Cruel Summer | Ricky Bowen

BONUS: GWEN'S TRUTHS

Gwen has stood by Raya for most of her life ever since she rescued her from a group of boys that were harassing her for not playing dolls with the other girls on the playground but rather, she had her late brother's toy cars with her. She always failed to mention the part that Ricky played there when she would tell the story to AJ or just about anyone.

Gwen Petersen didn't like Ricky Bowen, that was something the aforementioned boy was sure of, and she expressed it so much after Raya told the band that Ricky used her as a distraction and after he sang Anyone Else for his audition last semester, assuming that he was singing the song that he told Raya that he wrote for her to Nini, his now ex-girlfriend.

But the air was cleared between the two of them during one intermission when Ricky Bowen had been looking for Raya Caswell, but instead had bumped into Gwen herself.

"You were great out there, Ricky," she told him with a genuine smile on her face. "I didn't think theater was in your blood, but it is!"

Uncertain, all he could say was, "Uh, thank you."

The blonde girl chuckled. "That doesn't sound so certain."

Ricky shrugged his shoulders, before he questioned her, "Why do you hate me so much?"

Gwen felt her smile fall. "What do you mean, Ricky?"

"Ever since Raya forgave me, you just sounded like you, I don't know, want to push me into an ocean if you could."

"Ricky, you can't fault me for not wanting to see my best friend hurt the way she did in the past few months," Gwen told him as she glanced up at him. "And I can't fault you for being confused, so I just... I..."

"You what exactly?"

"I dismissed everything you went through last semester and I am so sorry," she told him, her voice quivering. "Your parents divorcing, your Mom bringing her new boyfriend to your first show, Raya failing to tell you that she never left, Nini dumping you for EJ?"

"Gwen, it's alright—"

"But it isn't," she protested, placing her hands on his shoulder. "And look, I just... I didn't exactly want Raya to keep pining over a quitter or for her to settle for less but it just made her a quitter and made you settle for less. Not that Nini is less, but more like you don't deserve someone who will love you more than she ever will."

Ricky pursed his lips. "What are you trying to tell me, Gwen? I'm kind of getting worried for you here."

"I'm saying that you should try and talk to Raya again," she slowly told him, gently squeezing his shoulders. "But only when you're ready."

Probably more like before the real afterparty starts later.

"So I have your blessing, I guess?"

With a smile on her face, Gwen told the boy, "You have all of our blessings, Bowen. Congrats on winning the whole family over, again."

Ricky could feel tears beginning to form in his eyes before he engulfed Gwen into a hug, being careful with his cast, before whispering, "Thank you so much, Gwen. This means a lot."

The girl only smiled as she relished the hug— Raya wasn't wrong about him giving great hugs, so she'll give them that— before she pulled away, telling him, "It's not a problem."

"Two minutes to places," Natalie Bagley told Ricky as she went past them.

Gwen let out a quiet laugh. "You gotta go, Bowen. Beast up."

Ricky shot her a look, almost laughing as he said, "You're horrible."

"And you're laughing, so I consider this as an absolute win." The girl quirked up a smile. "Break a leg, Ricky," she said before walking off to find Sammy or Julius and Riri.

It's not really a part of Operation Rickaya or Plan: Ask Ricky Bowen to Be My Boyfriend (which is Raya's plan) but Gwen had figured that maybe telling Ricky that she was sorry for how dismissive she was to him would pave its way there (and she had been planning on apologizing to Ricky anyway but didn't think through it but, still) and it could encourage Ricky to actually talk to Raya knowing that he has everyone's blessing.

Did it hurt her? She'll admit that it does.

Is she in love with Richard Bowen? No, she isn't and never will be as nice and cute he is.

Is she in love with Raya Caswell? The answer would be she was. Was being the keyword.

For a long time, Gwen Petersen was in love with Raya Caswell and she stood by as her best friend— her bosom friend, and she watched as she hopelessly pined over Ricky Bowen, as she fell in love with him, as she broke into pieces because of him, as she pieced herself together with struggles— it was hard to see the girl she had been in love with suffer, and it angered her that the one who could put her back together again was the same person who broke her in the first place.

But she'd rather see Raya be happy and in love with someone who isn't her than see her be miserable in the corner of a room with a bottle of something in hand (a reason why she despises Lily had to be because she started a small drinking problem for Raya).

Gwen took Spring Break as a time away from her friends, seeing as her parents didn't let her go to New York with the rest of the Drama Club, and she realized that not being with Raya in the way that she wanted wasn't as terrible as she had thought it would be, but it was much worse if they both drifted apart if she knew that she had a somewhat of a vendetta against Ricky, the first real friend that Raya had in her life.

And Raya wasn't the only girl in the world, she could hear Antoine say over and over again.

How it was Antoine, of all people, to find out about her feelings was beyond Gwen but she appreciated the fact that he kept his promise of taking the secret down to his grave with him a lot more seriously than she thought.

Raya was the dream for Gwen.

Was.

But she has to go back to reality and not wallow over a fantasy.