Heather {RICKY BOWEN}

{ten}

"Thanksgiving"

Mia stared at Ricky for a while, not moving. It took a minute for his words to process, and she wasn't exactly sure she had heard him right. 

"I'm sorry, say that again?" 

Ricky laughed, not quite understanding that he had sent Mia's mind into overdrive. "I said, I like you. I have for a while. I needed a little to understand exactly what the weird feeling in my stomach was, but I get it now." 

Mia didn't answer, shifting her eyes to the ground as her stomach turned to goo, her knees threatening to follow. She felt Ricky's hands tighten their hold on her own. 

Mia lifted her head, her eyes slowly watering. "I'm sorry Ricky, I can't deal with this right now. I'm so sorry." 

Mia pulled her hands away and turned her back to the boy, starting to walk away. 

"Mia, what? I don't understand." Ricky shifted in place, running his hands through his hair. 

"Ricky, you can't go from not talking to me for two weeks to saying you like me as more than a friend. It doesn't work like that." Mia glanced once more behind her shoulder as she turned the corner to her house, noting with sad eyes Ricky had returned to inside the house. 

Her house was dark, her Mom had taken her grandparents back home and was probably spending the night there as Mia was supposed to be at Ashlyn's all night. 

It had taken all of her willpower to keep from breaking down in front of Ricky, but now that she was alone the tears streamed down her face at a steady pace. 

She had taken another step out of her shell, trying to become friends with the cast and crew again, and they brushed her off once more. 

Ricky's confession had completely derailed the girl's emotions, and she still wasn't sure how she felt about it.  She had never dealt with someone liking her, it was always her getting denied and heartbroken by people she liked. She hadn't admitted a crush since 7th grade, which is why she freaked out when Ashlynn and Ricky found out she liked EJ, though it didn't matter now as EJ was the last person on her mind at the moment. 

Mia wanted to call someone, but all the numbers she had were of people more or less involved in the situation. 

Hey, I don't know what happened tonight, but if you need to talk to someone please know I'm always here. 

Hey girlie, I know you said you were tired, but I can't help but feel like something is wrong. Please call me if something happened. 

Mia smiled slightly as two messages came through from Carlos and Ashlynn. It was nice to know that someone had noticed she wasn't at her best, even if she wasn't going to take them up on the offer. 

Mia's room was covered in drawings and paintings, the walls barely able to be seen beneath the tacked-up papers and canvases. Drawing had always been her escape, her mind traveled to the picture she was sketching and nothing else mattered while she had a paintbrush in her hand. 

It was why, when Monday morning came around, her floor was covered in half-colored pictures and semi-finished paintings, all of which seemed to reflect the grumpy mood displayed through Mia's body language. 

"Mia, I can give you a ride to school if you hurry up! I have a meeting at 8:45, so please come down now." 

Mia sighed as her mother's bathroom door closed again, setting the paintbrush she was using in the dirty cup on her easel and pulling a crewneck over her paint-covered t-shirt. It had been another weekend of ignoring her phone until it died and then ignoring it more. Ashlynn had been asking after her all weekend, even going as far as to call her mom to check if she was alive, and Mia secretly appreciated it. 

Mia tried her hardest to ignore the looks she was getting from some of the art kids, apparently, Mrs. Josnar had given them another project and they were worried about being removed from the musical program. Mia didn't really care if they were in it or not, but she knew that most of the Art club considered set design better for college applications. 

"Mia! Why were you ignoring me all weekend?" Mia jumped as Ashlynn pulled her aside after her art class. 

"My phone died, sorry." Mia pasted a smile on her face, not wanting Ash to pick out any weaknesses like she so often did. 

"Well, there is this thing called a phone charger you know." Ashlynn linked her arm with Mia, pulling her towards the auditorium. 

"Yea, I was in an art hole this weekend, I didn't touch my phone after getting home from your party." 

Ashlynn rolled her eyes, "Yea, yea. Listen, this week after dress rehearsals you should come over, I want to try out a new facemask recipe I got online." 

Mia smiled, letting the overactive red-head continue talking as they walked. She was more than happy to let her lead the conversation as long as Ash didn't ask more about Thanksgiving. 

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" 

Mia glanced up as Nini spoke, having not noticed the burnt space where the doors to the auditorium used to be. 

"It's ok, no one was hurt. There was a small fire over the holidays, and the sprinklers did their job."

Mia glanced at the rest of the group as Ms. Jenn spoke to a fire-fighter, their faces shocked as they took in the sight of the theater. 

"The show cannot go on" 

Mia gasped, not liking the tone of the fire-fighter. 

"The fire ripped through half your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets." 

Mia tuned out the rest of the conversation, realizing her months of work had been ruined in less than half an hour. 

Ashlynn grabbed Mia's hand, pulling her to the side when Mia tried to walk into the theater. 

"No, Ash I have to see what sets were ruined." Mia felt almost hysterical, Mrs. Josnar would never let her lead another project if this one was a failure. 

Mia didn't notice the rest of the group watching Ash pull her away. 

"No, Mia it's too dangerous to go in there, the fire-fighters will pull out anything that wasn't damaged." 

"No Ash, I spent months on those, I need to know which ones were burnt so I can fix them. Please." 

"Girl, your sets weren't the most important thing that got ruined. Did you hear about the costumes? They're all gone." Kourtney scoffed, "I did all that on my own and it only took me two weeks. All my hard work is gone, and I don't even have an Art Club to help me replace them." 

"Kourtney, you don't get it-" Ash tried to step in, but was cut off.

"No, Ashlynn I think we do get it. Mia over there thinks she's better than us, never joining in on our plans and taking credit for herself. Newsflash girlie, you're not the most important part of the show." 

Mia blinked, her eyes welling up. 

"What did she ever do to you? Why are you attacking her like this?" 

"She stole Nini's Boyfriend and ex-boyfriend." Kourtney crossed her arms, staring at Mia as though she was the worst person alive. 

"What?" Mia and Nini both exclaimed. 

"You heard me. Right before you broke up with EJ I heard him talking about Blondie and how she likes him. He seemed pretty happy about it. And that was after you were parading Ricky's sweater all over school and drooling over him in rehearsals."