Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chris looks at his shorter friend, puzzled, confused. Kevin was trying to ask Ricky a question, but he wouldn’t respond to him. Ricky just sits there, body turned so that his back is toward the two of them.

Whenever Kevin would flirt with him, Ricky would just kinda glare at him or ignore him completely. It really hurt Kevin, he just wants to be Ricky’s friend, but he doesn’t know what he did that was so wrong.

“Ricky… Rick… Did you hear me, or are you ignoring me again?” Kevin tries one last time. Kevin sighs sadly as he gets no reply. He turns to Chris, looking up at him.

“Why does he hate me so much? We used to be such great friends a month ago,” Kevin whispers to Chris, but Chris can only shrug. Chris has been wondering the same thing.

“I don’t know.”

The bell rings, and students quickly get up from lunch tables and hurry out of the cafeteria to get to their classes. Ricky jumps up faster than ever, stomping out of the room as he slings his bag over his shoulder. Chris and Kevin can only watch sadly as their friend storms off.

“I’ll talk to him about it,” Chris then says, but Kevin rolls his eyes.

“You say that every time, Chris,” Kevin reminds him. “This time won’t be any different.”

Chris sighs at himself. Kevin was right. He did say that he would all the time, but he never had the balls to actually ask him. He didn’t want Ricky to lash out at him, like in ninth grade when he asked if he was gay. He had made it quite obvious, even though he really wanted to stay in the closet.

But Chris knew that he’d definitely ask him about it today.

Chris hugged his friend before exiting the cafeteria, making his way to his own class, the last class of the day, thank God.

Class had flew by as fast as it approached, much to his approval, and he slings his bag over his shoulder. He went to the front of the school where he’d meet Ricky so they could walk home together. They both lived in the same area, a couple streets apart. Ricky was leaning against the wall as he waited for his older friend, standing up straight when he saw him.

“Hey, Chris!” Ricky chirps happily and his face brightens.

“Hey, Ricks! How was Mrs. Johnson?”

Ricky huffs, and Chris laughs. He himself had Mrs. Johnson a couple years ago when he was a Sophomore like Ricky. He fucking hated the witch, and he knows that Ricky hates her as much as he did, if not more.

“If the purge ever becomes real, she’s the first on my fucking list,” Ricky answers as they start walking.

“No need to wait for the purge,” Chris smirks, and Ricky rolls his eyes, but smiles himself.

This is the Ricky Chris knew and loved, not the bitchy one that unleashes in the cafeteria. Not the clingy one he often got whenever Kevin or any other person approached Chris. Not the shy and red-faced one that always stared at him.

Speaking of all of that, he could ask him now, get it over with.

Chris takes a deep breath, letting it out as he braces himself.

“Ricky,” Chris starts to get his attention. “We need to talk.”

Chris sees Ricky raise an eyebrow, and Chris continued, looking straight ahead. He needs to get this over with, he could see the sign that read the name of Ricky’s street.

“You’ve been acting… weird, lately. What’s wrong?”

“I- first, promise you won’t hate me.”

Chris blinks. He didn’t lash out, so it might not be that serious. Then again, he just asked him to promise not to hate him. That only made him grow more curious.

“I promise.”

“Okay. So, I… Ikindalikeyoualot,” Ricky says, slurring everything into one word, making it impossible for any other person to decipher what he just said. Chris knows his best friend too well, though, and listened to him do this plenty enough times. He continues. “And I just get jealous when people approach you, and especially when Kevin flirts with you. And you’re just… gorgeous, too, and sweet.”

Chris is, in fact, surprised by his answer. Ricky likes him? He’s not sure if he even feels the same, though. Chris thinks deeply about this.

“Chris, please say something,” Ricky begs, pulling Chris out of his thoughts.

“I- I’m sorry, Ricky. I love you, but as a friend. I hope you understand.”

Ricky nods and hums, telling him that he did. Neither of them say anything else, Chris surprised and feeling a bit bad, Ricky heartbroken and, well, rejected. He saw it coming, why did he have to tell him?

They stop at the corner of Ricky’s street so they can share a quick hug before Ricky turns the corner, Chris moving forward.

Chris decided that when he got home, he’d text Kevin about what he just heard. He had a right to know, after all. Right?

Chapter Text

When Chris got home, he made himself comfy on the couch. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, pulling Kevin’s contact up and texted him.

Chris: Hey, I know why Ricky was acting weird towards you

He got a reply almost immediately.

Kevin: Thank Lucifer. Why?

Chris: Ricky said that he likes me, and he gets jealous whenever you ‘flirt’ with me.

Kevin: Awe <3 So what happened after?

Chris: I told him I didn’t feel the same

Kevin: Oh :( I was starting to ship you guys.

Chris: I know, I feel so bad though

Kevin: Don’t hate me, but I might’ve just told Carter.

Chris: WHY did you tell him?!

Kevin: I’m sorry! He’s sitting right next to me and he told me to explain!

Chris then receives another text, this time from his British friend, Carter.

Carter: So you rejected Ricky then?

Chris: It kinda sounds bad when you put it that way

Carter: Can I ask you something though?

Chris: Sure, why not?

Carter: Do you by any chance know if he’s into me? I kinda think he’s cute.

Chris: Since when do you like Ricky? You don’t really talk to the kid that much.

Carter: Yeah, that’s because I like him, duh .-.

Chris: Oh. I don’t know if he likes you or not. I’ll talk to him, so I’ll text you when I’m done

Carter: Alright, thanks mate

Chris then goes to Ricky’s contact, sending him a quick text.

Chris: Would you go out with Carter?

Ricky: Why?

Chris: He likes you, man.

Ricky: Oh. Well, I don’t know. I barely know him.

Chris: Which is why you should give him a chance. You know, get to know him a bit. Maybe on the first date?

Ricky: And what if it doesn’t work out?

Chris: That’s when you say “sorry man, but this shit ain’t gonna work out”

Ricky: Um. I’ll think about it.

Chris smiles a bit. He’s known Ricky for years, so he knows that when he says ‘I’ll think about it he actually means ‘OK I’ll give it a shot’. He tells Carter the news, and Carter says that he’ll text Ricky.

“What’s that look on your face about?” Chris looks up at the sound of his mom’s voice as she smirks at him from across the room. Chris smirks back and puts his phone away.

“I might’ve gotten two of my friends together,” Chris brags, sounding very accomplished.

“Oh, really?”

Chris nods proudly, propping his feet up on the coffee table. His mom then plops down onto the couch next to him, grabbing the TV remote. Chris sighs disappointingly.

“Are you gonna turn on another one of those talk show things?” Chris asks her, receiving a nod from his mom. Chris does himself a favor and removes himself from the couch and heads upstairs instead. His mom likes to watch some awkward shit and he wanted none of it.

When he gets to his room, he grabs his laptop off the floor before relaxing on his bed, his laptop in his lap. He fucks around on any social website he’s a member of, until he gets a call from Ricky. He answers the phone, putting it on speaker.

“Hey, Ricks. What’s up?” Chris asks as he scrolls around on Tumblr.

“I’m going on a date tomorrow. Just thought I should tell you since you, you know, set it up,” Ricky says. Chris scoffs.

“No thank you?”

Ricky rolls his eyes, “Thank you. Better?”

“Yes, better,” Chris smiles, satisfied with the rarely used manners of his friend. “So what are you guys gonna be doing tomorrow?”

“I don’t know yet, he never told me. He only said that it was a surprise,” Ricky answers.

“I’m gonna laugh if he takes you to McDonalds or some shit like that, Ricky. He’s done that with his one of his ex boyfriends and one of his ex girlfriends.”

“Well then,” Ricky laughs. “Some guy you got me with.”

“Don’t worry, he’s great. You’ll love him.”

“And you owe me big time if I don’t.”

“I won’t owe you anything, just watch.”

Chapter Text

Chris was still in bed sleeping when his phone went off, alerting him of a call. His volume was all the way up, so it was insane loud. It obviously woke him up. Chris groans as he reaches for the small device and answers it, desperately wanting it to shut up.

"Hello?" Chris asks groggily after he put the phone up to his ear. Well, for the most part, anyway.

"Dude, did I wake you?" It's Ricky's voice he hears, and the voice sounds surprised. He couldn't possibly still be awake at this time!

"Yeah.”

“Dude, it’s like four in the afternoon.”

Chris is wide awake then, bolting up to a sitting position.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Fuck, why didn’t you wake me up?!” Chris cries out, probably loud enough for the neighbors to hear his misery.

“Chris, I didn’t know you were still asleep. Why didn’t you set an alarm or something?” Ricky tells him matter of factly.

Chris scoffs. “Ricky, it’s Saturday, I didn’t think I’d need one set. Anyways, what did you call for?”

“Carter told me that he’s taking me to Dairy Queen.”

Chris snickered at that. He was fucking right.

“What’s funny? Dairy Queen’s better than McDonalds or Burger King like you said yesterday,” Ricky defends, but he’s laughing himself.

“But still! It’s you guy’s first date and he’s taking you to fucking DQ.”

“Hey, at least I got a date!”

“That I had gotten you, yes.”

“Fuck you.”

“When and where?”

“Never and nowhere, I’m seeing someone, sorry.”

“Whatever, Ricks. When’re you leaving?” Chris asks as he pulls himself out of bed to start the day, even though it’s like halfway over.

“In a few minutes. So I’m gonna call you back later or tomorrow or something,” Ricky tells him. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Chris says just before the line goes dead. Chris decides that he doesn't wanna talk to no one for the rest of the day, so he calls Kevin. He picks up after the third ring.

