Ryan's POV
The more time I spent with Rain, the more time I wanted to spend with him. He intrigued me, in a way that made me feel all warm and giddy inside.
On Friday I was going to ask him if we could spend the afternoon together. My uncle had decided to give me the Friday off after I begged incessantly. I didn't have anything particular in mind, but I hoped it would just be the two of us. That idea was thwarted when at lunch time, Jasmine suggested something.
"Hey guys, how about we go to the roller rink after school?"
We were at the cafeteria during lunch. All six of us were there, and I could swear Julie looked at me weirdly every now and then.
"That sounds like a good idea", Jordan said. "I'm in".
"In", Julie said.
I wondered then what she would say if I said I too was going.
"Sounds good", Rain said. "We haven't been there in a while".
"I'm coming too", Anthony said.
"Ryan?" Jordan said.
"Uh, sounds good. I'd love to join you guys", I said.
Rain looked at me. My heart skipped a beat every time he did.
"Not working?" he asked.
"No. It's amazing that under that crocodile exterior, my uncle has a heart. He let me off today", I said.
He smiled lightly. Julie looked at me then. Her eyes were firing warning shots. Either she knew what happened between Rain and I or she could see through me. Maybe she knew that I was thinking about how her brother had a lovely smile or that his hair looked really beautiful in the light of the cafeteria. Whatever it was, she didn't like it.
"Great. Meet there?" Jasmine asked.
I wanted Rain alone with me like it had been in his car the previous day. I wanted his attention focused on me. Of course it was silly. It was not like anything would develop from it.
Everyone nodded.
After lunch we had one more class and school was out. We all walked together to outside the building where we would part.
Everyone left except Julie, Rain and I.
"Do you know where the roller rink is?" Rain asked.
"Yeah, I'm quite familiar with this town", I said.
"Do you...need a lift?" he asked. The uncertainty in his voice was nice, yet kind of made me feel bad.
"I'll be fine. I'll take the bus", I said.
"I don't mind giving you a lift", he said.
The thought of being alone with him in the car was inviting, but I hated that he too was 'rescuing' me. I didn't need rescuing! I wasn't a charity case.
"You heard the guy, he'll take the bus. Come on", Julie said tugging at Rain's arm.
Clearly Julie still hadn't warmed up to me. I didn't like it, especially since her and Rain were close, but I liked it at that point. I didn't like the way Rain was treating me.
"Uh, okay. See you there?" Rain said.
I nodded.
I watched as they left. I heard a bit of their conversation.
"Jules sometimes you aren't nice", Rain said.
"I hate it when my brother is taken advantage of", Julie said.
"I offered!" Rain protested.
"I'm not talking about the lift. You know what I'm talking about".
I couldn't hear their voices anymore. I sighed, just standing there. Julie thought I was taking advantage of Rain. She thought someone like me wasn't capable of being genuine. I thought that maybe I should distance myself from Rain for a while. I would hang around with him, but in the company of others.
*
I got home and put my stuff away. The group had agreed to meet around 2. I took a nap and ended up oversleeping. I took the bus to town at 2, arriving 15 minutes past 2. I got out at the bus station and walked a couple of blocks to the rolling rink with the name Rolling Cherry.
Even though it was during the day, the roller rink was sunless, giving the impression that it was nighttime. It was indoors. The lights were on, but were a bit dim. Overall it created a sort of romantic feel. The room was big, with the rink in the middle and a couple of tables and chairs set to the side. There was a snack bar and a karaoke room too.
I spotted my 'friends' at one of the tables. They were talking and laughing while putting on their skates. I walked over to them.
"Finally you show up", Jordan said.
"Hey guys. What did I miss?" I asked.
"Jazz doing some crazy dancing moves on the rink", Anthony said.
Jasmine gave him a disapproving look.
"I didn't say bad, I said crazy", he said.
"And you think crazy is nice? Here Jules, hold my shoes", Jasmine said pretending to be angry.
We all laughed.
"Have you guys skated already?" I asked.
"Yeah, except Rain. He's really scared of falling", Jordan said.
Rain gave him a look.
"I'm gonna go again. Who's coming?" Jasmine said.
"I'll just get my skates", I said.
I got my rollers and changed my shoes. I met the others on the rink. Rain still hadn't come, though I noticed he already had his shoes. He was sitting on one of the tables with Julie. I momentarily thought of going there and asking him to join us, but dismissed the thought. I had to stay away from him for a while.
I rolled for a while with the others. It was fun to just glide around the rink and shout all sorts of nonsense. Jasmine was warming up to me. We actually did a race and she danced for me. Her moves did kind of seem crazy, but I enjoyed watching her just get loose.
Jasmine left to go to the bathroom.
"Hi", a voice caught me by surprise.
