ment it was now time for lunch. Andrea amd I quickly got our lunches and sat down at our usual table.

     "Ooh, there he is. Kevin!" Andrea called out. I stretched my neck and angled my head to help me see who she was talking about. A tall boy with brown hair instantly turned around raised his arm up high. With a smile on his face he started waving his hand frantically in our direction. He started walking towards us while using both hands to hold his tray.

     "Hey, Andrea. Hello Andrea's friend," he greeted when he took a seat next to Andrea.

     "Hey. So Kevin, this is my best friend, Jamie. Jamie this is Kevin."

     "Hey," Kevin said.

     "Hi," replied while waving my right hand slightly.

     Everyone else who usually sat with us at our table soon came and started having chats on their own. Even though I was engaged in a couple of different conversations, I couldn't help but notice how Andrea and Kevin interacted with each other. It just reminded me of how Ryan and I used to act when we would hang out. I know that it has only been one day but if we see each other again, it would probably be awkward and we wouldn't be acting the same. For the rest of the day, I managed to get those thoughts out of my head and continued with the rest of my school day.

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     TOLD YOU I WOULD UPDATE BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED FOR ME! HA!

     I have no idea why I wrote that but I'm sorry for the REALLY crappy chapter.

     Tomorrow is the annual funeral for my happiness. Also known as school, which starts tomorrow and because it's high school, I don't know when I'm going to be able to update again. So,  if I don't update for a long time just know that I'm probably busy and thinking of what I could write for this story since I had absolutely nothing planned when I first started.

     Good night from my time zone.