A Friend's Love
That final bell ring was like a little slice of heaven for Ryan. It was the official end to his high school career. It was the end of his senior year and the start of his next chapter in life. He loved his high school and his hometown but he was ready to get away for a while and go to college. As he packed his backpack, the memories of everything that happened in his high school life rushed through his head. Becoming the Captain of the Swim Team and the Wrestling Team made him smile, the fun antics with his friends and classmates made him laugh, the extracurricular activities he had with his ex-girlfriends and flings made him smirk, but the memories of his parents left a sour taste in his mouth.
As he walked through the hallway, his mind was hooked on his parents and everything else going on around him seemed like a daze. He walked past random classmates, friends and teammates as they all cheered that they were officially done with school. Some would see Ryan and wave or shout out "what's up Cap" to him. He would give the smiling gestures to all of them, but his mind was deep in thought about his parents and how proud they would have been of him.
As he made his way to the car, mind still in a daze, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and jerked him around.
"Dude are you okay? We just finished school man!" asked Jessica.
Ryan looked at his best friend and smirked at her. "Yeah I'm good!"
Jessica looked at him questioningly, quickly studying his face and reading him.
"It's your parents isn't it..." she asked softly.
Ryan's face went from his smirk to a more straight-faced demeanor as he looked more toward the ground.
"I just wish they could see me now. That they could see that I finished and know that I'm doing what I fought for and going the college I wanted." Ryan said in a somber tone.
"Hey," Jessica said as she raised his chin to look him in the eye, "come here."
She pulled him in for a hug and held onto him for a few seconds as she told him, "Trust me, they know you made it. You know they would be proud as hell of you for getting into Trinity!"
She pulled away from his embrace and looked up and smiled at him.
He smiled back down to her, "Thanks Jess, things are getting easier as time is passing but big shit like this...I would have just loved to have them here one last time."
"I know man," she paused, "but in 2 days, you'll be flying out for your classes! Some time away will be good for you, it'll help you! Even though I think you're insane for starting your classes in the summer and skipping our graduation!"
"Yeah," Ryan replied, "It'll be nice to get away for a while. I just want to get out of here and start college already. But there are still some things I'm going to miss here. My grandma, my friends, teammates, you..."
"Yeah yeah I know," Jessica joked, "You're going to miss me the most and I'm going to miss you and it's going to suck ass not having my best friend here, but get over it. We can grieve when you fly out of here on Sunday!"
Ryan chuckled at Jessica's comment. "Yeah that's fair! Alright girl, I have to head home, my Grandma said she's taking me out to a nice dinner tonight for my last day of school so I need to take a shower and get dressed properly."
Ryan leaned down and gave Jessica a small peck on the cheek and headed toward his car.
"Hey!" Jessica shouted to Ryan, making him look back at her. "Are you still coming over for family dinner tomorrow night?"
Ryan smiled, "How could I miss it, it's my last family dinner with you and your family before I leave. I would never miss it!" He turned back around and headed to get into his car. As he started the ignition and began to pull out of his parking spot, he saw Jessica standing there with her normal big smile, waving bye to him as he pulled out. He waved back to her and left the parking lot.
As he made his drive home, his mind was thinking again. Not about high school, college or even his parents, but about Jessica. He thought about how she had been his closest friend since they were about 5 years old when their dad's went into business together. He thought about how they would hang out for hours on end talking about school, BS drama with friends, talking about Ryan's swim and wrestling, about Jessica's Dance and Cheerleading, girlfriend and boyfriend funny sex stories, girlfriend and boyfriend horror stories as well, continuous movie marathons, family trips to vacation destinations and always cracking jokes at one another constantly when they were together.
Ryan knew Jessica was cracking jokes when she said he would miss her the most, but the fact of it all was that it was true. She really was his closest friend who he confided in and vice-a-versa. She was with him when the police came to his door to tell him about his parents and also the one that was there with him all three days when he wouldn't leave the hospital when his parents were in the ICU after the car wreck; up until Ryan and his Grandma decided they weren't coming back and they just needed to pull the plug. She sat there and held his head in her lap as he cried for his parents. She was always there for him in the best times and the absolute worst times. He really was going to miss her the most out of anyone.
