𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢 - 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐚𝐮

𝐝𝐞𝐮𝐱

ricky huffed out a sigh, stuffing the last of his belongs into his suitcase. finally, after four months of having to sit lonely in his office, he was up and ready to go. 

paris...... now that was a dream. 

he had already been to paris once, but that was a bit ago. an anniversary, he believes, of his parents; it was their 20th, a huge one. 

it was also their last anniversary.....

 ricky shook his head, getting the thought away from him, but the slight turn in his stomach and ache in his heart was still prominent. no matter how many years ago, the betrayal of his mother still hurts. 

it sucked because he was the one to catch her. he had been the one who leaned his ear against the door when he was fourteen because he wanted to hear a little of her conversation. would things had been different if he hadn't listened at all? would anyone actually find out? ricky had no idea. 

though, part of him still wondered.

-flashback-

the teen ate in silence despite something inside of him really eating him up. he had heard her; he had heard her talking to another man from inside her bedroom. she had said to him 'i miss you. maybe you can come down this weekend and i can make up something about business trip. they seem to believe that one easily.' 

those words had turned ricky inside out and threw him off a cliff. if it wasn't obvious, that hurts. he felt like all the air in his body was gone as he fell to floor and cried every tear he had out, but disappeared before his mom could hear or see him. 

now, they were at a family dinner and ricky was the only one who knew anything. the silence, the tense air, it was driving him crazy. all he wanted to do was say something but he had no clue how to bring it up. do you just burst out and say 'hey dad, your wife of twenty years is cheating on you.' ? you can't just do that, it doesn't work that way. ricky was nervously picking at his food, his anger and sadness nearly becoming unbearable. but, it was all going away soon because his mom spoke. 

"i have another business trip this weekend." she said softly and calmly, making ricky's fist ball. "i will be gone in chicago for three days and my flight comes back on tuesday, so mike, could you pick ricky up from school those days?" 

"i'll skate." ricky spoke up, giving his mom a hard glare. the woman was surprised by this manner from her son. usually, he'd always be excited to get a ride on his dads motorcycle, what was up with him? ricky noticed her surprise and took advantage of it. "what type of business will you be doing on this trip, mom?" he questioned, his tone angry. 

lynne was taken aback. he never asked questions about her job, that's how she got away with things so easily. he never really seemed to care. "well, i, uh," she began, stammering as she tried to come up with something, anything. "the company down there needs me." 

ricky nodded, muttering an 'ohhh'. "gotcha, gothca, and who in this company needs you?"  he interrogated again, making lynne's eyes widen and mike's brows furrow.  

"lil rick, what are you going on about?" mike asked with his normal happy chuckle, ruffling ricky's curls with humor. 

"what am i going on about? let's see." ricky kept his taunting gaze on his mother. "mom, would you like explain or should i?" 

it was that moment that her heart stopped; he caught her. she doesn't know how or when but he caught her. ricky was a smart boy when he wanted to be, but if she wanted to get out of this, she needed to walk on eggshells. best way to do that? play dumb. "ohhh, ricky has to do a project on future job choices for school." she explained. that wasn't a lie, he did need to do that. "if you wanted to ask about my work, you could've just straight up asked me." she chuckled, giving him her best attempt at a smile. "you scared me, ricky."