I Understand Now (Ricky Dillon Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

Cautiously, I press 'answer' and hold my phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" I ask.

"Hey El," Jen greets, sounding a little upset. "Do you know if Ricky's okay?"

I roll my eyes. "I thought you didn't want to talk to me about this," I remind her. "Um, I don't know, I suppose he's alright. Why?"

"I saw his status and it sounds like he's just gone through a breakup," she says. I mouth the word yes and do a fist pump. This is exactly how Ricky and I planned for this to go.

"It seems as though he needs some support," Jen adds. "Do you think I should help him out?" My breath catches in my throat. That's new.

"Um...probably not," I decide to reply. "He might need a bit of alone time if he's just broken up with someone. Don't you think?" I bite my lip nervously, hoping she'll go with it.

"Yeah, fair enough," she responds, and relief washes over me. "I guess I'll distance myself from him, then."

"Sounds reasonable," I beam. Then I suddenly remember something else. "Wait.....you aren't still gonna talk to Sarah about it, are you?"

"I don't know, depends," Jen simply answers. "If I decide I still wanna talk to him later, then yeah, I might ask her. Why?" Goddamn it.

"Uh....no reason," I reply hurriedly. "See you at school tomorrow."

"Bye," Jen says before hanging up. I run my hands through my hair. I don't know exactly how this is going to work, but whatever we do, we have to stop Sarah from finding out about all of this. I don't wanna think about what she would do.

...

The next day, I am almost anxious to go to school. While I eat breakfast, I am thinking about how to deal with Jen. While I get dressed, I am working out a way to keep this whole thing hidden from Sarah. While I pack my bag, I am formulating a plan to cover up if Sarah does find out about Jen liking Ricky. While I brush my hair, I am just hoping that everything is going to go to plan, and nothing will backfire.

My mind is racing on the way to school. I can drive myself now, but I'm so distracted by this whole situation that I almost run about 4 red lights. I get honked a few times, but I don't care. My mind is set on getting to school and making things work.

When I arrive at the front gate, I exit my car and and run as fast I can to get to my locker. I am out of breath once I get there and put my bag away. Ricky arrives shortly afterwards, and waves when he sees me.

"Hey El," he greets.

"Hi Ricky," I reply as best as I can. "Any sign of Jen today?"

"I think I saw her go down to the grass area out front," he answers. I nod and catch my breath as I wait for him to put his bag away.

"Let's go," he says when he's finished, and he takes my hand as we run to the front.

When we arrive at the patch of grass out the front of the school, my heart sinks as I see Jen talking to Sarah. Ricky looks at me sadly. We messed up. We're too late.

Sarah's eyes lock with mine for a second, and she whispers something to Jen and points at me. I quickly let go of Ricky's hand before Jen turns and sees us. She frowns in confusion.

"Ellie?" She wonders. "What are you doing with Ricky?"

"We're friends," Ricky answers for me with a shrug. I glance at him and mouth the words thank you.

Jen walks up to us, and Sarah follows close behind with a devious smirk on her face.

"You sure about that?" She asks me.

"Yeah," I reply. "We're just friends."

"I'm not so sure if that's correct," Sarah pipes up from behind Jen. Ricky, Jen and I all turn to look at her.

"What do you want, Sarah?" I ask.

"There's that attitude again," Sarah sighs as if she's genuinely hurt, but I know her better than that. "Didn't I see you at the park with him the other day?"

My heart skips a beat. She just had to open her mouth, didn't she?

Jen turns to look at me. "Is that true?"

I look at Ricky as if to say, What do I do?

"Yeah," he answers, and I mentally facepalm. "It is true. What's it to you?"

"Nothing, I suppose," Jen says. "But it just seems weird that someone like Ellie would go on a date and not tell her best friend." She puts emphasis on the words 'best friend', which infuriates me.

"It was not a date," I snap. "I thought I told you that we were just friends. We were hanging out, nothing more."

"Then surely you would've been able to help me out with this!" Jen exclaims. "I thought if you were his friend, you would know some stuff about him. But no, you used the 'I have no experience' excuse not to help me out. When really, it was because you wanted him all to yourself!"

"Jen, relax," Ricky says, and I am grateful. "You don't need to get all worked up. That's not how it was at all. You're making a mountain out of a molehill." Jen looks at him.

"Why should I listen to you?" She sneers. "You hardly know about Ellie. How do you know she wasn't trying to manipulate you?"

"Jen!" I shout. "You know I wouldn't do that. If anyone's being manipulated in this situation, it's you, by Sarah!" Jen turns to look at Sarah, who is looking at Jen like she doesn't know what I'm talking about. Jen then looks back at me and says, "How could you say that? Sarah's just trying to be nice. You're the one keeping secrets from me, telling me you don't know about Ricky."

"I never said that!" I retort. "I just said I didn't know how to help you. What has gotten into you, Jen?" I glare at Sarah. "What did you tell her?"

"Well...." Sarah begins. I get the feeling I'm not gonna like this.

{Wow I'm almost at 500 reads guys!! Thanks so much. In honour of that, this chapter is hopefully a little longer than usual. Hopefully. Hehe. Anyways, all your reads, votes and comments are much appreciated. Oh, and if you haven't already, it would mean a lot if you checked out my other story called Vacancy. Thanks again! xx}