Chapter 2

Abbey wakes up, in a surprisingly happy mood and jumps in the shower. She throws some clothes on and goes downstairs for some leftover wings for breakfast. She grabs her phone and texts her friend Matt. Matt is one of the friends from Burger King, he lives just a few blocks over, she can walk there which is perfect considering she doesn’t drive. “Hey, Matt lets hang out”

 

“Yeah come over, bring your suit it’s supposed to be really hot today.” Abbey takes the last bite of a wing, tosses it out and runs upstairs to get ready. It is easy to hang out with Matt, he may not understand her like Ricky but Matt is a great guy and he lets her be just Abbey. Matt and Shaun became really good friends, which is the only downfall of their friendship. Matt is one of those friends with everyone possible type of guy, he doesn’t judge people and gives everyone a chance, which is not bad but he takes it too far sometimes. Abbey puts on a pair of cute shorts and a tank top, she has long curly brown hair that usually is swooped up into a messy bun, but today she chooses to leave it down. She grabs her suit and cover up and writes a note for her mother and then heads to Matt’s house.

 

Abbey is walking up Matt’s long driveway when she spots Matt waiting on the stoop for her.

 

“Hey! Bout damn time you get here!”

 

 “Hey, ha-ha yeah I know, sorry I couldn’t find something to wear.”

 

“Who you impressing??”

 

“No one, I am a single girl I want to look cute, is that okay?”

 

 “No, that’s fine, whatever floats your boat, dude” Matt leads her inside of the house and they start towards his bedroom. Matt has a large house, with a huge backyard perfect for parties. His parents are never home and so most of the time he has the house to himself.

 

“Whatever floats your boat?? Really Matt? Matt shrugs and opens the door to his bedroom.  He has a queen size bed and a big screen TV hanging on the wall. Abbey dives on his bed, and Matt hops on next to her, a little too close for comfort.

 

“Dude, just sit on my lap, why don’t you?” Abbey scooches over a little to get Matt out of her bubble, Abbey doesn’t like people being physically close to her, with some exceptions. She usually doesn’t hug people, and if someone sits close to her she always moves over. She is not sure why she is like this, she just is. Matt starts talking about his girlfriend and their issues and Abbey helps him out, this is usual occurrence for them, Abbey doesn’t ever tell Matt what’s going on with her, but he spills his guts to her constantly. Abbeys phone rings and its Ricky “hey, what’s up? I was just at your house, surprising you with breakfast and you’re not there?”

 

“Oh yeah, I am at Matt's house, come over!” As she says that they hear a horn outside, she hangs up and Ricky walks inside. “Hey punks, who wants a bagel?” Matt takes one; Abbey is still full from the wings so she goes into Matt’s room and starts watching TV.

 

Ricky gives Matt a look, and says “dude, you couldn’t wait a little while before you hit on her?”

 

 “What the f**k are you talking about? They have been broken up for months! And you know I am not hitting on her, and never would. Shaun or no Shaun she is taken. I know that.”

 

“Alright man, just making sure. I have waited years for my chance with her and I feel like I am finally making way. It is so hard to see her and not grab her into my arms and kiss her.”

 

 “Yeah I know what you mean, I would just be patient. Especially since she is leaving tomorrow for the summer, she needs to have fun in Florida away from the drama up here. My advice is to just wait till she gets back and you guys can have the storybook romance you want. Ha-ha”

 

“Yeah well I am not going to stop something from happening, but I do think you are right about her needing time… so we will see” Ricky stands up and goes into Matt’s bedroom, Matt follows shortly after. Ricky is standing in the doorway, motions to Abbey for her to open her legs so he can sit, she does and he sits and leans his head against her chest. Matt looks confused and shakes his head at them and says “Andy will be over in a few, he is bringing some alcohol, let’s get this party started already!”

 

 “Awesome, let’s go swimming!” The boys follow Abbeys lead, the guys pull off their shirts and are instantly in their suits, where as Abbey had to go change. She walks out of the bathroom to the boys sitting in the kitchen. Ricky stands up and turns to walk outside as Abbey looks over at him, trips over air and drops her towel and phone. She gets herself together, “oooh, um. Okay. You ready? Okay! Let’s go” Ricky smiles slyly and walks outside.

 

 “Abs, why are you being weird?”

