With You

Chapter 21

E.J.'s POV

I played with Ricky's hair as he slept. I was trying to sleep but I couldn't. My mom had dropped a bombshell on me. She was pregnant yet again and she asked me to move in with her. She went on some long spiel about how she missed me and she wanted me back in her life. She said she regrets when she gave me up and she wanted me to know how much she missed me. I didn't believe her if she missed me why would she wait until now to try to get me to move in with her. I told her that and she said she wanted to come and get me so bad but she knew I wouldn't understand. When she said that I got mad. I told her that 8-year-old me didn't understand why his mom didn't love him anymore. When I said that I hung up the phone, not caring how rude it was.

I felt guilty and that's why I couldn't sleep. I told my aunt and uncle what happened and they were mad. My uncle was mad at himself for meeting with her that first day. They assured me that I wasn't going anywhere.

"Babe?" Ricky's voice said interrupting me from my thoughts. His voice was raspy from just waking up. "Why are you still awake? Is everything okay?"

I kissed Ricky's forehead and assured him everything was fine. I felt bad for lying to him but with everything going on in his life, I didn't want this to stress him out even more.

"You're lying," Ricky told me.

I ended up telling him everything about what happened between my mom and what my aunt and uncle thought about the situation. He listened and told me I don't owe my mom anything. He was right I didn't owe her anything. She left me and that was her loss. I was the person I am today because of my aunt and uncle, not because of her. She couldn't even give me stability when I was a kid. We were constantly moving because she needed to escape some debt or some person and it was tiring. Moving with my aunt and uncle was the best thing that could've happened to me. I got love, affection, and stability. I even got a playmate in Ashlyn.

"Thanks, Ricky for being the best boyfriend ever," I told Ricky. "Let's try and get some sleep." Ricky nodded before we both started to drift into sleep. We were woken up by a soft banging on Ricky's wall.

"Wait isn't Nini's bed against that wall?" I asked. Ricky nodded and his eyes widen.

"Oh god, she's in there with Gina," Ricky said grabbing a pillow to cover his ears. "This is revenge isn't it for all the times they walked in on us?"

Ricky and I got walked in a lot. There was the time at my house, the time at his house another time at school, it just happened a lot.

Ricky and I covered our ears and fell asleep trying to ignore the banging on the wall. The next morning I was awoken by a phone call from Ashlyn.

"E.J.!" Ashlyn said cheerfully when I said hello. "You were offered a scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts, it's a performing arts school."

"What?" I asked in disbelief. California was far and I didn't want to leave Utah but a scholarship to a performing arts school was amazing. I looked at Ricky who still asleep. He was going to make this descion harder. "Ashlyn, we'll talk about it when I get home."