The Night I Woke Up Beside You

[SEASON 1] Chapter 7: The 4-Letter Word That Starts With R

The rest of the hours left for the remaining classes she had to attend too in the afternoon went by in a blurry momentum and before Regina could even realize the passing of time, the bell for dismissal finally rang and everybody rushed to get up and leave their classroom. She, on the other hand, had still remained on the seat but she quickly turned her head to give Daisy, who was sitting two seats away on the row behind her, a glance over her shoulder, and her friend had returned it with a simple smile. As they walked out of the doorway, heading down the noisy hallways, Regina let out a sigh of utter relief to finally know that this one difficult day was soon coming to a close. Though tomorrow was still another thing to worry about again.

And even when she felt the bliss of knowing she can finally get back home, of course, the anticipation quickly fell short in just a few seconds when Regina also realized that she still had to meet up and talk with Charles later on at the Queen's. Upon reminding herself of that, all the heavy tension and the unrelenting stress immediately revisited her mind again and her face had quickly shifted from a look of delight to an awful face of dread.

"Are you okay?" Daisy, who had always been characteristically observant and keen when it comes to her friend, had quickly noticed the swift change in the mood of Regina, and Daisy looked at her, trying to sympathize, with a sad grimace. Regina stared back, smiling sadly but somehow did not look quite right and she let out another long weary sigh.

"I almost forgot that I was actually going to meet Charles to get my phone back," Regina explained, sounding very regretful and just displeased after realizing the thought. And Daisy placed a comforting hand over her friend's shoulder because she really did not know what to tell her after that as they stopped short in front of the lockers. 

"Do you want me to come with you?" It was a meaningless offer and Daisy just felt like giving a little helping hand for her friend just in case she really needed one this time. But Regina just gently shook her head and smiled gratefully at her words.

"It's fine," Regina told Daisy, and she meant it. She was just glad that Daisy had been there to listen and it was already more than enough. After a slight pause of letting out a breath of confidence, she added, "I can do this myself. I can face him alone. I am no longer weak."

And it must have been the look that Regina was wearing on her face, or perhaps the words she had just said so confidently because Daisy was now staring at her with such pure adoration and great pride, and they were reflecting from her smile as she beamed at her. She placed both of her hands on Regina's shoulder, shaking them slightly for encouragement, and told her, "Good luck, then. I'm rooting for you."

"Thank you, Daisy."

Regina smiled warmly. And it was what she actually needed right now to feel even more fired up. She can really use some good luck because from here on, she was all more than ready to go to battle.

Apparently, Regina also did remember, as soon as she hit the road outside of the school building, that Maddy had fleetingly told her this early morning that she was supposed to be later than usual so Regina had to go home by herself today. Realizing that she had to take the good twenty-minute distance from school to her house on foot, Regina found herself striding down the sidewalks of the streets with a glower on her face as she felt a little bit discouraged. Good thing that it had been the season of autumn now and she did not have to endure a very cold afternoon or worse, really hot weather. She hugged her cardigan to herself and tried to think about how she would act once she sees Charles later.

However, as much as she wanted to come up with a good plan, she could not really ignore the lurking presence she could feel behind her, and did not take that long for her to know who it was. She had caught a glimpse of the person from the glass windows of the store she had just passed by a while ago and felt the urge to confront him. So she suddenly stopped in her tracks and quickly turned around.

"You're creepy," she said out loud, and how fortunate for that person because there was actually nobody else around them at the time on the sidewalk when she had said that but he quickly scowled as soon as their eyes met, "Stop following me, Ryan."

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Ryan already knew that she knew he was walking behind her because he had seen her glanced subtly at the glass windows of the convenience store that they had just passed by. But it still did not make him all the more prepared to get an instant look at her face when she had suddenly spun around to stare at him as if she had caught him doing something wrong. He found himself glaring and he stopped from a few feet away, enough distance to keep himself checked.

"I'm not following you," he said to her right away, in a voice that sounded a little harsh and pointed out, "We live across each other, remember?"

Regina smirked and shrugged a little as she looked away and said, "Yeah. I know. I was just humoring you," then she turned to glance at him again, raising a brow while grinning, "You're too serious, Ryan. But really, it's creepy that you're just walking behind me when we're both heading in the same direction."

Ryan scoffed. Stop that smile right now. Really. And then Regina added, "Don't you think that keeping a suspicious distance might actually lead people to misinterpret it more?"

Quite true, but Ryan was not going to admit it out loud that he was agreeing with her. Never. So he just closed the distance so quick and stopped shortly right beside her on the sidewalk. Regina watched her with an amused grin and they looked at each other while wearing opposite expressions. He scowled. She smiled wider.

"You do realize your jokes are way out of line sometimes, right?" he told her in a frank tone, trying to sound haughty and clever as he stared at her with a slight tilt of his head to the side, "It's not even funny, you know."

