Ravan's POV
Rowan and Rylan were on a date at the local library. As anyone could tell, this was Rylan's idea.
Rowan had invited me along, at first I felt weird. Why would I be on their date? However, I started to see Rylan's previously hidden better qualities, and I was intrigued. I wanted to see more and investigate where it could potentially lead.
I admit, it did take a bit of convincing from Rowan for me to agree. I felt like I was imposing on their special time, but eventually I gave into my curiosity and agreed to go.
I arrived at the library early so that I could be prepared. I was wearing a rainbow pastel jumper that was soft and comfortable enough to study in with a pair of purple jeans.
When I got there I set myself up in a corner, close to two large shelves and hidden away from the view of the judgemental, shushy librarians.
I was just setting up my space with all of my pastel cue cards with Pride and Prejudice quotes on them when I saw the two boys walk through the door, both carrying their respective bags of school books.
Rowan was wearing a jacket with lots of grungy patches all over it and two spiky belts. They weren't holding up his jeans, they just looked cool.
Contrastingly, Rylan was wearing a simple brown jumper over an elegant white shirt.
I found myself blushing as they sat down at my table, Rowan next to me and Rylan on his other side.
"Hey guys," I greeted them. Rylan didn't respond but Rowan smiled at me and gave me a kiss on the cheek, wrapping one arm around my shoulders at the same time.
"Ugh, I hate this book so much!" he groaned upon catching sight of my cue cards. I cleared my throat imperiously and held them away from his line of sight.
"Angry people are not always wise. Who said it?"
"Ummmmm... Miss... Bingley?"
"Correct!" I praised him cheerfully.
Before I could give him a celebratory smooch, Rylan leaned over to interrupt us. "Hey, Ravan. Remember, you and I need to work on maths. You know you're still struggling with residuals and the exam is only getting closer".
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and slumped backwards in my chair. Thinking about maths made my brain feel like it had turned to the consistency of sludge.
The year prior I started in the advanced class but very quickly dropped down, due to how bad I was. I seriously had no idea how Rylan was surviving as a general and specialist student, but he was clearly demented.
For the little time I was in the advanced class, I remember spending the whole class glaring at Rylan. He never seemed to shut up, always telling the teacher the answers before turning to talk to Jayn, Josefeen and a couple of boys that I never learnt the names of. I had always been envious of how smart he is, I guess he must just get pressured a lot about doing well at school by his family.
Despite Rylan telling me that we had to complete our maths revision, I ignored him and continued quizzing Rowan on the quotes from Pride and Prejudice.
After 30 minutes, Rylan interrupted us again, having had enough of hearing about soggy melodramatic bullshit and of his studying for specialist maths.
"Surely you have finished with those stupid quotes, they just get more and more aggravating with each one. Now, we need to do our maths. Come sit next to me so we can work it out."
He looked really annoyed with me and for some reason I did not feel like pushing him further so I stood up, gave Rowan a peck on the cheek and moved over to the seat beside Rylan.
Rowan did not seem too happy with the change in seating arrangements. A slight pout graced his handsome face as he then turned to his health homework.
"Ok, what are we doing? Am I going to need the CAS?" I asked with a heavy sigh.
"I am going to try and teach you, for the 10th time now, how to complete residuals. Of course you will need the CAS. Are you actually that stupid? It isn't that hard." Rylan affixed me with an ice cold glare. I was suddenly extremely motivated to learn about residuals.
"Geez, okay... wait... I left my CAS at home, so I won't be able to use it." I knew there was an almost cheeky grin spreading across my face as I said it. I seriously had forgotten the CAS and I didn't purposefully forget it, but I doubted he would believe that.
"Ravan, what do you mean you forgot the CAS at home? I messaged you this morning telling you to remember to bring it," he stated as he brought out his phone to prove his point. As he opened the message app, and our message thread, I couldn't help but feel like I was a disappointment. How could I forget this one very important thing? "I swear, if I don't tell you 20x before the exam you will forget it then, too. It's alright, you can use my CAS as I explain it to you."
It took him close to an hour to explain residuals to me, and for me to actually understand any word he was saying. This could be partly because I kept getting distracted by the fact that Rowan was sitting next to him and he looked so cute, sitting there with a determined yet confused look on his face.
I also spent quite a lot of time rethinking my decision to not tell the boys about Grus and everything, but I knew it was the right choice because it was keeping them safe.
After Rylan explained the maths to me, we all decided that it was probably time to leave the library and to go get a drink.
Walking through the city I couldn't help but wonder how it had been 25 degrees when we went in, yet now an hour and a half hour later it was 15 and raining.
Rowan and I were holding hands and walking slightly in front of Rylan. As we were walking under the construction scaffolding tunnel I heard a creaking whine coming from somewhere above my head.
In these situations I learnt that you never look up in case whatever it is hits you in the face, but by not looking up I wouldn't know where to walk.
So, as any smart person would, I looked up.
As I looked up I felt a new warm hand encase around my wrist before roughly pulling me backwards, into what I assumed was their body. Before I hit the body, I saw a massive stone cinder block hurtling down to the ground.
I knew that the builders were currently working, but I couldn't help and feel like this was yet another attack on my life. This time though, they could have hurt Rowan and Rylan.
I knew it was stupid and I might just be being paranoid but after the visit to my house and then the hospital I couldn't be sure of anything in my life anymore.