Human Kid (II)

13.

Suzanne, Ethan and Ashley kept glancing at Ryan as he signed his own part of the document lastly.

"Goodbye guys," Alex waved as they all left.

"Since it's just a bit past 4:00pm, I was thinking we could go for some corndogs and burgers. What do you guys think?" Ethan turned partially to his Squad members.

"If burgers are there, then count me in!" Suzanne grinned.

"Yeah, a nice and light snack would be good for a while," Ashley said as she nodded in agreement.

Andrew glanced at his wristwatch. "I could spare an a couple of minutes."

Ryan looked away sourly as he said, "I can't make it, I'm leaving now."

He then started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Ashley called after him.

"For once Ashley just shut up and stop snooping around other people's lives," Ryan told her nastily without looking back or stopping.

"You have serious issues!" Ethan yelled at his departing figure till he was out of sight.

"What's the matter with him?! All she did was ask a simple question!" Ethan huffed and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Maybe I was prying too much," Ashley said as she lowered her gaze.

Suzanne looked thoughtful as she gave a reply to Ashley, "That's not it, Ryan acts like that to only me and Annabelle. I've never seen him act snappish to others like that."

"He's ill tempered," Ethan snorted, "What else did you expect?"

"What did you just call Ryan?!" Suzanne demanded, quite annoyed.

"I said that he was ill tempered," Ethan repeated and jutted his chin defiantly at her.

Few seconds later he was on the ground with Suzanne sitting on top of him and twisting his arm.

"Ow..ow....ow...okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he groaned from the floor.

"Get off him Suzanne," Ashley said and tried yanking Suzanne up by her arm.

"Fine, fine," Suzanne retorted as she stood up and Ashley helped a protesting Ethan up as well.

"Don't you remember, Ethan?" Andrew glanced at him before returning his gaze to the path Ryan had stormed off on.

"Huh? Remember what?" Ethan questioned as he looked at Andrew blankly.

Andrew closed his eyes.

"The reason Ryan acts the way he does is all because Rita died," he said and opened his eyes and looked at Ethan.

"Who's Rita?" Ashley asked when Ethan's mouth formed a knowing 'O'.

"I forgot," Ethan said sheepishly.

"Rita was Ryans' big sister that died while on duty. Ever since she died, Ryan has never celebrated his birthday," Andrew told her.

Ethan snorted. "And his parents are no good either; they left him all alone since he was eight cos his dad blamed him for his sister's death."

"How horrid!" Ashley gasped and she covered her mouth with her palms while Suzanne looked sadly away.

We've...we've been classmates for so long yet I didn't even notice something was wrong, Suzanne thought in despair.

"So Ryan doesn't have anyone to celebrate his birthday with?" Suzanne asked quietly, feeling really foolish about all the party suggestions she'd been making to his face.