Girl Meets Ryan Matthews

49.

Girl Meets First Date

Ryan was lying on Aidan's bed, doing homework, while Aidan sat at his desk working on another speech.

Ryan looked up from his homework to peer at Aidan's work. He scrunched his nose at it. "How many more speeches until you're done? the end of the year is in, like, a month."

Aidan sat back and stretched his arms in front of him and shook them out. "Sorry, but not all of us lost in the first round of the competition and get to sit out the rest of the year."

Ryan rolled his eyes and shut his textbook. "Okay, rude ass. So, like, one?"

Aidan shook his head with a sarcastic smile. "Yeah, dipshit, one."

"All you had to say," Ryan said, opening his book back up and refocusing on it. Aidan's eyes stayed on Ryan while he wasn't paying attention. Eventually, he turned back to his own work, but couldn't pay attention. He began tapping his pen on the paper, splotching ink all over the words.

"Dude," Ryan called from behind him. Aidan turned to face him, tapping unpaused. "You good?"

"Huh?" Aidan looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

Ryan nodded his head at the desk, pointing at where his pen was still inking up the paper. "That. Your speech is probably drowned in the rest of that ink by now."

Aidan stopped the pen and looked down. He was right, the few sentences he had down were covered in ink. Aidan sighed in frustration, balling the paper in his hands and tossing it into the trash.

"Once again, I ask, you okay?" Ryan asked with a small smile. Aidan sighed and bit his lip, staring at the trash can.

"How did you know you weren't straight?" He burst, turning his gaze to Ryan.

Ryan sat up, surprised. He closed his textbook again and put it to the side. "Okay, that's a serious conversation. What makes you ask?"

Aidan rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I dunno. Just curious, I guess."

Ryan nodded, not wanting to pry. "Ok, well for me, the first crush I ever had was on Farkle." Ryan grabbed a small pillow from the head of Aidan's bed to fidget with. "I knew it was a crush because the way all the other boys in the class were talking about girls was how I felt about him."

Aidan gave him a questioning look. "Oh. How old were you when you had your first crush?"

Ryan tilted his head to the side and scrunched his eyebrows as he thought about it. "I don't know, maybe seven? It was around second or third grade, I know that. It was after we met him at the class Halloween party in elementary school."

Aidan nodded, rubbing his hands together nervously. "Cool, cool. Good to know."

"Yeah, but I uh, got over that crush." Ryan smiled at him. "Do you have a crush on a guy?"

Aidan blushed, leaning back into the desk and not meeting Ryan's eyes. "Uh, well, I don't- I don't know. What does a crush feel like?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow at him. "You've never had a crush before?"

Aidan shook his head. Ryan paused to think. "Well," he said after a minute. "A crush can feel different for everyone. But it mostly involves getting nervous around that person, wanting to be around them a lot, and thinking that this person is attractive. Would you say you feel these things about someone?"

Aidan was silent at his desk, he stared at nothing, deep in thought.

"I think so," he answered after a long moment.