 

 “Weird? I am not being weird… am I? Do you think Ricky noticed? Oh never mind, forget I said anything” Abbey quickly walks away and heads outside and quickly takes her cover up off and dives in. She isn’t exactly the most secure person in the world, and seeing how Ricky has suddenly gotten sexy overnight, she didn’t want him to see her in just her suit. She swims underwater as long as she can and ends up at the shallow end. Her head pops up out of the water, only to see Ricky standing over her smiling. “So, uh... What was that inside?”  Abbey gets a terrified look and dives back into the water and starts swimming to the other side, in hopes he will leave it alone. Abbey thinks to herself, where did those muscles come from? And why did me seeing them give me chills? Life is not fair.

 

Matt and Ricky dive in the pool and they start playing volleyball. Vanessa shows up in her slinky bikini. Abbey is envious of Vanessa’s model like physique even though she will never admit it. Vanessa has long straight blonde hair and brown eyes, a typical blond beauty, quite opposite of Abbeys long brown curly hair and blue eyes and slightly bigger build. As she is walking in, Vanessa is smiling and staring at Ricky, trying to get him to look at her. Epic fail. Ricky didn’t even glance up. Vanessa has been trying to get with Ricky for over a year now. She is one of the “too skinny lopsided b***s” girls he has denied.

 

Vanessa dives in and swims over to Ricky and jumps on his back, and says “we should play chicken!” Ricky dips his back into the water to get her off of it “sure, okay. Abs is with me!” He swims over to Abbey and goes underwater coming up with her on his shoulders. Matt does the same with Vanessa. There couldn’t be two worse girls on top, considering they are pretty much mortal enemies. They roll with the same crowd so they deal with each other. Abbey doesn’t get along with any of the girls in this group, especially Vanessa.

 

Within a minute of being on his shoulders, Abbey gets Vanessa off a few times, the game ended when more people started showing up. Abbey got out of the water and puts her shorts on and lies in a chair on the deck. Andy finally showed up with the beer and brings one over to her, “hey buddy… it’s time to get you drunk! This is your party after all”

 

Abbey reaches out for the beer and takes a long swig “aaah so refreshing! Thanks man” Abbey drank that beer quickly and got up to grab another when Shaun walked in. “Hey. I didn’t know you were coming?”

 

 “Yeah Matt told me about it the other day, I figured since we are friends it’s cool”

 

 “Um yeah, sure. Well enjoy” Abbey grabs two beers from the cooler and goes back to her chair, followed shortly by Ricky.

 

“What was that about? Why is he here?”

 

“Because our friends are his friends too, just because I stopped being a hermit doesn’t mean he needs to start being one.”

 

Ricky realizes he needs to be comfortable with Shaun hanging out around Abbey, and decides to apologize for overreacting. “I’m sorry, I forgot about you agreeing to be his friend. C’mon, let’s go for a swim.”

 

“I’d like that” Ricky grabs her hand and pulls her up, puts his arm around her and they walk over to the pool and dive in. She does her normal swimming to the other end of the pool, and stands up. She looks at him, His blonde hair is soaked and swooped off to the side of his face, and the water is making his blue eyes pop and the light is hitting the water spots on his chest perfectly, accenting his muscles. Seriously… where did this sexiness come from? She thinks to herself as she smiles and swims back to him.

 

She stands up in front of him and looks up into his baby blues and asks “I know this may be weird, but can you just hold me?”

 

“It would be weird if it wasn’t all I ever wanted to do.” He reaches out and pulls her into his arms.

 

She looks up at him and they stare into each other’s eyes.  Ricky starts to lean in to kiss her, when Shaun jumps in and ruins the perfect moment.

“Of course he decides to swim now. “ Ricky lets go of Abbey and gets out of the pool. He heads to the cooler for another beer, followed shortly by Abbey.

 

Abbey makes a few more double fisted trips to the cooler, and is hanging out with some girls from BK that she actually gets along with. After a while she stumbles around the party, looking for Ricky but ends up by Shaun and Matt and falls on Shaun’s lap. He of course, takes the opportunity and puts his arms around her waist and pulls her tight. She lays her head on his shoulders and passes out. “Aw, that’s kind of cute, what are you going to do Shaun?”

 

 “Is your brother home?”

 

 “Nah he’s out of town for the weekend, why?”