"Really?" Regina acted like she was actually surprised, though obviously it was fake and she dramatically let her mouth hung open as she said, "Oh, shocking."

"Haha," Ryan said dryly with a straight face. Then they started walking again, almost as if they did not have to ask each other. It fell in sync and eventually, their steps matched subconsciously through a rhythm and they soon found themselves walking side by side on that empty sidewalk, the silence hovering around them like it was the most natural thing in the world. No one said anything else after that.

After quite a while, as they neared the corner just a few more blocks from their houses, Regina suddenly felt the need to talk out of nowhere, and she decided to start a conversation as she glanced at Ryan warily.

"So, what are you doing walking home like a normal student today?" she directly asked without much hesitation because she was actually curious too, and partly because she wanted to tease him a little, "Don't you have anywhere else you'd be hanging around after school? Like you always do?"

Ryan took a moment to frown at her and he slightly thought about her question before he countered back, "Why are you asking me many questions now? And why are you curious?" He gave her a sidelong glance for a second before adding, "This is so not like you talking to someone like me at all. Normally, you would have run away at the very sight of my face."

Upon saying that out loud, Ryan immediately recalled a particular memory of Regina Harding darting out of the scene before he could even try to talk to her. That had been quite weird and funny.

"Right..." Regina was thinking the same. She was actually a little too scared at the time when she saw him looking so intimidating and a bit dangerous, and she laughed a little remembering all that. She really had a weird idea of Ryan before and it was quite a very innocent and silly reaction now that she thought of it. "That was then," she said after a pause, "But maybe I changed."

"Or maybe we just don't know each other at all," Ryan found himself saying back, almost never realizing he did, "We barely even talk that much last year."

Regina ruefully smiled, "That's true."

"So, who are you?" Ryan asked suddenly, stepping around a streetlight ahead of them as he gave Regina a curious stare from a fair distance, "Besides being quite the talk of the town for dumping my friend, who seemed to be mad at me now and is probably thinking that I stole you from him last night. Who are you now?" 

Regina just snorted, shaking her head a little at him, "Are you bothered that he might think too much about our sudden interactions?"

Obviously, that was also one of the just as complicated unspoken issues that they were yet to face after that whole dramatic scene from last night. And in fact, they both already knew and expected that they will have to address it all eventually. Though, not as too soon as today yet. It might take a little bit of time. There were still a lot of urgent issues to fix at the moment.

"No," Ryan briefly replied, sounding a bit unsure although he tried to shrug it off, "I'm more bothered about my bike. But I'm curious to know what you're planning to do after everything you did."

He threw her a look that said you're onto something, aren't you, and kind of just faintly smirked when Regina gave him a startled glance.

"Everything I did?" she scoffed, repeating his words with a slightly perplexed face, "Hardly breaking things off with Charles could actually be just as crazy as having to face the end of the world yet. I don't think so."

"For him, it is," Ryan said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Well, he'll move on," Regina simply shrugged.

"Says who?" Ryan fell into step with her and frowned deeper.

"Says me..."

"Cause you already did, huh?" Ryan tried to sound as if he was accusing her of being too nonchalant about it but he was still keeping his tone mildly teasing. Yet Regina shot him a pointed look with a sneer on her face, apparently taking the statement a little too personal as she paused for a while and daringly faced him.

"Your point is?"

Ryan had missed her stop and he almost walked past her on the sidewalk. But upon realizing right away that she fell behind him, he quickly stepped back just to match his gaze with hers.

"He's my friend," he said, almost quite too defensively, "And I am concerned about him. Have you ever really tried to see how he's doing right now? I know how much he likes you, and it's not pretty hard to guess that you have been madly in love with Charles for god knows how long now. Everyone thought it's the perfect fairy tale. So you should know right? Even when you don't seem to be that bothered at all..."

Well even if she had been quite affected and hurt from it, she clearly seemed to be doing so well compared to Charles who somehow had just lost all sense of his purpose since last night.

"Why would you care?" Regina scowled back at him, and obviously, their conversation was now heading in the wrong direction. They were actually arguing with their voices slightly raised. 

"Because Charles is your friend, huh?" Regina said in distaste, after a slight pause.

"No," Ryan sternly implied, sighing a little, "Because you both looked miserable."

"Really?" Regina scoffed, rolling her eyes at him as she firmly rebuked, "I'm not miserable, just so you know. I'm feeling all much better now, actually, so you're wrong."

"No, I'm right," Ryan said in a calmer voice, stepping forward until he had to lean down so he could stare at her closer. She was denying herself and he felt like this was all just too wrong and as he looked into those sad blank eyes he added, "You're miserable too. And I guess, it's not because you suddenly broke up with him. You're actually miserable because of something else. But I'm pretty sure, it still had something to do with breaking up with him."

The last few words had been uttered by his mouth softer than the first ones and as he realized that he was a little bit too close--way much closer than he should--it took him a moment to quickly step back almost as if he had been burned. And then he suddenly felt so guilty about it. That had been a little bit of a shock. He had never really lost his cool with a girl before. This was completely foreign to him and Ryan immediately felt too nervous to be around her anymore.

