Chapter Text
Ricky opened his eyes to see the sun peaking through the curtains. He groaned, bringing his hands up to his face and covering his eyes, shielding them from the bright light. Suddenly, his stomach twisted as he remembered the events of the night before. EJ.
He uncovered his eyes and sat up quickly, his eyes darting over to the floor. Much to his surprise, EJ was nowhere to be found but his blankets were neatly folded on the chair in the corner. Ricky scanned the rest of the room carefully and sighed loudly, falling back onto the bed.
After a few moments of staring up at the ceiling, he decided to get up. He shrugged the covers off him and climbed out of bed, carrying himself over to his phone. It was only 10:18am.
He set his phone back down on the nightstand, then walked over to his duffel bag and grabbed the first t-shirt and pants that he could find (hopefully they were clean). After grabbing his belongings, he lazily walked over to the bathroom and got ready to take a shower.
He stood under the boiling hot water for at least ten minutes, trying to get his mind off of the tall water polo-playing boy. Ricky felt like absolute shit for what went down between them—it shouldn't have turned into a big scene and ruined everyone's night. Maybe if they had been more open and accepting to each other from the beginning, the trip would be a lot more fun for them.
Ricky thought that taking the world's longest shower would help him feel like much less of an asshole, but it only made him feel worse as he was consumed by his thoughts the entire time.
Finally, after twenty minutes of standing in the shower, Ricky turned off the water and got out of the tub, taking the towel in his hand and dried his hair off. He had a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, making him feel even more on edge about everything.
He hated that EJ had this effect on him, like, God, what is that about? He's just a guy! And Ricky has hated plenty of people in his life but they've never bothered him this much.
He finished changing and cleaning himself up, and looked at himself in the mirror, "Ricky, get your shit together." he mumbled to himself, before grabbing his belongings and turned to leave the bathroom. He swallowed, hoping that EJ was not in their room at the given moment.
He opened the door, and a feeling of relief washed over him when he saw that there was no one in the room. He threw his clothes onto his duffel bag, making a mental note to clean it up later. He strolled over to his phone and noticed that it was almost 11:15am, and that he was in the shower for almost an hour.
The boy sighed, deciding that it was time to face all of his friends. He left his room silently, walking across the hall and peeking into his best friend's room. Red was nowhere to be seen, so Ricky figured that he had already been downstairs.
Ricky slowly and nervously headed down the stairs, his stomach filled with uneasiness knowing that he would have to face EJ for once and for all. Once he was down the stairs, he scanned the living room, where Seb, Gina, and Red all sat on the couch.
They all looked at him, smiles spreading across their lips, "Good morning, sleepyhead." Red joked, amusement evident in his voice, as if he never sleeps until noon most days.
"Hey." he smiled awkwardly, his eyes moving toward the kitchen area, subconsciously scanning the room for EJ.
"He's not here." Gina spoke up. She's always been able to read Ricky like an open book, ever since they started hanging out back in October.
Ricky glanced over to the girl, her face holding a knowing look, "Right."
He then walked over to the couch and sat beside Big Red, who looked at him with and gave him a small smile, "How's it going?"
"Just great." He replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Ricky placed his hands on his jeans, fidgeting with one of his belt loops. He cleared his throat, "So, uh, where is he?"
"He left early this morning. I was the only one up but he said something like I couldn't sleep, be back soon. So, I'm assuming he just went into town." Seb explained, shrugging his shoulders.
Ricky nodded his head slowly. He couldn't sleep? And he's been out for a while? Ricky decided to try and push the thoughts from his head, "So... how are you guys?"
"I'm wonderful." Seb grinned, looking over at Red, who was about to say something.
"Gina and Nini made some pancakes this morning, and they made me some, so I'm pretty good." The redhead smiled happily, patting his stomach.
Ricky laughed slightly, shaking his head, "You're living the dream, bro."
"I'm good, too. Not much has happened yet today... I made pancakes, but that's not too exciting." Gina said, holding onto her coffee cup tightly.
Ricky nodded, "Nice, nice."
Before anyone could say anything else, Carlos and Nini came down the stairs, giggling about something that they were talking about. They greeted their friends with a smile before sitting down on one of the couches.
