Don't Give up Hope

The next day, I got up and got [url=http://www.polyvore.com/untitled/set?id=19997475]ready for the day. I had planned to go to the store to get some paint for the house and do some other things.

When I walked outside, I saw Ryan, Kane and Tony out in the street with their skate boards. "Hey, Mel!" Kane said, waving happily.

"Hey, Bud! What're you doing?" I asked, walking to the end of my drive way.

"Just hanging out with Ryan and Tony." He said, shrugging.

"Well that's cool. Are you having fun?" I asked, ruffling his hair.

"Yup. What're you doing?" He asked curiously.

"I was just about to go get some paint to paint my house."

His eyes lit up. "Cool! Can I help?" He asked excitedly.

"Kane, I'm sure she doesn't want a six-year-old following her around all day." Ryan said, shaking his head.

"Don't worry about, he's fine. He can come along if he wants. I can use the help."

"We can help." Tony said, volunteering.

"Are you sure? I don't want to take away from your guys' day."

"Nah, it's fine. We can help." Ryan said, smiling.

"Ok then, let's head to the store!" I grabbed my keys as they piled in.

Once we got to the store, I told Kane he could help me pick out the paint color. "Don't go too crazy, Dude." Ryan told his younger brother. Kane just looked up at him and rolled his eyes.

"How about this one?" Kane asked, holding up an aqua.

"Sure, that can be my room." I said, taking the color.

We ended up adding red, black, brown and purple. I would leave some of the rooms white. "You're house is going to look like a fricken fun house." Tony said, laughing as we took all of the paint cans into the house.

"Not if we do it right." I said, laughing along with him.

We had gotten half way through two rooms, before Tony and Ryan came walking in. "We can't do this whole house by ourselves. We need to call in back up." Tony said, laying on the floor.

"If you guys are tired, you can go home. It's alright. I can finish up by myself. I did appreciate the help." I said, putting the roller down.

"No, we'll stay. We're just gonna call a few more people over. It'll go faster." Ryan said, pulling out his phone.

I shrugged, and picked the roller back up. Kane was singing as he did his part of the wall. I couldn't pick out the tune, but it was cute to hear him try.

When we were doing my bedroom, that's when everyone showed up. "Hey, Mel." Ryan said, making me turn around. Before I could say anything, he twitched the paint brush which then made paint fly onto the side of my face.

"Oh, you're so going down, Sheckler." I said, grabbing a paint brush and throwing some paint at him.

"Has any of the paint gotten on the walls?" Randy laughed as he walked in and saw us.

Ryan and I looked at each other, before back to Randy. "Maybe..." We said, before laughing. He just shook his head and continued to laugh as he went to go help with the kitchen.

"I think I like this better." I said, looking at the paint splattered wall. I am so happy I put plastic covering on my floor! Or else there would be paint splatters all over them.

"It does look pretty good." Ryan said, leaning on my shoulder.

"Let's go check on the others." I said, walking down to the living room. It was now purple and black, just like I had pictured it. "Thank you guys so much. You don't know how much I appreciate the help." I said to Ryan's family and a few of his friends.

"What're neighbors for?" Gretchen said, smiling.

At the end of the day, the whole house was done. I ordered everyone pizza in thanks for helping me out.

It was now just Ryan and I hanging out. We had been talking for three hours straight. "God, Mel. You seriously are the coolest chick I've met in a while." He said, laughing and shaking his head.

"Why do you say that?" I asked, confused.

"Well, other than Taylor, I haven't met many girls that can actually carry on a conversation about anything. Skating, none the less."

I smiled. "I could talk about my hair and nails if you like." I said, joking around.

"Ha, no that's ok." It got silent as he just stared at me.

"What?"

"I just feel like there's more to you than you're letting on." He said softly.

I tried to hide my worry. "Nope, this is me."

He continued to look confused, but shook his head and stood up. "Well, today was fun, but I should get home. It's already midnight."

"Wow. Thanks again for helping. It probably would have taken me a week if I did it all by myself."

"No problem. And, thanks for being so cool with Kane."

"Of course! I love little kids. He's such a sweetie. You guys are welcome over here any time." I said, leading him out.

He gave me his famous smile. "I'll have to take you up on that." He said, giving me a hug.

"See you later."

I went straight to bed after that, promising myself that I would go to the skate park tomorrow. I needed to practice if I was going to be ready for the comp. next week. I just hope Ryan isn't there...