The hours passed and Ryan slept. I knew he had a wicked hangover, but I was sure it wasn't so bad that he would be acting like that. Finally, at seven o'clock, when everyone else was down by the lake, I got tired of his attitude and went into the tent. Ryan wasn't even sleeping, he was just laying there staring at the ceiling of the tent. "Get up," I told him.
He turned his head and glared at me. "No."
That pissed me off. "Get up," I told him again.
"No."
I glared back at him. We stared at each other for a few seconds. "What the fuck is your problem, Ryan?"
He rolled over, ignoring me. I pulled on his shoulder, hard, making him turn towards me again. "God, Caroline, dammit."
"Answer me."
"Nothing, alright?" Did he seriously think I'd be okay with his answer?
"Bullshit. What's wrong with you?"
"Fucking Patrick is what's wrong with me," he mumbled.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know when Patrick jumped out at me before?" I nodded. "You know what he said to me?"
"Well obviously not."
"He said, 'I hope you and Caroline had a good time last night, sounded like you did.'"
I was dumbstruck. "Are you serious?" Ryan nodded. "That's all?" He stared at me. "Why is that such a big deal?"
He looked at me like I was crazy. "Caroline, he heard us last night when we were having sex. That doesn't piss you off?"
"Should it?" I obviously didn't understand him.
"Is that what being a whore does to you?" My jaw dropped. I was speechless. I got up and walked out of the tent. Ryan followed me. "Shit, no, I didn't mean to say that, I know you're different now," he was struggling to find the right words, and stuttering as he tried to say them, "You haven't done anything bad since I've known you, okay? I know that." I kept walking and didn't look back at him. I didn't know where I was headed. "I'm really sorry, Care, really," he jogged a bit to keep up with me, "I'm just not feeling like myself today and Pat pissed me off and I'm just really truly sorry. I love you so much, and I didn't mean to hurt you." I stopped walking. Ryan also stopped. I looked at him and slapped his cheek and ran. I didn't hear him behind me.
I slowed down after a while, mostly because I was tired of running, and also because I'd ran right to the road. I didn't know what to do because I knew that if I went back to our campsite, I'd have to face Ryan and I didn't want to do that. But where else would I go? We were in the middle of nowhere; the nearest town was a half hour away if we drove. A few minutes later, I had stopped fighting with myself and decided that it would be best for me to go back to the campsite. When I got there, Ryan was sitting at the picnic table, obviously waiting for me to return. He saw me walk up and ran over to me.
"There you are, I thought you'd nev–" I held up my hand, interrupting him.
Then, all I said was, "You're not sleeping in the tent tonight, asshole," and walked back down to the lake.