Girl Meets Ryan Matthews

41.

High-key happy with this. Tell me if you think the tone is off in anyway, I was rewatching the Flash and I might've slipped some of that tone into here without meaning to, so,,

Later that evening, Topanga sighed and slumped on the table. "What are we going to do?"

Cory frowned at the table and rubbed Topanga's shoulder.

Suddenly, the door swung open and crashed against the wall.

"What!"

The two jumped in surprise and faced the door. Adian was standing in the doorway and stalked forward. Farkle came in quickly after him.

"You grounded Ryan?"

Topanga got up from the kitchen table and walked to the middle of the living room. Topanga and Aidan were both roughly the same height so if this was to intimidate him, it did not work.

"Who are you? Are you one of Ryan's friends?"

"Yeah! My name's Aidan Alvarez, and I'm also your neighbor." Aidan glared.

"Why are you here?"

"You grounded your son for the wrong reason! He wasn't fighting for no reason, you have to know that!"

Topanga sighed and rubbed at her face. "Listen, I do not need some 13 year old telling me how to parent."

Ryan came rushing in from his room. "You're completely right, mom. I'll just-" He tried to shove Aidan out the door but he walked around him.

"Why are you lying to your parents, dude! If you just told them, they wouldn't have grounded you."

Ryan stood in front of Aidan. "If I wanted to tell them, I would have."

"Ryan was being bullied." Aidan said to Topanga, still looking at Ryan.

"What?" Cory said in disbelief.

"Dude." Ryan glared at Aidan.

"Is he being serious, Ryan?" Topanga asked, anger present in her voice. Ryan sighed and looked at her. "Yeah, he is."

"Why wouldn't you tell us?" Cory asked. Both of his parents looked hurt. Ryan looked around nervously.

"I don't know, maybe because I didn't think you'd care?"

"Ryan why on earth would we not care that you are being bullied?" Topanga asked.

"I don't know, because of Riley?" Ryan was getting anxious. This wasn't something he ever wanted to talk about with his parents.

Thanks a lot, Aidan.

"What?"

"What do you mean, what?" Ryan laughed. "You only ever give attention to Riley. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of ignoring me? Like, a lot."

"What do you mean, ignoring you?" Cory asked. He sat down on the couch, looking up at his son. 

"You don't talk to me, you don't check up on me, I might as well already be an adult for how isolated I feel from you guys!" Ryan exclaimed.

Topanga set her jaw. "While that's important, I do think that we need to be focusing on the fact that you are being bullied."

Ryan scoffed. "Ok, yeah, just avoid the fact that you don't care about me to lecture me, sure." He backed up and bumped into Aidan. He turned around angrily and glared at him. "Thanks a lot, Aidan. You can go now, you got what you wanted."