Fighting to go on

Chapter 28

            “Is that the girl that tried to sneak into your tent when you went camping?” Anna wanted to know.

            “Yeah. Charlie told you about that?” I asked.

            She nodded. “He thought it was pretty funny.” She paused for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”

            “Sure.”

            “How were you able to see past Ryan’s bad boy attitude? I mean, I used to be absolutely terrified of him. I still am a little, but not as much now that I’ve gotten to know him.”

            “Ryan showed me a different side to him. I was scared of him at first as well, but on the first day of school he actually helped me out a little. After that, I started feeling safe around him and it kind of progressed from there.”

            “He helped you out? You never told me that,” Sarah said.

            I shrugged. “It wasn’t anything big. I just had this guy hitting on me and it was really bothering me. Ryan came in, gave the guy one look, and just like that I was left alone.”

            “He was probably jealous,” Brittany said with a slight smirk.

            I chuckled. “I can’t tell you for sure, but it might be that he was. He’s just a little possessive of me,” I said dryly.

            They all laughed. “That’s putting it mildly,” Sarah replied. “I thought he was going to rip Mark’s head off that one day. How do you deal with him being like that?”

            “I deal with it by understanding him. He can’t always control his temper and it’s not really his fault.”

            “I would’ve made him grovel a little,” Brittany said.

            I chuckled a little. “If you’d seen his face when he apologized, you wouldn’t be saying that. He looked so forlorn that there was no way I couldn’t forgive him. And he had Mark bring me flowers to prove that he had apologized to him as well.”

            “Aww, that’s cute,” Anna said.

            I grinned. “Yeah, but don’t say that to Ryan. It hurts his manly pride.”

            We all finished doing our nails and ordered pizza. After we finished stuffing ourselves, we watched a few more movies until we all fell asleep. I woke up when I felt myself being lifted up. I opened my eyes blearily and saw Ryan carrying me. “What are you doing?” I asked groggily.

            “I can’t sleep without you,” he replied. “It’s hard enough knowing that you were here all evening and I couldn’t see you. I can’t last through the night as well.”

            I smiled sleepily and snuggled into his chest as he brought us to our room. “’Kay, I want to sleep next to you anyways. You’re better then a teddy bear.”

            He chuckled as he laid me on the bed and climbed in with me. “I was just going to crawl in with you downstairs, but then I realized that the other three girls might swoon if they saw my naked chest.”

            I made a humming noise as I ran my hands over said chest. “It’s probably true. I’m going to sleep now. Love you,” I said with a yawn. I vaguely heard him reply before I drifted off to sleep again.

            The next night, Ryan brought me upstairs again. He was good about leaving us alone during the day, so I didn’t complain about being with him at night. To be honest, I always slept better with him beside me anyways.