Page 69 of Loathing Ryan
I narrowed my eyes. “Mark?”
“Oh yeah, Mark Snyder, from Bennett. He goes to Princeton with me.” She paused. “How have I never told you that?”
I rolled off her onto my side and propped my head in my hand. “As in Marky Mark?” She nodded, and I chuckled, though I really wasn’t amused. He had had a thing for Izabel long before she and I got together. “No, you never did tell me that.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe it never came up.” Bells leaned forward and kissed me deeply. “I mean, we were probably busy talking about other things. There is always so much we have to catch up on.”
Laughing, I felt my muscles relax. “You’re right. So you two are friends, then?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, we had some classes together last semester, so we kind of made a study group.”
“Study buddies, huh?”
Izabel rolled her eyes. “Not in the way you’re thinking. He’s just a friend.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this new information. But I knew Bells. And based on the way she threw herself at me at the airport, I had to believe that she still felt as strongly as I did. I always asked her to trustme, so now it was time to put my money where my mouth was and trusther.
My fingers found the silver heart necklace on her chest and started to fiddle with it, pointer finger running over the smooth edge. She had my heart. I hadn’t taken off the dog-tag version of mine once in the time that we were apart.
This long-distance thing was a little more complicated than I had thought it would be. We lived separate lives, her at school and me in Germany. It was manageable, and we were doing as best as we could. But there were parts of her life I had no role in, which was hard to swallow sometimes. And vice versa. I wanted to be involved in everything Izabel. She meant the world to me.
I tried my best to keep her in the loop of everything that happened in Germany with school and work. Though I was sure, a lot of it went over her head. Izabel was brilliant, but engineering was something that she just couldn’t grasp. Which I understood. Most of the time, I didn’t know what was happening.
Four and a half more years. That’s it. Then we could be together for the rest of our lives. We could do it, right?
Summer - End of Year 1 - Izabel
“Cannonball!”Ryan screamed as he ran from the end of the dock toward the water. He catapulted into the air and lifted his knees to his chest, curling into himself.
I squealed and tried to swim away from the landing zone as fast as possible. I was still not the world’s best swimmer, but I could doggy paddle really well. And I knew how to keep myself from sinking, so I was happy with my progress.
Ryan flew through the air and landed in the water with a huge splash. I covered my eyes as the water splashed on my face. My boyfriend popped out of the water right in front of me. Tossing me a wild grin, he shook his hair and the water out of his eyes.
“Heya, Bells,” he said cheekily, kissing me.
I smiled against his lips. “Hey, yourself.”
“What do you think that scored?” he asked, referencing his splash.
I pretended to think about it for a minute. “I don’t know, a five, maybe?”
Ryan looked like I had just sucker-punched him in the gut. “Afive?Bells, c’mon, that was atleastan eight.”
“The splash only went to, like, here,” I told him mockingly, holding my hand up above the water’s edge.
Ryan narrowed his eyes and scooped me up in his arms. I giggled as he spun me around and launched me into the water. When I came up, sputtering, I splashed him right back. We continued to water fight until our fingers were pruney, and we were out of breath.
After we were done swimming, we made camp up on the dock. The sun was at its peak today, making the wooden boards hot to sit on. Luckily, Ryan thought ahead and brought us a few extra towels to make a small picnic blanket. It was the most colorful tablecloth I’d ever seen, decorated in a tropical theme.
Ryan was also thoughtful enough to pack a lunch. He swung the lunchbox from over his shoulder and plopped down next to me. Rummaging around in the pack, he produced two sandwiches, chips, and sodas.
I unwrapped the one he handed to me and took a big bite. After chewing and swallowing, I shot him a questioning look. “Peanut butter and jelly?”
He shrugged in between mouthfuls. “We were out of lunch meat at my house. Besides,” he said, taking another quick bite, “can’t go wrong with a PBJ on a hot day.”
I conceded and scarfed down the rest of my sandwich. Once our bellies were full, we lay side by side on our towels, soaking up the sun.
“What a perfect day,” Ryan observed after a few moments of silence. He tilted his head toward me, hitting me with his green eyes.