"Hello?" Kevin speaks into the phone. Chris could hear some shitty talentless rapping in the background, making him scowl. Kevin actually listens to some pretty damn good music, but right now, no.

"Hey. Got any plans?" Chris speaks quickly, eager to hang up the phone. He didn't want to listen to the crap Kevin’s listening to.

"You want me to go over to yours because Ricky and Carter are gonna be out on a date and you don't wanna be talking to no one, and I might be available. Am I right?"

"You know me too well," Chris chuckles with a nod, even though Kevin can't see it. Maybe they should start FaceTiming so they don't have to worry about that.

"I know. And I'll be over there in like an hour or something," Kevin says before hanging up. It takes so long for Kevin to get to Chris's house because Kevin doesn't really live too close, and he doesn't have a car (or even family with a car willing to drive him places, so he gets Carter to drive him) so he walks.

When Chris feels that he’s ready for the day, he jogs down the stairs, two steps at a time. And no, he totally didn’t fall down the stairs after tripping over his foot. He can hear his mom trying, but failing to hold back a fit of laughter after seeing her son fall down the stairs. Chris was hoping no one saw that, but oh well. Chris quickly picks himself up off the floor and heads into the living room, plopping down onto the couch next to his mother, who tries to hide her smile with the TV remote, because yes, it’s a thousand percent normal to hold a remote to your lips. Chris rolls his eyes as he waits for his friend.

Around an hour later, the doorbell rings, scaring the shit out of Chris. Chris calms down quickly as he jumps up to get the door. He throws it open to reveal Kevin’s smiling face.

“Hey, Chris!” Kevin greets as he sees his friend. “What we gonna do?”

“I don’t know. What do you wanna do?” Chris asks sheepishly. He never decided what they were going to do.

“We can go to the movies? Go to Walmart? You know, I really like the Walmart idea!” Kevin says, his face brightening at the thought of going to Walmart. Chris raises a drawn on eyebrow as he stares down at his friend.

“Walmart? What’s fun about Walmart?” Chris asks curiously.

“Everything! Let’s fuck with stuff until we get kicked out,” Kevin says as he turns, walking outside. Chris waves goodbye to his mom before closing the door behind him, walking with Kevin to Walmart.

“You sure you wanna do this, Kev?” Chris asks. “We could be banned for life.”

“True, but that’s okay,” Kevin answers.

<><><>

Kevin and Chris both left Walmart later that day for the last time.

Chapter Text

Chris is at home, locked in his room after his mom had found out about his being banned from Walmart, but he was fortunate enough to keep the privilege of his phone. It’s around eight pm now, and his phone rings. Chris notices that it’s Ricky, and he immediately answers the call, holding it to his ear.

“Hey, Ricks. How’d it go?” Chris asks.

“It went great,” Ricky answers happily, making Chris smile. “Can I come over?”

“Sure.”

“Kay, see you in a bit,” Ricky says before hanging up the phone. Chris’s mom wasn’t here at the moment, so he could sneak downstairs then sneak Ricky upstairs and they could have a sleepover without his mom knowing.

A few minutes later, there’s a knock at the door. Chris leaps from his bed and jogs downstairs, opening the door to reveal Ricky Olson. Chris leads him up to his room, locking the door behind him. Ricky sits on Chris’s bed and Chris sits next to him.

“So, do ya like Carter?” Chris asks his younger friend, who blushes slightly.

“Yeah, he’s amazing,” Ricky smiles at the mention of his now boyfriend, getting into a comfier position on Chris’s bed.

“I told you you’d like him,” Chris says proudly. “I’m a great match maker.”

"I guess you are. So I heard from Kevin that you're not allowed to go to Walmart anymore..."

Chris smiles at the mention of their mischief. "Yeah, we turned that place into hell."

"What do you mean?" Ricky smirks, proud of his friends- if Kevin even is his friend.

"We did everything in our power to terrorize those motherfuckers. Fuck, this old hag tried to call the fucking cops on us. We even got a couple other kids to join us. Got their numbers too, but they live all the way in fucking California. Guess they were visiting or something..."

Chris kept rambling on and in, but Ricky didn't mind too much. He just sat and listened about all the mischief at Walmart.

The two talked until they both got tired. They got comfortable wherever they planned to sleep, laying there until they peacefully drifted to their dreams.

<><><>

When Chris woke the next morning, Ricky was sitting next to him, texting. He assumed it was Carter since he's smiling with a small blush coloring his cheeks. Chris smiles. He likes seeing his younger friend happy. His happiness soon fades though as he gets bored.

“Morning, Ricky,” Chris speaks loudly, making Ricky flinch. Chris smirks, amused by the fact that he just scared his friend. Ricky scowls when he notices his friend’s look.

“Fuck you, Chris,” he snaps, somewhat playfully. Chris only laughs at him again, giving Ricky the right to roll his eyes before going back to texting Carter. It’s Chris’s turn to frown. Chris wanted Ricky to talk to him, but no, of course Carter had to get to him first.

“Ricky, talk to me!” Chris whines like a little child, and it kinda irritates Ricky, but he gives his friend his full attention anyway.

“I’m talking to you…”

“What do you wanna do?” Chris asks with a smile, but Ricky shrugs.

“You’re grounded, there’s not much to do,” Ricky says as his phone vibrates in his hand, alerting him of another text. The phone receives all of Ricky’s attention, putting a scowl back on Chris’s face. Chris couldn’t help but feel left out and betrayed, even. Ricky’s not talking to him because he’s too busy talking to Carter, in his house. Why couldn’t Ricky wait until he got home to talk to his boyfriend?

And as if on cue, Ricky turns his phone off and slides it into his pocket. Chris almost smiles, Ricky’s finally gonna pay attention to him, but no.

“Carter wants me to meet his friends,” Ricky tells him as he gets up off of his friend’s bed. “Thanks for inviting me over, I had fun.”

Chris wants so badly to roll his fucking eyes at Ricky, but fakes a smile anyway.

“I did too,” Chris lies. “Bye.”

Ricky waves, and just like that, he’s out of the house and on his way to Carter’s.

Chris felt lonely and bored again, but there’s pretty much nothing he can do about it. He knows Kevin well enough to know that he’s gonna be in bed sleeping until around three, Ricky’s obviously not gonna talk to him, and it’s Carter’s fault that Ricky’s not gonna talk to him, and the rest of the contacts on his phone are family.

Then Chris suddenly remembers. He got those kids’ numbers yesterday before they parted ways.

But would they even wanna talk to him?

Chris decided to just leave them alone and went back to sleep.

Chapter Text

Chris didn’t talk to Ricky until the next day when they walked to school together, and Chris sarcastically guessed that it was because Ricky has a hard time texting and walking at the same time.

If only Chris knew that he was exactly right.

“Hey, Chris, you look a bit moody, what’s wrong?” Ricky asks, looking up at his bigger friend. Chris glances down at him, a drawn-on eyebrow raised slightly.

“Nothing’s wrong with me, I’m fine,” Chris bitterly replies before focusing ahead again. Ricky rolls his eyes.

“That’s bullshit, Chris. Tell me what’s wrong, please?”

Chris sighs. He might as well just tell him and get it over with.

“It’s like you don’t have time for me anymore,” Chris tells him. “Only for Carter. It’s like I’m not even there.”

Ricky doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. He didn’t really know what to say in these kind of situations. When he does decide to say something, he starts sheepishly.

“Uh, I had no idea... Sorry, Chris. I'll work on that, I promise."

With that, Ricky offers a genuine smile. Chris smiles back at him. Hopefully Ricky really meant what he said.

<><><>

Chris was happy to find that Ricky had meant what he said earlier that morning. During lunch, Ricky made sure to pay attention to Chris and text Carter at the same time. Chris was also happy to find Ricky socializing with Kevin, so everyone was happy during lunch.

"So since we're all friends now, I say we hang out- well, as soon as Chris is off the hook," Kevin suggests, Ricky nodding his agreement while Chris raises an eyebrow.

"So, you didn't get in trouble then?" Chris asks Kevin, maybe there's a hint of jealously somewhere in his voice, maybe there isn't. Kevin shrugs.

"My parents yelled at me. I asked them if I was grounded so they were like 'well do you want to be grounded' and I told them no so I'm not grounded."

"I wish my parents were like that," Ricky says.

"Awe, but I like your parents!" Chris smiles, remembering the times he went over to Ricky's house. He fell in love with them only minutes after he met them, and his parents seemed to adore him just as much.

"Yeah, but it would be awesome though," Ricky says as his phone vibrates on the table, the vibrations making it slide to the right a little. He picks it up and reads the message, replying with a blush coloring his cheeks.

"Who're you texting anyway?" Kevin asks as he reads over his shoulder. Luckily, Ricky didn't mind too much and let him read without any regrets. Kevin roles his eyes playfully when he sees Carter Kiln's contact name. "Should've known."

"You should've," Ricky agrees as he hits send, placing the small device back onto the table.

"Anyways, I'll try to get off the hook before this weekend, sound good?" I ask, moving back to the topic from earlier.

"Hell yeah! And Carter should come too, since he's our friend too," Kevin adds.

"As long as they do to make out right in front of me, because ew," I agree, and Kevin laughs while Ricky changes color.

"I didn't plan on it, anyway," Ricky defends himself.

<><><>

The first thing Chris did when he got home was to look for his mom to talk about his punishment. He found her in the kitchen, eating a sandwich. He sits at the table across from her and puts on a smile, which would hopefully be convincing. His mom sees right through it and stops mid chew to raise an eyebrow, silently asking him what the fuck he was trying to convince her to do.

"I'm sorry for the Walmart thing. Let me off the hook?"

