The Square Root

“Wow. Deep much?” I chuckled. “Well you want some food? I’m gonna go get some,” I said standing up and brushing small fragments of gravel that stuck to my body.

“Cotton candy?” he grinned at me.

“Be right back,” I said and disappeared into the crowd. I went and bought some cotton candy and pop corn. I also bought some sour patch watermelons which I learned that Ryan was obsessed with. I carried them back to our spot where Ryan was talking to a group of girls whom were probably a couple years younger than us.

“…girlfriend,” one of the girls finished their sentence.

“Who’s whose girlfriend?” I cut into their conversation.

“They were talking about how pretty my girlfriend is,” he smirked at me, standing up and taking the food from my hands, then sat back down, patting the spot next to him. I raised an eyebrow at him and sat down anyways. “This is Hazelyn,” he introduced.

“Hey,” I smiled at them. They all giggled. I raised an eyebrow at Ryan but he just cheesed at me.

“You’re freaking pretty. And I love those shorts,” one of them said.

“Thanks,” I blushed. Then my eyes widened. I mouth an ‘oh my gosh’ to Ryan, but he just winked and put his arms around me, turning to the front and waiting for the show to start.

The show was fantabulous. It was beyond words. Amazing. And it was even better since we were at the front. We were on our way back to the car, all the shopping bags in hand. “What was up with you? Oh my goodness,” I chuckled when we got into the car, stuffing the bags into the back seats - purposely avoiding putting anything in the trunk.

“What? Did you see their reactions?” he laughed.

“Yes, but cut the girls some slack. You know they were totally crushing on you!” I chuckled.

“I know, I know, I have that affect in girls,” he winked at me. I rolled my eyes. “And there’s a specific one that gets affected the most affected with my charm,” he chuckled.

“Uhuh, not counting on it,” I chuckled and got into the driver’s side. He gave me a look. “Let me drive, please? I swear you wont die,” I chuckled. He rolled his eyes and rolled on top of my hood, making me screech. “Oh my fuck! If there’s a scratch on that thing..”

“You’ll what?” he threatened.

“I’ll….”

“Kill me? Nope, you wouldn’t, you love me too much. Kiss me? Why not? I wouldn’t mind. Throw my car out into the middle of the ocean? Uhh, that would work,” he mumbled.

“I was just thinking of killing you, but that’s a marvelous idea!” I chuckled and sped out of the parking lot. “Why would I even think of KISSING you?” I asked him.

“Because I think…” he paused. “Because I think that if you do, then I should get you some breath mints,” he chuckled.

I gasped. “Get out of my car,” I glared at him. He just laughed and laughed, wiping tears from his eyes.

“You need help bringing the bags up?” I asked when we got to their house. He shook his head no.

“Aren't some of these yours?” he asked.

“Yeah, but we’ll look through it some other day,” I laughed. “Oh, meet me at the beach when you’re done bringing those up,” I said to him. He gave me a questioning look, but as we both knew, he had no choice but to comply. He nodded and walked into the room.

I opened my trunk and took out my presents for him, walking towards the beach - just near the deck - not too far out into the sand, and sat on the steps. I put the present at the side of the stairs, out of view if Ryan sat on my left side.

A few minutes of looking out into the ocean, I felt a presence next to me. “So, what’d you need me to come out here for?” Ryan asked me. I looked at him.

“Oh you know, I just wanted to watch the waves,” I smiled.

“You’re so weird,” he laughed at me.

“Happy Birthday,” I said softly.

He chuckled lightly. “I think you’ve greeted me enough today,” he said taking my hand and putting it between his. “You have cold hands,” he said to me.

“I’m cold blooded,” I joked. He rolled his eyes. “We didn’t get to have that dinner,” I said to him.

His face fell. “Its fine. Disneyland and California adventures was worth it. Plus we did have lunch,” he chuckled.

I just grinned at him. “So, what did you wish for earlier?”

“I’m not telling you,” he smirked at me.

“What about, what did you want most for a gift?”

“A girlfriend,” he mumbled. I sighed heavily.

“Something I can give you dummy,” I chuckled. He just rolled his eyes at me and squeezed my hand. A few more moments of comfortable silence passed before I broke it. “So, I got you a gift,” I said to him.

“You didn’t have to,” he frowned at me.

“I know but I wanted to,” I smiled at him, and stood up reaching for the items.

