The Square Root

“Hazelyn. Its time for school,” I heard Ryan’s voice.

“I don’t wanna go to school,” I groaned.

“You have to. Come on. We’ll do something this weekend if you get up,” he bargained.

“But I can always do something this weekend by myself.”

“I’ll take you out of town,” he told me.

“But I'm lazy,” I argued.

“Get up or I’m kissing you,” he threatened. That got me up. I glared at him. “Works every time,” he said and stood up. I was in my room laying down, and he was shirtless, his skin moist from a shower and he was walking out of my room. “Your eyes are drilling onto my back,” he told me with his back to me. “Go take a shower,” he said and left with a wink.

We got to school, and he parked right next to me. “I think you should go first,” I said to him.

“Why?”

“Uhh… Trisha, remember?” he just shrugged and pulled me inside. “Aren't you worried?” I asked him, half resisting on his firm pulls.

“I’ll explain later,” he said to me, and opened the doors. There were people everywhere saying good morning to him, and him giving the guys a guy handshake, a fist pump or a man hug, and waved at the girls who were glaring daggers at me and swooning over his smile. Is this how it is every time that he walks in through those doors?

“So, seems like Hazelyn’s back,” Daniel said hugging me.

“Looking as hot as always, my lady,” Heath said doing a little bow with a wink. I chuckled at his funny gesture.

“Dude,” Ryan said dully.

“Just kidding man,” Heath laughed, winking at me and slapped Ryan’s back.

“Looks like you made a good choice Jay,” Kyle pat his shoulder from behind and smiled at me. “Hey Lyn,” he sheepishly grinned. Ryan just rolled his eyes at him with a laugh.

“Well, I have to get to class guys. I’ll see you all later,” I said giving each of them a hug and gave Ryan the last one.

“Best for last, huh?” Daniel teased and I saw Heath elbow him. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

“Hazelyn,” Ryan called out. I raised an eyebrow at him. He pointed towards his cheek. I knew exactly what that meant, but I gave him an innocent look. He rolled his eyes at me and gave me an impatient gesture. I walked towards him and went on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. The guys hooted, including Kyle (which I was exceptionally surprised that he was cool with me). I just rolled my eyes and walked away - towards my class.

“Hey Lyn,” Stephanie greeted sitting next to me.

“Hey Sister In Law,” I chuckled.

“Wait, what? Are you and my brother finally together?” she asked me, eyes wide

I smacked her. “Dummy, you’re with my brother,” I chuckled.

“Oh..,” she said then laughed nervously. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Slow poke,” I teased. She stuck her tongue out at me.

Lunch was out of the ordinary. It started out as just me and Stephanie, and then Ryan joined us. And then after, Kyle did. And then Daniel and Heath. “What is going on?” I asked them.

“Just hanging out with new friends,” Kyle said sheepishly grinning at me. I rolled my eyes and somebody must’ve kicked him because he yelped and glared at Daniel.

I was eating my salad when I felt somebody staring at me. I looked towards it and was met with Ryan’s mesmerizing pair of intangible eye colors. I just realized that it was between green and brown, with a small swirl of blue in it. Sometimes his eyes were deep shades of teal. Did he wear contacts? I’ll note to ask him later, but right now I should look away. I think I’ve been staring way too long.

I looked towards everybody else again, trying to hide the blush in my cheeks. Stephanie leaned over to me. “Why are you so flustered?” she whispered. I shrugged. She looked at who was in front of me and I saw her smirk, and went back into conversation with everyone else.

The week went great and it was by far the most awesome week ever. I haven’t had the chance to talk to Ryan at all yet, which was a bummer. We would constantly text each other in the morning, in between classes, at night, and we’d go to lunch together - but he always avoided the subject when I ask him about Trisha.

Though, since Monday, he has been more physically closer, especially after that kiss on the cheek in the morning. He’d come up behind me and put his hands on my hips, then kiss my cheek unexpectedly. I can’t say that I minded though.

Wednesday, there was a bouquet of purple bellflowers on the hood of my car on the hood of my car. There was a small note that had been been on it.



I smiled at the gesture, wondering who it could be from.

Friday night, I went with Ryan to Kyle’s place to play Call of Duty. “What is your girlfriend doing here, Ryan?” Daniel joked

“Shut up Dan and she’s here to beat your asses in COD,” he chuckled. Why didn’t he deny that we weren't together? They were just teasing, yeah. But still! And it turned out, I had the best kill streak against all of them. I jumped up in victory and shoved in their faces how much of losers they are. They were really disappointed. They started mumbling about how sad it was that they just got beaten by a girl.

