𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒 𝐀𝐆𝐎.
EJ AND RICKY WERE still lying to themselves, they'd been doing this 'we hate each other' routine so long that it was hard to convince themselves that they didn't completely despise each other anymore. This was one of the first times they had hung out together, Ricky had been the one to suggest it after weeks of absent-minded friendly repartee, the two had actually become fond of each other's company.
"What am I doing here, Bowen?"
"So now that we're," Ricky used air quotes to say, "friends...what do we do?"
"I don't know," The other boy shrugged, "I guess we do friend stuff." Ricky still gave him a confused look. "Like talk and stuff, you know and whatever it is you do with Big Red."
"Okay...what's it like being a senior?"
EJ rolled his eyes, he almost laughed at Ricky's question, but he decided to go with it. "It's cool, I guess. What about you? How's it going with Nini?"
"Different...but a good different, I think. It's more real. Before, we didn't really know what we were doing."
"And you do now? So what are you doing that makes your relationship so special, are you doing...things?"
"Maybe that's none of your business."Ricky shot back quickly, perhaps too quickly as he sat up straight.
"I'm making it my business."
"Just, don't."
"Okay...sorry." EJ put his hands up in defense, falling onto Ricky's bed with a drawn-out sigh, "I guess we just won't talk about it."
So they ended up not talking about anything at all, Ricky switched into the TV and after a few moments flicking through random channels, they decided on Netflix━some random movie about birds in a box.
They weren't even really watching, more invested in their phones as they tapped away. Ricky was texting Nini, attacking her for getting him into this situation in the first place. EJ was, of course, scrolling through Instagram.
"Hey," Ricky spoke up, "you should have my phone number..."
"And why would I want that?"
"We're being friends now, aren't we? And friends have each other's phone numbers," Ricky sighed, taking EJ's phone out his hands, he tugged hard to get it out of his fingers. "Don't worry, I wouldn't look for your dick pics or anything."
"You don't know I do that," The younger boy gave him a look that made him break out into laughter, "Okay, I do but I have nothing to be ashamed of. You probably do though, Jesus, I pity the poor motherfucker that has to go through you and Nini's vanilla sexts..."
"You said you wouldn't bring that up," Ricky rolled his eyes at him.
"You're not gonna yourself as something stupid like Dicky, are you?" EJ looked up at him, he tapped his digits into his phone.
"Of course not. I'm going with a simple Richard." Ricky smiled, he held the phone up, "See?"
"Well, that's boring." The other boy clicked off Ricky's phone for him, he gave him a toothy, polished smile, "Wait until you see what my name is."
"Call me later tonight then."
𝐍𝐎𝐖.
"Dad!" Ricky called as he entered the house, "I'm back from rehearsals!" That was the excuse he used to stay out late at EJ's, his dad was pretty chill about all their musical stuff so he found it easy to come up with something that Miss Jenn had them do.
He was surprised to find Mike Bowen dressed up, in a polished suit and tie, already facing the doorway appearing to be waiting for him. Ricky felt a pang of guilt, it felt like he already knew.
Ricky left EJ's house straight after, with nothing said and nothing more than what he'd given him. EJ told him that it would be easier if he left that way every time, to have no attachments.
And, Ricky was happy with that. He was the one who suggested that they do this whole thing anyway, so of course, he was...
"Hey Rick," He greeted him, his smile was shaky, he was more nervous than him. "I've got to run out so I thought it'd be a good idea for you to go to Todd's house a little early."
It was a Friday and the last after-sex activity he had in mind was going to visit Odd and Annoying Todd's house. Usually, he went on a Saturday and stay until late Sunday, when his Dad would pick him up but having to bear him for two days was bad enough.
"Can't I stay alone?" The answer was a firm no.
Still, his dad looked in a rush. The circles under his eyes were darker, he drew out a long sigh as he waited for an answer. Ricky thought it was best not to argue anymore, his father already looked like he had enough.
Which is why he found himself wasting away on Todd's couch on Friday night, instead of wasting hours swiping on his phone and wasting away even more on the PlayStation.
"Do you know when my mom will be back?" He questioned from the couch, staring into the ceiling, he could have sworn he was seeing stars after a couple of minutes. He was probably getting flashbacks from earlier...
"No, she's stuck at some work thing, she won't be back until later. You're not allergic to quinoa, are you?" Todd spoke from the kitchen━his regular spot as he mixed a bowl of lettuce. "Your mom didn't mention any allergies."
"No, unless you count wearing tights," He chuckled, sinking himself further into the couch.
"Good," Todd replied, "What happened today that's made you so happy?"
Shit━he'd noticed the unusual rise of his enthusiasm.
"Nothing," Ricky lied, reigning in the smile that came when he thought about it. "Just had a good day at school today, aced the math test."
"Really?" Todd didn't buy it, he doubted a good calculus score or 'good day' would make him change his personality towards him so quickly.
This was the same kid that refused to look at him when they first met. But, it wasn't his place to squeeze answers out of him so he nodded, "Okay...I'll be done with the food in twenty minutes."