“I thought you said A gift?” he frowned.

I shrugged. “Anyways here,” I said, setting a huge box in front of him.

“What is this?” he asked.

“You open it so you find out,” I rolled my eyes. He chuckled and started ripping up the wrapper.

“Oh no,” he mumbled. My head snapped in his direction.

“Do you not like it?” I asked worriedly.

“Are you kidding?!” he asked me, wide eyed.

“Uhh, actually, here. I’ll just take that if you don’t want it,” I said.

“Uhh, no. Fucking kidding me?! This is a 1964 J2000 Vintage Gibson,” he practically screamed.

“Ehhh….” I chuckled nervously.

“How did you get your hands on them?” he asked me.

“I have my connections,” I shrugged.

“This must’ve cost a fortune,” he mumbled.

“Its nothing,” I shrugged.

“You should keep this,” he said to me.

“it’s a gift for you remember?” I asked rolling my eyes. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.

“But really, you should keep this. It’s one of a kind,” he told me.

You’re one of a kind.

Oh my gosh, shut up Hazelyn! “No, its for you,” I smiled. “Second gift,” I said and opened the small paper bag I had with me and took out a small box, handing it to him. He looked at it, then gave it back to me without opening it. “”What?” I mumbled.

“Too expensive,” he said to me.

“Can you just take it, please?” I asked him.

“No, take it back to the store and I’ll treat you out for dinner or something. Anywhere you want. Fuck, even if you want to have lunch in Italy and dinner in Japan, I’ll take you. This guitar is enough,” he said stubbornly.

“Can you just please….,” I sighed, and handing it to him. He rolled his eyes and took it. He untied the ribbon and lifted off the top. He then put it under the box and reached in, pulling out the dogtag I had engraved. He put the box aside, and took it into his hands. One side had his name on it, and he then flipped it over.

“Hot girl and hot boy - We’re one of a kind, baby we’re partners in crime. I love you Ry! -Hazelyn,” he read, then he glared at me. “You’re an idiot,” he laughed. “But damn, I’m glad you’re my idiot,” he reached over and hugged me tightly. “I love you haze,” he mumbled against my hair. He then pulled away and put the dogtag on. “It’s permanently there,” he grinned. “I like that quote. I didn’t know you had it in you DeLuca.”

I just laughed at him. “Well, I think I’m gonna go home now, its getting late,” I said getting up.

“No. Stay here tonight. It’s late. I don’t want you driving home alone.”

“I’ll be fine really,” I assured.

“No Hazelyn. Listen to me,” he sighed.

“Fine, but I’m borrowing your sweats,” I said and waited for him to stand up. I helped him take everything upstairs and he handed me some clothes to change into. I went into his bathroom and washed up then walked out to his dim room. He was already in bed. I crept over to his bed, and going under the covers carefully. I got into a comfortable position, and I felt his arms wrap around my waist cueing the fireworks in my tummy.

If only he knew what that “I love you” meant.

****

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I immediately started to reach for the side table for it, and opened my blurry eyes enough to see what I was pressing. I pressed ‘answer’ and put it to my ear.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

“Honey, where are you? We went to your house and you weren’t there,” my mom said.

“I uhh.. I’m at a friends,” I said to her.

“We’re in town for a bit. Come have lunch here at the beach house,” she said. My eyes must’ve bugged out of my eyes.

“Mom, I'm at Stephanie’s,” I said carefully.

“So, it was your car in the Dolciani’s driveway?” she asked.

“Yeah mom,” I sighed.

“Okay. Be here before 12.”

“Yeah, see you,” I said and hung up, putting my phone back to the side table and tossed to my other side. I saw Ryan staring at me. “What?” I asked him.

“Good morning.”

“How long have you been up?” I asked him.

“About an hour,” he shrugged.

“And you didn’t wake me?” I asked him.

“I was kind of scared that you’d flip if I woke you up,” he grinned. I rolled my eyes. “You have anything to do today?” he asked me.

“I uhh.. Have to go to lunch with my parents,” I frowned.

“They’re in town?” he asked. I nodded. “Can I meet them?”

“Uhhh… Some other time. Sorry ,” I apologized. His face fell. This is so bad. I felt guilty. “I promise,” I said and got up, grabbing my clothes and getting changed in the bathroom and gargled some mouthwash. I quickly jogged out, with his clothes he lent to me neatly folded. I grabbed my phone and wallet, then crawled over to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll call you tonight? Yes? Dinner?” I asked him backing out.