"Gosh, good deduction skills, Sherlock," Regina tried to hide the sudden flush and fluttering she felt inside her when he had said those words as if he had really seen through all of her bullshit. She swallowed the forming lump in her throat and looked away. He had been almost too close to the truth, and it shocked her just as how he had been very startled to find them almost a mere inches apart from each other. She suddenly missed the heavy scent of his fragrance filling her senses which only then made her even more confused yet she tried to brush it off with a simple humoring statement just so she could easily shake away the tension that was starting to build up between them now. 

"You seemed to have a very wide relevant observation of everything that had happened between me and your very dear friend, huh?" Regina found herself saying, smiling unsteadily as she tried to give him a glance while trying to sound nonchalant, "Are you going to solve the mystery of our break-up too?"

Ryan let out a long sigh, though he was not really sure if it was out of disappointment that she was trying to evade the very topic or because he was relieved she actually tried to get past that slightly intimate moment they just shared a minute ago.

"I'm serious," he told her, "Why are you doing this now?"

"Doing what?" Regina sneered again, but this time she took the initiative to start walking again because she can only take that much from this entire conversation. As they walked past another block, they could already see the outlines of their houses from a near distance.

"Hurting him and hurting yourself," Ryan said after a slight pause. He was now trying to keep up with her pace, still on with this whole awkward topic.

"It's for the better," Regina simply replied, speaking with a tone of finality. She really did not want to say anything more but he seemed to be still eager about it.

"Well," Ryan thoughtfully remarked as he put both of his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and said with a smile on his lips, "Doesn't seem like it's really working that way yet. But I still want to get my bike back. I don't think it has anything to do with this entire mess."

Finally, he was done with it. And Regina could not even resist a smirk when she heard his words. She spared him a glance from the side and chuckled a little.

"No, I'm still keeping it."

They were almost down to just a few more steps away from Regina's side of the street.

"Until I turn twenty-two, huh?" Ryan retorted, slyly smiling, "What's with that condition anyway? I'm practically legal to ride on a motorcycle."

For some reason, they both seemed to slow down when they knew their destination had gotten closer. They actually started walking in loose lazy strides, both not rushing anymore. And Regina sighed softly as she looked down to the ground to watch her every step.

"Trust me," she told him faintly, a little sentimental, "It's something you'd be thanking me in the future."

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Ryan attempted to laugh.

"Kind of," Regina simply shrugged. If only he knew.

"And for some reason, you actually think that would just stop me from taking it back from you?"

They were now at the front of Regina's house. Across the street, it would be Ryan's. The motorcycle was still there where he had left it last night and Regina fleetingly glanced at the vehicle with a rueful smile. Then she turned to look at him again. She was smiling, and the afternoon was doing so much to make her look much better, Ryan almost wanted to run. But he didn't. He was too struck to leave his spot while staring back at her.

"No, I know you'd still want it back," Regina said almost as if saying she'd leave because not that long after she spoke, she was turning around to walk to her house. Yet before she could even reach the front porch, she suddenly looked over her shoulder again and gave Ryan a teasing smirk before saying in a fairly louder voice so he could hear him from the distance, "But, don't get your hopes up, Sherlock! Not until you're twenty-two!"

This is bad. Ryan found himself thinking with these words as he watched her disappear into the door of her house. He did not know how long he had been standing there by the sidewalk in their street, but he was immediately snapped out of his trance by a startling honk of a car behind him. Ryan immediately looked around and saw the familiar chevy waiting by the road across the street. He simply walked towards it and did not even hesitate to get into the passenger seat right away.

"You're here fast," was all he said as soon as he settled inside but he did not even spare any attention to the one sitting on the driver's seat. Then the guy who was in front of the wheel looked past him with a funny expression and frowned.

"Is that your bike on that lawn?" he asked Ryan, his eyes squinting to the familiar black motorcycle.

"Yeah," Ryan answered in a clipped tone, barely concerned.

"Who was that?" the guy asked afterward, referring to Regina whom he had probably caught a glimpse of before she had gotten inside the house. "Your new girl, huh?"

Ryan felt the smirk and the smug smile directed at him already, even if he wasn't even looking at the guy. And he felt a little annoyed.

"No," he said in a stern voice, almost as if it was a warning, "She's somebody else's girl."

And that was true, she's Charles'. And maybe Ryan had to remind himself that every ten minutes or so just so he won't forget or suddenly get ahead of himself... Cause he got a feeling he might really lose total control of his emotions if this keeps going with Regina.

"Really," he heard the guy on the driver's seat commented with a hint of incredulity and Ryan turned to glare in his direction.

"Drop it and just go," he demanded a little bit too forceful than he wanted to. Because he was a little angry at himself. He was not supposed to feel this guilty at all... Or ever.

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