Beyond The Lights | NE Fanfic

Love and Potential Jealousy Pt. 2

June 20th, 1988 (7:35 pm)

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"You okay?" I asked Ronnie, sympathetically; putting my hand on his.

Still looking out in the direction of the pool, he answered with a shrug.

I sighed, not really knowing what else to say. So, I decided to apologize.

"Um, I'm really sorry for what I did. For laughing at Ralph's jokes. They were cheesy anyways, haha." I tried to sound a little less sad and more positive.

Finally, he turned his head towards me and there was a small smile curved on his face.

"Eh, it's alright. No need to apologize." He grabbed on to my hand and held it gently. "It's just that....I mean, Ralph is always just such a douchebag. He always thinks he's the shit, just because he's the lead or whatever."

Then, the mood instantly changed. His attention was then tuned back to the pool. Specifically towards Ralph.

"That son of a bitch..." He mumbled under his breath.

With his hand still holding mine, his grasp tightened and it actually started to hurt.

Not knowing he was hurting me, Ronnie continued to vent his feelings. "One day, just one day, he'll realize that no one is gonna give two shits about him anymore, and he's gonna turn out to be the most forgotten singer in the world. Just watch..."

Me, not being able to take the pain, I finally said something about it. "Uh, Ronnie? Y-you're hurting me."

He slowly turned back to me and looked down at our interlocked hands. My hand was turning dark red and a little bit of a blue hue was visible.

Ronnie immediately let go of it. "Sorry, Shannon...."

Rubbing my hand, trying my best to make it feel better, I put on a convincing smile. "Aw, it's okay. Don't worry about it."

He shook his head. A few seconds later, he began looking down at the ground; twiddling his fingers. Kind of in a nervous manner.

"Hey, what's wrong? Everything alright?" I asked.

"Shannon," He began. "You really wanna know why I hate Ralph so much?"

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Um...you hate Ralph? Since when?"

His head instantly rose up and his dark brown eyes were looking into mine. Ronnie drew a long sigh and I could see the anger on his face.

"I guess you could say...it all started on our very first tour for New Edition. Everybody was giving him all the attention and didn't give the rest of us any recognition or anything,"

Slouching in his chair, Ronnie turned his head facing Ralph in the pool again. He continued, "He thought he was all that, so he started treating us differently. Like we were beneath him; like garbage. Then, there's this other reason..."

I was confused. What caused me to become confused was, number one, I thought there was just one reason, and number two, his facial expression looked like he was about to tell me something that has been a secret for a long time; like he's never told anyone.

"Okay then. Well, what's the reason?" I braced myself for an answer that would possibly change the whole mood of the conversation.

Ronnie sighed deeply and continued to look into my eyes. He explained, "The other reason is....I'm jealous of him because you're always around him and hanging out with him, and you know he likes you, right?"