How To Play the Player (COMPLETED)

Stop and Stare

"Do you want me there?"

He snorted with a smile. "Of course I do, Reese. That's a really stupid question."

I smiled in return, "Then I'll be there, Tin Man."

*

Bryan made sure to drop in to check in on my mother at the hospital before we headed back to his house. She was fine. Very shook and horrified by my father's actions, but okay. The baby was as well, she even invited me to join her to find out the gender in a couple days to which I agreed.

As soon as we were back at the Waters in Bryan's room, I was greeted by Shay's familiar face in the hallway. She had been stepping out of Brianna's room, but looked as if she were likely spending the night. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty; it should be me in there with Bri. I had kind of unknowingly pushed her away the last few months as I tried to sort through my feelings. I didn't want to take her happiness away, to drag her down into the abyss of my emotions again. She had already bore through it once with me, and now she was the happiest she'd ever been, and there was no way I was going to put a damper on that.

"Hey." Shay offered a weak smile. "Quite a shiner you got there."

I nodded, but it was Bryan who answered. "I didn't know you were going to be over tonight."

"Bri wanted to have another sleepover." Shay made a gesture over her shoulder toward his twins room. "She figured that Reese would want to be with you after what happened, whatever caused the black eye, I'm assuming."

That made me feel even worse. Again, Bryan spoke before I could. "She's probably right. But don't let me stand in the way, Reese, if you want to go chill with the girls."

Even worse was that the thought of sitting and talking about boys made me want to start sobbing, so I forced a smile and answered. "Maybe in a bit."

Shay took that as her cue. She sent me a quick, curt nod and Bryan a flirtatious smile before heading back for Bri's room. I followed my best friend until we were in the comfort of his own bedroom. He immediately headed for his closet while I set my duffel bag at the foot of his bed and stepped toward the staggered set of photos that hung over his TV on top of the dresser.

The biggest, a canvas, was of us at our middle school graduation. I remembered the day distinctly because Bryan had tripped over his gown and slammed right into my back seconds after he walked the small stage. He'd lived in embarrassment for that entire summer, thinking the moment would follow him into his first year of high school. Lucky for him Raya was a senior and shut anyone who made a comment about it up.

Brianna was wearing a black romper, having not grown into her long legs yet, she looked just as lanky and awkward as Bryan on my left in a Polaroid shirt and washed out jeans. I stood between them, my elbow draped over Bryan as I laughed at whatever he was saying, my blonde hair throw into a braid.

Most of the other photos were also of the three of us, a couple of them of the Waters family, but one of them was recent. It must have been taken at Homecoming without my knowledge. I was hugging Bryan, hiding my face against him so all that was visible was a curtain of blonde against his black tux. Why he'd want to frame such a traumatic moment for me was a little unnerving.

"Don't look at it like that." Bryan wandered back over to me, eyes on the picture. "I printed it because that was it."

"That was it? What do you mean?"

He rubbed his forehead. "I mean that it was in that moment I realized that I realized that even after hitting rock bottom and falling apart completely that you were still you, Reese. You went to that Homecoming dance for us, for Liam. You forced yourself to face your biggest fear to make us happy and content. And when I was standing there holding you, I realized that no matter how hard I try to deny it, you will always be the first girl I loved, the woman that set a standard for every future woman I decide to date."

He sat on the edge of his bed and continued. "Liam told me too, you know, that Homecoming was a monumental moment for him. He said that it was the first he started to question how he felt about you. Before that, he just that you were this cute, snarky, nerd. But he said when he walked in and your face lit up that he wanted to kiss you. Then, he said, that you completely fell apart in his arms outside the school and he wanted to comfort you, to stop the tears, but couldn't figure out how."

I joined my best friend on the bed. "Liam keeps telling me that he can't lose me. When he was yelling about my dad last night, he confessed he loved me."

"Well, no shit." Bryan laughed. "But he's damaged goods right now. Just wait until the end of the season, maybe. It'll be one less thing he as to worry about."

"I just want Raya to come back." My voice caught in my throat. "She'd know what to do about Dad, she'd give me the best advice about Liam."

Bryan wrapped his arm around me and rested his chin against the top of my head. "I miss her too, Re. I remember every time she saw me, she would insist I solemnly swear that if anything ever happened to her that I would look after you."

I bit down hard on my bottom lip to stop it from trembling.

"She was this magical queen of wisdom, always knowing what to do, what to say. When she left, she just left us all to fend for ourselves."

Bryan lifted his head and turned my own in his direction. "Reese, you don't honestly believe that, do you? Raya was never this magical wizard, she was only what you made her out to be. It was you the entire time that had it in you, that had the ability to show everyone around you that they had it within themselves too. The power to change. The power to love unconditionally."