Haven't I Been Here Before?

“Laney?” Ryan took a step back and shook his head, confused. “You can’t be Laney Allen,” he said, settling back down from his almost-blow-up.

“Read the name tag.” Dumb ass I thought, but was able to bite it back this time. I had forgotten how infuriating he could be.

“Wow, I am so sorry, I just” he couldn’t finish the sentence. His mouth just hung open like a fish gasping for air as he tried to think up some lame excuse for treating someone as he had just tried to. He looked away from me, trying to find something interesting on the wall I suppose. It almost made me feel bad for him, almost.

“Holy crap! Did you get that on tape Lee? Ryan just said he was sorry!” one of the twin guys at the table had exclaimed. All of they guys started to laugh except for Ryan.

“This is monumental, call the papers up and get him an interview. Might want to take him to the doctors too because I think he must be sick!” the other one continued, playfully pushing Ryan.

“Knock it off!” Ryan said, pushing his way out of the booth they were crammed in. The laughter stopped dead. He even managed to get a good whack at me with his shoulder on his way out the door.

“Must be on the rag,” one of the twins said, obviously not knowing when to stop.

“Dude, you really pissed him off,” one said, sighing. “Guess we should go and get him.” He rolled his eyes, then gave me a smile that said ‘what can ya do?’ Seemed like he knew Ryan as good as I used to. “Tell Kali to put it on our tab, okay? She knows we’ll pay for it.”
He and the twins walked out of the door without so much as leaving a penny for a tip. Put it on our tab I repeated in my head. What a load of horseshit. They were famous! I shook my head, gathering up the plates of uneaten food. And I thought my life was already crappy.

--

As I was finishing cleaning up tables I couldn't help but think about him. Ryan Pierce and I had history. We had been neighbors until we hit 16 and my mother had decided to move to a whole new place. Every single happy child hood memory I have either has Ryan in it or has something to do with him. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we had our fair share of fights, but we always got over them. Except for the last one.

I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment I started to have feelings for Ryan. It was one of those things that just snuck up on me, where one moment he was ‘Ryan the friend’ and the next ‘Ryan the crush.’ He was always just there for me; it was impossible that I would never get feelings for him. He knew all of my secrets and fears. Well, except for the one where I liked him and such. I never told him, despite Kali’s pleas. So I spent my pre-teen and early teen years watching him go threw girlfriend after girlfriend until he finally “chose” me. One day under what can only be called strange circumstances he kissed me. Finally I knew that he liked me back.

Then things happened, I was moving, we fought, and then we made up. He took my virginity, and then we fought again and haven’t spoken since. End of unhappy story.
I know I’m not the only girl in the universe that some boy has screwed over (bad choice of words...), but that doesn’t keep me from keeping a grudge against the first and only boy I’d ever loved. It was silly and cliché, but that’s just how it is. And the fact that he didn’t recognize me? Well that just ices my cookie.

--

“How are you doing hun?” Kali asked, pulling me off my walk down memory lane and saving the table from a bad case of me scrubbing off the finish on it.

“I’m great, it’s great. Aren’t you great?” the rambling left my lips before I could think about it.

“No, it’s not great. It’s my fault, I should’ve warned you. I just didn’t want you to stress. Or to have just one more reason to not want to come,” she said, making me feel bad about it.

“I shouldn’t have flipped out,” I said truthfully. He was just a stupid guy, I saw those everywhere. Flipping out was just unnecessary.

“You sure? I’ll beat him up for you,” Kali put up her fists like she would actually hit him, but she had a smile on her face.

I laughed, “No. It’s fine now, I saw him and it’s all over. He won’t shock me again I swear,” I told her. Kali gave me a concerned look. “What? Like you said in the car on the way here: Ryan’s just a part of the past and that’s where he’s going to stay.”

Sometimes I think I’m a compulsive liar.

“If you say so.” That girl knew me to well. When I got home that night I was planning to prey to god that he wouldn’t be coming back for a long, long, long time and she knew it.