“Damn, why’d you have to bring her over?” Kyle mumbled and glared at me. Ryan even glared at me, but I just gave them innocent looks. Ryan slept over since he said he was taking me out of town for the weekend.

Let’s just say that I woke up on a bed that was not mine. “I just got kidnapped,” I mumbled and got up. Ryan walked in and smiled at me.

“We landed already,” he said.

“Landed? What?” I asked half asleep, not being able to comprehend that statement.

“We. Landed. Already,” he said slowly

“Where exactly are we?” I asked.

“Get dressed, then you’ll see,” he chuckled and left the room. I quickly took my clothes and got dressed and walked outside. I saw Ryan sitting on one of those airplane seats (which I now realize that I was on a private jet) talking to some guy. When he saw me, he sent the guy away and walked over to me. “Let’s go?”

I nodded and we got out of the plane. It was freezing, I gotta say. He rolled his eyes and gave me his hoodie. I didn’t wanna take it, since he was left with a long sleeve and it was cold, but he insisted.

We drove through a familiar freeway. “Holy Fuck. Lake Tahoe!” I screamed.

We went up to Northstar, and he stood there awkwardly. “So, do you know how to snowboard?” he asked me.

This should be fun. “Uhh… Kind of,” I told him. I hope he doesn’t sense that I’m lying.

“Then, I’ll teach you,” he said. Yes! Fell for the trap! “Let’s go get you some gear first though,” he told me scrunching his face. “I don’t like the rentals.”

I frowned, thinking that I’d have to break them in. We went around the stores in the “Village”.

“These are what we need. Which one do you want?” he asked me. “It doesn’t really matter since you’ll only be using it for practice. We can get another set if you get good.” I nodded at him and like a kid going to the candy bar, I was excited.

It didn’t take long to find gear because I already knew what I wanted and needed. Ryan was surprised that I knew which to get, but I played innocent.

“Are you ready to have the best day of your life?” he grinned sheepishly at me.

“Are you?” I asked back with a smile.

“Let’s do this,” he said with a smile.

He tried to teach me and I just pretended to fall. I would pretend like I was losing control over the board, and he’d just hold on to me like he was teaching me to ride a bicycle.

“Almost there Hazelyn,” he encouraged, then I fell on my butt. We just laughed most of the time and it was crazy. We had lunch at one of the cabins and he just stared at me for awhile.

“What?” I asked him.

“You know what I figured out?”

“What?”

“I know lots of things about you but I don’t know the basic stuff,” he said and took a bite of his food.

“So, what do you wanna know?” I asked him

“Just like that? You’ll let me ask you questions?” he asked.

“I didn’t say I’d answer all your questions,” I grinned at him. “Bring it on,” I chuckled.

“Favorite type of food?”

“Italian. You?”

He smiled at me. “Same. What’s your natural eye color?”

“What?”

“Sometimes its green, brown or a mix,” he told me.

“It’s Hazel,” I told him.

“Just like your name,” he smiled.

I took the time to ask the question. “Do you wear contacts?” I asked him

He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Sometimes your eyes are green, sometimes its blue, sometimes its light brown and sometimes it’s a mix of all of it,” I told him.

“It changes along with my mood,” he shrugged. “Why don’t you live with your brothers?” he asked.

“They live out of district,” I said to him.

“Are you guys close?”

I smiled widely. “Super.”

“Do they know about me?”

“Why would they need to know about you?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

He shrugged innocently. “Shouldn’t they know of a guy that’s at their sister’s house more than their own home?” he smirked.

I laughed out loud. “Yeah, they know about you.”

“What about your parents? Where are they?”

I bit my lip. “They visit a few times a year. Sometimes we visit them.”

“Where do they live?” he asked, intrigued.

“In the air,” I laughed.

He frowned. “Are they dead, Hazelyn?” he asked cautiously.

I busted out laughing. “No, I meant they live in the air because they’re flying all over the place.”

“Oh,” he let out a breath.

I nodded, and we stopped the questions there. Around 3pm, he said that he wanted to go on the half pipe and I could wait at the very top if I wanted. I agreed and watched him try his tricks. He came back a few minutes later and told me we could go down the easier run.

“I wanna try that,” I told him, pointing towards the half pipe. His eyes went wide and I held down the urge to laugh.

“That’s really hard Haze,” he said.

“I’m gonna try it,” I said strapping in my bindings.

“Hazelyn, no!” he said grabbing my arm. I shook it off.

“Relax. I’ll try not to break anything,” I said to him, and plugged in my earphones, selecting an upbeat song and stood up.

“Hazelyn! Stop!” he shouted, grabbing me tighter.

