If I Told You I Loved You, How Far Would You Run?

My body feels like it’s on fire as I thrash uncontrollably in my bed, tossing the sheets away from me. I let out a scream of frustration and Spencer opens the door.

“Brendon?” he says quietly. “I think you may have caught Ryan’s fever.”

I glower at him as he comes over and sticks a thermometer under my tongue. “I fubbin’ hart Rwyan,” I mutter around the thermometer.

“What do hate Ryan?” Spencer asks calmly, taking a look at the thermometer when it goes off. “101.1—a fever, definitely. You’re staying home tomorrow.”

“Because he made me think that he loved me when really all he ever wanted was his little girlfriend!” I spit out, turning over in my bed. “And he gave me his fucking fever!”

“Aren’t you overreacting a little bit, Brendon?”

“Obviously you have never been in love,” I say hotly.

Spencer pauses in my doorway. “I’m not gonna talk to you when you’re wallowing in self-pity,” he says coolly. “Let me know when you’ve gotten over yourself.”

I spit furiously after him but the moment the door closes, I swallow a scream and punch my pillow as hard as I can.

“How could you do that to me?!”

* * *

Ryan shows up the next day with a sorry face and a box of cookies.

“I baked them myself,” he says shyly.

“Go to hell, Ross,” I mumble, turning my back on him.

He continues as though I hadn’t said anything. “Chocolate chips, because that’s what you taught to me to make, you know, that one time …” his voice trails off and he sets the box down. “Why you so mad at me?”

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

“No!” he cries. “I didn’t … that wasn’t … I never meant … she just … you never let me finish my sentence after she kissed me, and I was going to say that—”

“Save it for someone who cares!” I snap. “Now get the hell out of my room!”

The next thing I know, Ryan’s lips are on my ear in a tender kiss and he’s telling me to get better soon and then he’s gone.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I mutter under my breath, tossing and turning uncomfortably in my bed.

But then, as if out of nowhere, Ryan’s words from long ago find their way into my mind—

“My kisses are medically proven to relieve pain.”

“Bastard,” I mutter, shoving my pillow over my head but immediately pulling out again because it’s far too warm.

And because I have nothing better to do, I eat one of the cookies Ryan brought, filling my mouth with chocolaty goodness. It’s surprisingly good, considering he’s never baked cookies without my supervision before.

But it’s unsurprisingly lonely to be eating them myself, without Ryan’s gentle fingers placing them on my tongue.

That’s when I see the little card next to the box.

To my Brenny Bear—

Hope these are just as helpful as your cookies were to me.

<3 Ryro

At first, I’m touched, but then I remember the way he and Keltie kissed in front of me and a scowl finds its way onto my face.

I throw the card back on my bedside table and it flips over, revealing three little words, so loaded, so charged, that they send a little bullet right though my heart—

I love you.