Carlos glanced over to Ricky, who was now occupied with the rip in his jeans.
Carlos got up from his spot and walked over, sitting down right next to Ricky, who looked up at him with raised eyebrows, not used to being in a such close proximity with the boy, "Can I help you?"
The dark haired boy rolled his eyes, "Look, I'm sorry for asking you that truth question last night. It was dumb and I wanted to stir up something... I didn't realize how much it would blow up."
Carlos always had the right intentions, but sometimes he goes about things in the wrong way. Should he have addressed the whole situation differently? Yes. Should he have brought it up during a time when they were all sober? Absolutely.
Ricky noticed how sincere Carlos was being, and he could tell how much it seemed to bother him just by his words— and not much bothered him.
"You know what? It was bound to happen eventually so it's not that big of a deal, but I appreciate it, man. Thanks."
Carlos nodded his head, a small smile forming on his lips, "So, did you guys talk about it?" he inquired, sitting up in his seat.
The curly haired boy looked around, his cheeks reddening seeing all of his friends look at him in curiously. He laughed nervously, "Well—no. We went right to sleep and he was gone this morning."
"I think it's time for the two of you to talk it out." Nini chimed in, leaning against the arm of the couch.
Ricky nodded his head, "Yeah, I mean, I totally agree but it's kind of hard to get him—"
His mouth snapped shut as soon as the front door opened, revealing the tall boy who they were just speaking of. It was quite literally a 'speak-of-the-devil-moment.'
Everyone's eyes landed on EJ, who was holding his keys in one hand and the door handle in the other. His nose was red and he had snowflakes resting in his hair and on his jacket. Suddenly, Ricky felt that familiar warm feeling in his stomach as his eyes scanned his disheveled appearance up and down.
EJ's eyes flicked to his almost right away, catching him in the act. Ricky's cheeks flushed and quickly looked down at the carpet, swallowing nervously.
"Hey, guys." EJ said slowly, kicking off his boots and shutting the door behind him.
The room was filled with a large amount of tension, more than there ever had been before, and no one really knew what to do.
Seb cleared his throat, "So where'd you go?"
Ricky lifted his head up to peek at him, noticing how his hair was messier than he had ever seen it before—usually it was perfectly sculpted with a large amount of hair gel. Now, it was gently laying across his forehead and Ricky thought it suited him better.
Ricky's eyes widened at his thought and tried to push it in the back of his mind, and as he tried to get it out of there, EJ's voice cut through his thoughts, dragging him away from them.
"Uh, just drove into town." EJ replied, as if trying to find an excuse for why he left, "I remembered that I needed to get gas... so I did."
"That was a long trip to get gas." Gina hummed, her voice holding a sense of amusement.
Ricky's lips parted, glancing over to her and then back to EJ, who had already been looking in his direction.
He paused for a moment, his eyes lingering on Ricky, before looking at Gina, "It's hard to find a gas station within twenty miles, Porter."
People in school believe that EJ and Gina have a thing for each other, ever since their amazing performances as Chad and Taylor, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. The two of them are more of a brother-sister relationship, especially since Gina is living with Ashlyn. Their conversation was always filled with banter—which is exactly what they were doing right then.
EJ scanned the room, noticing that everyone felt the tension too, "Anyway, I'm going to take a shower."
"Good," Nini said, attempting to lighten the air, "you stink."
He smiled slightly in response, shaking his head, "Thanks, Neens. Appreciate it."
Ricky furrowed his eyebrows, watching EJ carefully as a small smile formed on his lips. Right then, he didn't seem that bad, he seemed like a good guy. And Ricky didn't like the feeling that gave him.
After a few moments of more talking, Ricky continued to watch the boy that he had completely despised the past few months, and began to wonder just why he hated him so much.
Once EJ headed up the stairs, everyone looked over at Ricky, who had just snapped out of his thoughts. Ricky sighed audibly, "I'm going to go eat something."
He hopped off the couch, climbing over Red and Gina's legs to get to the kitchen. Once he reached the kitchen, he heard everyone start to talk about everything under the sun. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it.
