home ➝ ricky bowen

10- feelings

On Monday, Alexis woke up to a text from an unknown number.

Unknown-
hi alex, it's ricky. got ur number from gina
-this sender is not in your contacts list. delete message?

Alexis quickly put his name and number in her contacts and texted back.

Alexis-
Hey what's up?

Ricky-
want to skate to school with me and big red?

Alexis flipped over in bed and smiled, texting back quickly.

Alexis-
yeah sure!

Ricky-
meet outside at 7 :))

The brunette girl shut her phone off quickly and jumped out of bed. She hated getting up normally, but now she had something to look forward to.

She got dressed, wearing a dark, forest green sweater that hugged her figure nicely and a pair of black leggings. It was starting to get pretty cold in Utah although it was still technically fall.

For shoes, she wore plain white high top converse. Then she walked into her bathroom where she brushed her hair.

Something made her want to look nicer today. She felt compelled to try a little harder than her normal hair in a messy ponytail, oversized sweatshirt, and no makeup. She wouldn't let herself think about why.

She curled her hair quickly, remembering how much prettier she felt when she had it curled on Saturday. Then she did makeup, not a lot but enough to be noticed; concealer, powder, blush, mascara, and highlighter on the inner corners of her eyes.

She put on a necklace and then she went back in her room, glancing at her alarm clock. It was 6:47. She rushed downstairs after grabbing her back pack and skateboard and helmet. Then she ate a piece of toast for breakfast in a hurry and also shoved a few granola bars in her bag, grabbed her lunch from the fridge, and rushed outside.

There stood Ricky, right in front of his house directly across from her on the sidewalk.

Her breathing suddenly felt tight for a minute. But then he smiled at her, and she relaxed. This was her friend, they were close after only talking a few times, they cared about each other very much, and they were fine after Saturday's... incident.

She smiled back and crossed the street, setting her board down once she reached the sidewalk.

"Big Red should be here any minute. He lives a little further down the street."

Alexis nodded as she began to tie her hair back into a loose ponytail. She hoped it and the helmet wouldn't ruin her hair. And the girl knew better than not to wear one; her dad was a trauma surgeon, and so too many times had she heard stories of kids coming in the ER after an incident where they hadn't worn helmets and got very badly hurt.

She was struggling to get the helmet on though, because her hair kept getting in the way every time and covering her eyes.

"Here," Ricky said. Before she could react, his hand brushed across her forehead, sweeping all the little hairs back up into the top of her helmet.

The girl fought back a blush. She looked down, pretending to wipe something off her shoes. "Thanks."

Saving them from the awkward moment, the sound of wheels dragging across the sidewalk was heard. They turned to see big red heading toward them. "Good moooorrrrnnnningggg!" He shouted as he cruised down the sidewalk past them. Alexis and Ricky quickly got on their boards and followed him.

"He's always so cheery in the morning, like chill, it's too early for all that," Ricky mumbled to Alexis while jokingly rolling his eyes.

They caught up to the red haired boy and made light conversation on the way.

"I like your sweater Alex. Great color." Ricky joked, in reference to a few nights ago.

Alexis smiled.

Ricky smiled back at her.

"Um, barf!" Big Red said while staring at the two. His words hardly processed through to the other teens though.

Because Ricky and Alexis were too focused on each other, Alexis didn't notice a rock right in front of her. Her skateboard rolled right in to it, and she would have fallen onto the ground if Ricky hadn't acted quickly.

He had stopped his own board and quickly reached over, grabbing the girl by her waist. But because of her momentum, they had both ended up falling into the grass.

Big Red bursted out laughing at the two, and they blushed. Realizing his arms were still wrapped around the girl's waist, Ricky quickly pulled away.

Alexis suddenly felt sick at the thought of Ricky's hands on her. I shouldn't have eaten that toast, she thought.

She quickly jumped up and brushed herself off. "Come on guys. We'll be late if we don't go now."

When they arrived at school, Alexis pulled off her helmet and stared at herself in her phone camera. She shook her hair out of its ponytail and was happy to see that, after smoothing it out a bit, it still looked good.

As the three friends walked inside, they saw that sometime between Sunday and today, the hallways had been decorated with posters advertising this weekend's homecoming dance.

The junior class President, a girl named Taylor Hall, ran up to them as they walked in and shoved flyers into their hands. They were about homecoming too, of course.

Ricky stared at the paper in his hands, then at the girl next to him. She looked up to see him looking at her and he blushed a little. "Um, are you going?"

"To what?" She asked cluelessly.

"Uh, homecoming?"

"Oh." She said. Then she laughed. "Yeah, right. I've gotta get to first period. See you guys."

She walked off and Ricky sighed, turning to Big Red.

"Dude." Big Red said to Ricky. "That was torture."

Ricky rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Was that your way of trying to ask her to the dance?"

"What, no!" Ricky defended. "No way."

"Well are you going to ask Nini?" Big Red pressed.

Ricky sighed. "I don't like Nini anymore. I haven't for... a while."

"Really? Because it was only a few weeks ago that you were practically in love with her. You'd had this whole plan to get her back, being in the musical...."

Ricky shrugged. "It's complicated."

Big Red laughed. "I don't think it is. Don't you think it's such a coincidence how as soon as this new girl comes around, who is smokin' hot, obviously, you lose feelings for Nini. And spend a lot of time around Alexis."

"How weird," Ricky said with an eye roll.

"Dude. Just stop, because to me and, like, everyone else, it's obvious."

"What is?"

"That you have a crush on Alexis."