Chris's mom swallows whatever's in her mouth so she can speak.

"What's in it for me?"

"I'll leave the room a happy guy."

"No."

"Please? I'll clean the house!" Chris suggests without thinking. His mom smirks at that. She could really use a break from cleaning...

<><><>

Chris didn't finish cleaning until around nine that evening. Tired, he reports to his mom to tell her that he was finallyfinished. She surveys her home and finds it to be really clean- better than what she usually did. She smiles. She'd definitely use this against him.

"Looks great. I grant you impunity," she says, earning a smile from the tired teenager next to her.

"Awesome! I'll be going to bed now," Chris says as he turns to go back upstairs, too tired to text his friends first about the news. He'd just tell them tomorrow instead. He'd probably just fall asleep before he could even finish the message anyway.

Chapter Text

"So, did you talk to your mom yesterday?" Ricky asks as they meet up for their walk to school. Chris smiles down at his friend and nods proudly.

"I'm free this weekend, then," Chris adds, causing Ricky to smile.

"What did you do to convince her?"

"Cleaned all day. Cleaning fucking sucks."

"It doesn't if you're used to doing it."

"Is that your way of calling me lazy?"

"It was my way of saying that I don't mind cleaning, but that works too."

<><><>

Chris is in the middle of his last class of the school day, loathing the shit out of his surroundings. It might have something to do with his lack of respect for every single soul in the classroom. That lack of respect exists because they’re all either homophobic, racist, sexist, or all of the above, including the fucking teacher, who’s so homophobic it’s unprofessional. It’s as if they purposely threw the worst people into the worst class with the worst teacher and accidentally mixed Chris in with them.

Chris wants to fucking kill them all.

Well, almost all of them. There’s a new student today, and he took the only empty seat available. They didn’t talk much, the newbie had asked Chris what this class was like, and Chris had replied, telling him that every kid in this class were judgmental assholes. They didn’t talk much after that, well, until the kid caught Chris checking him out. He was pretty, what do you expect? Pretty boy shyly and politely asks Chris to stop, saying that he was making him feel uncomfortable, so Chris turned away and was in that position until now.

“Cerulli!” Mr. Filcaldo, the teacher, growls from the front of the classroom. Every damned student in the room turn in their seats to face them, the new kid curiously following their gaze.

“Filcaldo,” Chris replies rudely. Mr. Filcaldo narrows his eyes at Chris, showing his hatred towards the younger regretlessly.

“Stand up, boy,” Mr. Filcaldo growls. Chris rolls his eyes before rising from his seat. Mr. Filcaldo marches grumpily towards Chris, and the new kid looks scared. Chris figures that he’s taking this situation the wrong way, but he’s not the only one, everyone did in the beginning of the school year. Mr. Filcaldo stops in front of Chris, and Chris literally has to look down at him.

Mr. Filcaldo is a couple inches shorter than Ricky.

Mr. Filcaldo is seething and looks as if he’s trying to hold back the urge to hit Chris as he stares up at him, but he never hits any of the students. He knew he’d lose his job and do some time for child abuse if he did.

“Boy, you make me wanna…” Mr. Filcaldo stops himself there, shaking his head. He reaches behind Chris and drags his chair away from his desk, and Chris can’t help but smirk as he watches the older man stomp over to the front of the classroom, full of attitude.

Mr. Filcaldo disciplines his students by making them stand up for the rest of class, and honestly, Chris finds it stupid as fuck. Yeah, he gets tired of standing for such a long time and makes his feet hurt, but making him stand? Is that the best he’s got?

Chris can still feel eyes on him. A portion of the class still had their eyes set on Chris, who tries his best to ignore it. It pisses him off when people stare at him like that.

Chris is also pissed because he doesn’t even know what he did wrong. He was just sitting there, and Mr. Filcaldo randomly yelled at him.

Oh, wait. Of course. It’s because he’s gay.

Like said before, Mr. Filcaldo is so homophobic, it’s unprofessional.

The end of class approaches before he knows it, and everyone is being dismissed. Before Chris could leave, the new kid stops him.

“Cerulli,” he starts, since he has yet to discover his name. Chris turns to him, eyebrow raised curiously.

“Yeah?” Chris asks. Devin hums awkwardly before speaking up again.

“Uh, wanna exchange numbers? You seem cool,” he says awkwardly. Chris smiles a bit at him.

“Sure,” Chris replies, pulling his iPhone out of his back pocket, handing it to the boy standing before him. Said boy hands him his phone, which is just like Ricky’s, one of those phones that slide to get to the keyboard. An LG Mobile? That’s what Ricky said it was, anyways. Chris takes a bit to figure out how to even get to the contacts, and adds his number when he figures it out. They give each other their phones back and the boy smiles at Chris.

“I’ll text you later, okay?” he tells him, and Chris nods.

“Yeah, alright,” Chris replies to him. The boy awkwardly walks away after waving a goodbye. Chris goes to his own contact list, curious as to what his name is. Silly him, he forgot to ask the boy. Chris raises an eyebrow at his screen.

“Ghost,” he reads out loud. Chris decides that it’s a nickname he goes bye and puts his phone away as Mr. Filcaldo yells at him to get out of his classroom.

“With pleasure,” Chris snaps back as he leaves the room, slamming the door on his way out to emphasize his point.

Chapter Text

Chris and Ricky meet up like they usually do before they walk home tomorrow, and Ricky greets Chris with a hug.

“Hey, Ricks! Anything happen today?” Chris asks as he hugs his friend back. Ricky pulls away and they start walking.

“Nothing much, really. What about you?”

“Got a new kid’s number. He said he’s gonna text me later today,” Chris answers him.

“Cool, what’s his name?”

“I don’t know, but he saved his contact name as ‘Ghost’,” Chris shrugs, then flinches when Ricky makes a noise that expresses his excitement.

“I know who you’re talking about! I think!” Ricky cheers excitedly. “He’s dating mine and Carter’s friend Balz!”

“Balz?” Chris never heard the name before. Is he one of the friends Carter wanted Ricky to meet on Sunday?

“Oh, yeah, he doesn’t go to this school,” Ricky informs him.

“Oh, okay. So you say he’s already dating someone, then?” Chris asks. That explains why Ghost looked all weirded out when he was checking him out. Actually, that might not be the reason at all. Who knows what the reason was? Why does it even matter right now?

It doesn’t, change of subject.

“You should bring Ghost to Kevin’s this weekend, and maybe you can tell him to bring Balz. You’d love them,” Ricky suggests with a smile, Chris smiling back at him.

“Alright, I’ll talk to him about it. Kevin won’t mind, will he?”

“Dude, this is Kevin we’re talking about, he wouldn’t care if you brought a weird pedophile that smelled like Play-Doh over to his house.”

The two laugh at that. Sadly, yet humorously, that’s quite true. Kevin would try to get to know anyone. He fucking loves making new friends.

The two friends talk until they get to Ricky’s street corner, where they part ways. Chris walks ahead to his own street, stopping at his house. He crashes on the couch when he walks in, his phone alerting him of a text the second he does so. Chris automatically guesses that it’s Ghost and snatches it from out of his pocket.

Ghost: Hey friend :)

Chris smiles down at his screen. This kid called him his friend.

Chris: We’re friends, yet I still don’t know your name haha

Ghost: Oops! I knew I was forgetting to do something! I’m so awkward gawd :/ I’m Devin Sola :)

Chris laughs softly at how awkward his new friend is.

“Someone’s blushing!” Chris jumps when he hears his mom’s voice sing from the doorway. “Who’re you texting?”

“Uh, his name is Devin,” Chris mutters awkwardly.

“Chrissy has a crush? How cute!” she giggles.

“Mom, no! He already has a boyfriend anyway!” Chris whines sheepishly. His mom laughs and grants him mercy before turning back into the kitchen. Chris goes back to texting.

Chris: Don’t worry about it. Me and the rest of my friends are awkward too :D

Ghost: Oh, okay :)

Chris: So me and my friends are hanging out this weekend, and one of them claims to be friends with your boyfriend, and they said that you can bring him over this weekend so we can all hang out together like one big happy motherfucking family. Sound good?

Ghost: Sure, I’ll ask him. Who’s the friend?

Chris: His name’s Ricky

Ghost: Don’t think I recognize the name…

Chris: He’s dating someone named Carter

Ghost: I know Carter, but not Ricky. Sorry.

Chris: Don’t worry, you’ll meet him this weekend

Ghost: Alrighty :) Well, I gotta go. Talk to ya later man

Chris: Alright, bye.

Chris backs out of their messages after that. He loves that kid, all awkward and shy and shit. It’s adorable. Devin reminds him of Ricky when they first met. Maybe Devin will open up more after a while like Ricky did?

Chris sends a text to Kevin, letting him know that a new friend of his and possibly his boyfriend would be going to his house for the weekend too, which only seemed to fuel his excited fire. Kevin replied saying how cool it’d be to get more friends and how popular he’s gonna feel afterwards, and Chris rolls his eyes at him, even though Kevin can’t see that.

Kevin’s awkward, but far from shy. Kevin’s the most outgoing person he knows.

Chapter Text

At the end of the day, everyone met up so Carter could drive them all to Kevin’s house. There’s no way in Hell they were gonna walk all the way there. Kevin may enjoy the aching burn in his legs from walking for an hour, but the rest? No, especially if there’s someone willing to drive them. So, the four friends sat in Carter’s Nissan, listening to Slipknot, driving to Kevin’s- nope, Devin just requested that they pick Balz up first, so Carter heads to Balz’s house instead.

