Back To You | Ricky Garcia

Chapter Twenty Two

Charlene's POV

You're stuck with me, babe.

Those five little words lingered in my mind.

Something tells me this is gonna be a real challenge, for both Ricky and I. All he wants is to win me over, and all I want is to distance myself from getting romantically involved with him. I think he's being irrational for risking our new beginning and he think's I'm being idiotic for shying away from something I know I want. We're two stubborn teenagers, two dancing flames, bound to conjoin and create a wildfire.

When you play fire with fire, you can't expect it to result in ice castles and cute snowmen. When you play fire with fire, you get burned. Who gets burned, you may ask?

I think both of us do, to be honest. Because even if Ricky never stops trying to fight for me, or I keep every smidge of my self-pride contained in my soul, both of us will end up hurting. The cruel truth is that I like him and he likes me, and whether Ricky keeps trying and I let my guard down or I keep my guard up and Ricky stops trying, our feelings for each other will always remain the same. This is a battle that can't be won.

Huh, I knew all of this would end up with another battle. It always does with us. I called it. My only wish is that this wouldn't be another long disagreement. I wish that even if we have two opposite mindets, we won't let our stubborness take us back to square one. Losing him from something as silly as this would be just as bad as losing him through a relationship crisis. If I lost him again, I swear I will pull all my hair out.

Speaking of pulling my hair out, I'm kinda in the process of doing that right now. It's 7 on a Friday morning, and it was too early to be dealing with stupidity right now. Let me rewind to about 5 minutes ago.

"Honey, wake up. You need to see something!" I heard a soft voice gasp above me. I clutched my comforter tighter over my body, refusing to get up from bed. I need my sleep, and no one on this earth is going to take it away from me right now.

"Charlene!" I series of shakes were given to my shoulder. I groaned, and fluttered my eyes open slowly. I blinked a few times to take in the horrific morning sunlight blinding my eye. I turn my head to see my Mom staring down at me with a surprised grin on her face. I looked past her and eyed the clock. 6:53.

"Is it that important, mother? Is it really?" I questioned her sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and pulled my body up from my comfortable bed.

"Oh my gosh, just get your toosh out of bed, will you? It's worth it." She whined. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm raising my Mom. She's still a thirteen year old girl at heart. I grunted and jolted off the bed. I pushed my feet into my pink bunny slippers (don't judge me, they're cute and warm) and instantly, Mom pulled me out of my bedroom door.

We rushed down the stairs, and as soon as I took my last step I saw them. My living room was bombarded with roses. No, I don't mean three average sized bouquets. It looked more like three hundred bouquets. Three hundred dozen red roses were laying on my living room floor. My lips almost twitched into a smile. Almost.

As you might have guessed, the smile never came. Instead, I resorted to gripping the tangled hair on the sides of my head with both of my hands.

"Oh my God, oh my God." I mumbled, eyeing the roses surrounding me. My Mom let out a squeal beside me.

"I know, right? Isn't Ricky the sweetest?" She swooned. I looked at her, shaking my head fastly.

"No! He isn't! He's crazy!" I screamed, regripping my poor hair.

"Yea, crazy for you." She nudged my arm. I shot back almost immediatly.

"Mom!" I retaliated. Mom threw her hands up in the air, as if to say she surrenders. She dodged her eyebrow up in a confused manner.