one time thing | ricky bowen ¹

twenty-six

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leighton pushed the stage door open, finding her way through the ropes of the back stage area. she frantically grabbed her jacket and backpack. she attempted to put her jacket on while trying to take out her car keys. tears started to blur her vision as she felt a hand grab her shaking hand.

she didn't mean to, but she aggressively yanked back and took a giant step away from ricky. she sniffled as her jacket finally went over her shoulder. "what? what do you want?" she asked as her voice was only a whisper.

ricky stared at the shorter girl, not able to properly place words together. his mouth only opened and closed as leighton bit her lip and shook her head as her throat tightened. she walked back towards the other backstage door that led to lobby where everyone else was.

the girl just so happened to come face to face with nini, the other last person she wanted to see. nini wanted to say something too. she looked as if she had started to cry. leighton had scoffed and shook her head towards the girl. she knew it. she knew they both had feelings to each other. her gut was always right.

ricky had followed the girl out and said her name again. she rushed off to find miss jenn to tell her she didn't feel well and had to go home. with no luck of finding her teacher she went to tell big red where she was going. of course ricky still right behind her trying to stop her. big red understood and didn't like to see her this upset. she was his best friend. he loved her and couldn't help her right now.

kourtney caught a glimpse of leighton and her emotional state, "hey! leighton wait you are you okay?" she stood from the same spot in the stairs. kourtney only saw her and ricky who looked like he seen a ghost. she didn't put two and two together. leighton only nodded and wiped the small tear away from her eye.

"i just have to go. i don't feel well. thank you." she said as kourtney nodded. not wanting to go further. ricky watched as his girlfriend calmly walked to the front door and outside. he couldn't let her go but he couldn't come up with anything to say. he was starting to hate himself even more at this second.

he walked after her and saw her going to her car. "leighton barrios! please let me talk to you!" he shouted speed walking to her. the girl didn't even take a glance towards him as she unlocked her car.

ricky reached her car and hurriedly got inside as the girl did. she only looked forward and whispered, "ricky please. get out of my car."

the boy only locked the doors as he stared at her. "let me talk first." he said with a shaky voice. this caused leighton to turn towards him. "why? so i can be proven right? that my intuition was right? that you still had feelings for her. that you lied to my face that you didn't—" she started as ricky interrupted. "no! i don't have any feelings for her!"

"you're lying. please stop lying." leighton said sniffling and still speaking in a whisper. she finally turned to stare at her once boyfriend. "you just asked me to be yours.. i thought, i thought it was real.. but i was right. you had feelings for her. you lied. that's all you did.. you lied."

ricky started to pick at his nails. his lip started to quiver but he couldn't cry. he shouldn't. "no leigh. i didn't lie. baby please. i promise i had nothing for her—" "so i should believe you? after what you were about to do? with what i saw? you almost kissed her. you had her hand in your hand. her hand was on your face and you were leaning in ricky. leaning in. you didn't pull back until a few seconds after we bursted inside the room. there is nothing you can say right now." leighton spoke. shaking her head and attempting to calm down.

"is kissing girls something you do? i just, i don't get it.." leighton continued. she was very calm, but inside a fire was setting off. she couldn't bring it on to be pissed at him. she realized she loved him. and she couldn't do it. but she was hurt. he did something that hurt her so much. she didn't want to hear his story or what happened.

the thing that kept bugging her was how she knew something was about to happen. god, how she loved him. she did.

ricky reached to hold her face. she shook her head and moved it and wiped her nose with her jacket. "please don't touch me." she said. ricky nodded. tears clear in his eyes now.

"i know you. you aren't going to hear me right now, but i will tell you it all right now. nini and i talked. about the past us." ricky said and leighton looked outside her driver side window with her hand on her mouth. "it was friendly. i tried to be civil, but she was bringing up old things about us. i did too. i knew my boundaries. then that was about to happen. i know you saw me moving closer and i will admit leighton that i had the thought to kiss her." ricky spoke.

leighton was now really crying. trying to steady her breath to stop the sobs that tried to break through her mouth. "i thought about it, but i stopped myself. i was about to pull away. please you have to believe me, she was the one who started moving closer to me—"

"get out." leighton said. she turned to look at ricky who had his mouth open. "please. get out. i don't care what you have to say. you wanted to? fine. thought about it? okay. here's this, you don't get to be sad about it. you wanted to, instead of thinking that you had a girlfriend from the start. not in the middle of you going to kiss her." leighton said unlocking the car door.

she started her car and looked back over. "you need to leave ricky. go back in there. let me have time. without you.. oh but don't worry. i won't go kissing someone. i promise you that." leighton said. her words still a whisper, but heavy with hatred. ricky let a few tears roll down his face as he got out the car.

before he closed the door he whispered, "i love you" to her. leighton sniffled as she quickly faced ricky as he said those words softly. breathing out slowly she responded, "yeah, i thought i did too but you decided to hurt me. so it doesn't matter. maybe you know, we were just meant to be a one time thing." her words continued to poke ricky's heart. he knew she was hurting. she probably didn't mean it, but he didn't know. he knew nothing right now.

ricky then shut her door and continued looking at her through the window.

leighton then drove away to her house. wiping her tears and hoping to look decent before going in her home. she was hurt. maybe a little angry. things felt so wrong right now. she didn't know what else to feel. she just wanted her time alone. by alone she wanted her sister and mom, alone with her.

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delia notes: this is ew, but let's see what happens to the newest couple. also!! thank you for 100k on this book, i can't believe it. y'all are the best ever 🥺 expect an update later as well!!