His Princess | #Wattys2016

24. I Miss your Voice...

      It's been about a week since Nemo died... I've hardly done much. Of course I went to school and kept my grades up, I just decided to keep my head down the whole time. Connor, Brooke, and definitely Ryder have tried to cheer me up, but I've never been able to smile much... Or even talk.

      Right now I'm sitting on my bed, moping around with my head shoved in my pillow. My door flies open, and I don't even bother to look up and see who it is. If it's a robber looking for money, I'd just laugh into my pillow humorlessly and watch them struggle. However, that doesn't seem to be the case today.

"Avery, you need to get up. Now." Ryder demands, sitting next to me. I feel the bed dip, and just sigh into my pillow.

"I miss your voice. Please, just do something!!" He shouts, frustrated. I flinch, not used to hearing him shout. I lift my head and roll over, looking up at the ceiling.

"Avery! I am done just sitting back and watching my girlfriend suffer! I have done everything I could to make you feel better. I bought you food, tried to get you a new fish... Hell, I even tried to buy you another freaking car if that's what it would take to make you at least smile!" He screams, throwing his hands in the air.

"I'm sorry..." I croak.

Ryder's head spun towards mine, and looked at me in shock. In a second, he was kneeling down by my head and placing his hand on my cheek gently.

"Don't ever apologize to me. I didn't mean to yell, I just missed the old Avery. You were always so happy all the time. I haven't heard your voice for a week, and I was starting to think you never had one..." He trails off chuckling. His eyes were teary, and I hated to think that I was the cause for them.

"I understand how frustrated you must've been. I realized that moping around wasn't going to bring him back. Nemo wouldn't want me to sit here sulking, he would want me to do something exciting. What did you have in mind?" I ask Ryder.

He just laughs, stands up and grabs something on my desk. He dropped the item on my bed with a loud thud, and laughed.

"College applications." Was all he said before I groaned and plopped back down on my bed.

"Do we have too?" I whine, uninterested.

Ryder pulls a paper out of his pocket. "I knew you'd react like this so I came prepared." He clears his throat. "You and I are going to apply to amazing schools, and since we are both absolutely fabulous, all of the schools are going to want us." He reads, trying to sound convincing. I laugh at him and look at the different schools we could apply for. 

"How about Stanford?" I ask him, curious to see his answer.

"Nah... I was thinking something less impossible to go for." He answers honestly. I chuckle and look through other applications.

"How about the University of Montana?" I suggest.

"That's far as hell!! We live all the way in Florida, and you want to travel across the U.S to go to college?!"

I shrug. He has a point.

"I know, how about Union College in New York?" Ryder asks.

      I look up some pictures of it and raise my eyebrows. It's not too bad. New York is always busy, but the college campus seems pretty secluded. I nod my head and take a copy of the application.

"It seems pretty nice actually.  However, we only have a 38% chance of getting accepted. I say we try though." I tell him, determined. Ryder just nods his head and we sit on my bed filling out the application for a few hours.