He just nodded and buried himself back in the sheets. I sighed and jogged out of their house, yelling out an “I’m leaving!” to them and ran to my car, racing home to change cars.

****

After lunch with my parents, I went to the mall with Tristan. “Come on T, I’ll give you my beamer if you don’t make me go to Paris with you. You know that I can’t miss school!” I whined, my arms linked with his. Okay, might sound incestuous but we’re close like that. I looked up at him and pouted.

“Nope, not even the beamer can get you out of this,” he smirked.

“Can we at least move it to Spring break?” I asked him.

He thought about it for a second. “Yup, but we have to stay there the whole week. Do a little European tour,” he smirked at me.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“We’ll stay in Italy for 2 days, stay in England for 2 days, then Paris for 2 days,” he simply said.

“What?! That’s too long!” I whined.

“Fine, a day each. I just promised Marcel and Cindy that I’d introduce them to Stephanie,” he told me.

“But! Those are our cousins, how’s that gonna work? Ryan’s coming, and you know the rest!” I practically screamed.

“Shut up!” he hushed.

I groaned. “Fine,” I said agreeing with the deal.

“Yes!” Tristan hooted.

We walked around the mall, and I was pointing out stuff that I thought were cute. “So, you and Stephanie are getting pretty serious,” I chuckled. He tensed. “Whoa, are you getting nervous T?” I gasped.

“Ugh, I cannot talk about these things with my sister.”

“You can if she’s your girlfriend’s bestfriend,” I smirked.

“Damn it,” he mumbled. “Well, I don’t really know where this is going, but I love her,” he said blushing. I pinched his cheek.

“Awwww! Have you told her?”

“Yeah I have,” he nodded. My eyes widened.

“Soo….?” I asked.

“She said she loved me too,” he mumbled.

“And you’re stressing, why?” I asked him.

“I feel like I don’t deserve her,” he said to me.

“What do you mean you don’t deserve her?” I asked.

“She’s the definition of perfect. She doesn’t get jealous when I talk to other girls and she has everything balanced. She’s the total opposite of my type, but at the same time, she’s my type. I mean, she’s her own type,” he grumbled.

“Awwww! This is sooo cute! Tristan’s in love!” I cooed.

“Did you know that dad’s already training me for the business?” he asked me.

“What?”

“He is.”

“And….?”

“I’m taking over it soon.”

“Whoa, what?”

“Yeah, and-,” he paused. “Its not the time to tell you,” he said to me.

“Great, my own brother hiding stuff from me,” I mumbled and let go of him. He stopped and looked at me.

“Hazelyn, right now, all you need to do, is finish high school, do what you want in life, and leave all this business stuff to me and Nate. If you want nothing to do with it, then so be it. That’s what we’re here for. I know that you’ve been trained while you were in England, and we’llask you for your help in areas that we haven’t been trained in, but that will only be if we’re in deep trouble, and if we really really need you,” he said. “But as for now, you’ve got a whole future ahead of you and as your brother, I’ll do whatever I can to give you the best,” he told me sincerely.

I hugged him. “God, I have the best brothers ever” I chuckled through my tears of happiness.

“Only for the best sister,” he said and hugged me back.

****

Tristan dropped me off at home after our mall adventure, and our little bonding time. I had dinner with Ryan that night and he ended up sleeping over, since we watched Inception.

I woke up the next morning on the couch, curled up into Ryan. “Morning,” I smiled at him.

“Morning,” he smiled back at me.

“I’m gonna go get ready,” I said and stood up, jogging up the stairs. He whistled at me.

“Nice legs,” he complimented.

“They’re my snowboarding legs,” I laughed at him and continued up the stairs to do my morning routine.

Everything went well up till after school. I was leaving the building when somebody stopped me. More like 5 somebody’s. “I warned you,” Trisha said to me.

“Warned me about?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Ryan,” she simply said.

“What about your exboyfriend?” I smirked.

She glared at me. “Stay away from him,” she growled again.

“Wow, I’m scared,” I rolled my eyes and attempted to walk past them. “You know I can kick all your asses right here, right now,” I said threatening them.

“But you won’t,” Trisha smirked.

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I know about you and Tristan Macintosh,” she smirked at me.

My jaw dropped. SHIT;