Page 17 of Loathing Ryan
Ryan’s hand tightened on my arm, and he tugged me in closer to the side of his body. His strength had me stumbling into him, and I pressed my hand against his chest to steady myself. He sucked in a quick breath, but then cleared his throat to cover it. Tightening his hold, he made my struggle pointless. “Can’t. Didn’t you hear what they said in there? We’re battle buddies now. We get to do everything together.”
Ryan finally relaxed his arm over my shoulders, allowing me to pull away. I immediately put a few feet of distance between us and crossed my arms over my chest protectively. “Not everything, just activities.”
He smirked and shook his head. “Nope. See, you shouldn’t have left before we were done.” Reaching over, he ruffled my hair. “We get to do everything except sleep together.” He paused, thinking about it. “But if down the road you’d be game for that, count me in.”
“Ugh,” I scoffed, disgusted. “I’d rather die.”
“Never say never, Bells!” Ryan said with a wink as he started walking away. “I’ll see you at dinner!”
Juliet came to stand right next to me as I watched him go. She shook her head and exhaled. “I’ll get him back for you, Izabel, don’t worry.”
I mimicked her and sighed too. “This isn’t your problem, but thanks anyway.”
“The hell it isn’t,” she shot back right away. “No one messes with my friends without having to deal with me. I’m going to chop off his?—”
“Juliet!” I interrupted her. She stopped and turned her sapphire blue eyes back to me. “Calm down. It’s not that bad. I’ll just be Ryan’s partner for the next two weeks, and then we’ll go home, graduate, and I’ll never have to see his face again.”
“Fine.” She narrowed her eyes. “Do whatever. But just know I’ll be here if you need me to castrate him for you.”
“Thanks. I should go shower off all this dust,” I said as I motioned to my shirt. I was covered in sweat from the games, and dust and gravel from rolling around with Ryan earlier. I seemed to always be getting dirty recently.
The two of us headed back toward the dorms. When we got closer, I saw my underwear still hanging proudly on the flagpole. I walked up to it and grabbed the strings, trying to find the one that would allow me to pull my clothes down.
“This is so annoying,” I muttered as Juliet came to help me.
“Yeah, it is. But at least you have cute underwear. Imagine if youdidwear granny panties. That would be a lot worse,” Jules said, chuckling.
I couldn’t help but laugh with her. “I guess it’s good you talked me into buying them then.”
“You know I’m always looking out!” she announced proudly. “Do you still want to go to movie night tonight? Or do you have to start serving your sentence right away?”
I shrugged. “I think it starts tomorrow. I’m still down for movie night. Did you find out what they’re showing?”
“No, I didn’t. I still bet it’s something dumb,” Juliet said, making us laugh again.
“Well, hopefully, it’s something good for my last night of freedom,” I said as we finally pulled off the last pair of panties. “Okay, good. Now let’s go hit the showers so I can wash this disaster of a day away.”
8
RYAN
“She really got you good,”Liam muttered when I stepped out of the dorm building. He and Todd were waiting for me, so we could go to this stupid movie night. He watched me in amusement as I prodded at the tender bridge of my nose. I shot him a glare, and he laughed. “I’m just saying, man.”
“Well, don’t.”
“I guess you finally pushed her to the breaking point. I gotta say, I was impressed. I didn’t know she had that kind of fight in her.”
I scowled at my friend, ignoring him even though he was completely right. I was also impressed. Izabel’s inner fire came blazing out of her like a volcano, and unfortunately for me, I was in the warpath, through no one’s fault but my own.
I definitely pushed her past the breaking point this time. And I’d be lying if I said I felt good about it.
Quite the opposite, actually. I couldn’t seem to help myself from being a massive dick to her right after–blame it on the adrenaline coursing through my body–but now that I had time to cool off and replay the events, I could fully accept that I deserved her wrath. Even with her punching me, I probably deserved worse.
What the fuck was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just let it lie? I had come here this year thinking that I wanted to find a way to move past the years of jokes and tomfoolery, yet I fell right back into the same old routine, desperate to have her blue eyes on me.No matter how badly I wanted to get past messing with her, I couldn’t deny that it was fun. Izabel was a firecracker, and I seemed to be addicted to the way she lost control of herself when she was angry at me.
For a moment, I wondered if I would ever get to experience that fiery personality in a way other than her anger at me. But I wouldn’t. Not at this rate, that was for damn sure.
I was pissed at myself. And I was pissed at the way my friends were laughing about it.
