Your Sweet Six Six Six | Sitkolson [C]

Chapter 14 | Loners

Devin walked up the stairs that led to the side doors. She could get to her locker faster from here and didn't have to deal with as many people. This Monday was a lot gloomier than most. As happy as she was to get so much weight off her chest by telling her friends the truth, it seemed worse having to live a lie when someone knew about it. At school, she couldn't wear her makeup the way she wanted, or dress in the clothes she preferred, or go to the bathroom she wanted to. It might seem like small things, but for someone in her position, they meant a lot.

She nearly tripped when someone suddenly jumped on her from the back. Vinny wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn't intend for her to almost fall but he could get too excited at times. "I'm mad at you." He muttered, "Why'd you keep this from me?" 

Devin smiled softly, "Sorry. I was just scared, I guess. You can't tell anyone, though, okay? I can't have my dad finding out."

"Yeah, I know." Vinny let go of her, walking alongside her up the stairs. "Ryan beat that into my head. Are you gonna stay after tomorrow to watch him and the others try out for the talent show?"

"I can't. I have to ride the bus this week. Plus I've got so much shit to do at home." She replied.

"Yeah, I feel you. My brother's been blackmailing me into doing all his chores." 

"I didn't know you had a brother."

Vinny seemed uncomfortable with the subject, muttering, "Yeah, but he's nothin' like me."

"Is he older than you?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's a senior. I have a younger sister too that's the same age as Ryan's sister. They're both pains though." He thought it was best to change the topic as they walked down to their lockers. "Are you going to the game on Friday?"

"Probably not. I'm saving up all my good will with my dad to go to Chris' on Saturday. He's starting to get a little less paranoid, though, so maybe I'll manage it." Devin glanced up when she saw someone taller passing by in her peripheral vision. She gently smiled at Chris as he looked over at her. "Hey. Are things any better with your girlfriend?"

"I told you not to worry about that." He replied.

"You didn't answer the question. Judging by the look on your face, they aren't. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause trouble-"

"Devin," Chris set his hand on her shoulder delicately. "It's okay. I've known you a Hell of a lot longer than her. You matter more, and she was actually mad at me before you came over. She just needed an excuse to be mad, but I found out later that she blew up at me for a totally different reason. Stop stressing about it, okay?" 

She sighed, "Alright."

Of course she still felt guilty about it. Ricky had told her, and everyone else, that he had a bad feeling about Gaia. Ryan seemed to agree, but even if she is bad, she had a strong hold on Chris' emotions. When they were getting along well, he was happy as can be. Now, that they're in their first big fight, he's extremely upset. It's like there's a storm cloud hanging over his head.

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Well, maybe one of the few goods things that came out of Chris' bad mood was they finally got him back for lunch. It'd been awhile since he stayed on campus. Strangely, Ryan-Ashley and Josh were gone. They'd be mad if they found out they missed a rare sight like this. You can bet your ass Ashley was ecstatic to finally be able to see Chris again and have a full conversation with him.

"Something's bugging you?" Ryan muttered to Ricky.

He sighed, glancing across the courtyard to Ryder, who was currently sitting on the ground alone. Even as shitty as a person as he was, it was pretty cruel to force anyone to be a loner. "I know you don't like Ryder, but he's always alone. That's how we all became friends, because we were the loners." He said.

"So, what?" He scoffed, "You want us to befriend that psycho? Have you heard some of the things people say about him?"

Ricky glared at him, "Not all the rumors are true. Some of them, yeah, but not all of it. He's never murdered anyone or anything like that."

"How do you know?" He replied.

"Because if anyone at this school was going to murder someone, it'd be Devin." Chris stated.

She shrugged, "I can't argue with that, really."

"Ricky's right. I feel bad that he's always alone." Ash said, "Remember, when Nikki first started going here people spread rumors that he liked to kill small animals, which you guys know now he'd never do that."

Ryan sighed, "Fine. I'll give him a chance, for you, but one sign of bullshit and he has to go." 

"Thank youuu." Ricky hummed, getting up from the table. He headed over to where his secret love interest was sitting.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Ash asked.

"There's some bad history between our parents. That's all." He muttered. Ryan kept his mouth shut as Ricky returned, dragging the rumored convict with him. He continued to bite his tongue for the rest of lunch, which thankfully was only ten or so minutes.

Ryder still wasn't fully comfortable with being around other people. Not other people that accepted him, anyways. Aside from Ryan, they all had no problem being nice to him. It was... weird. Ricky was just happy he agreed to try to be a little better of a person in return. Believe it or not, people don't like you if you're constantly insulting them. He couldn't help it. It was just the way he was raised, but this little raccoon of his had faith he could change him.

Do people ever really change? It's a good question. Even Ricky wasn't fully sure if the answer was yes, but he wanted to believe it was. He wanted to be hopefully about something for once in his pessimistic life. Ryan just wasn't sure if this was the right thing to be open minded about. Not everything people said about Ryder was false, and he unfortunately knew that for a fact.

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A/N: Sorry for the short ass chapter but I couldn't manage to stretch this out anymore without adding a full other scene, and that would make it too long. 

Comment question: Which song would you like to see Ricky sing for the talent show? and Chris? (Both should be acoustic compatible)