Catching Ryan

Six

Colin found out in first period the next day what Ryan had been so upset about. He'd spent the first few minutes of class trying to understand what Ms. Joy was teaching them but given up when all of it sounded like Greek to him. He'd let his thoughts drift back to their usual focus on a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed contradiction, and spent the rest of class wondering how to approach him. Before he knew it, he was being startled from his thoughts by the dismissal bell, only this time, Ms. Joy stopped him before he left the room, calling his name as he stood up from his chair. It was only then that he noticed Ryan was standing at the front of the room beside the woman's desk.

Shouldering his bag, Colin made his way to the front of the room and stood beside him, taking notice of the tense set of his shoulders and the ticking muscles in his jaw. Ryan kept his eyes on the wall across the room, completely ignoring him. Sighing inwardly, Colin turned his gaze from him to look at their teacher, who was looking at Ryan with a stressed expression. After a moment, Ms. Joy smiled and looked at Colin.

"Colin, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've decided to assign you a tutor. You struggle greatly in my class, and you're currently failing. I know you need this credit to graduate and continue to be on the football team, and I want you to pass, to do well," she explained, a supportive expression on her face. "Ryan is my best student, and I know he would do well with this, so I've asked him to tutor you. You will have to work out a schedule between yourselves. I expect you to take full advantage of this, Colin. I don't want to see you get held back due to lack of a fine art credit or kicked off the football team because of an ineligible grade."

Colin had to struggle to keep his face neutral. Inwardly, he was jumping up and down, screaming like an excited little girl with a grin so wide he could swear it pulled the muscles in his face. That was the best news he'd gotten in weeks. Had he gotten anyone else as a tutor, he'd have been whining like a six-year-old, but since it was Ryan, he couldn't care less about having to attend tutoring. He'd study music theory until his eyes bled if it meant he got to spend a couple hours every few nights alone with Ryan somewhere. He'd just spent the whole class trying to figure out how to approach him, and Ms. Joy had just given it to him on a silver platter. He was so grateful he could have reached out and kissed her.

"I understand, Ms. Joy. I'll do my best to do better," he said.

When Ms. Joy had called Ryan up to the front of the classroom after the dismissal bell rang yesterday, he'd been expecting her to ask him one of her usual concerned questions: Are you alright? How are you feeling? Would you like a pass to rest in the nurse's office? Instead, she'd done the last thing he'd expected her to do and asked him to be a tutor to, of all people, Colin Belleview. Ryan had instantly refused. After Friday night, the last thing he wanted to do was spend time alone with the guy. But Ms. Joy had played her trump card on him, telling him the one thing she knew would make him change his mind: "I'm disappointed, Ryan. Someone needs your help, and you're refusing them. What for?" Ryan hadn't told her why, having no interest in being psychoanalyzed, but he had sighed and told her he'd do it before heading to his next class.

The rest of his day had been pretty much the same as every other one. He'd attended his classes, half focused on the teacher and listening to the teenagers around him whisper back and forth. He'd caught snippets about the almost-fight he'd gotten into throughout the day. It was mostly girls talking about how sexy it was that Colin was willing to start a fight with the one guy at school who could put a linebacker on his ass in under two minutes to avenge Kyle. For some reason hearing those conversations bugged the hell out of him, so around fifth period he'd put his hoodie up, stuck his earbuds in his ears, and tuned them all out.

This morning, he'd been crazy tired, having been at work until midnight last night. He'd had to rush through getting ready this morning, and he may have run a couple red lights on his way to the school, but he got there before the bell, and no one had gotten hurt. He didn't like to drive in any reckless ways, even small ones like that, but he did it sometimes anyway, much to his own chagrin. First period had passed uneventfully, and before he knew it, he was standing in front Ms. Joy's desk, waiting for her to inform Colin of his new tutor. He didn't look at Colin when he came to stand beside him, but he could feel the muscles in his jaw clicking with tension. After the way Colin had looked at him in Joe's yard last Friday, Ryan was extremely uncomfortable around him. There was something about him that just got under his skin.