Ballad of a Broken Boy

Lie, Lie, Lie

The next two weeks passed in a blur. I visited my dad every other day, spent my time at school working hard to catch up on the work I had missed, and spent the days I wasn't visiting my dad hanging out with Kourtney and Ricky. Not at the same time, of course. Kourtney would die if she found out I was sort-of friends with Ricky. I say sort of because things were still a little awkward after the whole makeout session.

I still can't believe that happened; I mean, of course Ricky is gorgeous. I knew that even when I hated him. But never in a million years would I dream of doing anything like that with him. And I'm even more surprised that he would do any of that with me. Even after he told me all that's tuff about him always liking me (which I was still struggling to understand), I couldn't understand why he would want to. I'm just me; plain old, boring Nini Salazar-Roberts who talks in a vague British accent when she's nervous. I'm not even hot... not like all the other girls. So why would he like me?

I wanted to visit my dad every day, but he told me not to. He said that he didn't want me to distance myself from my friends for him, because then when he died I would have no one to go to. I understood where he was coming from, but I still desperately wanted to spend more time with him. I wanted to make up what was lost, and what I would never be able to get back.

"Hey, Neeners? Are you okay?" Kourt asked me, running up to me in the hall. It was lunch, and I was on my way to the library. When you're in mostly AP classes, four days off school means a lot of catching up.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired, and I'm really busy. I have loads of work to do. I can't believe how much I missed over four days." I said, exasperatedly.

"You never actually told me why you were off those days... was it because of what your moms told you?" she asked me. She had called me while I was staying at Ricky's, and I had given her the full story, minus the part about me being with him, of course. I think she assumed I just avoided my moms, and I was planning to allow her to think that until I was forced to tell her the truth.

"Well... I was just too stressed about the whole dad thing. I finally went back home on Tuesday, and-"

"Went back home? You mean you weren't at home? Where were you then?" she asked me. I froze.

"Um, I was... I was staying at home- I just avoided my moms so much it felt like I wasn't." I tried to tell her, but she wasn't stupid enough to believe that for a second.

"Sure, whatever. Where were you really staying?" she asked.

"At a friend's house." I told her. She frowned.

"I thought I was your only friend?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to tell me who this other friend is?"

"Nope."

"Oh, okay. This isn't over, though." She said warningly. I nodded, relieved that, for the moment, she was letting it go.

"Okay. Well, I got home on Tuesday and talked it through with momma D. Then she took me to... she took me to see my dad." I told her. Her eyes widened.

"Oh my God! I can't believe you didn't tell me all this!" she cried. I smiled softly.

"Yeah, I know. I've just been so busy, catching up with school and visiting him every other day... and the times I was hanging out with you, it just never came up." I shrugged.

"Okay. Well, you can fill me in now, I guess. Although I am a little hurt, Neens. I thought I was your best friend; you should have told me all this." She said. I felt guilty; for once Kourtney wasn't being sarcastic and sassy, so I knew I had hurt her deeply.