They get there after a while and Devin alerts his boyfriend of their arrival. A minute later, a teenage boy around their age steps out of the house and walks towards the car, so they automatically know that it’s Balz. Carter drives off the second Balz buckles in. Everyone introduces themselves on the way to Kevin’s house, which wasn’t too far from Balz’s house, but still not close enough to walk to.

Carter eventually pulls into a driveway and everyone gets out and enters Kevin’s house.

“Well, this is my home!” Kevin announces proudly. Chris immediately makes himself comfortable and throws himself down onto the couch, quickly followed by Ricky as he throws himself down on top of him, scaring the shit out of Chris. Ricky laughs at him and Chris pouts, but wraps an arm around Ricky in a friendly way anyway.

“Alright, lovebirds, make room from us now,” Kevin chirps. Chris and Ricky sit up, providing space for two more people to sit. Carter rushes to sit next to Ricky so Kevin just sits next to Carter. Devin and Balz opt to sit on the coffee table. Ricky looks to Carter, raising an eyebrow at his jealous expression.

“You alright, babe?” Ricky asks his salty boyfriend.

“Fucking fantastic,” Carter grumbles. Ricky sighs softly. He now knows that his boyfriend gets way too jealous way too easily. No one speaks, the situation too awkward.

But, apparently, it didn’t stop Kevin.

“So, what’cha want for dinner, guys?”

<><><>

“I’m sorry, but this tastes like shit,” Chris groans as he tosses his pizza crust on his plate, which was sat next to Balz on the floor. Balz flinches slightly when the bread makes impact with the glass, but acts as if it never happened because he thought no one noticed. Unfortunately for him, Devin saw, but for Balz’s sake, he too acted as if nothing happened.

“ Well, you ate it,” Kevin laughs.

“But it does taste bad,” Ricky agrees with Chris.

“So, I’m the only one that likes it, then?” Kevin raises an amused eyebrow and looks to his friends.

“I liked it,” Carter grumbles, still quite jealous. He doesn’t like how close Ricky is to Chris. He knew that Ricky still liked Chris, and he’s suspicious of Chris liking Ricky back, and there’s no way in Hell that he’s losing Ricky when he just finally got him to be his.

“Thank you! My man!” Kevin celebrates, holding out his fist for a fist bump, but Carter merely pushes it away. The action hurt Kevin’s feelings, but he masked it with a fake smile and a fake cheery tone. “Awe, come on! Don’t be that way! Smile!”

Carter smiles, but it’s obviously not sincere at all. His smile disappears as soon as it appears, so Kevin drops his act. Carter’s never treated him this way, so he decided to just leave him alone. Ricky notices Carter’s attitude towards Kevin and how hurt he looked, so he decides to try to do something about it.

“Alright, Carter, what’s the matter?” Ricky asks, turning his attention away from Chris. Carter rolls his eyes at his boyfriend.

“I’ll tell you later,” Carter growls, clearly irritated.

“Carter, do you wanna go home?” Ricky asks quietly.

“Actually, that might be a good idea. You’re coming with me, so let’s go,” Carter answers as he gets up, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Leaving already?” Devin asks his friends sadly, who nod.

Everyone says their goodbyes as Carter and Ricky as the two exit the house and head to Carter’s car. Devin turns to Chris.

“Dude, you totally like him,” Devin smiles up at Chris. “I can tell.”

Chris blushes. Chris finally realized that he had feelings for Ricky sometime earlier, and got jealous of Carter, which was pretty damn ironic because Carter was jealous of Chris.

Oh boy, please don’t let this end their friendship.

Meanwhile, Carter was just sliding into the drivers seat, Ricky in the passengers. Carter says nothing as they drive to Carter’s house, simply because Carter’s too busy trying not to flip and get into a car accident and Ricky feels awkward and scared. He’s never seen Carter quite this angry.

Carter doesn’t say anything until they’re both in the house.

“What the fuck?!” Carter snaps at Ricky, who flinches at the loud voice.

“What?” Ricky asks, confused. Last time he checked, he didn’t do anything wrong. Carter was the one being a fucking asshole towards people.

“Don’t you fucking ‘what’ me, you fucking bitch!” Carter snaps again, hastily making his way towards Ricky. Ricky, scared, immediately starts recoiling until his back hits the wall. Carter doesn’t stop until he’s right in front of Ricky, towering over him, glaring intensely at him, face contorted in anger. Ricky notices Carter’s fists clenched and shaking, as if ready to throw a punch. Fear slowly starts to consume the smaller teen as his heart starts pounding in his chest, his breathing becoming more rapid and shallow, eyes darting in every direction to look for a way to get away from his boyfriend.

“I-I’m sorry, i-it won’t happen again,” Ricky rushes out desperately, but that only seems to anger Carter more. Carter slams his fist on the wall next to Ricky’s head, making him jump. Tears start to brim his eyes and he avoids eye contact.

“Look at me,” Carter growls down at Ricky. Ricky immediately shakes his head, scared of what he’ll see if he complies.

“Ricky motherfucking Olson, if you don’t fucking look at me right fucking now, I fucking swear to God!” Carter threatens him, voice rising with every word he speaks. Ricky starts shaking. It’s too much. He’s never been so scared before in his life. Ricky quickly looks up at his boyfriend.

“Good boy,” Carter says, voice quieter now so that it’s a bit above a whisper. “We’re gonna set some rules, and if you fail to follow them, you’ll be punished. Okay?”

Ricky nods. Ricky feels that pain in his throat he gets when he’s trying not to cry.

“Good. Rule number one: you do whatever I say. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number two: you keep no secrets from me. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number three: no one is to know of these rules and the punishments for not following them. Got it?”

Nod.

“Rule number four: you are not to hang around another man unless I’m around. Got it?”

That was so fucking unfair. There’s no way Ricky’s complying to that. He does nothing.

“Remember rule number one? Are you breaking that rule already?”

Ricky shakes his head.

This was so unfair!

“Let’s try this again, then. Rule number four: you, Richard Allen Olson the third, are not to hang out with any other man, whether it be Chris, Devin, Balz, Kevin, or any other bloke you meet along the way, unless I, Carter Kiln, is there to supervise. Nod if you understand.”

Ricky reluctantly nods, and Carter pulls his boyfriend into a hug. Ricky feels better as his boyfriend’s embrace disarms him.

“I love you so much, Ricky. I’m doing this because I love you. You do understand, right?”

Ricky nods. They stay like that for a while, giving the two of them a chance to calm down.

“Okay. Wanna cuddle now?” Carter asks as he pulls away from the embrace and offers Ricky a sincere smile as he wipes Ricky’s eyes with the pads of his thumbs. Ricky nods and smiles back at Carter.

They’re gonna be okay.

Chapter Text

The next day, Chris invited Ricky over, but he had said that he was already hanging with Carter, and the only way that they’d be able to hang out is if he brings Carter with him. Chris thought nothing of it and said that Carter could come too, after all, Carter’s one of his best friends too.

So here the three of them are, laying around awkwardly with nothing to do. Seriously, they’re just laying on the floor, Carter in between the two, of course. They layed there like that for the first hour and a half they've been there, quiet other than the occasional sigh and complaint of being bored.

Why did Chris even invite them over of they were gonna just lay there the whole time?

Chris jumps with a yelp when his ringtone blasts loudly in his pocket and his friends laugh at him, even though it scared the shit out of them too. Chris makes sure he mutters a curse at them before answering the call he was receiving.

"Hello?" Chris asks into the phone just as Carter requests that they put it on speaker. Chris shrugs and does what he's asked.

"Hello, my name's Adam and I'm doing a math assignment. May I take a moment of your time for help?" they're greeted by a young voice that probably belonged to an elementary student. They can faintly hear another voice in the background, sounded kinda familiar to Chris, but how would he know, it's quite muffled.

"Uh, sure. What's the assignment?" Chris answers.

"The class has to ask a few people a few questions we come up with and create a few circle graphs with the data we collect. I don't get along well with the people at school so I've been calling random numbers."

"Alright, sounds easy enough. Shoot."

"Thank you! First question: does your age range from 12 and younger, 12-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65-74, or 75 and older?"

"12-17."

"Alright... Second question: do you like rock, pop, rap, or country music best?"

"Rock, definitely rock," Chris answers.

"Alright... Third question: how big is your dick?"

The voice doesn't sound as young when the third question is asked, and Chris swears he recognizes the voice from somewhere, but he can't place his finger on it. The muffled voice laughs, and he recognizes that too.

Either way, he’s pissed now. He should’ve known it was a fucking prank.

"Who's this? I fucking swear to god!" Chris snaps, making the two on the other end of the line laugh their asses off. Carter and Ricky offer their share of laughter too.

"Ah, Ch-Chris! You-asfhhfgjgfhgrhbk!!" the person continues to die. Yeah, apparently they do know each other.

"Who is this?" Chris tries again desperately.

"Kuza and Bats!!"

Oh! His friends he made at Walmart! Wow, they actually called him!

"Oh, hey, guys!" Chris laughs with them. When Carter and Ricky stop laughing, they sit awkwardly. They've never heard of these kids before.

"Hey! Bats and I are having a sleepover and we were bored as fuck so we decided to prank people! We did everyone else on our contact list, can we call your friends?"

Chris gives his friends Ghost's and Balz's numbers. The three talk for a bit longer before they hang up.

Chris is left with a smile on his face. He hasn't talked to them in a while and was oddly starting to miss them.

"Heh heh, who were they?" Ricky asks awkwardly as he cranes his neck to look at his friend. The task wasn't easy since Carter's bigger than him.

"Remember when I told you me and Kevin got two kids to hang with us and got their numbers?"