I turned to see a blond there. I had seen that face before, though the last time I saw her the hair had been messy and the make-up not so perfect. She really looked better this time, even beautiful.
"Hi", I said with fake enthusiasm.
"I didn't think I'd bump into you", she said cheerfully.
"Me neither", I said.
"I haven't seen you since Pete's party".
Ah...that party. Truthfully I didn't remember the second part of it. The part after Rain left was a blur to me. I knew something had happened between Gina and I, I just wasn't sure what. I hadn't seen her either after the party, though I knew she went to our school.
"Uh yeah, been busy", I said.
She gave me a smug smile. Her hand went to my chest, touching only slightly. "So, wanna do something sometime?" she asked slowly.
I wondered if she knew I wasn't part of the popular group anymore. I didn't want to say no, but she looked so hopeful.
"Yeah, sure", I said shrugging. Even though I didn't say no, I wanted her to know that nothing serious was going to happen.
She smiled and surprisingly hugged me. I was caught-off guard, so I slightly patted her on the back. Curiosity got to me. I wanted to know what had happened at the party, precisely what had happened between us.
"Gina, what happened between us at the party?"
I hoped she wasn't offended and she was exactly that. She looked like she was about to cry.
"You don't remember? We had fun together. We slept together. Oh gosh, I feel so ashamed", she said.
I put my hand on her arm slightly, wanting to comfort her but not too much.
"Of course I remember. I just wanted to..." I said and she started giggling.
"You are a really nice guy Ryan, even though you try to portray yourself as this macho guy. Nothing happened. You were drunk, I was drunk. You talked about babies and cops and a bunch of stuff I don't remember. We both passed out", she said.
I noticed then that her hand was on my waist. It was uncomfortable. I laughed too. I was glad nothing had happened, and that she couldn't remember what we talked about. Even though I couldn't remember, from what she could remember I knew I had talked about something I didn't want to talk about or even think about.
"What are you doing tomorrow night?" she asked, catching me off-guard.
"Uh...dinner...with the family, can't miss it", I said. I didn't exactly lie. My uncle still wouldn't let me go out, so dinner with the family was probably what I would be doing.
She looked sad.
"Some other time then", she said.
I smiled. "Yeah".
"So who are you here with? I don't see Pete and the others here", she said.
She didn't know that I wasn't part of the popular group anymore! No wonder she was still talking to me. From what Jason told me, she was desperate to be part of the crew.
"I'm here with Jordan, Jasmine, Anthony, Julie and Rain", I said pointing at each one of them if I could locate them. "I don't hang out with Pete and the others anymore".
"Oh". She looked disappointed. "Why?"
"Because apparently stealing is a prerequisite and I don't steal", I said. "I've got to go. Will see you around".
I skated to where Rain was. Julie had left to get some snacks. Truthfully I missed Rain. I hoped he would at least come back to the rink with me.
His eyes were on his phone. He seemed to be texting someone. It was probably Sebastian. Why did that thought annoy me so much?
"Is it true you are scared of falling Frenchie?" I asked, catching him off-guard.
He looked up from his phone. "No".
"Then why aren't you skating?" I asked. "Busy talking to your man?"
Okay, why wasn't I filtering my thoughts before I uttered them? I couldn't let Rain know how jealous I was. It would seem pathetic to him. It was pathetic!
He looked at his phone for a second. "The man you are talking about is more than 20 years older than me".
"So? Old men could be your type", I said.
He just looked at me. He didn't seem pleased. This wasn't going so well.
"Didier LaFond is married with a daughter. Not only is he not my type, he's not into men, and certainly not teenagers", he said. "Anyway, what happened to your girlfriend? Shouldn't you be swapping saliva or something along those lines?"
Wow! I had not expected that. So he'd seen me with Gina and come to the wrong conclusion, again! I liked what I was hearing though. Was he jealous?
Julie returned before I could say anything. She had a bunch of snacks in her hands. Jasmine, Jordan and Anthony also returned. We bought some snacks and settled down on the table, eating and chatting.
"You know Ryan; I'm allergic to ditzy blondes. They send me into anaphylactic shock", Jasmine said.
I raised a brow.
"Gina?" she reminded me. "If you want to date her, that's okay. But please don't bring her to our table. I really can do without smelling her desperation".
Jordan, Julie and Anthony laughed.
"Jasmine!" Anthony warned, though he was still laughing.
"What? It's better if he knows now rather than later. I don't want to dry-heave every time she comes close to me", Jasmine said.
"Gina is a nice girl, she's just too desperate for things she doesn't need", I said.
"So you are going to be her knight in shining armor? Rescue her?" she asked.
"I doubt she's still interested in me, I'm not part of the popular crew anymore", I said.
