I Won't Let You Close Enough to Hurt Me

Chapter 4

     The rest of the day went by without any serious problems. Brooke only saw Brandon once more after their first encounter, and all she got was a dirty glare. At the end of the day, she grabbed everything she would need for homework that night, and went to sit outside the school to wait for her mom to pick her up.

     Brooke decided to get a head start on her homework while waiting for her mom, since she knew that she wouldn't have a lot of time to do it after dance. She flipped open her math book to page 12 and started to do the problems. All of the sudden, someone plopped down next to her and grabbed the book from her. She was ready to take her book back and tell the person to get lost, until she realized who it was.

     "Oh, hey Ryan," Brooke smiled.

     "Hey Brooke. I just thought I'd check up on you and see how the rest of your day went, seeing as it didn't start too smoothly," Ryan said.

     "It was okay. I only had to see Brandon one more time, and he didn't try to talk to me or anything, so I guess that's good..." Brooke's voice trailed off. It was still hard for her to believe that things had gotten so bad with Brandon.

     Ryan could see the pain in Brooke's expression, so he decided to put his arm around her. He put he head up to her ear and whispered, "It will all be okay." Brooke smiled. She loved that Ryan cared about her so much. It made her feel less alone.

     Brooke was about to respond to Ryan when she heard a car horn. It was her mom. She quickly slid away from Ryan, grabbed her math book, and shoved it in her backpack. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ryan," she said before running off.

     When she climbed into the car, she noticed that Paige was already in the back seat with both of their dance bags. Then Brooke remembered that it was Monday, which was pyramid day. She groaned as a whole new pain swooped over her body. With all the Brandon drama, she had forgotten all about the pyramid.

     "So Brookie, what's going on with Ryan," Kelly teased.

     Brooke looked disgusted. "There is nothing going on between me and Ryan. He's practically my brother. That's gross," Brooke said. She knew that it was natural for her mom to wonder about what was going on between her and Ryan, but after the day she'd had, she didn't feel like answering any questions. Besides, she didn't have any feelings for Ryan. Sure he was nice and good looking, but she could never think about him the way she thought about Brandon. The whole idea just seemed strange to her.

     "Oh, well I'm sorry I asked," Kelly said sarcastically. Brooke gave her mom an apologetic look, and Kelly smiled back. She knew that her daughter had probably had a rough day.

     Twenty minutes later, the Hylands arrived at the studio. Brooke and Paige ran back to the dancers den to change, and Kelly went upstairs. Brooke grabbed her dance clothes out of her bag, and headed to the bathroom. She had picked out black spandex with a bright blue bra top. When she came out of the bathroom, all of the other girls had arrived, and so had Abby. "Alright girls, pyramid time!" Abby beamed.

Authors Note: I hope you guys like it so far! More chapters tomorrow :)