Chapter One

Ryan rubbed his arms as he stood outside with his best friend. He was regretting not taking Linda’s advice and grabbing a heavier jacket. He was so stubborn; if he had just gotten a jacket, he wouldn’t be freezing right now.

Now, Ryan looked much cooler and more attractive than Miles, who was standing there in a poofy winter jacket that his mother insisted on him wearing. Yet, Miles wasn’t cold. Ryan was starting to think he’d have been better off sacrificing looks for comfort.

“Just run back inside and get a jacket,” Miles said to Ryan for what had to be the thousandth time.

“I’m too lazy,” Ryan groaned, his hands numb and unable to feel the cool cloth of his freshman baseball hoodie.

“I have no sympathy for you,” Miles said, “You should have just taken the jacket from my mom.”

Ryan glared at his best friend, even though he knew he was right. The weather outside was more than chilly, it was freezing. It was just over thirty degrees out, and Ryan was wondering why the hell he had only thrown on a t-shirt and his worn-out baseball hoodie.

When the bus finally pulled in front of their house, Ryan was more than happy to board it. Under normal circumstances, the idea of getting on a bus was cringe-worthy. Now, however, all Ryan was concerned with was being in a temperature that wasn’t on the verge of dropping into the twenties.

Once Ryan and Miles had taken their seats, they were greeted by Adam, a friend of Ryan’s from the soccer team that fall.

“Great party Saturday night, man,” Adam said approvingly to Ryan.

“Thanks,” Ryan said, taking the credit even though he knew Miles had done all the planning.

The Thursday before was Ryan’s seventeenth birthday, and that Saturday was his birthday party. Though Miles’s mother had wanted to throw a more kiddie-style birthday party, Miles and Ryan had convinced her to allow them to do all the planning. Gone were the balloons, the Happy Birthday song, and party hats. What replaced them was Charlie’s iPod dock in the corner of the living room where no one would break it, a ton of pizza and cupcakes, and Miles’s parents safely upstairs. Everyone had an awesome time at the party, despite the lack of exciting atmosphere. Miles resolutely refused to decorate, seeing as how he had to invite everyone, order the pizza, bake all the cupcakes, and make sure no one broke anything. The party consisted of a lot of dancing and people searching for alcohol (which Miles’s parents smartly stored away with a lock only they knew the combination to), ending with a resounding sing-along to Living on a Prayer.

“Dude, why didn’t you have a party?” Adam asked Miles, whose birthday was two weeks before.

Miles shrugged. “Ryan and I sort of had a joint-party thing going on. I mean, I celebrated my birthday with him. I just didn’t want anyone else to celebrate it.”

“You could have gotten presents, though,” Adam said wistfully, “My birthday isn’t until May.”

“Tough shit,” Ryan said, unimpressed.

“Is Gabrielle going to give you your present today?” Adam asked Ryan.

“I think so,” Ryan said, his face scrunched up in thought, “She was on vacation in Florida from last week until yesterday.”

Miles tuned out this aspect of the conversation, as he wasn’t interested in the details of Ryan’s relationship with his girlfriend. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Gabrielle… Okay, he didn’t like her. But he had a right to! Miles was still bitter about everything that had happened that previous May. Miles was glad there were only two more weeks left of the year. He couldn’t wait for a fresh start.

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Miles leaned against Ryan’s locker before homeroom. He noticed Gabrielle heading their way, but refused to warn Ryan about it. Ryan jumped about a foot in the air when he felt a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

He whirled around, a furious look on his face. Yet, it softened when he realized who it was. “Gabby!” he exclaimed, and kissed her.

Miles rolled his eyes. Standing at five feet two inches, Gabby was much shorter than the both of them. Her hair was dyed platinum blonde with golden highlights, and her dark brown eyes contrasted nicely with her hair. She was thin, athletic, a cheerleader. Miles distinctly remembered Ryan saying he would never date a cheerleader some odd years before, and when Ryan started going out with Gabrielle, Miles reminded him. Ryan just threw his Algebra II book at Miles’s head.

“You look so tan!” Ryan said shrilly, running his hands across her browned arms.

“And you look so… Red,” Gabby finished lamely, eyeing up Ryan’s wind-blown red cheeks and forehead.

“Waiting for the bus,” he said before Gabrielle could ask.

“Right,” Gabrielle nodded, “Well, how was your party? I didn’t get to talk to you yesterday!”

“Fun,” Ryan said, jerking his head in Miles’s direction, “Miles planned the whole thing for me.”

Gabby turned her head and made a face as though she had just seen him, even though Miles knew that there was no way she could have missed him when she walked over. “Miles, hi!”

“Hi Gabby,” Miles said through clenched teeth, glaring at her.

Ryan noticed this and shot Miles a look that said, “Calm down, baby.” It was the look that Ryan gave him every time Brad walked down the hallway. Miles always looked lethal when Brad was in the vicinity.

“So,” Ryan said, abruptly changing the nonexistent subject, “Aren’t you forgetting something, Gabby?”

“Of course not,” Gabrielle replied, pulling out from her purse a small wrapped gift. “I didn’t get you a card.”