"Yeah right! Like I didn't hear her asking you out and you agreeing. Don't be shy about it, some guys do prefer their girls to not have brains", she said.
Okay! Jasmine was a handful. She was too witty for my liking. I pitied and sort of envied the guy who was her boyfriend. She sure knew what she wanted and said what she thought. She sure kept her boyfriend on his toes. But brains were better than no brains.
"I'll be on the rink if anyone needs me", Rain said abruptly.
If I didn't know better I would say he was on his periods. He seemed to be really moody that day. Maybe Saturday night couldn't come fast enough. Maybe he'd rather be hanging out with Sebastian than with the group.
I watched him leave.
"Guys, what's wrong with Rain?" I asked tentatively. If Rain's friends were as overprotective of him as he so said, they were going to be offended by the question.
I only caught the tail end of what Julie said, something about 'senses'.
"He's nervous about the date tomorrow, first date after..." Jasmine said enthusiastically but went quiet at the end.
"Tristan?" I asked. I'd seen the name a lot in his notebook and even though I didn't quite understand what the entry said, I figured he would be the ex-boyfriend.
"He told you about Tristan?" Julie asked in disbelief.
"Uh not really. I saw a picture of Tristan in his car, at least I think it's him - blonde hair, brown eyes", I said.
Jordan nodded. The group went silent after that.
I didn't need to know the story to know that the breakup hadn't been nice. Everyone was so silent about this Tristan. The way Julie asked me how I knew about him told me it wasn't something Rain would tell me about. The way Jasmine went quiet was suspicious. Where was this Tristan anyway?
"So what are you guys doing tomorrow night?" I asked, breaking the silence.
The group talked but I was only partially listening. Jordan and Julie were going to the movies, Anthony was going to some church thing and Jasmine was babysitting.
The group continued talking. I excused myself, deciding to join Rain on the rink. I skated to where he was. He was fixing some girl's laces. She smiled and thanked him when he was done, skating off.
"Sebastian is lucky", I said as he stood up.
He nearly fell, but I caught him by the arm. With that move I pulled him close to me unintentionally. For a moment we just stood like that. I was captivated by his proximity I forgot to let him go even though he was upright.
I let him go eventually, and he straightened his sweater.
"So Jordan was right. Clumsy much?" I asked.
"When people sneak up on me, yeah", he said.
"I didn't sneak up on you. I merely skated to where you are, in full view of everyone", I said.
"Everyone but me", he said.
We skated to the barrier, leaning against it.
"Jasmine says you are nervous about your date tomorrow night", I said.
"Don't believe everything Jasmine says", he said.
"So you aren't nervous?" I asked.
"No".
"Excited then?"
"Okay, I'm nervous", he said. It was cute the way he said it. It was like getting an admission from Sally.
"Want advice? If you run out of things to say, ask him if his family tree is a cactus, then you'll know everyone on it is a prick and you should walk away", I said, probably the lamest thing I had ever said.
Surprisingly he laughed. He looked so cute laughing. I was actually proud of myself.
I laughed too. "I can give you cute things to say too".
He continued laughing. "I'm good thanks", he said breathlessly.
"That wasn't funny, was it?" I asked. It was more a statement than a question.
He stopped laughing. "I'm not going to answer for both of our sakes".
I grinned. "So any idea where you are going?"
"Yeah, we are going to have dinner at a restaurant, then a movie", he said. He was much more relaxed.
"Not Mexican?" I asked.
"No. I heard Jasmine's advice loud and clear", he said.
There was silence for a bit, but it was comfortable.
"Ryan, can I ask you something?" he asked.
"You have already, but go on"
"Are you gay?" he asked.
The question sprung out of nowhere. It was possible he'd been thinking about it since our kiss, but I hadn't expected it. I didn't know how to respond. I wasn't gay, but I wasn't straight either. Do I tell him my real sexuality?
I shook my head. I was going to say something, but a voice came booming through the speakers.
"I hope you are having fun on the rink. It's slow dancing time, so partner up folks!"
The air around Rain and I became awkward. We watched as people partnered up and slow music began playing. There weren't that many couples on the rink so it wouldn't be weird for Rain and I to partner up, but we weren't going to. It would be...
"Ryan, there you are. Wanna dance?" it was Gina.
I shook my head. "I can't dance".
I thought she wasn't interested in me after I told her I wasn't part of the popular crew anymore. Surely she knew if she was friends with me, she was enemies with the popular crew. That would thwart the chances of her dreams coming true.
"It's not that hard. I'll show you", she said.
"Have fun!" Rain said enthusiastically and left. I didn't even have a chance to say anything to him.
I turned to Gina. "I don't dance".
She was already tugging on my t-shirt sleeves. I resigned and went with her to the centre of the rink. She put her arms around my waist and started swaying to the music. I cringed at the contact.