“Let go!” I squirmed trying to lose his grip. “I can breathe Ry!” I complained. He let go a little bit and I took advantage and skated out of his grip.

“Hazelyn!” he tried going after me, but safety regulations - you can't go until the other boarder is at the very bottom. I looked back at him and waved. I tried to make it seem like I was unsteady for a bit and when I was about to drop in, I picked up speed and started giving my all with the tricks. Still rusty, but I landed them well. I waited at the very bottom for Ryan and while there, there was a guy that came up to me..

“Nice moves up there,” he said. “Luke,” he introduced himself. I held a finger, telling him to hold on. I strapped a foot out of the board, then stood up, taking my earphones off.

“Hazelyn,” I said, taking off my sunglasses and shook his hand.

“You come here often?” he asked. “That wasn’t a pickup line, I swear,” he laughed.

“Nah, here with a friend,” I told him.

“Fuck! Hazelyn! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Ryan shouted from behind me and splashed some snow at us.

“Speaking of my friend. Luke, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is Luke,” I introduced.

“Hey man,” Luke said holding out his hand. Ryan just nodded and shook his hand. “You guys should join us,” he told us and pointed towards a group of guys.

“No. It’s okay,” Ryan said.

“Actually, that sounds awesome. Come on Ry,” I said and pulled him towards the guys.

“Yo, guys. This is Hazelyn and Ryan,” Luke said walking to the group. “That’s Mason, Keir, Scotty, Danny, Kevin and my brother Jack,” he introduced. We shook hands with each one of them.

“Who’s your pick up bro?” a guy said taking off his goggles. Everyone else took off their goggles. My eyes widened.

“Dude! You’re Frends!” I pointed out.

“Yeah, we’re all friends,” Luke chuckled.

“No, I mean Frends, like my earphones!” I pointed out.

“So, you’re a fan?”

“Fan? Duh! Dudes, awesome tricks,” I complimented. They grinned at me. “And Scotty, you did awesome at the Olympics. I swear you should’ve won at least Silver!” I grinned.

“Awww. She’s so sweet! I like her already,” he cooed at Luke then looked at me. “Thanks.” I just grinned.

“You guys wanna join us for runs?” Luke asked. “There’s a park over at the top for the rails and stuff too,” he said. I looked at Ryan and he nodded.

“Sounds good,” I smiled. We started making our way to the lifts, and I was with Ryan.

“You little bitch,” he muttered when we were seated.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Telling me you don’t know how to board when you’re freaking awesome,” he muttered. I started laughing. He just glared at me. “How’d you pull that cork?! And fuck those grabs that you did!” he grumbled. “Were you trying to give me a heart attack Hazelyn? Damn it!” he shouted and ran his fingers through his hair. I just gave him a hug.

“I'm sowwy Ry,” I cooed. He sighed.

“Damn, you’re lucky I love you,” he muttered.

“Awww I love you too Ry-boo,” I cooed.

“Don’t fall on this lift, okay?” he pleaded. I dragged him down with me the last few times. I rolled my eyes and we successfully got off without falling. We ran down several runs with the guys, then I showed off to Ryan again with the grinds and grabs that I did at the park. Let’s say it was a jawdropper.

The guys invited us for dinner but Ryan said that we already had dinner set up. We exchanged numbers and made sure to contact each other if we were close by so we could hang out.

We were at dinner when I brought the subject up about Trisha. “So… You and Trisha,” I started casually.

“Are over.”

“What?” I snapped dropping my utensils. “You’re fucking kidding Dolciani. You wanted her back. You had her, and then you let her go just like that? What the fuck is going on it your head?!”

“You really wanna know?” he asked. I nodded carefully. “Well, we broke up. End of story,” he said.

“Are you crazy? You let her go, just like that?” I repeated incredulously. He mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.

He just shrugged. “She isn’t the girl I used to be in-love with anymore,” he said. My heart sank. So he was in-love with her. “Plus, I think I’m in love with somebody else,” he told me. My heart sank even more. I felt like I hit a wall. And I didn’t like it one bit.

“Ohh…” I said. I wanted to play it cool.

He smirked, and then smiled. “She’s… special. I think she’s the one Haze.”

I gave him a halfhearted smile. “That’s good,” I smiled and continued with the meal. The rest of the night was peaceful. We just stayed at the hotel, and watched movies. I was snuggled against him and he was trailing a hand down my arms, keeping me warm. The flight back home was really quiet too. I didn’t feel like talking to him.

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked when we got home.

“Just sore.”

“You sure?” I nodded. “Okay, I’ll let you rest. I’ll see you at school on Monday,” he said and drove off. My heart felt like it was at the bottom of the pacific ocean. At the deepest depth of it.