REBECCA'S POV

"Your boyfriend is too cute," Bentley chirped when Ryan left to find Landon.

"I know. He's such a sweetheart."

"He's a giant though holy man! I was a bit nervous when I saw him. I hope it didn't seem awkward." I chuckled as we walked towards Starbucks to grab some drinks to sip on while shopping.

"No, I was a little weary of him when we first met too but he was pretty adamant on talking to me."

"Did you guys just meet in school?" she asked, genuinely interested in getting to know me better.

"Yeah, I just moved here a little while ago. I've always lived around this area but moved school districts a lot."

Bentley raised her eyebrow in confusion but didn't pry or ask questions about the multiple school districts thing. I need to get to know this girl a little more before I spill my entire story to her.

"I live in foster care so I'm kind of in the same boat," she mentions nonchalantly. It shocks me but I have time to process it while ordering my iced caramel macchiato. "Sorry if that freaked you out," she adds in after telling the barista what she wants. "I just never know how to bring it up so I throw it out there."

"No, I mean it shocked me a little but I understand. I wasn't in foster care or anything but my home life wasn't that great. I actually live with Ryan's family right now."

Bentley's brown eyes looked somewhat sympathetic. "I'm sorry to hear about that but I guess it's kind of cool that you get to live with your boyfriend now, even if it sucked to get to that point."

Our names were called signaling our drinks were ready so we grabbed those and headed back to the mall hallway.

"Where do you want to shop?" I ask.

"I don't really know what's around here. We could just walk the halls and go in whatever stores we think look interesting."

I nodded in response as we walked in a comfortable silence. Neither of us ask each other about our backgrounds because I think we are both used to being cautious and don't trust people easily. We shop around for about two hours until I get a text from Ryan and giggle while showing it to Bentley.

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|Becca Hanson > Ryan - 5:03pm|
Received: I'm not trying to rush you babe but are you almost done shopping? Landon and I are running out of things to do...
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"We can get going. I shouldn't spend any more money," Bentley states with a smile and holds up multiple shopping bags. I've only bought a few things because I don't want to use up the little bit of savings I have left, but I did get some more makeup, nail polish, and a few cute tops.

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|Becca Hanson > Ryan - 5:05pm|
Sent: Yeah we're done. Meet you in the food court?
Received: Already there :)
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I tuck my phone in my back pocket as we make our way across the mall.

"So, what should I expect of Rochester High?" Bentley asks.

"Well, it really depends on your schedule and I haven't talked to many people. Hopefully you have some classes with me but you can for sure sit at our lunch table! It's me and Ryan, Kate, Mason, these two bitches Mel and Izzy, and Landon, who you might actually meet; he's been hanging out with Ryan while we were shopping."

Ryan appears out of nowhere and gently clasps my hand. "Missed you," he whispers in my ear with a peck near my temple.

"You are quite the gentle giant," Bentley comments off to the side and that gets Ryan laughing. I mean like doubling over, hands on his knees laughing.

"I can't help it if I seem extra-large to you two... you're both little! And just because I'm big doesn't mean I'm actually an intimidating person." He's still smiling so Bentley knows he wasn't insulted by her comment.

We make our way back to the truck and Ryan boosts me through his door by grabbing my waist and Bentley rolls her eyes.

"Must be nice," she mumbles so only I can hear her, "I had to climb in here like a fucking idiot, but I guess the giant does need a big truck." I start chuckling and try to hide it from Ryan but he definitely notices.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing!" Us girls say at the same time only to look at each other and laugh louder.

"Yeah... Sure..." He doesn't believe our lies but lets us giggle and whisper in each other's ears until we arrive at Bentley's current foster house.

"It was really fun Becca and nice to meet you Ryan!" she half yelled before disappearing into the tiny, old home.

Leaning on Ryan, I prepare myself for the incoming slew of questions he's inevitably going to throw at me.

"Did you have fun?" he asks, waiting longer to speak than I thought he would.

"Yeah, I like Bentley. We have some things in common I guess."

"Like what?"

"Well, our personalities are kind of similar although she is definitely more outspoken than I am." Ryan chuckles and nods in agreement. "She's in foster care though, that's why she's been moving around a lot."

"I see. So, you guys are both in the same boat in that perspective." He showed no signs of being surprised by Bentley's living situation but I assume it's just because he is unbelievably nonjudgmental.

"Yeah, I guess. We didn't really talk about it. I think we were both a little uncomfortable doing that just yet."

All of a sudden, we pull into a Home Depot and Ryan parks the truck and holds his hand out for me.

