home ➝ ricky bowen

16- thanksgiving night

When Ricky arrived at the party, he was one of the last ones there. He was debating not even going. But he decided to not let his knowledge of his Mom's new relationship ruin the rest of his night.

"Oh, hey!" Said Nini as he walked in, smiling. "Look who's here!"

He smiled back at her. "Hey. Is Alexis here already?"

Nini frowned. He'd only been here a minute and was already asking about her.

"No," she replied.

"Oh. She hasn't been answering her texts. Maybe her phone died or something and she's being held up at her dinner."

Nini nodded and Ricky awkwardly followed her into the living room.

Carlos was just introducing his game of "High School Musical: The Choosical."

They played for a little bit, but Ricky couldn't really focus. He was thinking about Alexis the whole time, checking his phone every two minutes to see if she had texted him back.

"Waiting for a call?" Kourtney joked as he picked up his phone.

"Uh, yeah... actually, um, I... I should go. Sorry guys. The party was great Ashlyn." He said quickly grabbing his things and walking toward the front door.

When he had left suddenly, Nini quickly got up to follow him.

"Hey!" she said grabbing his arm as he reached for the door. "What's going on with you, what's wrong?"

He sighed. "I'm just worried about Alexis."

Nini made a face. "I'm sure she's fine. Like you said, she probably got held up at her Thanksgiving dinner."

"No," he said. "This isn't like her. She always answers her phone. Gina said she hasn't replied to her either. I need to go check on her."

"Ricky, she's fine." Nini pressed.

Ricky squinted his eyes. "What's your problem with her?"

Nini's eyes widened. Everytime she was mean to Alexis she made sure Ricky wasn't around to hear. She didn't think Alexis would've told him about it, unless... "what do you mean?" She asked with fake innocence.

"It's like you don't ever want me to be around her." He accused.

Relief flooded her thoughts. "That's not true! I just don't think you should spend your night worrying about her when you could be.... oh."

He furrowed his brows. "What?"

"It's because it's Thanksgiving, right?"

"What has that got to do with anything?" He asked, still confused.

"I found her notebook." She said slowly.

"What?" Asked Ricky.

"Never mind," Nini said quickly. "You should go....I'll see you around."

She gave him a little wave, and then he was off. And Nini felt her heart shatter into a million tiny pieces. She knew what she needed to do. And a few minutes later, she left the party too.

***

Alexis lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. In her old room in Nevada, her ceiling was covered in movie posters. Midsommar, Hereditary, Dead Poet's Society, all her favorites. But her ceiling here was blank. Just like all her walls.

Her room was empty and spotless except for her crumpled up clothes from earlier that were in the middle of the floor. She had just changed  into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie which was three sizes too big, because she couldn't even stand to look at her body and wanted it covered up as much as possible. The girl felt absolutely disgusted with herself.

So she lay in bed in complete silence. She couldn't even cry. She wanted to, and tried to, but it wouldn't work. The tears just wouldn't come out.

She suddenly heard a knock on her bedroom door. She was confused, who could it even be? There's no way her Dad was home already.

Alexis tried to open her mouth to speak, to tell whoever was at the door to come in, but her throat went dry. Tears threatened to make an appearance in her eyes. She couldn't speak, or else they would spill over.

The door opened. And in walked Ricky.

"Hey," he said softly. "I was worried about you, you weren't answering your phone. And then I came here, and your door was unlocked, so I just came in... if that's okay."

She still couldn't respond, so she just nodded. Her heart skipped a beat. Even though she felt terrible, even though she had the worst day and wanted nothing more than to just cry her eyes out and be alone, she realized that someone cared about her for once. He was thinking about her today.

She sat up in bed quickly and pushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

She shook her head no.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head no.

Ricky stood there awkwardly for a moment and Alexis quickly moved over and patted the spot next to her. Hesitantly, Ricky slipped off his Vans and crawled into bed next to the girl.

They both lay down and Alexis moved over and placed her head on Ricky's shoulder. "Thank you for coming over." She whispered softly. She may not have wanted to talk about what was going on, but his presence comforted her.

"Of course. Everyone missed you at Ashlyn's."

She frowned. "You didn't leave early to come here did you?"

"I was worried about you Alex."

She propped up on one elbow. "You should've stayed. Now I feel bad. You could've been out having fun but instead you're here with me."

"I couldn't have any fun without you there." He reassured her.

She nodded and they both lay back down, comfortable silence filling the air.

"Will you stay here with me tonight?" Alexis whispered, barely audible.

She felt Ricky's arms wrap around her body, "of course."