 

“I am going to take her inside and put her to bed”

 

 “Alright man, thanks” Shaun stands up, with Abbey in his arms and walks inside.

 

Ricky runs over to Matt, “dude, what the f**k? Where is he taking her?”

 

“She passed out; he’s putting her to sleep... Relax”

 

“How did he even end up holding her?”

 

“She stumbled over here, and just sat down on him, that’s how”

 

“Oh, okay. Right. Of course she did. She needs to make up her goddamn mind!” Ricky walks over to the cooler and grabs a couple.

 

Shaun is carrying Abbey inside John’s room and lays her down on the bed. She wakes up as he is putting the covers over him. She mumbles “Ricky, hold me” Shaun is about to get angry and correct her, when he decides to take the chance to hold her. He hops on the bed and grabs her tightly against him. She turns around and puts her head on his chest, without opening her eyes. Shaun squeezes her as tightly as possible and doesn’t want to let go. He lifts her head and starts kissing her. She starts kissing him back, and pulls away and says “Oh Ricky, I feel like this is right, for the first time ever” Shaun mumbles “yeah” trying to talk as little as possible to prevent her from realizing its not who she thinks it is.

 

Abbey sits on top of him and continues to kiss him. After making out for a while, he flips her onto her back, strips down and pulls the strings on her bikini bottom to take it off. She whispers “Make love to me” as Shaun slides inside of her, he tells her he loves her. “I love you too, Ricky”

           

Abbey wakes up to a spinning unfamiliar bedroom. After a minute she sits up, and looks around and realizes its Johns room. She looks on the ground and sees an open condom package, and her stomach drops. She takes a few minutes and tries to put the pieces of last night together. “I had sex with Ricky last night… oh my God” Abbey gets dressed and leaves Matt’s house. She gets home a few minutes later and the first thing she does is shower. She goes into the kitchen grabs a Gatorade and a Tylenol, her head was spinning. Abbey texts Ricky “Hey, call me I want to talk to you about last night before my flight later” Abbey went upstairs to finish packing when her phone rang, she jumped up thinking it was Ricky but it was Shaun

 

“Hey sweetie, just checking in on you, you had a lot to drink last night, I hope you’re doing okay! Safe flight” she didn’t feel like responding, she is disappointed it wasn’t Ricky. She glances at the clock, “11:30am.

 

 He should be awake by now he works at 12… where is he??” she texts Ricky again. “Okay? Why won’t you talk to me?” after the second message went unanswered she gave up for now… she grabbed her bags and hopped into her moms car to head to the Airport. “You okay hunny? You look distracted”

 

 “Yeah, mom I am okay, just got a lot on my mind. You know with dad and all”

 

“He will be fine; don’t worry about your father. Life is too short to hold grudges against the people you love. Just guard your heart with him, that’s all” Abbey glances over at her mom, and thanks her for calming her down. They get to the airport     and She decides to send Ricky one last text. “I um… I love you”

 

Ricky wakes up to a blaring alarm clock. He throws it across the room instead of just turning it off. He lay there awake for a few minutes when his phone beeps, it’s from Abbey. He doesn’t even read it, he lets it sit there and whispers “w***e” and gets out of bed. “I can’t believe she went to Shaun... she wanted him to take care of her not me.” He punches the wall next to him as he is walking to the bathroom. He stands in the shower extra long and lets the water run down his head, trying to clear his mind. He gets out and gets dressed and glances back at his phone, he has another message from Abbey… “What is wrong with her?” he says to himself. He hops in the car and heads to work, hoping that being busy at Burger King will take his mind off of her. After his phone rings a third time, he decides to turn it off to prevent the urge to open the messages and let her make him forget he is even mad in the first place. 

 

Abbey keeps looking at her phone, hoping that before the 3 hour flight she would hear from Ricky. “Final boarding for US Airways flight 5768 to Tampa Bay, boarding ALL passengers” Abbey sighs and gets in line to board her plane, heartbroken

Reviews

[Creepy Swine Guy]

Okay ... I wasn't expecting that. I'm old and cannot stand too much ... errrr ... romance in what I read. Thankfully you went easy on me with the details. The writing continues to be solid. I see a niggle here or there, but I am sure that as you edit ... you will catch them all. You demonstrate a concern for your words.

I think I'll have a Klondike Bar now and recover a bit before I move on.

[grin]