My One & Only

Ch 5: Frustration Nation

Ricky clawed at the lunch table as he glared daggers at the two a few feet in front of him.

He'd been watching them for the past 15 minutes or so, and it seemed as if he had no intention of stopping. Red had been checking on Ricky in between conversations with Kourtney and Ashlyn. When Red had enough of Ricky's scowl, he ducked over to his ear and nudged him.

"Dude, I'm afraid if you stare any longer, you might actually break the fork you've been holding for five minutes."

Ricky glanced down at the utensil in his hands and loosened his grip on it when he saw he dented the plastic. "Sorry, I guess I have to release my anger out on something."

"Thank god you chose a fork and not his face."

"I'd love to take it out on his face."

Red gives him a warning look. "Ricky, don't."

Ricky shook his head. "I'm not, at least not here. No need to get the school involved."

"I know you don't like the guy. Hell, I don't either, but I feel like you've hated him more than usual lately. Why is that?"

Ricky turned his eyes away from Red down to his plate, knowing Red would be able to see through him when he replied. He had kept Nini's promise of not telling anyone, but it had been bugging him. He desperately wanted to bring this up to someone, but he had no idea where to begin, how she'd react, or worse, how Jay would react. He despised how useless he felt and that she for whatever reason chose to go back to him.

"It's nothing...I just can't stand him with her."

Red smirks. "Maybe that's because you're head over heels in love with her."

Ricky blushed as he lightly punched Red's upper arm. "Shut up."

Red rubbed his arm, smiling knowingly. "What? You know I'm right. Instead of moping around and longing for a taken person, how about you go and date someone? It'd take your mind off of her. Who knows? Maybe you'll find someone that'll help you move on from her forever."

Ricky scoffed at the idea. "I don't know. I've never dated before and wouldn't even know where to look."

"I'm sure some lucky guy or girl will cross paths with you. You're a really kind and good looking guy, so it shouldn't be that hard. Also, I've seen some people check you out, but you never noticed."

Ricky was genuinely surprised by that. "Really?"

"Yes, dude. There's plenty of fish in the sea; you just gotta go out and search for it."

At first, Ricky was going to reject the idea again. But when he looked back over at Nini pretending to be happy with that asswipe, he thought that maybe Red was onto something. He tears his eyes away from that sham of a couple and doesn't turn back for the rest of the lunch period. He was right; it was time to move on.

***

Nini giddily skips to the bench of a local park that she and Ricky went to often, or she guesses she should say used to go to often. Jay was busy with practice for the next two hours, so Nini had taken advantage of this free time and asked Ricky to hang out after so many weeks of not talking directly. He of course agreed to come. She was dying to catch up with him and hear about the other's lives as well.

She sat on the bench with a bright smile on her face, looking left and right for him to appear.

"Looking for someone?"

She jumps when she hears his voice behind her and smiles when she meets his eye. "You could've given me a heart attack for sneaking up on me like that."