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To avoid saying anything just yet, I take a sip of my tea. “It's not strange, and I've only been on one date with her.”
Mom nods. “How did you meet this Ryan then?”
“Might as well get it all out, Gabriel. She's going to keep asking until she knows everything,” Dad inputs, telling the truth.
“All right. I pulled her over, gave her a ticket, and kept running into her. That's how I met her. She's something else, that's for sure.”
Dad laughs. “You gave her a ticket?”
I nod, smiling at the memory. “She was going to get off with a warning, but she asked for it. Ryan has a fiery personality. So far, so good.”
Owen nudges me with his elbow. “How old is she? She looked kind of young for you.”
“Only a little younger than I am.” If her age worries me a little, I don't know what my parents will say. “What about you? Where's your girl?”
Owen shrugs, the spotlight off me as my mother says, “He's focused on his schoolwork and football. Isn't that right, Owen?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Mom won't let us talk about work, but she will let us talk about football, and that's where the rest of our conversation goes. It feels good to be home for Sunday supper, but in the back of my mind, thoughts of Ryan linger.
Chapter Six
Ryan
After Gabe left, I showered and started cleaning up the apartment, jamming to my favorite rock bands. I'm not so sure what to make of Gabe and the past forty-eight hours. It seems best if I don't put much thought into any of it. Overthinking is part of my rambling problem, and I don't want to do either. Even though I am by myself, that doesn't mean my mind and inner dialogue won't ramble. Besides, if I start thinking too much, I might change my mind altogether about seeing Gabe again. It's been interesting to say the least. Nonetheless, these thoughts are shutting down indefinitely. I'm planning to focus on having fun and nothing more.
Even when “Better Than Me” by Hinder starts playing, I ignore it. There's still plenty to do around the place like vacuuming and washing clothes and homework. I have two papers due this week, and I haven't started either. Today is full of nothing but busy work. Once I knock out one of my papers, I decide to text Viv and see if she wants to come work on this paper with me since we both have to write one. She is seriously abusing having a key to my apartment though. I only gave it to her for emergencies or in case she needed to borrow some clothes and I wasn't here. Nowhere does it say she can barge in unannounced.
About thirty minutes pass before Viv arrives and the first thing she mentions is Gabe.
“Spill all the juicy details, Ryan,” she says, sitting down next to me at the kitchen table with her laptop and textbook.
“Nothing juicy about it. He came over, spent the night, took a bubble bath with me, and left. No sex either.”
Viv's eyebrows rise. “None?”
“Nope. I rather not talk about Gabe. Are we going to write these papers or not?”
She squints her eyes at me. “I've never known you not to want to talk about a guy.”
“Always a first time for everything.” My phone vibrates loudly on the table, so I pick it up.
“Is that him?” Viv says with too much excitement.
“That it is.” I can't help but laugh when I read his message. Apparently, Owen thinks I'm hot. A hint of apprehension runs through me. Does this mean he talked about me with his parents too? Or just Owen? Owen, I can handle. I text him back.
Can't say I disagree with him, haha.
“Well?” Viv questions when I put my phone back down.
“He just said something about his brother. Time to get down to business, Viv.”
And that's what we do. My phone goes off again, but I ignore it. I don't want to get too distracted. We work for about an hour in silence before we're done. I order a pizza online for us, and Viv leans back in her chair.
“I'm guessing that you'll be seeing Gabe again?”
“Looks that way. I know it's at the end of the month, but when are we going shopping for Halloween? You know there will be parties, and we have to celebrate my birthday somehow. Might as well do it by dressing up and going to a party.” I don't know why she keeps bringing the conversation back to him or why I keep changing it when she does. But Halloween/my birthday is a legit question because it is coming up soon. I don't really celebrate my birthday, but it would seem odd if I told Viv that, so I keep it to myself.
