My heart lurched and I stayed glued to the spot until Jake spoke to me when he finally reached us.
"Go to him." he said, and that was all the encouragement I needed. I rushed over to Ryan's side dropping to my knees next to him. I ran my fingers over his bloody face lightly.
"Ryan? Baby talk to me." he just groaned and all I could do was smile at him through my tears.
Aaron and Eric picked him up then and loaded him into the backseat of his suv. I crawled in with them and cradled his head in my lap the whole way back to his house. They carried him up to his room and carefully laid him down on his bed.
"I got it from here guys." I told them. They just nodded and then left the room. I carefully removed Ryan's shorts, leaving him in his boxer briefs and then pulled the blankets up to cover him. I went into his bathroom and got a washcloth and dampened it under the water faucet.
I carefully washed the blood off his face, trying to be as gentle as possible. When I was finished I sat the washcloth on his bedside table and stood up to dig my cell out of my pocket. I was going to have Baja come and get me, but as I went to dial Ryan grabbed my hand to stop me.
"Stay" he asked his voice weaker than normal. I knew he was hurting so I decided to stay with him. He needed me now more than ever. I slipped off my jeans and my slightly damp t-shirt and crawled into bed with him. I carefully moved as close as I could to his body without hurting him and laid my head down on his chest, my arm resting protectively across his stomach.
"Amanda" he said my name so softly that I almost didn't hear him.
"Yeah?" I asked leaning up to look at him. His tired blue eyes met mine and I could see his emotions as the churned away under the surface.
"I'm sorry about what I did to Max." he said and in that moment I knew he was truly sorry for what he had done. I didn't say anything instead I leaned in and pressed my lips to his as softly as I could.
"I love you, you know that right?" I said looking into his eyes.
"I love you too, more than anything." He told me as I rested my head on his chest again.
After that night everything went back to normal, well almost normal at least. Jake and Ryan still weren't best friends but they were at least civil to each other. Max was still the same old goofball he had always been. As for me, well I had found the love of my life in the most unexpected way.