Rickola

RICKOLA | CHAPTER FIFTEEN

© Katelyn Moore

Water rippled around my calves as I gently twirled my legs, desperate for something interesting to look at. Only problem was, the water was nowhere near interesting enough to hold my attention. Compared to Rick, it was just another part of the backdrop.

Today was the second day in a row that I came to Rick’s hotel, but this time, we didn’t stay in his suite; we ventured to the rooftop pool where we continued our conversation about Cara.

I’d had an entire night to process what happened, why Rick was into me, but it was going to take much longer for the true intent of his words to sink in. Long story short, he liked me, and that was the only thing that mattered. It was enough.

But apparently there was more to the story than Rick had given me, much more, and today, he brought it up of his own free will.

“Do you remember me saying the only reason I came here was because I needed to get away?” he asked warily. Rick sat next to me, his legs dangling in the water right by mine.

I nodded. Of course I remembered.

“Well, there’s more to it than that.” His body was rigid as he spoke, and that could only mean one thing. He was about to tell me the real reason he had run away from it all. “I feel like I can tell you anything, but I don’t want you to think badly of me when you hear this. It’s not exactly my proudest moment.”

What was that supposed to mean? Had he done something wrong, something illegal? Was it a moral sort of thing? The stiff tone of his voice worried me.

“I forgot,” he said, as if those two words were the most horrible in the world.

Forgot what? I opened my mouth to ask, but he went on without prompting.

“The anniversary of Cara’s death was about two months ago. Her mum was holding a dinner party with family and some of Cara’s friends, and I forgot. Her mum called me the day after, and I just…”

I put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed gently. “Hey, it’s not your fault. You’re life is hectic—”

For the first time since this conversation began, he looked at me. Of all the time I had known him, of all the pictures I had seen of him, I had never witnessed Rick Avery look so miserable, so heartbroken. Not even in his movies. This was genuine pain. “That doesn’t matter. Being busy isn’t an excuse, especially when it’s my fault she died in the first place.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before he dove into the water. My eyes followed him for a few seconds and then I stood up and raced the ripples he made to the other end of the pool. When his head emerged from the water, hair dripping, his eyes were red. Whether that was because of the chlorine or not, it was hard to tell.

He shook out his hair, the force pushing it back into a sexy mop, but I didn’t hesitate when I spoke. “You can’t just tell me something like that and then take off. I know this isn’t easy to talk about, but you can’t suppress it forever. I’m not going to judge you for anything you say.”

Rick avoided looking at me. Eventually he pulled himself up out of the pool. I sat down on the edge and held my knees to my chest. Silence ensued, and after a good five minutes, I tried asking the question that had been itching to get out since yesterday. “How did Cara—I—how—I mean, how did she…”

“Die?”

For fear of upsetting him more than he already was, I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. I nodded, “Yeah.”

Rick launched into the story with a heavy sigh. He said he could tell me anything, but he was very reluctant with this. “It happened the night of my first real gig. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was the start of my career. I wasn’t going to do it. My parents wanted me to focus on school first, to graduate before I did anything major with my music, but Cara kept pushing it until I agreed. The day before the gig, she called me and said she couldn’t make it. I was so mad at her—” His breath caught and I reached out to hold one of his shaking hands. He went on slowly. “I was only doing it for her, and I was so angry about her not coming. I even left her a voicemail telling her what a bad friend she was. But, I still went ahead with the show. There was no reason not to. At the end of my set, my parents called me into the green room and told me that my best friend was in an accident.”