High-key happy with this. Tell me if you think the tone is off in anyway, I was rewatching the Flash and I might've slipped some of that tone into here without meaning to, so,,
Later that evening, Topanga sighed and slumped on the table. "What are we going to do?"
Cory frowned at the table and rubbed Topanga's shoulder.
Suddenly, the door swung open and crashed against the wall.
"What!"
The two jumped in surprise and faced the door. Adian was standing in the doorway and stalked forward. Farkle came in quickly after him.
"You grounded Ryan?"
Topanga got up from the kitchen table and walked to the middle of the living room. Topanga and Aidan were both roughly the same height so if this was to intimidate him, it did not work.
"Who are you? Are you one of Ryan's friends?"
"Yeah! My name's Aidan Alvarez, and I'm also your neighbor." Aidan glared.
"Why are you here?"
"You grounded your son for the wrong reason! He wasn't fighting for no reason, you have to know that!"
Topanga sighed and rubbed at her face. "Listen, I do not need some 13 year old telling me how to parent."
Ryan came rushing in from his room. "You're completely right, mom. I'll just-" He tried to shove Aidan out the door but he walked around him.
"Why are you lying to your parents, dude! If you just told them, they wouldn't have grounded you."
Ryan stood in front of Aidan. "If I wanted to tell them, I would have."
"Ryan was being bullied." Aidan said to Topanga, still looking at Ryan.
"What?" Cory said in disbelief.
"Dude." Ryan glared at Aidan.
"Is he being serious, Ryan?" Topanga asked, anger present in her voice. Ryan sighed and looked at her. "Yeah, he is."
"Why wouldn't you tell us?" Cory asked. Both of his parents looked hurt. Ryan looked around nervously.
"I don't know, maybe because I didn't think you'd care?"
"Ryan why on earth would we not care that you are being bullied?" Topanga asked.
"I don't know, because of Riley?" Ryan was getting anxious. This wasn't something he ever wanted to talk about with his parents.
Thanks a lot, Aidan.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what?" Ryan laughed. "You only ever give attention to Riley. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of ignoring me? Like, a lot."
"What do you mean, ignoring you?" Cory asked. He sat down on the couch, looking up at his son.
"You don't talk to me, you don't check up on me, I might as well already be an adult for how isolated I feel from you guys!" Ryan exclaimed.
Topanga set her jaw. "While that's important, I do think that we need to be focusing on the fact that you are being bullied."
Ryan scoffed. "Ok, yeah, just avoid the fact that you don't care about me to lecture me, sure." He backed up and bumped into Aidan. He turned around angrily and glared at him. "Thanks a lot, Aidan. You can go now, you got what you wanted."
"I hope you know I'm not sorry. You needed to talk to your parents." Aidan held his gaze. Ryan shook his head. "Whatever. Just, just leave."
Aidan turned around and walked out the still open door. Farkle turned to Ryan and gave an apologetic look before following after him and closing the door.
"I'm very glad that he did tell us, actually. This isn't something that you should've kept from us." Topanga said. Ryan turned back around, fuming.
"You didn't want me to keep this from you? Maybe you should've tried working on our relationship while raising me so that I could've talked to you about this!"
"Do not put all of the blame on us! You were the one to start pulling away first, you can't get mad at us if we wanted to give you space to grow!"
"I was 10!" Ryan yelled. "I was 10 when you started leaving me to do things on my own!"
"You needed to develop life skills!"
"That's bullshit!"
"Ryan!" Cory stood up from the couch, glaring at him. "Do not use that kind of language with us."
Without noticing, tears began to run down his face. "Whatever! You can not say that I needed to develop life skills at 10 when you still coddle Riley like she's a toddler. Newsflash! We're twins."
Ryan wiped angrily at his face and Topanga did the same. "What do you want me to say, Ryan? I'm sorry? I'm not apologising for the way I raised you."
"Raised me? How? What kind of parental guidance, what kind of parental relationship have you been providing?"
Topanga and Cory looked to each other, thinking.
"You guys didn't even show up to the art show at the school."
"We were there, Ryan. We went to support Maya. Were you there?" Cory asked. Ryan shook his head, fighting back more tears.
"Yeah. I was. I had a piece on display."
"Why wouldn't you tell us?" Topanga asked, much softer than before.
Ryan shook his head again and laughed bitterly. "I was one of the first people in the hallway. I was impossible to miss. I shouldn't've had to tell you." Topanga wiped her eyes again and sat down on the couch. Cory followed.
"You really wanna know why I was being bullied?" Fear gripped at his heart and anxiety coursed through his body.
"Are you guys fighting?" Auggie drew attention to himself at the entrance of the hallway. Riley was standing behind him.
"Hey, Auggie." Ryan wiped the tears from his face again. He walked over to him. "Let's go to your room."
He led the both of them to Auggie's room and shut the door. He lifted Auggie and sat him down on the bed, Riley followed. Ryan kneeled down near Auggie.
"Why were you fighting with mom and dad?" Riley asked. Auggie scooched up the bed so he was leaning against his pillows and hugged Mr. Googly.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell today."
"Why were you fighting?" Auggie asked again. Ryan let out a long breath and scratched the back of his neck.
"My friend came in to fight against my grounding. Clearly, it's not going well."
Not completely true. Ryan had gotten completely off topic from that almost immediately.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Riley asked. Ryan nodded and stood up.
"I will be, don't worry."
He walked back into the living room after shutting Auggie's door. He stood in the doorway at the end of the hall, looking at his parents from a distance.
"I got suspended for defending someone from that bully." They both looked at him.
"He was bullying some kid. He was hurting him because he was weaker than him, I couldn't stand it." Ryan clenched his fists as anxiety began to flow through him once again. He stared at the floor in front of him, tears building.
"Ryan you could've just told us."
"He was bullying him for being gay."
His parents were silent. Ryan looked at them as the tears began to fall.
"He was bullying me for being gay."
They stayed silent.
Ryan looked at them for a second longer before wiping his eyes. He began gesturing wildly as he spoke.
"That's why I came home the other day with a black eye. That's why I got suspended for fighting. Because I'm queer and I wasn't afraid to show it, so I got bullied for it."
Ryan laughed nervously and crossed his arms. "I'm honestly kind of shocked nothing happened sooner. Maybe because kids these days are normally more accepting than this guy was, I guess."
Cory stood and walked over to Ryan. Ryan stood, tense, not looking at him. Cory wrapped Ryan in a hug and he sighed in relief. He buried his face in his dad's chest.
"Thank you, for telling us."
Topanga walked over slowly to the other side of Ryan before joining the group hug as well.
"We love you Ryan."
He laughed happily, feeling tears rush down his face again.
Happy tears, at least.