"You coming?" I give him my hand.

"Why are we here?"

"Painting your room remember?" he chuckles and shakes his head. "You have a bad memory."

"I do not! I didn't think we were doing that today that's all."

~~~

We were about halfway done painting my room (I picked a pale dusty rose color since my favorite is red but you don't paint walls that color) and my arms were fricken killing me.

"Ryan," I whined. "Can't we take a break?" I think this was a much bigger project than either of us anticipated.

"Becs if you spent half the time painting that you do whining we could probably be done by now." Ryan was getting a little crabby and it was kind of cute. I could tell he was trying to reign it in and watch his temper.

"Just a quick break Ryan. We can make out during it!" I offered and he froze mid-stroke with the paint roller halfway up the wall. I noticed his jaw clenching and unclenching.

"Please let's just finish this. I know once we stop we won't start again and you can't be in a half-painted room."

I moan. "Well how about we just paint these two walls and leave the other ones white. People do that all the time. It will look fine!" He contemplates the idea for a little while and scans the room.

"Yeah that's a good idea."

We go back to painting and hurry to finish. I only ended up doing about half of a wall and Ryan did the rest but hey, his muscled arms were much larger than mine so it's fair. He drops the roller tiredly onto the plastic covering on the floor and stalks over to me with dirty, pink colored hands.

"W-what are you doing?"

"You said we could make out sweetheart. I'm cashing in for all my hard work."

He gave me no time to respond and just smashed his lips against mine. There was so much passion and emotion shared between us that I got lost. I think he grabs my ass a little but I'm too disoriented to comprehend. What I do notice though is a rapidly growing bulge against my stomach while I'm pressed against him. Ryan starts to pull away but I'm not done with his lips yet so I trap him against me with my hands tangled in his hair. Giving it a slight tug, he releases a breathy moan into my mouth and I feel myself falling over the edge of no return. Thankfully, he has a good head on his shoulders and forces me to slow down. Ryan rests his forehead on mine as we both try to catch our breath.

I see Ryan open his mouth to say something but instead closes it and just smiles at me, gray eyes glowing. Neither of us talks and I notice that Ryan's sitting on the edge of my bed while I'm standing in between his legs; no wonder my neck wasn't cranked upwards at the end of our make out session.

Just then, Alex knocks on the open door and mentions that he's ordering Chinese for dinner and wants to know what to get us. He's about to leave when something must catch his eye.

"Hey Becca, hold up your hand for a second," he orders politely. I think it's a strange request but I do as he asks. "Yeah, I didn't think your hands could be that big," he says with a dorky smile and disappears down the hallway.

"What?" I call after him but he just ignores me. I swivel back to Ryan and see redness covering his entire face. "What did you do Ryan?"

He looks away and reaches his hand behind his neck but I quickly grab it and see that there's no longer pink paint on them. Launching out of his arms, I run towards the full-length mirror in my room and twist myself around to look at my butt. Sure enough, there are two giant pink handprints on each of my asscheeks.

"Are you serious?" I lower my eyebrows at him.

Ryan lifts his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry! I was caught up in the moment okay! I'll buy you some new jeans."

I stride over to the paint roller he dropped on the plastic floor covering earlier and rub my hands all over it.

"No no Becs. I did it by accident. Come on." He knew what was coming and stood from the bed but didn't try to run. I ran my pink hands across his cheeks before winding my hands in his hair at the base of his neck and pulling him down to my lips once more. A few intense kisses and I pushed him away with his face a mix of shock and lust.

~~~

We were laying in Ryan's bed later that night, all cuddled up against each other. It didn't make sense in my mind that Ryan (this giant as Bentley calls him) loved snuggling as much as I did. He always tried to hold my hand, keep an arm around me, rest his hand on my thigh, or anything else to continue the contact with me wherever we were. I thought it was completely sweet and enduring of him to make me feel comfortable and protected.

"You know you would look cute together?" I quietly asked Ryan who hummed in response. "Bentley and Landon."

"Oh, I don't know Becs. You can try but I don't think Landon's interested in a girlfriend anytime soon, he kind of has a lot going on right now."

"I know but he needs somebody. You know like I needed you - he needs somebody to help him too."

Ryan's calloused hand pushed some of my messy black hair behind my ear.

"You need me?" he whispered and I nod gently. "Becs you know that I need you too right? If you decided tomorrow that you don't need me anymore it would destroy me."

I look into the eyes of the kind-hearted man beside me. "Ryan I'm not planning on going anywhere."

"Good," he whispers back with a small smile and pulls my head onto his chest. "Goodnight beautiful."