More Than a First Kiss

7

Ricky's POV

In the last few weeks of school Lily and I have actually gotten a lot closer. I wish the rest of my friends would just give her a chance, then I'd be able to tell them about her's and I'd friendship. I mean the other day Natalie accused Lily of being the one who stole the harness. Seriously!? Their show was way better produced than ours, why would she need to steal our harness. When I mentioned this to Lily she looked genuinely hurt by the accusation.

Tonight I was thinking about asking her to be my girlfriend. Who knows, maybe this one will last. Just as I get ready to leave school Lily calls me. "Hey!" I excitedly answer.

"Someone sounds happy," she comments, "I hope we're still hanging out tonight, or do you have new plans with your friends?" Her tone is conflicting, on one hand, she sounds like she's joking and on the other, she sounds snarky. I did this once, I had been blowing everyone off the last few weeks, so one day I decided to cancel on Lily to hang out with everyone else at Ashlyn's place. Lily seemed fine with it but has been subtly dropping hints that it hurt her feelings. Which I guess I can understand. Sometimes, during Sophomore year, when I was Nini, she'd ditch me to hang out with her theatre friends and it stung.

"I promise I made no other plans. And I'm really sorry about ditching that night, I just felt so guilty about the way I had been ditching my friends as well, you know?" I try to explain.

"It's ok Ricky, I'm only kidding. I admire your loyalty towards your friends," she assures me, I smile at her compliment. Lately, she's the only person who points out my positive traits more than the negative ones. Even Mr. Mazzara, my teacher, called me out this year. I mean just last week Ashlyn called me willfully oblivious, basically insinuating I'm selfish and mask that by purposefully not knowing what's going on in my friends' lives. She didn't say the explanation and she claimed to be joking.

The context of this 'joke' was when people were talking about how there seemed to be something going on between EJ and Gina. I mentioned how I thought they were only friends because that night in Big Red's basement EJ said nothing was going on. Carlos said I was blind and then Ashlyn said. "He's not blind, just willfully oblivious. He didn't notice when Big Red and I were having problems and Biggie's his best friend," She laughed after what she said. So did Carlos, Big Red, Kourtney, Nini, and even Seb.

If I'm being honest, it hurt. She basically called me a bad friend. Big Red never stood up for me and he didn't even look like he thought she was wrong. So here I am, hanging out with who I thought was our arch-nemesis. When really, she's just misunderstood.

"I'll see you at the park in 5?" she clarifies. I confirm the plans and hang up.

"Hey, Ricky!" I hear Big Red shout behind me. When I turn around he's running over.

"What's up?" I ask as he stops in front of me.

"Just wanted to see if you'd like a ride home, rather than skating there," he kindly offers. Seeing as I'm not going home I can't accept this offer, "I'm all good. I've got a shortcut so it won't be as long," I lie. I don't think I've lied to Big Red this often, ever.

"Ok, no worries. You wanna hang out tomorrow? My mom just got me this new game it's," I cut him off before he can finish. "Actually I'm pretty busy this weekend," I avoid his eyes only slightly. "The first weekend of summer?" he clarifies.

"Yeah, my dad has me going through a bunch of my old kid stuff. He wants to condense as much as we can and needs my help deciding what would be ok to throw away and necessary to keep," I'm getting way too good at this. "Oh, alright. See you later then?"

"Yeah, see you later," I say as I get on my skateboard to leave. Waving at my friend as I skate away.

When I get to the park I notice Lily already there. She's really good at being first to places. "Hey Lily," I shout to her. She smiles as she sees me.

I take a deep breath, preparing myself before I get to her. "Hey, Rick!"

"So, I wanted to talk to you about something," I say as we both sit down on the bench.

"Yeah?" she smiles. I take another deep breath and turn to face her more.

"These last few weeks have been a lot of fun and I was wondering if you'd like to be my girlfriend?" I notice after I finish her face lights up.

"I would love to!" With that response, I lean in to kiss her and she happily leans in as well. The kiss was nice, not like how it was with Nini, but nice. For the next few hours, we just walk around and talk about everything.

At around seven we decide to go get some food. The closest place is Slices. Part of me wants to find somewhere else but Lily convinces me to just go there. "Ricky, you'll have to tell your friends about us eventually. Why not just do it casually? It's more likely not to be as much drama that way." Realizing she's right I take her hand and walk over to Slices. What I didn't expect when we got there was for EJ and Gina to be leaving at the same time.

I hear them both say my name as we get closer. "What are you doing?" Gina asks.

"Um.. guys, I would like to introduce you to my new girlfriend," I look over at Lily, she nods encouragingly.

"Girlfriend!?" EJ comments.

"Yes, girlfriend," Lily defends.

"How could you do this to Ashlyn?" Gina replies.

"Do what? Date someone I like," I argue. I notice both EJ and GIna getting visibly more angry with me. "Ashlyn is going to be so hurt when she finds out Ricky," EJ adds. Why should I care? Ashlyn has never really been my friend, she was always Nini's friend. And now she's Big Red's girlfriend. "You know, your co-star," Gina continues, "The person who only made sure you were ok after you fell, ignoring her own pain in the process," she snaps. EJ takes her hand softly as if to tell her to calm down. Gina takes a breath and calls Kourtney's name. "Yeah?" Kourtney responds. "You should come out here," she glares at me.

When Kourtney comes out she immediately notices Lily and me together she crosses her arms and glares at me. "Of course," She looks at Gina and EJ, "Am I the only one who isn't surprised?"

"What?" EJ asks.

"I saw how you were looking at her during Something There, and I heard you talking to her before the show." She comments.

"You know I used to think you were a good guy. After Carlos's Quinceañera I started to think otherwise but when I heard what you did for Carlos and Seb and I did my best to forget about what you did to me. But now that what you're doing is destined to hurt my best friend, I'd prefer it if you stayed away from me," Gina explains. EJ develops more of a confused glare at me throughout her speech. "What did you do to her?" I hear Nini say from behind us.