[Book I of the Heart Series]
❝I'm sorry Ryan. But I will never love the face of my parents killer.❞
❝You can't, or you won't?❞
***
Queen Bee Maybelle Summers lived in a perfect little bubble.
Well, she did until the day her sizzling ho...
He pulled on his leather jacket and then pressed his forehead to the cool metal of his locker door. He let out a hot, strangled puff of air.
What a nightmare.
"What you doing there, champ?" Came a voice from behind him.
He turned red; embarrassed. He took his head off the locker and turned to his gym coach, who was leaning against the door of the locker room, blocking his only exit. Ryan chose to stare at the red coloured whistle that hung around his neck. It was much better than staring at those clear blue eyes that seemed to stare into his very soul.
"Nothing, coach. Was just heading out." He swung his gym bag over his shoulder and tried to move past the large man. But he wasn't having any of that.
"Somethin's bothering you, sonny, and I want to know what." He stated, "is it, ye-your parents?" Coach Burns' accent grew thicker with his concern. "I'm sure sorry for your loss," he concluded gruffly.
"Thank you," he whispered.
After a moment he decided that he wanted at least one moment of truth before he began his lies. "It's not that actually. Just normal teenager problems. What I want to major-in, which university to apply to," he paused, "how to ask some girl I like out,"
The coach almost didn't hear the last bit, but he was a military man. And military men had top drawer hearing. "Well," he began, scratching his head. "To answer ye first question, what do ye want to do?"
"You mean for a living?"
"Yeah,"
"I've always loved cars," Ryan said, "Everything about them fascinate me,"
"Y'wanna sell em, or make em?"
A glint of steel entered his eyes. His fingers tightened around the straps of his bag. "I want to sell them,"
"Business. Maybe a minor in physics or somethin'," was the coach's immediate reply. "Now, for the second, well that's really up to you. Just make sure you keep that lovely sister of yours in mind when you decide,"
Oh, he was. That was the only reason he was willing to do what he was going to do.
"....and as for the third. Well, sonny, we all know you've never had trouble in that department," he chuckled. "But I'd say use the traditional approach--give her that million dollar smile of yours and ask her out."
"Right," he grinned, "thanks, Coach,"
"Anytime sonny, anytime." He moved so that Ryan could leave.
Coach Burns watched as he hurried off. "Strong kid," he murmured. Having a pair of loving parents to look after them was something everyone really needed. Although the Patels had unofficially adopted him and his sister--well, that family had issues of their own. Big ones.
But everyone knew Ryan loved Merrybourne. And he wasn't going to let some social worker take him away. Besides, the boy's grandfather would come back. He had to.
He sighed again and shook his head.
He didn't know how that boy kept on giving them girls that million-dollar smile every day when his heart was broken into a million little pieces.
***
Don't worry, this doesn't add anything new to the story: if at all, only perspective. I'll be adding another one in May's perspective right after (a few years later).
QOTD: Have you ever liked someone for years but he/she barely knows you exist? Solutions?
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