"You don't have their names saved in with their number?"

"Nope, I had forgotten whose number was whose.”

“Okay, well that was fun. What do we do now?” Carter asks.

“Eh, I guess we go back to laying on the ground doing nothing but moping and complaining,” Chris replies. There’s honestly nothing else for them to do, he’s not gonna lie.

“I’m sorry, Chris, but this isn’t how I planned my weekend. I might have to go home,” Carter sighs sadly.

“But I’ll still have Ricky.”

Ricky’s face falls. He fucking wishes…

“Nah, I’m gonna bring him with me,” Carter tells him as he lazily tosses an arm over Ricky’s waist. Chris lets out a desperate whine.

“But you guys are always together!” Chris continues to whine, which slowly starts to get on Carter’s nerves.

“Babe, please? Just today, at least? I mean, we do spend a lot of time together, it’d be nice to have some time with Chris too,” Ricky agrees with Chris, earning all of Carter’s attention. Carter turns to look at his boyfriend, giving him a hard look.

“You’re having time with Chris right now,” Carter tells him, a warning tone in his voice. Ricky gulps.

No, Ricky, you’re a man, stand up for yourself, Ricky thinks to himself.

“No, I mean time alone with Chris,” Ricky adds, specifying what he wants. Carter narrows his eyes at him, and he knows he’s fucked now.

Before Carter can speak up, Chris’s phone alerts him of a text.

“It’s Ghost!” Chris cheers as he opens it.

“Well then, me and Ricky are leaving now. Why don’t you invite Ghost over, yeah?” Carter suggests as he gets up off the floor, pulling Ricky up with him.

“Alright, bye, guys!” Chris waves as he reads his friend’s text, which told him about a couple of kids who prank called him about some fake homework assignment about the size of his dick.

Carter leaves Chris’s house, pulling Ricky behind him. Carter waits until they’re in the car to speak up.

“You broke rule number one, Ricky,” is all Carter says as he pulls out of the driveway.

Ricky says nothing as he leans his head against the window. The closer they get to Carter’s home, the more anxious and scared he felt.

It wasn’t even worth it, Chris is replacing him with Devin, anyway...

Chapter Text

Ricky had ended up spending the entire weekend at Carter's house since he wouldn't take him home, and Ricky didn’t wanted to walk home anyway. It wasn’t too bad, Ricky had decided. Of course Carter yelled at him a couple times and faced his punishment like Carter had promised, but other than that, Carter treated him real sweet.

Carter had told Ricky earlier that he would have Ricky over on weekends and would let him stay home on the weekdays, unless Carter was at Ricky’s house on those weekends. For short, the two would be together every weekend, no matter where the location was. Ricky didn’t even consider protesting, he didn’t wanna face the consequences. It wouldn’t be too bad anyways, he could have the weekdays to himself.

He is currently in lunch, the only time he could be alone with Kevin and Chris without Carter. It was as if Carter didn’t think this through, or did he not know that he usually sat with the two during lunch? Either way, he was sitting with them.

“So, how was your weekend, Ricky?” Kevin asks as he focuses his attention on his smaller friend with a smile. Ricky doesn’t look up at him but shrugs and puts on a smile anyways.

“It was pretty good,” he somewhat lies, somewhat tells the truth. He did enjoy his weekend, other than the fact that his body was hurting after receiving his punishment for his wrongdoings.

“That’s good! What did you do? Actually, I already know. You hung out with Carter?” Kevin was still smiling and asking his friend questions about his weekend. Ricky only nodded.

“What about you, Chris?”

“I had a sleepover with Devin!” Chris says happily, pulling Ricky’s mood down quite a bit. Of course he was with Devin, his new best friend. The smile Ricky wore crumbled and fell, leaving a scowl on his lips instead. He was being replaced by Devin Sola. Well, he didn’t need Chris anyways! He had Carter!

Chris looks to Ricky, noticing the frown on his face. “Ricky, you alright?”

“Yes.”

Ricky is clearly pissed, so he decided to just leave him be. He knows not to bother him when he’s upset like this. Kevin and Chris talk until the bell rings, and Ricky quickly left the scene to get to his new class.

“What’s wrong with Ricky?” Kevin asks Chris as he watches the sophomore push through the herd of people clogging the doorway.

“I don’t know, man. I’m just gonna leave him alone for a bit, give him some time to cool down. He’ll text me when he does like always,” Chris answers him.

“Alright. We gonna stand here and wait for the crowd to die down or are we gonna follow Ricky's lead?"

"The second option," Chris suggests as he grabs the smaller boy's wrist and pulls him through the students.

<><><>

Ricky didn't wait for Chris like he usually did, Chris realizes after a whole of leaning against the wall next to the entrance of the school. Chris sighs and sits up, but a voice caught his attention before he could go anywhere.

"Chris!" Ghost called out to him when he approaches. Chris smiles when he steps in front of him. "Ricky not here?"

Chris shakes his head and shoves his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

"Oh."

"He's in a bad mood, is all I know, though," Chris adds. Devin nods as they're left in silence, but it wasn't too awkward. They stay like that for a few seconds.

"I'm supposed to be staying after school, bye!" Devin waves before walking back into the building. Chris chuckles to himself a bit, that kid walked out here just to say hey to him. with that thought lingering in his mind, he begins walking home, alone.

While Chris was doing so, he had to stay after school too. Ironically enough, it's the same exact classroom Devin had to stay back in. Devin notices Ricky sitting in the back and heads that way, stopping in front of Ricky. Ricky notices a presence standing before him and looks up to glare at the person, still in a bitchy mood. Seeing Devin doesn't make him feel better at all, but Devin smiles at him.

Devin means no harm, you know... It's not his fault Chris wants to replace you with him, Ricky thinks to himself as he softens his gaze, allowing him to smile back.

"Hey, wanna sit?" Ricky offers, nodding towards one of the empty seats next to him. Devin nods shyly and sits down.

Devin wanted to ask what was wrong, remembering his glare he had as he approached, but he seemed a bit better now though, so he let it be. They didn't speak anything else, though, just sat there quietly as they waited for their teacher to come back in and bring them back their tests they were supposed to be working on.

Their teacher finally came in after a while in a rush. He quickly apologized to the few teenagers in the room as he searched through his papers, handing them to his students. When Ricky and Devin finally got theirs, Ricky notices that Devin only had a few more questions left to answer.

He himself, had over the entire packet.

Devin notices Ricky's lack of progress, but doesn't say anything, just pities him. He didn't think the test was all that hard, and there's also the possibility of Ricky having to stay until closing time. Man, that sucks. He remembered having to do that once. Let's just say the walk through the school and all the way home wasn't very pleasant.

Ricky worked quietly and as fast as he could, desperate to get home. He didn't give a shit about his grade at the moment. So, he finished in about five minutes, just as Devin finished.

"You're done already?" he whispers as he notices Ricky closing the packet. Ricky nods. "Did you guess?" Another nod. "Ricky, this is a test! You can't just guess through it!"

"But I really wanna get out of here!"

"But Ricky, I don't want you to fail!"
"Then you're gonna have to get over it!" Ricky whispers, very irritated now. Devin's expression saddened. He didn't want Ricky to dislike him, let alone be mad at him. But he also didn't want him to fail this class, like he said before. Devin came up with a risky conclusion as he switches his packet with Ricky's without anyone noticing.

"What?"

"Just make it look like you're checking your work," Devin whispers as he looks through Ricky's test. In the end, Ricky got half of them wrong. Devin purposely left some of the wrong answers the way it was so the teacher wouldn't be suspicious, but corrected his work enough so he couldn't get any lower than a B. Devin gave Ricky his packet back and instructed him to go ahead and turn it in to the teacher. Devin would waits few minutes before turning his in.

When Devin finally got out, he sees that Ricky waited for him in the hallway. He smiles at him when Ricky turns to look at him.

"Thanks for that, Devs," Ricky thanks him.

"You're my friend, friends are supposed to look out for each other."

"Even if they may get in big trouble?"

"Yeah."

Ricky chuckles before waving bye, turning and leaving. Devin makes his way home too.

Chapter Text

As Ricky walks home alone, his phone alerts him of a kik. Ricky decides that he’d check it out when he got home to avoid getting hit by a car when crossing the street like Kevin did a year ago. It was enough to make Ricky think twice about walking and texting at the same time.

His phone beeped nonstop during his walk home, and all he could do was hope it wasn’t Carter. Carter wouldn’t be too happy about not receiving a text back from Ricky. The possibility of it being him had Ricky slightly paranoid, and he encourages himself to pick up speed.

Ricky finally closes his bedroom door behind him, pulling his phone out of his bag before plopping down on his bed. Much to his relief, his texts were from a group message Devin, Chris and Kevin added him in.

(AN: in case you guys don’t know, Sledge Hammer is Chris, Ghost Rider is Devin, Road Kill is Ricky, and Lucifer’s Stripper is Kevin. I decided to give them Kik names)

[ Lucifer’s Stripper has added you to the conversation ]

Lucifer’s Stripper: Hi guys!!

Sledge Hammer: Hey Kevs!

Ghost Rider: Hey!

Sledge Hammer: What’s up, guys?

Ghost Rider: I’m on my way home now

Lucifer’s Stripper: I’m playing GTA5

Lucifer’s Stripper: Wait why are you just heading home??

Ghost Rider: Had to finish a test

Sledge Hammer: How do you think you did?

Ghost Rider: I’m pretty sure I did well :)

Lucifer’s Stripper: Ricky!!

