You Never Said - Part 3 To The Producer (A Ricky Wilson Fan-fiction)

Wish You Were Here

Ricky's silence on the band's bus was more than obvious. He'd taken himself away to his bunk, earphones in and curtain pulled. He stared at the low ceiling, thinking about what stage of the journey they would be at, knowing the motorway junction by junction as he did. He couldn't be like this all weekend. Oh he could act on stage, but off it, there was no way the others would leave him alone for long. And he was right.

The curtain was pulled back rapidly and Simon's grinning face appeared, gazing in on him.

"Alright Rick? Not tired already are you?" Ricky found his enthusiasm annoying and turned away to face the side of the bus. But Simon didn't give up and sat down on the bunk opposite.

"Did she say no again?" It was a possible reason for Ricky's mood.

"No," came the simple reply.

"You're getting married?" Simon said a little too loud.

"Who's fucking getting married? Him?" The dulcet tone of Whitey came from behind Simon as he peered in to Ricky's bunk. "Someone's agreed to marry you?"

"Fuck off Whitey!" Ricky groaned, turning round and climbing out of his bunk. He moved down to the front of the bus and heaved himself into a seat.

"Doesn't seem very happy about it," Whitey whispered to Simon.

"I'll chat to him, see what the matter is." Simon patted Whitey's arm and followed Ricky to the front. He sat down opposite him and picked up an empty plastic cup; playing with it, he attempted a smile at Ricky. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Ricky leant forward, both elbows on the table, his hands rubbing at his face. He let them fall into his lap. "Nothing much to say. I asked, she said yes."

"I thought she was coming with us this weekend." Simon began.

"Something came up. She's had some bad news." Ricky sighed. There was no point trying to hide anything from Simon. "She found out her mum has died."

"Sorry to hear that. I'm not surprised she didn't want to come then." Simon put the cup down and sat back, knowing there was more to this story than Ricky had relayed.

"She didn't have a good relationship with her. She'd not seen her for over ten years." Ricky continued, "She's had to go down to Cornwall and sort stuff out."

"On her own? You should have said. We could have cancelled." Simon knew it wasn't what they did as a band, but something like this was an exception.

Ricky stared out of the window. "I said we'd cancel, but she said no." He hesitated, turning to look at Simon, "Her ex-husband has gone down there with her." His attention was back on the view flying past outside the window.

"Oh." Simon didn't really know what else to say. The awkwardness was made worse as Peanut joined them, unaware of their discussion. He looked between the pair of them.

"What's up?" he said tugging up his baseball cap slightly to get a better view of Ricky. Ricky continued to watch the world outside.

"Laura, she's not here." Simon said, keeping Ricky's predicament a matter for Ricky to explain.

"God, you've got it bad haven't you? You'll be back Saturday!" Peanut was surprised at Ricky's apparent desperation to be with Laura. Ricky was about to retort to Peanut's comment when a notification ping came from his phone. Fishing it from his pocket, a slight flutter of fear rose in his stomach before he opened the message.

Have you left yet? We've only just hit the M25! Traffic is a nightmare!! x x

Laura was thinking of him. She hadn't stopped thinking of him. Conversation with Aidan had mainly consisted of comments on the stupidity of their fellow drivers and Aidan shouting "You can't do that!" or "What are you doing you fuckin' eejit?" at various people. He didn't drive like Ricky, Laura thought.