Free Fall

Chapter 5

F I V E

The tears started trickling down my cheeks again, I tried to wipe them off before Ryan caught me but it was too late.

"I think I'll sleep over," Ryan said, opening the door for me, like a gentleman, and helping me upstairs.

"You really don't have to if you don't want to," I started to say. "I'll be okay."

Ryan, kindly, stayed anyway. I chose to sleep in my own clothes and then got into my double bed that was placed at the edge of my room. While Ryan took his shirt off, releasing his gorgeous chest, my eyes widened and Ryan started to smile, looking up at me. I quickly shut my eyes and soon felt myself falling asleep.

I woke up the next day, while Ryan was asleep. I got changed into a comfortable set of clothes and woke up Ryan next to me, kissing him and saying good morning. He then put back on his shirt, covering his six-pack. We sneaked downstairs past Harrie's room, to make breakfast. Ryan was an amazing cook and made us delicious pancakes.

We then had a little argument what to put on our pancakes which ended up with me being pushed in the pool and, to my surprise Ryan jumping in too. We played and laughed around for hours, but it was actaully just minutes. Just about when I was going to kiss Ryan on the lips, Brandon came out of nowhere. And he saw me and Ryan chest-to-chest and me just about to kiss him. Harriet was next to him shaking her head. I quickly swam to the edge of the pool, leaving Ryan behind.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Brandon, while Ryan came out of the pool, in all his glory.

"I came to see if you were okay, you seemed pretty upset last night," Brandon said but was looking Ryan up and down, instead of facing me.

"She's fine now, so I think you should go." Ryan said butting in and returning Brandon's dirty looks.

"I thought we were friends, but you ditched me for him and we hardly ever speak anymore," Brandon exclaimed pointing at Ryan. It felt like a stab in the chest and I slowly backed into Ryan's arms. He clasped his hands around me.

"I never stopped being your friend Brandon, you stopped being mine." I gave a large sigh and Brandon gave me a hurt look. Suddenly, my dad walked through the door giving all of us a surprised look. My cheeks flamed up in embaressment as I imagined how slutty I looked to him.

"Are you boys staying then? I was just about to leave for work," my dad asked questioningly, after walking back inside with a dazed look. My dad would never pry in my personal matters which was one of the many reasons why I loved him so much.

"I was just leaving, I only came to say hello," Brandon started walking away from us and closer to the exit. "See you tomorrow at Luke's party!" Brandon waved but he wasn't even looking back at us.

"I've got to go too, football practice starts in 30 minutes," Ryan said kissing me quickly and then leaving too. My dad gave me a light kiss on the cheek and left to go to work. I was left alone, with no one else. Well, Harriet was with me but she was skyping with her friends from her school. I realised, in that moment, how completely and utterly alone I really was. To keep myself busy, I took all of the junk food I could find and put it on a tray, then grabbed my nail polish and phone, and plopped down on my bed. Maybe today wasn't going to be so bad after all.

The next day at school was really awkward between Brandon and I. In Science, he didn't save me a seat as usual; Giselle sat in my seat instead so I ended up sitting at the back of the class hardly seeing a thing at all. Occasionally, Brandon would turn around and smile at me but I'd just ignore him and pretend to be doing my work.

After class, I packed up my things and swiftly went to find Alice. But before I could exit the room, four fingers dug into my skin pulling me back. Brandon was the one pulling me and Giselle was behind him giving me dirty looks. I tried to escape but his grip was too overpowering.

"I'm sorry about the seat, but Giselle asked if we could be partners for this lesson," I shrugged my shoulders, pretending I didn't care and tried to pull away. But I was just slammed back into Brandon.

"We're not your parents Dylan, oh I forgot you don't even have a mom!" Giselle said laughing. I can't believe she would stoop to that low, oh wait yes I could. Tears filled my eyes and I broke free from Brandon's strong grip. Brandon was calling my name in the distance but I ignored him, he ran up to me, putting his arm around me. I shook it off. This is the second time in the space of a day that Giselle had made me cry. I walked quickly losing Brandon in the corridor.

I found Ryan in the hallway at his locker unloading his books, I sobbed in his arms, telling him everything that happened. Ryan put his arms around me and took me home and told me that Giselle was a little b****, saying those things and bringing my mum up and that Brandon was stupid for dating her. I guess it wasn't Brandon's fault, Giselle was a complete angel to Brandon but to me she was the devil in a designer dress and high heels. Ryan left saying he would pick me up for tonight. I texted Alice than started getting dressed.

A few hours later Ryan was at the door in a tuxedo, he told me how beautiful I looked and we went into the car.

"You know I love you right?" I nodded my head "I don't think that you should be friends with Brandon anymore."

"Why?"

"He always gets you stressed whenever you're around him and that girlfriend of his is such a b****" I agreed but it didn't seem right blaming Brandon for things that Giselle has done.

"I'll think about it" I said pretending to be OK with the whole thing.

"I feel really mean now" Ryan laughed and I felt the need to laugh too.

********************************

Dylan's dad is played by Matt Bomer