Ricky wasn't exactly dying to eat whatever vegetarian options he had come up with today. Luckily, a distraction came in the form of a call. His ringtone played loudly, he pulled out his phone to see the contact displayed on the screen: bj asswell 🙊
"Who's that?" Todd questioned, his voice bubbling with curiosity, "Is it someone important? Anyone, I need to talk to?"
"No, not at all," He laughed to himself before registering what was happening. He turned to Todd, "Do you have a bathroom?"
"Yeah, no problem, just down the hall on the left." Ricky followed his instructions and went down the corridor, waiting until he was safely locked inside to answer the call. He pressed the green button quickly.
"Ricky," EJ spoke into his ears, "I was just calling to apologize."
"For what?"
"Being all get your shoes off the bed earlier. I, um, don't usually treat my...friends like that. But you understand..."
"Aww, you don't have to apologise for that. But, friends?" EJ could Ricky's smirk through the phone, "Is that what we're officially calling this now?"
"You know what I mean. Don't patronize me now, Bowen. I'm trying to make it up to you here."
"Make it up to me? How?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you?" He heard EJ's low chuckle through the phone, he could already imagine the older boy next to him, "Take off your trousers."
"You should know that I'm on the same side as you, Ricky. I want us to be friends," Todd began the conversation when he'd finished setting the table.
It was a standard meal for Todd, a rich-looking meal on a rich-looking table. He could see why his mom was attracted to him, he was different from his dad in every single way.
"I know," He sighed, "And I'm sorry. I know I've been an asshole...but today I actually had a pretty good day."
Todd started the conversation when they sat down together at the table. "Did anything interesting happen today?"
He could see there was something on his mind.
"Uh, well," The young guitarist stabbed a fork into his soggy quinoa salad, pushing aside the avocado for a piece of tuna. "Nothing much, I just had a really good rehearsal."
"Oh, a really good rehearsal is what's making you all...giddy?" His chewing was loud and he spoke between bites, "I don't buy it. You're usually stepping up to insult my cooking..."
"Yeah, sorry about that, Mike Bowen's a disaster in the kitchen, it's become a habit."
There were more awkward stabs at the food, the sound of the cutlery screeching as it scratched along the porcelain. Todd thought he should say something, he didn't know a lot about communicating with kids, Ricky was the closest thing he had to a child and he was still getting used to his company.
He cleared his throat to fill in the silence, "What's that stain on your shirt?"
"Hmm," Ricky looked down at his arm, turning it over to examine his sweatshirt, "Wha━oh shit."
There was still a patch from when he'd wiped his mouth after...EJ.
"Food!" He blurted out quickly, "It's a food stain..." Todd highly doubted it, food stains didn't look like that.
"I didn't wanna bring this up, but..." Todd smiled into his wine glass, he took a sip before starting to talk again. He watched as Ricky reached over for his drink, "I heard you in the bathroom."
"Fuck," His face heated up, it was visibly obvious as his cheeks turned a bright red. He ran a hand along his face, speaking through gaps in his fingers, "I'm so fucking sorry..."
Todd wasn't even trying to hide his laughter, he was on a full-on cackle. He had a hefty and deep laugh, it was so loud that it made Ricky feel even worse.
"Holy shit━how much did you hear?"
"I'm pretty sure I heard enough when you started yelling...EJ? Was that it?" He took another bite of his food before going on, "I'm no expert but, isn't that a guy's name?"
"Um, yeah." To be honest, he didn't really care about what Todd thought, it would just be another thing to add to the list. "Is there a problem with that?"
"No," The answer came quickly with a smile, "I don't think it's a problem at all. As long as you're treating each other right and you're being careful...I'm not your mom or dad, of course, it's just my opinion, but I think it's totally cool."
"I'm going to choose to ignore the fact you just said totally cool, but thank you..."
"So, are you going to tell me about him?"
"No."
"That's okay, I'm not gonna force you to tell me," Todd gave him a disappointed smile. "I know I'm not exactly your favorite person, it's okay if you don't want to talk to me about these kinds of things."
"Yeah, I don't think so..." Ricky continued playing with his food, he thought he was content with letting the minutes pass by but it was getting too awkward after the second scratch of metal on porcelain.
"All you need to know is we're still working on the whole thing," He began, ignoring the way Todd's head shot up to listen in excitement, "I'm not really sure what we are but it's really new and we're just experimenting..."
The door clicked and it was a sound that they both knew was the door unlocking, a few seconds passed and it opened. Lynne Bowen was finally here, she smiled at them as she dropped her handbag on the kitchen table.
"Look at you two," She didn't think she'd ever see anything like it, "Don't let me stop you...what were you talking about?"
"Ricky was just telling me about school," Todd watched the young man's posture fall as he lied for him, "Something about a math test and some science experiment thing?"
"Yeah, just school..." Ricky mouthed a quick "thank you" before turning back to his mom, who made herself welcome on the table.