Thanks for all your wonderfull reviews they are what encourage me to post so thank you.
And now on with the chapter
Carefully Ryan measures out his words
"I'm not gonna, pretend I ummm…" he falters searching for words and glances at Marissa sending her silent signals of 'don't make me talk! don't make me talk!'
"uhhh", he sighs returning to laying on his back and staring at the ceiling.
"I know…..believe me I know" and she plonks down next to him, her head resting on the pillow next to his. Their gazes meet and Ryan finds it hard to stop himself flashing back to the days when they would lay like this on his bed in the poolhouse….it was such a long time ago now…
He averts his eyes to the ceiling no longer able to endure the hammering of his heart about to errupt from his chest, the memories still to fresh to be reminisced upon. He can feel her eyes on him but doesn't remove his from their lock with the ceiling.
Marissa sighs loudly and turns onto her back staring at the ceiling as well
"It doesn't seem long ago when this was what we did….different place and different time maybe….but still was our relationship…..what we had….that screwed up?"
Ryan lets himself ponder the question for a moment wondering what she wanted out of this tun in conversation.
"hmmm, so many things have happened…..we were gone from a part of each others lives for an important period of time"
Marissa looks at him like shes surprised he said anything at all
"I mean I look at you sometimes and think you are nothing like the person I used to know….but then you'll do something and its like you never changed at all…." he trails off, deciding that was enough talking to get his point across.
Ryan looks at Marissa her lips slightly parted almost as if in awe….he didn't know why she had that expression….maybe if he had stayed friends with her through out university he would know, but could you really know the meaning of every expression of people you knew well?
"I regret it too"
Ryan glances at her confused
"The not keeping in contact….it was just so hard and then it seemed harder to reconect the friendship once so much time had passed"
Ryan nods in agreement
"Geeeez, I mean I missed YOU learning to dance properly" she gives him a playful nudge
"That is a pretty epic moment" she laughs and Ryan gives her a mock glare
"When did our lives get so complicated?" he asks
"When were they ever simple?"
"That's a valid point, but when you were 15 did you ever think that you'd be here" he drums his finger on the bed enjoying the meaningless conversation, it was more relaxing than the previous.
The bed begins to wobble and Ryan averts his gaze from the ceiling looking at Marissa as a stream of laughter errupts from her mouth.
"No….my mother told me to marry some one rich so I would be financially secure for the rest of my life….its strange the things you believe when you don't know any better….what about you?"
"ha….it was a waste of time dreaming in Chino…..but then again I guess mine kinda came true huh", it was kinda ironic how things had started so well for Marissa and so badly for Ryan, and yetRyan had come out on top. Although you couldn't really say Marissa was at the bottom of it all.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about something" the uncertainty in her voice is apparent and Ryan feels his stomach flop nervously
"Its about this…..ummm being here", she grabs his arm suddenly scooting a bit closer leaving Ryan no time to brace himself for the immediate closeness. Not that he was complaining of course, there were things that Marissa did that were undeniably….well ….cute.
"Yeah, its great isn't it" the words come out sounding hollow not at all how wanted them to sound
"No, no ssshh I havent finished. I cannot sleep on your couch forever", she removes her hand hesitantly
Ryan begins to protest again…..why was she doing this everything was great…well I mean not for her the couch couldn't be that comfy
"And I just wanna let you know, that I'm gonna start looking…ok?", to Ryan it sounded like she was looking for approval, but he wasn't exactly gonna support the idea no matter what she said. Because this was a bad idea, no actually very bad but what could he do, his apartment was arranged for one person…he gives the walls a death glare, cursing the designers of the building for being so stupid….hang on this building was also made for couples….hmmm couples?…
He looks at Marissa sideways grinning for no visible reason
"But you should stay a little longer just till your back on your feet", if he could persuade anyone it was Marissa, because his persuasion skills sure as hell didn't work on any one else, especially Caleb or Seth for that matter.
He watches her as she thinks and her resolve begins to visibly falter and her expression grows softer.
"Well I'm probably not going to get an apartment straight away. It'll probably take awhile to find something that I like" she tucks a strand of loose hair behind her ear slowly, still looking deep in thought
Theres a large pause and Ryan breathes a sigh of relief
"So you should stay, til at least Christmas cos you kow, nobody should be alone for the holidays and especially since you did decorate my whole apartment you should at least be here to enjoy it"
"Christmas huh…I think I can manage that. ……Now get your lazy arse up or your gonna be late!", she springs up from the bed.
At the door she turns around suddenly a sly smile on her face.
"And I'll let you know about the Newport thingy ok" she flashes a small almost shy smile at him.
"What!" he says alarmingly, realising to late that was definitely the wrong tone to take.
"umm…..wot I meant was" he looks at her and she arches her eyebrows at him.
"Great….ummm, just let me know whenever" he finishes finally recovering enough of his speech.
Pity she had already left the room.
Hmm that took longer than I thought to post as I went back and added some more tension/moment bits
Anyway tell me what you thought
Thanks