Hopeless | Stellaride

Chapter 8: Suspension

After the whole homework thing on Friday, Ricky has been thinking of other things to get a rise out of Stella and Kelly. So he's been being rude and cold to them both. Sometimes starting arguments over nothing. He has been downright rude to the firehouse everyone except Chief and Violet. He's legitimately scared of Chief though and he knows that Violet just lost her boyfriend. He may be an asshole (something he will admit to) but he's not heartless. He barely talks to either of them but unlike everyone else, he keeps his words short and polite. His rudeness has been getting on Herrmann's nerves especially but he hasn't snapped yet. Ricky was getting a little annoyed by it he thought for sure Herrmann would be the one to snap.

Ricky has also been skipping classes and being rude to teachers at school. But he turns in his homework and is good at it. Despite his piss-poor attitude, he's raised his grades to a B. Anyone who knows Ricky will tell you he is smart just rather focus on things he thinks he's better at. Like Hockey. Schoolwork is just something he needs so he can continue hockey. And Ricky let Kelly help him with his history project that's due Monday. He's almost done with it too. He just has to finish the essays. For his mom's side he's writing about his grandpa, and for his dad's Kelly insisted on him writing about him so he could get to know him better.

Ricky walks through the halls to get to his 4th-period class. He hasn't been talking to his friends. He reached out multiple times but neither Jt nor Kat have responded. They just walked away, Coach hasn't said anything about it. He's not really sure if Coach knows. But he does know he's really fucked up this time. Ricky is starting to think he'll never be able to fix this. He sees JT coming towards him, his same annoyed look when he notices Ricky.

"Stop avoiding me please," Ricky says stopping Jt before he could step around him

"No Maverick. You said the one thing I thought you of all people would never say. What if I said something about Lenny and Rory? You wouldn't be happy then." James says glaring at him stepping forward.

"No, I wouldn't." Ricky sighs stepping backwards.

"What if I said it's your fault Lenny got separated from you?"

"Shut up."

"No, or that Rory is better off without you in her life." His words come out like ice. He barely has time to react before Ricky tackles him.

They roll around throwing punches at each other for a few minutes. They were yelling at each other but neither paid attention to the other's words. Too busy taking their anger out on their best friend. They get pulled off of each other by a teacher and Jt's brother. It's at that moment Ricky realizes what he did. Looking at his best friend's face bloodied with tears rolling down his cheek. He doubts he looks any better. He looks around at the crowd that has surrounded them Kat runs through the crowd to her brothers. The world felt like it was moving so slowly. He walks with the teacher to the nurse before getting dragged to the principal's office.

He sits down staring at the floor alone got a while before James sits down next to him. His face was cleaned up and he was holding an ice pack to his face. James looks at him before laughing. Ricky looks at him confused as he zones back in.

"We're idiots," James says.

"Yeah. James?  I'm sorry I'm a jealous idiot. We come from the same background but you have everything I have ever wanted." Ricky says looking back at the ground.

"I know. And I shouldn't have said that stuff about Lenny and Rory. Sorry." James stops for a minute looking at the door in front of them. "My dad is gonna be pissed. He's probably gonna bench us."

"Worth it as long as we're good now?" Ricky asks a worried look on his face as he moves his ice pack down.

"We make up in weird ways. Yeah, we're good Mav." He smiles. The last time they had an argument they made up after getting into a fight with a guy on the other team during a game.