The Musical | Ricky Bowen × Reader

Lover boy

"We're friends, you know? I don't need some great romance to be complete or whatever."

- Ashlyn Caswell, High school musical: the musical: the series.

...

I'm knee deep in my chemistry homework when suddenly, 'Fabulous,' from none other than the high school musical 2 soundtrack starts blaring from my phone. Ahhh, Mia's calling. I drop what I'm doing and answer.

"Hey, future superstar!" she yells through the phone, and I smile. She always has that effect on me.

"Hey, M! To what do I owe the honor?"

"I just wanted to check up on you. We haven't talked in a little while. How's everything with the play? Anything new?" she asks, curiosity evident in her voice.

"Nothing really. We still haven't decided what we're doing for the callback yet," I reply, anxiety building up in me. I always have a plan. Always prepared. So, when I don't, it scares me. Although, that's just the part of me that fears the unknown—the control freak in me. I really need to work on that.

"Wait, we?" she asks, confused.

"Yeah. We; as in Ricky and me. Haven't I already told you this?"

"No! I would've totally remembered if you had!" she shouts. I could have sworn I told her. I guess with everything going on, I forgot to.

"Well, now you know. I don't get what the big deal is." I really don't. I mean, he's just a friend—maybe not even that. We only met a week ago.

"HE'S A VERY CUTE BOY, AND HE'S SINGLE!" she screams, and I swear my ear starts ringing.

"So?" She still doesn't seem to understand that nothing's going to happen. I don't bother telling her about the small breakdown I had in front of him, because that would only just provoke her.

"SO? Do I have to drive all the way to your house and smack some sense into you?" she asks, jokingly. At least I think she's joking. With Mia, I never know. She's very unpredictable.

"Look, even if I was interested—which I'm not—he's still hung up on Nini. It wouldn't matter," I answer. I would never want to get in the middle of that love triangle, or whatever it is.

"Okay, fine. Whatever you say." I can practically hear the smirk on her face when she says that.

"Anyway, he's coming over for a rehearsal soon, and I still have some cleaning to do, so I should probably go do that." As if on cue, the doorbell rings.

"Shit, he's here. I gotta clean up real quick. I'll call you back when I can, M." I start frantically cleaning up the papers on my bed, and the rest of my room as fast as humanly possible.

"Okay. Have fun with lover boy! Call me as soon as you're done. I wanna hear all the details," she insists.

"He's not—whatever. Will do," I say, disregarding her comment. I don't have the time to argue with her. I hang up, and sprint down the stairs. Before opening the door, I wait for my heart rate to slow down, and compose myself. Damn, I really need to get more exercise. I take a deep breath, then open the door.

"Hey! You're early," I say, letting him in.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I just needed to get out of the house, so I figured I'd just come here a little early. I hope that's okay," he says, running his hands through his hair.

"It's no problem at all. Just don't mind the mess. I didn't get the chance to tidy everything up." I don't ask about why he needed to leave his house, because I figured if he wanted to talk about it, he would have. I step aside, and he enters, setting his skateboard and his helmet to the side. He looks around the room and laughs.

"What?" I ask, unsure of what he's laughing at.

"This room looks cleaner than my entire house, and you still think it needs 'tidying up.' If this is what you call a mess, you don't wanna see my house."

"Maybe not," I chuckle. I thought this would have been much more awkward. I guess I was wrong.

"Anyway, let's go to my room so we can start brainstorming ideas," I suggest, heading towards the staircase. He follows, taking in his surroundings while doing so. There's not much to take in, though. My house is pretty small. Although, I don't mind. We're not a big family, so there's no need for a large house.

We finally reach my room, and I pause. Come to think of it, I've never had a boy in my room before. I'm sixteen, and this is the first time I've ever had a boy over? That's just sad.

"Is everything okay?" Ricky asks, concerned. I must have been standing there for a little too long.

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, here we are," I reply, opening the door. He looks around for a minute, then takes a seat at the corner of my bed.

"You have a really nice house," he compliments.

"Thank you," I say, laughing nervously.

"No problem," he smiles, leaning back.

"Anyways, are you ready to start?" I ask, grabbing my laptop. He nods, and I join him, taking a seat on the bed as well.

"Do you have anything in mind?" I ask, hoping he does, because I surely don't.

"The thing is—I haven't exactly seen any of the movies. I barely watched the first one," he confesses, scratching the back of his head. Oh boy, I have a feeling we have a long day ahead of us.