As he searched for something to eat, he heard Kourtney in the living room, who must have just gotten downstairs, "Alright, I just took a cold ass shower in the middle of winter and I want to know which one of you used all the hot water."
Ricky's eyes widened.
—
After what seemed like fifteen peaceful minutes of silence while he was eating yet another bowl of cereal, Ricky was greeted by Ashlyn.
"Hey, Ricky." she said, walking over slowly to the counter that Ricky was leaning over.
He looked up at her, mid-bite, and managed to mumble the words, "Hey, Ashlyn."
She tapped her fingers nervously on the granite countertop, looking down at her hands before looking back up at the boy opposite her, "You should talk to him."
Ricky swallowed, almost dropping his spoon into his half soggy cereal, "Uh, what?"
He couldn't remember the last time he and Ashlyn had ever had an actual conversation, and their first real conversation just had to be about her cousin and his not-so sworn enemy? How nice.
Ashlyn sighed, "You know what I mean. Talk to EJ."
The brown eyed boy furrowed his eyebrows, "Why should I talk to him? Shouldn't he be apologizing to me?"
"Look, you both said some pretty nasty things to each other. And I know the two of you don't hate each other, I mean there's definitely something going on there, maybe some weird superiority complex towards each other, I don't know—I haven't figured it out yet but EJ is a stubborn pain in the ass, which means that he won't break until you do."
Ricky's lips parted. Why does everyone think there's something more to this?
Ashlyn noticed how Ricky didn't know how to respond, "He's a great guy. He just has a lot... going on. You just need to get to know him." she continued, "Please, for the sake of the rest of us, just figure it out."
"Okay. I'll go up and talk to him."
It was a lot easier said than done. After Ricky threw his unwashed, half-eaten Cheerio bowl in the sink, he headed up the stairs with growing anxiety in his chest. His heart was beating hard against his ribcage and his palms beginning to sweat.
Please still be in the shower... he thought as his hand met the door handle.
He swallowed his pride and opened the door, and his eyes immediately landed on EJ. He was standing in the middle of the room, fully-clothed (thank God), drying his hair with a towel. He heard the door open and turned, his eyes meeting Ricky's.
Simultaneously, Ricky's mouth went dry and his mind went blank. All while EJ Caswell was staring back at him with those bright blue eyes and the room was suddenly filled with the largest amount of tension you could get.
EJ cleared his throat and looked away.
Ricky fell out of his trance, his face feeling hot, "Uh, sorry," he let out, "I, uh, came to get my, um—phone."
The other boy nodded his head, glancing over at Ricky, who was still glued to his spot at the door, "I'm not stopping you."
"Uh, right. Yeah."
He basically stumbled over to his phone, which was still rested on the dresser. He picked it up, and pretended to do something important, mentally punching himself in the face as he tried to come up with a way to talk to EJ.
After a few moments of silence, Ricky spoke up, "So, was your shower cold?" Ricky hesitantly looked over at EJ, who was fumbling with something in his bag, "Cause, uh, Kourtney said something about how there was no hot water."
"Uh, it was fine. Not too hot, not too cold."
"Cool."
"Yep."
Ricky wanted to disappear. How the hell was he supposed to make everything okay between them when this is how they have a conversation?
"I'm, uh, heading downstairs." EJ said slowly, as if he was waiting for something, and Ricky could feel his eyes on the back on his head. He bit down on his bottom lip as he heard him make his way out of the room.
"EJ—wait." Ricky dropped his phone onto the dresser and turned on his heel towards the other boy.
He closed his eyes and sighed audibly, "I'm sorry." he said loud and clear, then peeked his eyes open slowly. EJ was almost out the door but stopped in his tracks as the curly hair boy said these words.
EJ's lips parted slightly as he turned around to see the curly haired boy. He was standing by the dresser, nervously playing with the belt loops on his jeans. EJ raised his eyebrows, waiting to hear more from him.
"Look, man, I'm sorry. For all of it. Nini was right— we hardly know anything about each other. What is the point in this weird feud thing that we have going on if we never even tried to get along?" Ricky swallowed, watching EJ's bright blue eyes warily as they stared right back at him.
What was he thinking? Is he going to laugh in his face?