Lucifer’s Stripper: Guys let’s spam Ricky until he replies

Lucifer’s Stripper: RICKY

Lucifer’s Stripper: RICKY

Sledge Hammer: I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE

Ghost Rider: RICKY

Lucifer’s Stripper: WEINER BOY

Sledge Hammer: WE’RE BRINGING IT BACK WEINER BOYYY

Ghost Rider: I DON’T GET IT

Sledge Hammer: WEINER BOY

Ghost Rider: WAT IM CONFUSED

Lucifer’s Stripper: WEINER BOY WHY U NOT TEXT US BACK

Sledge Hammer: WEINER BOY OH WEINER BOY

Ghost Rider: WHY WONT YOU GUYS TELL ME WHATS HAPPENING

Ricky laughs as he types in his reply.

Road Kill: You guys are assholes.

Lucifer’s Stripper: Yay Ricky texted us back!!!

Ghost Rider: Ricky, why are they bringing back Weiner Boy?

Road Kill: It’s this thing that happened at some restaurant.

Ghost Rider: Oh okay

Road Kill: Guys please don’t bring it back :(

Sledge Hammer: Awe, you’re no fun :(

Lucifer’s Stripper: Kay, sorry Weiner Boy…

Road Kill: I hate you Kevs :(

Lucifer’s Stripper: :(

Ghost Rider: I gotta go guys! Gotta do chores!

Lucifer’s Stripper: I do too ttyl!!! Don’t quit the chat yet

Ghost Rider: Why??? I don’t want to get notifications every time you guys kik each other

Lucifer’s Stripper: You’re whack, Ghost. Just turn your sound off

Ghost Rider: You’re gonna kill my battery

Lucifer’s Stripper: Put it on the charger!!

Ghost Rider: You’re a funny kid :)

[ Ghost Rider has left the chat ]

Lucifer’s Stripper: I know he did not.

Sledge Hammer: Sorry Kevs cx

Lucifer’s Stripper: Bye Chris and Ricky!

Sledge Hammer: Bye!

Road Kill: Bye! Seriously, Chris, Weiner Boy got annoying

Sledge Hammer: Alright, I’ll stop, but I can’t speak for Kevin :)

Road Kill: Oh well :)

Sledge Hammer: I’m tired :(

Road Kill: Go to sleep then you idiot :P

Sledge Hammer: Okay, night :)

Road Kill: Night :) 

Ricky locks his phone and sets it down on his bed, scanning his surroundings as he does so. He frowns at the mess his room was, knowing he'd have to clean it eventually. He would do it now, but the amount of clutter on the floor was just too great and made him dread the action. Maybe he'd invite Carter or someone over at some point to help him.

Ricky grabs his phone back and decides to fuck around on his phone to get his mind off his disaster of a room, putting in the four digit pass code- 0666. He puts his music on shuffle and opens tumblr. That's how Ricky would spend his day today.

He flinches when HIM suddenly stops and the argument over milk he was reading is replaced with the incoming call page. He answers the phone.

"Hello?" Ricky speaks into the phone.

"Ricky, hunny, I'm at the grocery store but I forgot the list at home! Do me a favor and tell me what it says?" his mother's voice asks sweetly from the phone.

Ricky hums into the phone as he gets up and heads down to the kitchen. He opens one of the drawers and pulls out the notebook the Olsons use to write their needed groceries on. He slowly reads the list out to his mother. She thanks him before hanging up, Ricky going back to whatever he was doing before.

Chapter Text

AN: I haven’t updated in a while and I’m so sorry for that, but a reader on Wattpad, bandsxmiw, gave me an idea for this chapter :) Thank you! <3 And thank you all for your support, it makes me so fucking happy, guys! <3
<><><><><><>

>>>Time Skip: couple weeks, on a Saturday<<<

Ricky starts to frown when his music stops for a second but smiles when he sees Kevin’s contact flash at him. A FaceTime call. Ricky answers the call, being greeted by his friend’s smiling face.

“Hey!” Kevin says, seemingly happier than usual. Ricky’s not complaining, though. His good friend’s been feeling a bit down lately, why, he didn’t know.

“Hey Kevin, doing okay?” Ricky asks.

“Mhm. Are you doing okay?”

Not really. “I’m doing fine, Kevs.”

Kevin knows he’s lying, but he doesn’t push him. “Okay. I’m always here, Ricky!”

Ricky smiles at his friend. Kevin really is a good friend.

“Are you doing that stupid sculpture project thing for Mrs. Oreole’s class?” Ricky then asks him to keep the conversation going the best he can with his awkwardness. Kevin groans.

“No! I don’t even have the materials so I can’t anyways!”

“Can’t you buy some?”

“I can’t, I’m banned from Walmart.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Yup.”

There’s a brief silence until Ricky speaks again.

“Surely there’s another store you can go to? I mean, you’re not banned from every store in the area,” Ricky suggests. Kevin hasn’t really been doing his work in art. Ricky wouldn’t be surprised if Kevin’s grade didn’t even reach the double digits.

“I don’t like the other stores,” Kevin whines slightly, pouting. Ricky can’t help but roll his eyes at his friend.

“Kevin, you need to do this project. You’re gonna fail this class if you don’t,” Ricky lectures him strictly.

“So what? Art isn’t important!”

“It isn’t if you don’t mind working minimum wage.”

Kevin groans pathetically, “You’re right! Ricky, help me!”

“What? I’m not even doing my own project!”

“Then who are you to talk? That’s not even what I meant anyways, I meant for you to pick up materials for me!”

“Decide what you wanna sculpt first and then I’ll get you your materials. Okay?”

Kevin’s face lightens up again, “You’re great, Ricky! I love you, man!”

Ricky smiles at his friend again. He opens his mouth to say something but his bedroom door is thrown open.

“Hey babe, your mom let me in,” Carter smiles at his boyfriend.

“Hey, Carter!” Kevin greets happily when he hears Carter’s voice. The blood drains from Ricky’s face.

“Ricky… Is everything okay?” Kevin asks quietly when he sees his friend’s reaction. Ricky hangs up instead of replying when he sees his boyfriend getting angry.

“Carter, b-baby-” Ricky shakily starts until Carter’s making his way across the room, so quickly, Ricky barely reacts in time. Ricky’s rolling off the bed, falling to the floor with a light thud before crawling under the bed. He realized how fucking stupid that was when he feels rough hands grip his ankles and yank him from under the bed. Ricky whimpers as his shirt rides up, allowing the smooth skin of his stomach to drag against the rough carpet.

“Did you already forget?” Carter spits out, trying his best to keep his voice down to avoid concerning Ricky’s mom. Ricky says nothing as he tries to get up.

“Out with it, bitch!” Carter shouts down at the smaller, younger boy as he kicks him in his side, not hard enough to do serious damage but hard enough to send him tumbling back to the floor. Ricky can hear his phone ringing from where he left it on the bed, along with footsteps making their way up the stairs.

“Everything okay in there?” Ricky’s mom asks from right behind the door.

“Yeah, we’re playing video games. Scorpion wouldn’t release his chain thingy,” Carter makes up a lie real quick, hoping she’ll buy it. Thankfully she does, and informs them that she’s off to run a quick errand, leaving the couple alone.

“Did you already forget?” Carter asks again, towering intimidatingly over the trembling boy on the floor.

“N-No, Carter,” Ricky whispers as his eyes well up with tears. He knows what’s next.

“So you knew you weren’t supposed to talk to that boy alone then, hm?” Carter growls as his fingers start to fumble with his belt buckle, pulling his belt from the loops of his jeans. “You know the drill. Shirt off, count.”

Ricky finally lets his tears spill and lets out a sob as he does as he’s told, attempting to brace himself for what’s to come.

Kevin frowns down at the iPhone in his hands. Ricky won’t pick up the phone anymore. He looked so scared before he hung up so abruptly.

“Hey, Kevs,” Chris sighs as he emerges into his room from the bathroom. “What’d I miss?”

“Uh… Ricky hung up on me and he won’t pick up…”

Chris sees the worried expression on his friend’s face and sits on the floor next to him.

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t even know. He looked so scared when I said hey to Carter… Can you go check on him?”

Chris nods as he gently pats Kevin’s hand before standing up again, grimacing as his knees crack disgustingly. He shoves his feet into his shoes, not bothering with the laces, and makes his way over to Ricky’s house.

Chapter Text

Just before Chris knocks on the Olson’s front door, it’s opened from the other side, revealing Carter. The older boy flinches when he sees Chris standing there. Chris notices that he seems nervous about something all of a sudden and raises a perfectly drawn eyebrow at him.

“Hey, Chris,” Carter laughs. “I thought you were having a sleepover with Kevin?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to check up on Ricky,” he tells him.

“Oh, yeah? Well, he’s fine, don’t worry! Don’t keep Kevin waiting!” Carter says as he puts a hand on Chris’s shoulder, guiding him away from the door. Chris scowls and shrugs his hand off.

“Cool, so I’m just gonna go in now, then,” Chris moves to walk around Carter, but he steps in his way.

“His mom just sent me out, she wants to get some sleep and doesn’t want anyone here while she sleeps.”

“Mrs. Olson’s car isn’t even in the driveway…”

Carter’s face pales. Chris knows something’s up now.

Chris shoves past him and into the house. Carter knows that there’s no stopping the younger boy now and decides to get out of there while he still can before he finds Ricky.

Ricky’s laying curled up on the floor, crying into his knees. His back fucking hurts but he guesses that it’s his own fault. Ricky’s never wanted to die so much before…

“Ricky?” Ricky’s quiet sobbing stops when he hears Chris’s voice from the other side of the closed door.

Fuck.

Ricky shakily takes a deep breath before speaking, “Yeah?”