Ryan knew he had a thing for Jessica as well. He had always thought she was beautiful and as they grew up and went through puberty, they both blossomed into very attractive adults. Where Ryan stood about 6'1" and weighed a lean 200 pounds from swim and wrestling, Jessica was about 5'2" and was built well beyond her age. She had beautiful soft tan skin with the perfect curvature to her body with lean muscular legs, firm and round butt with an exceptionally tight waist that lead up to her perfect D cup breasts.
Though her body looked incredible, it was her face that he was always mesmerized by. She had long straight brown hair that went to her mid back, some of the biggest green eyes he had ever seen, natural full lips that if he didn't know her he would have thought they were from injections, and an ear to ear smile that showed her stark white teeth. He loved her smile because he had a strange attraction to her oddly long and pointy canines that looks extremely attractive to him whenever she smiled. He knew it was weird but he liked it.
Ryan knew though that his feelings toward her were something that he couldn't act on or show to anyone. Not only was she such a close friend to him that the thought of trying to do more scared the shit out of him from the risk of fucking up their friendship, but both their fathers were in business together and that meant they were always around each other. If they tried dating and it didn't work out, that would have made all of the trips and events together very awkward for both families. Ryan wanted more with Jessica, but he really didn't want to risk ever messing up the relationship they already had.
Before he knew it, he was pulling up into his Grandma's driveway. He was so deep in thought about Jessica that he didn't even really pay attention to his driving and had one of those 'how the fuck did I make it home already' thoughts.
...........
Ryan set his fork down after the last bight of his dessert at dinner.
"Damn!" He exclaimed looking at his Grandma across the table, "That was an amazing dinner! Thank you Grandma!"
Denise smiled over at her grandson, "I'm happy you enjoyed it! I'm so proud of you Ryry." Denise called her grandson Ryry since the day he was born, only she called him that, and it was only her that he answered to using that name.
"So," Denise paused, "I'm not going to get all mushy or anything like that. But I just have to say, your parents would have been so proud to see you going off to the college of your dreams!"
"Thanks Grandma," Ryan paused, "I just wish I could see them one more time. To talk with them about whatever they wanted to talk about, just to hear them one last time." He started to get a little choked up thinking about his family again so he took another drink of his tea and brushed it off.
"Well," Denise paused as she reached in her purse, "I guess now is a perfect time to give you your gift!"
"Gift?" Ryan questioned, "What gift?"
She pulled out a little gold colored box and handed it to Ryan. "A graduation gift for my grandson, something I think you need, but I know you'll love!"
Ryan looked at his Grandma with a curious smile as he pulled off the top of the box to reveal what was inside.
When he looked down, he was completely stunned. It was a black and gold Chopard watch. He looked at it in shock as he knew watches very well and knew that the watch he was holding was about a $7,500 watch.
"Grandma..." he stuttered, "I can't accept this gift! I love it, but it's way too expensive!"
"It didn't cost me a dime for that watch..." she paused and waited for him to look up at her. "That watch was your fathers."
Ryan's jaw damn near hit the floor in shock. He looked back down at it and lightly touched the face of the watch. He was stunned, he couldn't speak, and he just had a flood of emotions and feelings rushing though him as he looked down at that watch.
He looked back up at his Grandma with a glossy look in his eyes. "Thank you Grandma. You have no idea how much this means to me. "
"Well since you put all of your parents' things in storage so you could sort it out later, I had to go into it and find that thing for you! I knew it would be the perfect thing for you to take with you to Ireland!" She looked over at her grandson with the warmest feeling of love she had felt in a long time.
Ryan smiled at his Grandma and looked back down at the watch. He couldn't take his eyes off of it, it was so beautiful, the color, the size and the design of it made it magnificently elegant, but the fact that it was his father's watch made it more than all of that, it made it perfect.
...........
The next day, Ryan just finished getting dressed for Jessica's family dinner and was heading down the stairs to leave.
"Well don't you look nice!" Denise called over to her grandson from the living room. "Dress shirt, fitted jeans, nice shoes, and a pretty watch on your wrist. Someone that loves you must have gotten you that!" She chuckled to herself.
Ryan looked down at his watch and admired it for a second before turning around smiling at his grandma, "Yeah it's the last family dinner at Jess's house that I'm going to, so I wanted to look nice!"
