Love is a Broken Window | Cricky [C]

1 | Excuses

| Chris |

"Ricky? Riiiccckkyyy?" Ryan chirped as he waved his hand in front of Ricky's eyes.

He jumped a bit in his seat, shaking himself back to reality. "Sorry. I was just thinking." Ricky mumbled.

I internally sighed. He's always "thinking" these days. I know exactly what "thinking" entails for him. The others might not realize it. He's flashing back, to whatever happened that morning, or the night before, or in his sleep. Whatever was haunting him this time. Living his life, he finds a new nightmare every hour.

Speak of the Devil, Jani walked into the room. He leaned over the back of the couch, with his obnoxiously bright hair falling off his shoulder as he did so. Jani put his arm over Ricky, but didn't dare crack a smile. He ran through the motions of a relationship, without the emotion.

"I'm heading home, Babe." He said.

Ricky glanced down. His eyes had novocaine written in them as he sweetly replied, "Okay. Drive safe. Text me when you get home so I know you made it. I love you."

Jani didn't say I love you in return. He kissed Ricky briefly, then stood up straight and turned for the door. We all heard him leave, his car engine fading out in the distance. All it left was a moment of awkward silence, in which we had to be reminded of this bullshit. At least we don't live it constantly like Ricky.

Balz leaned forward and grabbed his drink off of the table. "I thought you two were living together."

"We are. Well, he spends the night and he pays half the rent at my place, and he has a lot of his clothes and makeup there, but he has to wait for the contract to run out on his old place. He still goes back there to see his roommate and make his landlord think he's still living there." Ricky explained, all of it obvious excuses.

Sorry if I sound a little cold, but something about that all just doesn't seem right. From the start, I never liked Jani. There's just been something about him that's off. The others aren't overly fond of Jani either. Ricky cares about him - maybe to a fault - so we bite our tongues. And, we've bitten our tongues for a long four years now.

I was a little pissed Jani even came over tonight. You don't see Kylie around, or Allie, or Ryan-Ashley! Because they know guys night means no girlfriends, or boyfriends in this case. Jani has friends of his own. I'm just convinced he wants to snoop.

The five of us sat around Ryan's house. He had a nice, big leather couch in a horseshoe shape. A table was in the middle, a TV in front of us, but we weren't paying much attention to it. We were all having a good time before Jani showed up. Even though he's gone, the energy is dead now.

"Is his name on the lease for your place?" I asked curiously.

"No, just mine." Ricky mumbled.

Four years and Jani can't even bring himself to commit to having a place with him! Fuck, I hate that bastard.

"Eh, at least you won't have to worry about it if you break up." Balz shrugged.

"Like they ever will." Ryan chuckled.

Ricky blushed, smiling a bit. I don't know if Ryan meant that in a good way though.

"He has to run out the lease on his old place first." Ricky replied. "That's all. Plus he lives on the other side of town. Moving takes a lot."

"Yeah, a lot of commitment." Ghost mumbled.

I assumed I was the only one that heard that, because Ghost was right next to me. Unfortunately I was wrong.

"Um, e-excuse me." He muttered, getting up from the couch and running off.

"Waita go." Balz said to Ghost.

In response, Ghost stuck out his tongue. Balz then flicked a piece of popcorn at him, and he flinched back. Ghost totally freaked when it got in his hair and started shacking his head like a dog.

"Ew ew ew. Butter is not good for hair." Ghost complained. "I just took a shower this afternoon!" He whined.

"Stop being such a drama queen." I chucked, giving him a gentle shove.

"Oh! I'm the drama queen?!"

"You're definitely the queen." Ryan snickered.

We all laughed, even Ghost. I stood up from the couch, grabbing any empty dishes as I did so.

"I'll be back. I'm going to go talk to Ricky." I said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Balz asked.

I sighed. "We're about to find out."

"We'll send a search party if you're not back in fifteen minutes." He responded. "Hey get me another Rockstar while you're up."

"We're out." Ryan stated.

"Ugh, fine. Monster then."

I shook my head and laughed at their antics. Then I headed towards the kitchen, feeling nervous when I already could see Ricky's shadow on the hardwoods. I hope this goes okay.

A/N: I'm using Kyle Skellington as the base for Jani's apperience, but in no way am I trying to make Kyle out to be an asshole or anything. I'm just using him as the physical reference for Jani's character. - Nøna