Intersecting Lives

Chapter Four

“So what now?”

I playfully glared at Ricky after I attempted to resume back to the algebra lesson, which obviously failed and resulted in another cheesy moment between us.

“Well,” I sighed, “nothing I guess. Since tutoring you failed and it’s now done with, I can leave.”

“Already?” the bad boy pouted dejectedly.

Not this again, I moaned internally.

Luckily, I was able to resist his puppy dog face.

(Trust me; this took a lot of experience.)

“Yeah, what else is there for me to do?” I replied.

He sat there anxiously trying to kill tile to make a stay a little while longer.

I rolled my eyes at his childish demeanor as my patience began to wear thin with him.

He soon noticed how irritable I was getting and looked around desperately for a distraction.

“Oh!” he exclaimed suddenly, before I decided to just get up and leave the bad boy in his place.

“You forgot about your lessons,” he said seductively. He motioned to his pocket where he had left his condom.

Ugh, that lesson, I thought, I seriously believed Ricky just made that up as a joke.

“Maybe next time,” I mocked.

Sadly, the bad boy didn’t catch the hint of sarcasm in my voice as his eyes lit up with a new lustful desire. 

But, thankfully, there wasn’t going to be a next time. Both Ricky and I knew there was no point in wasting our time, teaching each other things we weren’t entirely interested in anyways.

Well, maybe I was a tad bit interested in the bad boy’s lesson for me, but I knew where the consequences lied with that situation. It was best to keep these curious, erotic thoughts- that people wouldn’t expect from a good girl like me- to myself.

When we were back at school the next day, nothing changed between us. We still kept flirting with one another from time to time and everything remained the same. I was too afraid of trying to push our relationship farther with him, in fear that my efforts would scare him away.

But at the same time, I felt that if I continued to keep my distance, then Ricky would fade away from me, as if I was some worn out play toy of his.

And the fact that the teacher assigned new seats around the class didn’t help with my situation at all. Now, the bad boy sat across the room from me, leaving me isolated in the corner of the classroom.

I didn’t want to seem deeply hurt by a simple seating arrangement, so I pretended to be unmoved by the event, like I always did with every situation.

We were still able to casually talk to each other when we had the chance, but our conversations were only short lived.

I knew it wasn’t the end of the world for us. Our time together was just limited.

Extremely limited.

Most of time, I thought about our relationship (or whatever it was) whenever I could- in class, at home, before I went to sleep, or whenever I was just alone. And as I struggled to focus on my project, I found myself thinking about Ricky.

I was in the library, planning to use this time to work on one of my projects, but that obviously failed. Blankly, I stared at the wooden table as I let myself sink into my thoughts.

It wasn’t like I did anything wrong the past few days.

Or did I?

Or maybe, this was just fate’s way of telling us that sometimes opposite don’t attract.

Why?

Because they’re just too opposite.

I sat there in deep thought, trying to fix this problem out like it was some math equation. But life’s problems aren’t like math equations. Finding the solutions in life are not as easy as one plus one.

I wish they were though.

Suddenly I felt a presence approach me, derailing my train of thought. I looked up, only to see Eric staring curiously at my eraser as he held it up to his face.

Eric was an old friend of mine since elementary school, and now in high school- he remained just the same.

As he continued to stare at my eraser, I couldn’t help but notice his dark brown eyes. They were dark and intriguing.

 They made me think of Ricky’s eyes.

“You know, Ricky?” Eric said after his long stare with my eraser.

“Yeah, he’s in one of my classes,” I chirped a bit too cheerfully.

Eric glanced at me with a confused yet concerned look.

Then, in an instance, the look disappeared as if it wasn’t even there to begin with.

“You know he’s high almost all the time,” Eric stated with a smirk on his face.

“Oh well,” I began to say, “That’s his choice. It’s not like I can do anything about it.”

Eric’s face showed a hint of defeat as I noticed the sigh that faintly escaped from his chest.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just don’t be influenced by him too much, okay?”

I furrowed my eyebrows slightly.

Who does he think he is?

My dad?

Well, excuse me, but I can take care of myself, thank you very much.

Taking a deep breath, I contained all of my anger inside of me and replied with a simple, “Okay.”

Carefully placing the eraser next to me, he nodded in assurance and walked away, leaving me alone once more.

I slowly grabbed my eraser and tried to mimic Eric’s stare.

All I noticed were Ricky’s name and the hearts he drew around it.

A wave of nostalgia hit me.

Oh, how I wish I could go back in time to that day, I thought.

After my abnormal encounter with Eric, my relations with the bad boy were quickly fading away.

Now, he and I rarely talked. Maybe he was avoiding me or maybe I was still trying to keep my distance, even though we were already far enough apart.

The separation between us had grown so badly- to the point where we didn’t even know what to say to one another, so we just stared at each other in silence, longing to back to the old times.

Well, that’s where my thoughts were anyways.

- - - -

Author's Note:

Yay, drama!

I hope I got this chapter got you fired up for chapter five- the final chapter to "Intersecting Lives". (And sadly, you have to wait for it until I'm back on my hiatus/vacation. Sorry.)

Anyways, I would love to hear your comments on the slow separation between Ricky and Christine and this new character that I just added- Eric!

And finally, I just want to add that I have a BIG surprise waiting for you all at the end of the last chapter, so once again, stay tuned for that!

Please vote and comment! ♥