Will Sierra meet Ryan at the Coffee shop? Let's find out! 

Chapter 5

And then it started raining.

As I stood there staring dazedly, at the spot that Ryan had been occupying a couple of minutes ago, I didn't even realize that it had already started raining lightly. Only when the rain came down harder, did I snap out of my trance. I ran back and jumped into the Camaro to avoid getting drenched any further. I let out a growl of frustration when I understood exactly how wet I had gotten. Getting wet in the rain was something I disliked very much, which was unusual because I considered myself to be a romantic. But this was one characteristic I had, that broke the rule of a stereotypical romantic. I found no joy in getting wet in the rain because it would always be followed by a splitting headache or fever which would last at least a couple of days.

But here I was, drenched, sitting in Lilly's car and trying very hard to make sense of all the things that had happened in the library today. Why did Ryan want to meet me? What did he want to know? Why had I seemed interesting to him? What would he want to say tomorrow? All these questions kept popping into my head one after the other. What was I going to do? I could hardly string together a sentence in front of him. A full on conversation was going to be impossible.

Oh God. What had I gotten myself into? I blushed when I remembered how he had looked into my eyes and touched my cheek before he left.

I groaned and rested my head on the steering wheel. Stupid Ryan! He ruined the perfect balance of my uneventful monotonous life.

Only one person could help me now. Lillian. I had to talk to her. I started the car and drove to my apartment. I would call Lillian the moment I got home.On reaching my building, I parked the car outside and hurried in. I was shivering and the terrible headache would be arriving any minute now, I could feel it.

I walked towards the elevator only to find that it was undergoing repair and hence was out of service. I huffed in frustration and dragged myself up the stairs. My apartment was on the sixth floor. Each floor had four apartments. 6A and 6B were empty. I lived in 6C and 6D was occupied by Samantha and her boyfriend Jason who were both my seniors in Uni.

By the time I reached the second floor, all my energy had been drained. I could hardly stand upright. I slowly walked down the corridor. I reached into my bag and searched for my keys. As I reached my door, the door of the apartment across from mine opened to reveal Samantha and Jason. "Hey" I greeted softly. "Hey Sierra! Lost your keys again?" Sam smirked. Just as she said that I found my keys and fished it out of my bag to flash it to them triumphantly.

Both Sam and Jason laughed at my expression. They seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere, so they waved and called out a "Bye!" over their shoulders and disappeared from view. They thankfully hadn't noticed my state in their hurry. I jabbed my key into the lock and twisted it open to let myself in.

I threw my bag onto the couch and proceeded towards the kitchen. I almost screamed when I saw Lillian leaning against the kitchen counter, happily feasting on a tub of Ben and Jerry's. "Lilly! You almost gave me a heart attack! How did you get in?" "With the help of the spare set of keys that you've given me" Lilly answered with an expression that clearly said that I had asked a really stupid question.

At least I wouldn't have to call her now that she was already here."And why do you look like a drowned cat?" she asked, eyeing me curiously.

As if on cue, I sneezed. "It's a *sneeze* long story *sneeze*" That was followed by a violent coughing fit. "Jesus Si! What on earth happened?" Lilly sounded alarmed. "You don't have to answer that now. Go shower first and I'll make you a cup of hot chocolate. Then you can sit down and tell me everything." With that she dragged me up to my room and pushed me into the bathroom.

After a good long shower, I sat on my bed, in my pajamas, sipping a cup of hot chocolate while Lilly put a comforter around me to keep me warm. "Now start from the beginning because I fail to understand how you got so drenched even after taking my car to the library and back." Lilly said taking a seat in front of me on the bed.

So I told her about everything that happened. Right from when I had first seen Ryan in Aroma to all the incidents that had taken place today after I met him. I also told her how I couldn't get his blue eyes out of my mind and that they had been the reason for all those accidents this morning.

I sneezed almost after every word but Lilly was patient. By the time I finished ranting about how terrified I was of meeting him tomorrow, my voice had become scratchy from all the coughing and sneezing. Lilly had maintained a neutral expression throughout my rant but in the end a slow sly smile slid across her face and she said "Wow. All this is because of a boy? I never thought I would live to see the day when you would come home drenched in the rain because of a boy! My Sierra is growing up!" She squealed and pulled my cheeks.