“Can I come in?”

“N-no, I look like crap…”

“It’s okay, I’m coming in.”

Before Ricky can protest, he hears his bedroom door creak open. Ricky rubs at his tear-streaked cheeks as he hears a gasp from his friend. He hears him drop to his knees behind him.

“Oh, Ricky…” Chris sighs, and Ricky wishes the floor would open up and swallow him away. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

Chris gets up and makes his way to the bathroom. He searches through the cabinet and pulls out peroxide and a face cloth, that being all he can find to treat the injuries on his friend’s back. Chris enters Ricky’s room again and sits behind him again.

“Ricky, can you sit up for me?”

Ricky does as asked and Chris uncaps the container.

“Is it gonna hurt?” Ricky whimpers when he hears it.

“Shouldn’t hurt too much,” Chris answers as he pours the cold liquid onto his back, using the cloth to wipe away what spills.

When Chris is finished, he caps the peroxide and sets it aside. He didn’t have anything else for his friend’s back.

“Thank you,” Ricky whispers to his friend.

“What did Carter do?”

Chris feels that familiar burning in his ears that usually comes prior to crying when he hears a sob spill from Ricky’s mouth. Within seconds, Ricky is in his lap, crying into his shoulder as Chris rocks the smaller of the two soothingly. He tries not to cry for Ricky’s sake.

“I- I was talking to D-Devin before he came in,” Ricky starts when he calms down enough to speak a decipherable sentence. “He- he doesn’t like it wh-when I talk to you guy w-without him with me. He h-hits me with a belt b-buckle every time he c-catches me doing it.”

Chris is left speechless. What does he say in a situation like this?

“How long?” Chris finally asks.

“After w-we all hung out at Kevin’s.”

“Did you ever tell anyone?”

“He told me n-not to.”

“Oh, Ricky… I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s n-not your fault.”

Chris doesn’t say anything as he finally lets a tear slip. This was all his fault. He was the one who set the two of them up in the first place.

“H-He’s a good guy, C-Chris. He just has h-his moments…”

Chris shakes his head in reply as he moves to stroke his hair, massaging his scalp with his fingertips. The gesture calms Ricky as he leans into his friend’s touch.

Chris manages to speak after a few moments, “You’re coming with me.”

“W-what?”

Chris doesn’t answer his friend, he merely helps the smaller boy up to his feet. Chris grabs Ricky’s shirt and tosses it at him, instructing him to carefully put it on. Chris grabs Ricky his phone for him and leads him out. Chris left Ricky’s mom a message so she wouldn’t freak out when she finds her son not at home where she left him.

The two boys walk in silence to Kevin’s house. When they get there, Kevin runs straight over to Ricky.

“Ricky, what happened?” he asks as he notices the tears that still leaked from his eyes. Ricky shakes his head, he only holds his arms out for a hug. Kevin threw his arms around Ricky’s waist, the two boys holding each other. Kevin looks to Chris.

“Later,” he mouths to him as he watches the two younger boys.

Chapter Text

After Chris brought Ricky over to Kevin’s, Kevin suggested that the three of them played Rock Band 3 to try to get what happened back at Ricky’s house out of their mind. It worked for the most part; they set it up so that the keys would come at them a bit faster so they’d have to concentrate harder.

When 3:30am neared, they decided to settle down for the night. Chris and Kevin found sleep easily, unlike Ricky, who's now lying between the two sleeping boys, wide eyes staring up towards the ceiling. The petrified boy’s mind is plagued once again by what had happened earlier that night.

Ricky knows that it’s his own fault. He knew that talking to Devin without Carter’s permission was wrong and he knew that he’d be punished for it if he got caught. He made Carter do this. Carter didn’t want to hurt him. When his mother spanked him as a child, she didn’t want to hurt him. “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” as the saying goes.

Ricky pales as he realizes that he’s hanging out with Chris and Kevin right now without Carter’s permission. Ricky’s gotta get out of there before Carter finds out.

Ricky slowly gets up from the pallet of blankets on the floor and carefully steps over Kevin to grab his phone before tiptoeing to the bedroom door. Ricky slowly pulls the door open so he doesn’t disturb the boys still sleeping. The door doesn’t cooperate very long, though, because it creaks loudly, and Ricky freezes. He stands there motionless, listening closely to the boys that are hopefully still sleeping to see if the loud noise woke them.

“Ricky, that you?”

Ricky curses the creaky door when Kevin’s sleepy voice calls out to him.

“What’s he doing?” Chris asks when Kevin’s question wakes him as well.

“He’s trying to leave the room.”

Chris sits up at that, looking towards the clock on Kevin’s night stand. “Ricky, it’s half past four. Why are you up?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Ricky tells him. It’s not exactly the truth, but it’s not a lie either, so it works.

“Oh. Want me to stay up with you?”

“No, you’re probably tired. Just go back to sleep,” Ricky tells him. He knows Chris won’t let him leave, but Carter won’t be too pleased if he stays.

“I’ll be fine,” Chris tells him as he gets up anyways, turning to Kevin for a moment. “You staying in bed or getting up too?”

“I’m getting up too. Let’s go to Walmart.”

“We’re banned, Kevin.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kevin laughs as he gets up and turns the light on. “What should we do instead?”

“I don’t know, but I’m hungry,” Chris answers, then looks to Ricky. “You hungry?”

“Not really,” Ricky answers with a shrug.

He’s so fucked if Carter finds out he’s with other boys.

Chapter Text

Chris, Kevin, and Ricky made a small breakfast for themselves to eat, but Chris and Kevin got tired again ended up falling asleep after that anyways.  Ricky took that as his chance to quickly and quietly (more so than before) sneak out the front door.  

Ricky carefully unlocks the front door and pulls it open slowly, and surprisingly, it makes no noise at all.  When Ricky has it open enough to slip through, he does just that and pulls the door closed behind him just as carefully.  He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and presses the home button for the time and to see if he had any texts or anything.  He has no notifications and it’s about seven in the morning now.

<><><>

When Ricky steps into his house again, his mother is on the couch, cradling a mug of coffee while watching Days Of Our Lives again.  She’s too engrossed in the soap opera to pay much mind to him as he drops onto the couch next to her.  She doesn’t notice her son until the commercial break, flinching when she suddenly sees him and almost spilling her coffee.

“Ricky,” she breaths sheepishly, recovering from her shock. “You scared the hell out of me.”

Ricky smiles apologetically at her, “Sorry.”

“So how was the sleepover? I didn’t expect you to be back so early.”

“It was fun. And Kevin started feeling ill so his parents sent us home incase he was contagious,” Ricky lies, feeling guilty about it.  Saying that he snuck out so he didn’t get in trouble with Carter would definitely concern her and she’d ask questions until she got to the bottom of it, and that’s not what he wanted at all.

“Okay, hon. Go clean your room,” she says, shooing him off as the commercial break ends.  He shrugs and heads upstairs to his room, which wasn’t even messy.  The small blood stains were still there, and there’s a few snack wrappers and clothes in random places, but other than that, he thought it was fine.  

But, he picked up the trash and clothes so he wouldn’t have to listen to his mother bitch at him later for not doing what she said and when she said.

He loves his mom though.

When he’s done, he grabs his computer from underneath his bed and his headphones from the nightstand before resuming the browsing position.  He opens his music app and plays his music really loud on shuffle before logging onto Tumblr.  

Then next thing he knows, someone pulls his earbuds out of his ears.  He’s ready to snap at his mother for it, but stops himself when he sees Carter smiling fondly at him.  

“Hey, babe,” Carter greets him. “Your mom let me in.”

“Yeah, I see that. Why are you here so early?” Ricky smiles back at him, sitting up more.  Carter raises an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know twelve in the afternoon was early.”

Ricky furrows his brows, glancing at the clock on the corner of his computer screen.  12:06 PM.  

“Oh. I was on Tumblr,” Ricky explains, and Carter laughs.

“Yeah, it happens to me all the time. I was gonna take you to a movie, you up for it?”

“Hell yeah.”

Chapter Text

“Ricky!” Kevin cheers happily as Ricky approaches the lunch table. Ricky smiles at his friend as he sits at the table.

“Kevin!” Ricky mocks his tone, just now noticing the textbook and many papers in front of Kevin. “Why do you have so much work?”

“Extra credit. I’m failing art because I never do my artwork projects, so the teacher said I can do book work for a higher grade,” Kevin explains as he sloppily writes something down in the textbook. Ricky raises a brow at that.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to write in that?”

“Why not? She might not see it until it’s too late,” Kevin laughs with a shrug.

“Why are you writing in it anyway?”

“It’s nothing bad, just my Kik.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I get lonely sometimes and want more friends, Mom.”

Ricky rolls his eyes at him. He doubts anyone would actually kik him, to be honest, but he doesn’t tell him that to avoid possible drama.

And that’s when Chris finally arrives and sits to Kevin’s right.

“Chris!” Kevin cheers, just like he did when Ricky sat down.

“Hey, Kevin, hey, Ricky,” Chris greets both his friends as he looks at what Kevin’s doing. “Write mine down too.”

Ricky’s eyes widen in disbelief and disappointment as Kevin happily scribbles his friend’s kik under his own. “Really, Chris? I expected better from you.”

“No one’s gonna Kik us anyways,” Chris laughs, earning a fake whine from Kevin, and the three laugh. “So, Ricky, how was the rest of you’re weekend, since you didn’t stay with Kevin and I?”

“Carter took me to the movies.”

Chris’ smile drops completely, a scowl taking its place. “What.”

Ricky frowns himself and furrows his brows at his friend’s sudden negative behavior. “What?”

