one time thing | ricky bowen ¹

thirteen

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after rehearsal ended early, leighton met up with her sister in the gyms. nayeli was practicing volleyball with her team and leighton walked in as soon as the practice ended. "hey i thought you weren't supposed to be done with rehearsal until a little later." her sister said as the two walked into the locker rooms.

"yeah there was so much going on and it was actually a mess." leighton said redoing her hair that was in a braid. "what do you mean?" nayeli asked as she opened her gym locker and pulled out her school bag.

"well for one thing, the awkwardness that was going on grew heavily. ricky was late, the main cast lovers were breaking up, the singing was off, stage directions were bad. you name it." leighton said as they both were walking to the car park. it was a bad practice and all she wanted to do was see if ricky was okay.

nayeli spoke up as they were passing miss jenn's office. no one other than leighton's 'best friend' was walking out of it. the sisters slowed down and ricky looked like he wanted to cry.

leighton awkwardly waved her hand and ricky did the same. neither of them able to go up to each other and speak. "so you're just going to wave awkwardly to each other and not talk? are you guys five?" nayeli asked as the two teens stared at each other. both not finding the courage to really move.

"i think i will take that as a yes."

the sister grew annoyed at how they were acting. she knew all about what was going on between them. nayeli grabbed on to leighton's backpack and dragged her towards the school front doors. leighton looked back to see ricky looking down then pulling out his skateboard from his backpack.

the tall boy made a turn in the hallway by miss jenn's office and shook his head. ricky was frustrated with the way things were looking right now. nothing in his life was going right and the one person he could trust before nini, was slipping away. all he wanted to do was run to leighton and talk about everything he needed to. he just knew it wasn't going to be easy.

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after leighton and nayeli got home from school they went into their separate rooms. leighton wasn't mad at her sister, she knew how frustrated nayeli was with the way she had been moping around so much.

switching into some comfier clothes, leighton grabbed her portable piano from under her bed. she dug out her piano papers for the musical. just wanting to get her mind off of everything.

for about an hour or two she played through the songs she will be playing for the musical. eventually she started to play random notes. just letting her fingers do the work on the keys.

she stopped and stood up to go grab her notebook where she had been writing a new song. it was something different. normally she would just write poetry or something but recently she had been into song writing. a good way to let out what she felt without really having to say. mainly just random things.

leighton set up her notebook to the side of the piano and started playing again. this time singing while doing so, "held the door, held my hand in the dark. and he's perfect on paper, but he's lying to my face. does he think i'm the kind of girl who needs to be saved?"

the song wasn't necessarily about ricky. it was just a song. she was distracted from her best friend lately. ricky and leighton went through so much together. high school wasn't supposed to ruin their long friendship. the kiss they shared had been flooding the doors of leighton's brain and that was all she thought about.

she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. trying to stop any random tears that might fall down her freckled face. it was just an emotional time. suddenly she heard his voice and snapped her eyes open as her fingers stopped playing the piano notes.

"thank you, liliana." and followed by a door shutting. leighton stood up from her bed immediately and hesitated to open her door.

slowly, she did and walked to nayeli's room, her mom's, and including the guest bed and the second bathroom. she made her way downstairs and saw her mom gathering blankets and extra pillows from the hall closet before running into her daughter.

"oh! mama, i didn't see you right there." liliana said as she lowered the pile of softness from her face. leighton pointed towards what her mom was holding and asked who they were for. "who are those for? we never take those out unless we have guests over.." she looked down and saw shoes who did not look like they would fit any of the family of girls.

"oh, are those-" "ricky's shoes." liliana cut her daughter off. "i knew i heard him." leighton said picking them up and placing them nicely by the door. "where is he? and what is he doing here?" she continued.

"oh he's changing into some clothes i let him borrow. some of your dad's very old clothes. i know you and ricky have been arguing just, he didn't want to go home after rehearsal. with his mom and dad.." liliana said, worried her daughter would be angry. little did she know, it was the opposite.

leighton bit her lip. even though ricky lived next door, he still came here before heading home. ricky was always welcomed in this house, even when the barrios' father and husband was alive. "yeah i know about his parents and his mom, i'm happy he came here though. is he staying?" leighton questioned as her mother nodded right when the bathroom door opened upstairs.

the soft patter of socked feet came down the stairs. ricky immediately stopping when he saw leighton. "hey, leigh.." leighton smiled at the boy and couldn't stop herself from hugging him.

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delia notes: a little short because i want to really spread this out to another chapter!