EJ knew he was right. About a lot of things. He didn't want to admit it, seeing as he's always been incredibly stubborn.
Ricky took a step forward, feeling his heart in his stomach as EJ's eyes watched him carefully, "Can we just try and make this work? Maybe just start over?"
The shorter boy felt all of his blood rushing to his face as he waited for an answer. He's never had to do this before and it felt so uncomfortable and unbelievably embarrassing, especially in front of him.
EJ tilted his head, crossing his arms, "What makes you think that I want to be friends with you?"
Ricky opened his mouth but nothing came out. His heart began to beat even faster against his rib cage as he looked at EJ. What was he supposed to say to that? Ouch.
The boy opposite him pressed his lips into a thin line, staring at the mess unfolding in front of him. After a few moments, his lips quirked up into a slight smile, "If we're going to make this work, then you have to understand my sense of humor—I'm just messing with you."
Ricky stood there for a moment, his mouth still hung open, trying to process that. Was he supposed to laugh at that?
"What?" he barely choked out.
EJ's face held a look of amusement, "You heard me."
That was EJ Caswell's way of joking? In a time like this? When Ricky was trying to apologize?
Ricky felt like he was in the Twilight Zone, but recovered as quick as he could, "Right. Uh, yeah, cool..."
The taller boy nodded his head, "Cool."
Ricky clapped his hands together as the pair fell into silence again, still not knowing where to go with this newfound forgiveness. How were they supposed to make this work if they didn't know how to talk to each other?
"By the way, I'm sorry too. For everything." EJ said softly, cutting the silence short.
Ricky looked up at him, clearly surprised by this statement, and noticed that he was looking down at his feet with his hand placed on the back of his neck. He could tell how uncomfortable this was for him too, especially the I'm sorry part.
Then, the older boy looked back up, his cheeks tinted a shade of red this time and his eyes holding a lot more words than the ones that he spoke.
It felt like everything between them shifted. There was something different in the air now—still tension but it didn't feel like it did before. The two boys didn't know what to do with themselves, or even what to say to each other.
EJ swallowed, tearing his eyes away from Ricky's, "Uh, we should get back down there."
Ricky nodded, "Yeah. We should probably tell them that we've kind of figured this thing out... Ashlyn mentioned that it was ruining the trip for everyone."
"Ashlyn talked to you?" EJ asked quickly.
Ricky raised his brows, "Uh, yeah, like twenty minutes ago. She wanted me to talk to you."
"Right. Let's go."
Then, without another word, EJ hastily turned and left the room, leaving Ricky alone in the room.
The curly haired boy let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in, then closing his eyes. His lips turned up into a small smile as he shook his head, "Shit."
What did he get himself into?
—
Ricky found everyone in the living room hanging out, and immediately caught EJ's eyes, but then looked away. "Alright, guys," Ricky announced, "EJ and I have decided to work this out... and just say that we're sorry for making the trip miserable."
"Really?" Nini exclaimed, her eyes darting over to EJ, who smiled awkwardly while nodding his head.
"Wow, that was fast." Ashlyn commented, nudging EJ in the arm, who rolled his eyes.
"Yup..." EJ replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"It's nice to see that you two are finally overcoming your differences." Kourt added.
"Let the enemies to lovers, roommates romance commence!" Carlos joked, a smirk on his face, as he eyed Ricky.
Ricky's lips parted, not really knowing what that means but understanding what he was getting at. The heat rushed to his cheeks, "But—we're not—he's not—"
Carlos rolled his eyes, "Chill, Bowen, I'm just messing with you."
Both Seb and Kourtney laughed, absolutely knowing what Carlos meant by that. Ricky looked over at Red, who held a look of amusement on his face, and then his eyes flickered over to EJ, who was staring down at the carpet staying completely silent.
"So, what should we do?" Seb hummed.
"Well, Kourt, Gina, Ash, and I are going to make dinner in a half hour. You guys can do whatever guys do." Nini explained, clapping her hands together in excitement.
After a few more minutes of talking, the girls decided to get a move on dinner and went to the kitchen. Ricky turned to Red and then practically dragged him upstairs, dying to talk to his best friend about his problems.
