The Other Side

Chapter 16

Part 1

Nate

Things had taken a turn for the best for me. It was only a matter of time before Ryn came back to me, like I always thought she would. I couldn't stop myself visualizing us as a couple.

But, first things first. I had told Ryn that I gave her a week to make up her mind. It was so much torture seeing her close yet so far away in the past month, and I wasn't ready to entertain another round of that.

I was so happy when she confessed to returning my feelings yesterday that I couldn't shake my smile off my face. I always pictured the two of us together, from the moment I laid  eyes on her that fateful day, but now that it was almost happening I couldn't get a better version of us.

"OK this is bordering insanity. Would you tell me what is going on, and why you look so smug?" Ray decided to finally ask.

"Ryn admitted to having feelings for me yesterday in Chemistry class." I couldn't contain it anymore.  I had to let Ray know.

" isn't she dating your cousin? " the confusion was clear from  his tonal voice.

" Yeah, she said she might have been leading him on. She's going to talk to him and clear things out, then give me...us a chance. I'm so excited and so worried, I don't want to ruin this for us."

" Mate, you're really blind. If you ask me, I think she's just toying with you.  I can't believe you're falling for her traits again. She was in love with your cousin for two years bro, two years. You think she's just going to throw that away for you? How long have you two known each, not even remotely close to the time they were together. " I trusted Ryn and I knew she wouldn't do anything to hurt me. Not purposely. Whatever Ray was getting at, it was unnerving me.

"It takes only a second to fall in love with someone Ray. I don't care if I haven't known her longer than Caleb has, I love her. I don't think I have loved someone before and I have nothing to compare this feeling with but its the best feeling ever. This overwhelming sweet pain in my chest that threatens to drown me every time I see her face, its a feeling unlike any other. I didn't know loving someone could be so painfully sweet until I met her, in fact I didn't know what loving someone was until I met her. I just  know she was going to be the end of me. I know all this may sound crazy to you Ray but I have never understood myself better than in this moment. I have never been so sure of anything my entire life."

" I thought you wanted to keep a low profile this year, what happened to that. And I thought bad girls were an allergy of yours, again what changed? I don't approve of your mismatched feelings for her. If you haven't heard, she broke Jack's heart and if that's not reason enough for you, she is going to break your cousin's heart too, what makes you think she won't do the same to you?" He made a perfectly clear point but my mind was already made up.

"I don't. That's the point Ray, if you love someone, you'd be willing to overlook everything else just to be with them. I have no assurance that we would last forever, but who said forever is something I wanted. I always thought love and relationships were overrated, she turned everything around for me. One day, when you get to experience this, you will understand everything I am saying. I wasn't like this myself, but a few months of knowing her was all it took to change everything."

It was true. It only took me a few months to realize that forever is not what mattered to me, but moment by moment with her was enough to make me feel alive. And I looked forward to many more moments with her.

"Clearly I can't argue with you in this state." He gave up on trying.

"What state?" I was genuinely interested now.