Miles rolled his eyes again. Like they couldn’t see that there was no card! Ryan smiled at Gabby brightly before ripping open the wrapping paper. In his hand was now a small black case which Ryan recognized as one for jewelry. He flipped open the top of the case and his mouth dropped open. Miles was looking on nonchalantly, attempting to see what Ryan’s gift was. When he saw it, he had to stop himself from sighing in disbelief. However, when he saw the look on Ryan’s face, he knew that the jaw-dropping wasn’t out of love for the gift; Ryan was freaked out.

“Do you like it?” Gabby prodded.

Ryan shut his mouth and coughed. He shut the case and nodded fervently. “Yeah, I do!”

“Do you want to put it on now?” Gabby asked.

Ryan shook his head. “No, I’ll uh… Save it. I’ll put it on later.”

“Okay,” Gabrielle said sadly as the bell rang for homeroom, “Well, I’ll see you at lunch, okay?”

Gabby stood on her toes so she could kiss Ryan. Miles had to shut his eyes during the proceedings. He faked a cheerful goodbye as Gabrielle walked away. When she was out of earshot, Miles went, “You are in big trouble, baby.”

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Miles kept reading the same sentence in his History book over and over again. He was distracted by Ryan, who had been nervously tapping his fingers on his own textbook. The two had a test the next day on the French and Indian War, a.k.a. Chapter Six in their books, and they were supposed to be studying. While Miles managed to retain some of the information he was reviewing, he knew that Ryan was off in his own little world.

As the tapping grew louder and faster, Miles couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed his pen lying on top of his notebook and chucked it at Ryan’s head. Ryan, who hadn’t been paying attention, got hit squarely in the eye.

“Fuck!” Ryan shrieked, “Why’d you throw that at me?”

Miles rolled his eyes. “We’ve been staring at these books for twenty minutes, and you’ve been tapping for fifteen of them. You need to calm down and stop thinking about Gabby.”

Ryan glared, “This doesn’t exactly have anything to do with you, does it?”

“Um, I’m the one that’s going to fail this test tomorrow because I couldn’t study because someone was drumming their fingers relentlessly! Now, either talk to me and aid in my procrastination or shut the hell up.”

Ryan gave Miles the evil eye, but conceded. “Look, I’m just pissed. Okay? You really don’t need to get involved.”

“When did I ever say I’m going to get involved?” Miles asked, “Dude, this one’s all yours. I’m staying out of it. I just want you to calm your ass down so I can study.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I just… She freaked me out, okay? It caught me by surprise, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. I’m still not.”

Miles shrugged. “Then talk to her. She is your girlfriend… You like her for a reason, you just have to remember it.”

Ryan’s stomach constricted and he suddenly felt nauseous. Miles noticed the look and shot Ryan a questioning look.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan said, shaking his head.

“What’s wrong with you?” Miles asked, “You look pale all of a sudden.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan repeated.

Although Miles didn’t like it, he let it go. Ryan didn’t start tapping his fingers again, so Miles was able to go back to his History test. In the back of his mind, however, he could tell something was going on with Ryan that he wasn’t explaining.

Ryan shut his textbook, unable to focus. He had lunch right before History class, so he’d just do a cram session during that time. What Miles had just said had struck a nerve for Ryan. Miles wasn’t wrong; there was a reason he liked Gabrielle… Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t remember what it was. In the beginning, it had something to do with her sense of humor and her devil-may-care attitude. Now, however, he found her sense of humor obnoxious, if not downright cruel. Her attitude now was pissing him off, as she took an attitude with him like she did with everyone else, and Ryan hadn’t come back from Seattle to get bitched at by his girlfriend. The only person he’d take an attitude from was Miles.

Ryan knew that Miles didn’t like Gabby, and Ryan couldn’t really blame him. Gabby had taken quite an interest in Miles’s coming out story at the end of the previous year and had decided to write a scathing article for the school newspaper, much to the delight of the newspaper staff and the horror of Miles. When Gabrielle approached him about perhaps giving an interview on the subject, Miles has responded with a simple, “Go to hell.” Unfortunately, she went ahead with the article without his permission (and with the help of Brad) and printed it in the paper for the world to see. When Ryan and Gabby had first started going on, Miles had resolutely refused to be in the same room with her, furious that she was even in his company and hurt that Ryan would start dating someone who had humiliated him in such a horrible way.

As far as Gabrielle knew, Ryan didn’t know about the newspaper article she had written. Miles never brought it up, either, as he was eager to forget the incident. Miles had never fully forgiven Ryan for dating her, and Ryan felt guilty about it. In his defense, though, Miles never said it was Gabrielle that wrote the article. Miles had related the story to Ryan over the phone in near-hysterics while Ryan was still in Seattle. He didn’t know it was Gabby until after they started dating.

However Ryan felt about Gabrielle before didn’t seem to have continued. Ryan thought that world revolved solely around Gabby when they first got together over the summer. Now, Ryan didn’t think that anything should revolve around Gabby. Why was that? What changed? It’s not as though he liked anyone else…

Who else am I supposed to like? Ryan asked himself, Who else is there?

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Notice: And we officially have the first chapter! Slow pickup, I know… Not much happens in this chapter. My goal was to give a nice, big background of what has happened to our two favorite boys since the end of “Don’t Ask.” I know you all want to kill me for bringing in Gabrielle, and I’m sorry… But she IS a pivotal part of Ryan’s story, and you’ll be seeing a lot of her as the story progresses. I hope you all enjoyed the first part of this story! Hopefully this one will have the same success that “Don’t Ask” had! Again, thank you very much!