I just stared at her with a baffled expression on my face. Could she not understand my situation? Did she not realise how terrified and confused I was? "Lilly! *sneeze* Will you please calm down and help me? *sneeze* Please get me out of this. *sneeze* I don't want to go tomorrow! " I pleaded. "Nonsense.

You will go and you'll meet him. From what you told me, he seems to like you" she smirked. I blushed when I realized that she was referring to what had happened today at the library.

"But I stutter every time I try to talk to him and my brain seems to stop functioning completely" I croaked. "How do you expect me to have a full conversation with him?" Lillian just laughed. "Wow,Si. You really like him don't you?" I blushed again and buried my face into my hands. "Don't worry Ms.Williams, your best friend will accompany you to your destination tomorrow so that nothing goes wrong!" I looked up to see Lilly looking at me expectantly. I sighed and gave in. Lilly clapped her hands happily and jumped off the bed. "Now,we need to find the perfect outfit for your date!"

I hit her with a pillow. She seemed unfazed. After an eternity of arguing about different outfits we settled on a blue and white top which had flower prints, black jeans and Ugg boots. All the arguing, talking sneezing, coughing and blushing had sucked out every ounce of energy I had.

On noticing that, Lilly hurried to make me some soup so that I could drink that and get some sleep because according to her, tomorrow was a 'Big Day' for me and I needed to look absolutely perfect. It wouldn't matter how I looked because beside Ryan I would always look plain. He was the most handsome guy that I'd ever met. I fell asleep half an hour later.

But I should have remembered the fact that things never happen according to plan in my life. When I woke up on Saturday, I had high fever and I couldn't move at all. It was as if I had been run over by a truck. Every part of my body ached. No way on earth would I be able to go and meet Ryan.

My initial reaction was relief. But that just lasted for a few minutes. Relief was quickly followed by disappointment because underneath all that uncertainty, I really did want to meet him. Even though I was terrified that Ryan would find me very uninteresting once he would get to have a full conversation with me, I was thrilled that a boy like him had shown at least some kind of interest towards me.

To me Ryan Anderson was a mystery that I wanted to solve. He was always in my thoughts and it was impossible to get him out of my mind. But I knew that if I did not go today,there would be no other way to see him. I didn't have is number or email or anything through which I could contact him.

He would think that I wasn't interested and would not waste anymore of his time on me. I was sure that he would be very offended when he realised that I had stood him up. But I didn't want him to think ill of me. I really did want to meet him, but it seemed like I had no other choice but to let him go.

Lilly tried very hard to keep me happy. After all she was my best friend. I didn't have to tell her anything. She just knew. Saturday was wasted in bed, watching TV and sleeping. Sunday wasn't any different. By Monday morning however I was feeling much better. Lilly had stayed with me during the weekend and she was solely responsible for my recovering health. I decided that I wouldn't miss the two classes I had at Uni today, even though Lillian disagreed. I worked at an ice-cream parlour on Mondays and Wednesdays, but Lillian called in sick for me because she wanted me to come straight home right after my classes.

I reluctantly agreed after which the both of us left for Uni. Lillian just had one class today so she had taken the responsibility of making sure that I would return home and not wander off to Aroma. I was still upset about Saturday but I had accepted the fact that I would never see Ryan again. I tried not to dwell on it much and as I had pointed out earlier, Ryan was way out if my league. So, there was no point hoping for impossible things.

Both my classes passed by quickly and before I knew it, it was time to go back home. Lillian met me outside class. "Are you okay?" Lilly asked fussing over me. "Yes mother" I muttered sarcastically. Lilly just rolled her eyes and pulled my hand to drag me back home.

As we made our way across the campus Lilly suddenly asked "Do you think you'll ever see him again?" I sighed and kept my eyes on my shoes as I walked. "I don't think so" I mumbled. "I think you're wrong about that" Lilly replied.

I stopped walking and turned to face her, "What do you mean?" I asked cautiously. She smiled at me and said "I think you should turn around and see for yourself." At first I didn't move because I didn't want to believe Lillian. But then I did and what I saw made me lose my breath.

There, leaning on his Porsche, stood Ryan Anderson, with his heart stopping smile in place and his gaze directed right at me.

I was so dead.