“Why??”

“Uh… Maybe because he’s my boyfriend??” Ricky asks, getting sassy quickly, but that only pisses Chris off even more.

“I didn’t ask for your attitude, Ricky.”

“And I didn’t ask you to question my relationship, Chris.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on here,” Kevin speaks up after curiously and awkwardly listening to the argument, still oblivious to what Carter’s done. The argument continues without an explanation for him. Kevin sighs and tries to focus on his homework again, but then…

“Ricky, you’re in an abusive relationship, that’s not o-fucking-kay,” Chris angrily argues.

“That you set up for me,” is Ricky’s argument.

And then Chris, impatient and fucking angry, slams his fists on the table as he stands. Ricky flinches and sinks into his seat in fear as he stares up at his angry friend.

“I was trying to do a fucking good thing for you. Carter was one of my best fucking friends but now I see that he isn’t who he fucking seems to be. You need to open your fucking eyes too and see that Carter is a fucking monster, Ricky, but until you do, I can’t fucking do this.”

And with that, Chris storms out of the cafeteria, and Kevin feels so distressed from whatever just went down. Possibly the downfall of a great friendship.

Kevin hesitantly turns to face Ricky, who seemed to be struggling to to hold back the tears threatening to fall at any second.

“Ricky-” Kevin starts, placing a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder, but Ricky shoves it off and stands.

“Don’t,” Ricky snaps before leaving the cafeteria and Kevin sitting alone. Kevin sighs, his chest tightening as tears brim his eyes too. He averts his attention back to his bookwork, but he can’t seem to stay focused as he lets everything sink in.

He shakes his head, gathers his things, and leaves the cafeteria.

Chapter Text

As Ricky walked home alone, his phone buzzed and chimed relentlessly, which only succeeded in irritating him further. Couldn’t they wait a few more fucking minutes?

Ricky eventually barges into the house, ignoring his parents’ concerned questions as he slammed his bedroom door shut behind him and locking it. He throws his bag towards the corner of the room and grabs his phone out of his back pocket. They’re all from the group chat on Kik between him, Kevin, Chris, and Ghost. Ricky hesitantly opens the chat, which was abandoned before just now.

Lucifer’s Stripper: Are you guys okay now?

Lucifer’s Stripper: Are you guys ignoring me?

Lucifer’s Stripper: I didn’t do anything wrong y’know…

Lucifer’s Stripper: Guys this isn’t fair to me

Lucifer’s Stripper: I just wanna help

[ Lucifer’s Stripper has added Ghost Rider to the chat ]

Lucifer’s Stripper: Devs help, Chris and Ricky are ignoring me and they’re not okay

Ghost Rider: Why?? What happened??

Lucifer’s Stripper: I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you but they got in a big argument earlier

Road Kill: I just got home thank you very fucking much

Ghost Rider: What’s going on?

Lucifer’s Stripper: Are you guys mad at me?

Road Kill: I’m not mad at you. And Chris is being an asshole

Sledge Hammer: For trying to fucking help my best friend?? I’m so done lol.

[ Sledge Hammer has left the chat ]

Ghost Rider: Omg what’s going on??

Road Kill: Nothing

Lucifer’s Stripper: It’s obviously something. What’s wrong?

Road Kill: There’s fucking nothing wrong jfc

Ghost Rider: Hey, we’re only trying to make sure you’re okay because we all care about you. You don’t have to be so rude and mean about it.

Instead of replying, Ricky leaves the chat and blocks them both. He doesn’t need them fucking pestering and arguing with him. He said he’s fine but they keep questioning him any-fucking-way and it’s annoying.

But then Kevin fucking calls his phone.

Doesn’t he see that he doesn’t want to be fucking bothered right now?

Ricky powers his phone off and puts it away, grabbing his laptop and headphones instead, blasting music loud enough to make him go deaf. He skips all the happy and upbeat songs. Listening to them right now would only irritate him right now.

He just lays there for the rest of the night, his music too loud for him to be able to think, until he somehow manages to fall asleep.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Ricky leaves for school alone, avoiding Chris at all costs. He even went as far as to walk down the sidewalk opposite of Chris when he comes to view.

Chris noticed, and he didn't care. He doesn’t care at fucking all. He doesn't need Ricky in his life anyways. He still has Kevin and Ghost and Balz and Matt and Kuza. Actually, he doesn't talk to Balz, Matt, or Kuza all that much, but he still has friends that wouldn't beat him when he did one little thing they didn't like. That's all Ricky has because he chose that over their affection and that pisses Chris off and makes him hurt for the younger boy, so maybe he does care after all, and that only pisses him off even more. He doesn't want to care about Ricky anymore because he's clearly not in his life anymore, and that makes him hurt even more.

But you know what? It's Chris’ fault that things are the way they are now. If he owned up to his feelings when Ricky first admitted his then he wouldn't have felt bad about rejecting him, and if he never felt bad about rejecting him, he would've never set Ricky up on a date with Carter.

Why didn’t Chris realize Carter was such a monster before hand? Why won’t Ricky realize it now?

Fuck, they’re both fucking idiots.

<><><>

By the time lunch time rolls around, Chris and Kevin are seated at their usual seats. Kevin’s still working on those art assignments from the textbook, clearly distressed by the previous day’s events. Chris didn’t like seeing Kevin like this at all. He misses carefree, always joking around Kevin Grease, but now he’s uncharacteristically quiet and gloomy and Chris hates it.

“Hey, guys,” a voice sounds behind Chris. Chris turns to meet the source of the voice, raising a drawn brow when he finds Ghost standing there.

“Oh, hey,” Chris greets him as he moves around the table to sit next to Kevin. “We haven’t seen you in here before. Do you have this lunch?”

“No, I have second lunch, but our teacher’s been gone for fifteen minutes. Rules say that if your teacher doesn’t show up to class within the first fifteen minutes of class, you can go wherever you want,” Ghost shrugs before turning towards Kevin, who hasn’t even spared a glance at him since he approached. “You alright, Kev?”

He only shrugs as he jots something down on his paper. Ghost sighs sadly before turning to Chris with sad eyes, silently asking if he know what’s up, but he can only shrug. Everyone’s shrugging today…

Ghost turns back to Kevin, opening his arms to offer a hug. Kevin looks to him hesitantly before closing his textbook and cuddling into Ghost’s side.

“Is it because of Ricky?” Ghost asks, trying to get more of a response out of his distressed friend.

“I guess?” he whispers, surprising Chris. Those are the first sounds he heard his friend say all day because he refused to use words to communicate with him.

But he spoke to Ghost.

Maybe Kevin’s pissed at him too? Chris doesn’t understand why he’d be pissed, though.

“You guess?”

“Yeah, like I’m upset over the fact that Ricky is ignoring me. I’m also upset with Carter for doing what he did. And, uh-” Kevin glances up to Chris for a second and bites at his lower lip, as if contemplating whether or not he should say what he’s about to say. Kevin tears his gaze away from Chris’. “And I’m kinda upset that Chris gave up so easily…”

Ghost is about to ask what Carter did and what exactly Chris gave up on until Chris speaks up.

“Kevin, I tried to help him, but he yelled at me, called me an asshole, and accused me of trying to ruin his ‘relationship’. I’m not gonna stand by and try to help someone who treats me like shit. And anyways, I can’t even get a hold of him. He keeps avoiding me and blocked my phone number all all social media accounts. He blocked all of yours and Ghost’s too. We have no choice but to leave him be.”

Kevin’s quiet again for a moment, and Chris thinks he’s choosing to ignore him, until he finally whispers, “But he’s our friend, Chris.”

Chris sighs at his stubborn friend, “No, Ricky’s not our friend anymore. He doesn’t want anything to do with us.”

Kevin doesn’t say anything after that, and Ghost sits confused about their conversation. He looks to Chris again for answers, but Chris drops his gaze to the table.

So now they just sit in silence…

Chapter Text

When the bell rang at the end of the day, Kevin hastily gathered and put away all of his stuff so he could get to the front of the school as fast as he possibly could.  He narrowly dodged students clogging the hallways, accidentally bumping into a few of them, but no one really payed him any mind; people kinda liked Kevin Grease.

His chest was burning from pushing himself so hard as he made it to the front doors, leaning against them as he waited.

Chris might’ve given up so easily, but not Kevin.  Kevin convinces himself that he’s a good friend, and he’ll always be there for his friends, through thick and thin.

Kevin stands there, slumped against the wall, for around five minutes, until Ricky finally comes out, and Kevin’s suddenly overwhelmed with nerves as he pushes himself off the wall.

“Ricky!” he calls out to his friend, reaching out for him desperately when Ricky ignores him.  Kevin manages to catch Ricky’s wrist, startling the other as he whips around to face him with alertness.  It’s then that Kevin notices the earbuds plugged in, music up loud enough for Kevin to clearly hear what Ricky’s listening to.

Ricky pulls out a bud, shooting Kevin an annoyed look. “Need something?”

Kevin doesn’t even bother trying to put on a positive facade, way too drained for that; all this art work and unnecessary drama has really gotten to him these past couple of days.

Kevin removed his hand from his friend’s wrist. “Do you hate me?”

Ricky’s stone hard expression softened, looking guilty instead now.  “No, I don’t hate you.”

“Yeah… Just know I’m here for you if you need to talk. You’re my friend.”

“Okay,” is all Ricky says before turning to walk away, leaving Kevin standing there all alone.  Kevin’s not sure if this encounter has helped anything whatsoever, but he feels a little better knowing that Ricky doesn’t hate him.  He just hopes that Ricky decides to talk to him, but based off his response, the chances are looking kinda slim.