EJ watched carefully as Ricky dragged the redhead up the stairs, wondering what exactly they were talking about. He knew that it was about him, but what was Ricky going to say to Big Red that was so important? After a few moments of pondering, he decided to push the thought out of his head and hang out with the girls in the kitchen, leaving Seb and Carlos to have alone time.
Upstairs, Ricky fell back onto Red's bed and ran his fingers through his hair, groaning loudly.
"So? The two of you just made up? Just like that?" Red inquired, sitting on the edge of the bed next to his best friend.
Ricky stared up at the ceiling, "I mean, yeah... it was really awkward though."
"Well, that's a good thing, right? You two are finally going to figure out what's going on between the two of you."
Ricky sat up slightly, eyeing the redhead, "It's already figured out. We just didn't like each other."
Red rolled his eyes, "Ricky, there has to be something else. Nobody just hates each other like that for no reason!"
"Well, we do! I mean—did. I still haven't figured him out yet."
"At least the two of you are on the same page and moving on. It's a start."
Ricky shrugged, silently agreeing with the other boy. It is a start, but where are they supposed to go from there? It's not like they're going to be besties!
"So," Ricky said, "what have you been up to?"
"I've just been hanging out all day, and playing Fortnite on my phone because I can only get so much of hanging out with Seb and Carlos—they have all of their own inside jokes..."
"Oh shit, I literally forgot about the Fortnite app! Guess I've been a little distracted... We should play while we wait for dinner." Ricky sat up, grabbing his phone quickly.
"It's on, dude." Red smirked, pulling out his phone from his pocket, a groan escaping from his lips, "Shit, I'm at one perfect, I guess I've been playing for too long."
Ricky laughed, "Charge it, man! Hurry up!"
"I'm going, I'm going!" Big Red rushed over to his charger and plugged it in. And then they got to playing.
—
After about two hours and five rounds of Fortnite passed, everyone sat around the dining room table having just gotten done eating their dinner. And currently, the group of teenagers were arguing over who would clean the kitchen. The girls, who had just spent the past hour and a half "slaving" over dinner and destroying the kitchen, decided to leave a mountain of dishes in the sink.
"Alright well, someone has to do the dishes!" Gina exclaimed, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms.
"Listen, I would just love to do the dishes, but I just painted my nails last night!" Carlos said, a small smile playing on his lips.
"I think whoever left their half eaten bowl of Cheerios in the sink this morning should be the one." Kourtney's eyes went straight to Ricky, who groaned audibly.
"Come on! I cleaned it up once I got down here!" he shot back, pouting slightly as he took in the glare Kourtney was sending his way.
"Ricky should be carrying his weight around here!" Nini joked.
"Nini!" he groaned, "now that's just cruel."
"Now that I think of it, I would like to see Ricky cleaning up a mess." Gina chimed in, smirking at the curly haired boy.
Ricky sighed in defeat, crossing his arms, "Fine. I'll do the dishes, but I'm going to need some help!" he turned to his best friend beside him, giving him a sheepish smile.
"I'm good, thanks though, Rick."
Ricky's smile fell, "Dude!"
"I'll help you." EJ spoke up, causing everyone to glance in his direction. Ricky's head turned quickly towards the boy, and a wave of surprise washed over him.
Their eyes met for a few moments, before EJ tore his blue eyes away and shrugged, "What? We should try to get along anyway."
Ricky swallowed, feeling his cheeks suddenly burn at the idea of doing dishes with EJ. It felt a little personal to him for some reason—them being alone in the kitchen, standing close to one another and washing the dishes. Maybe he's just overreacting?
"Okay, well, we'll let you two get to it." Seb smiled at the two, trying to break the tension that had just filled up the room.
Everyone got up and took care of their plates, then headed to the living room while EJ and Ricky were left standing in the kitchen.
Ricky stood staring at the pile of dishes in the sink, and exhaled audibly, "You know, for Carlos' family being this rich, you'd think they'd have a dishwasher."
EJ nodded his head, "Yeah... you'd think."
Wow. This was going to be so much fun!
"Uh, so, how should we do this?" Ricky glanced over at the brunette, who stood with his hands on hips, eyeing the mess carefully.
"I'll wash—you dry." EJ stated and started searching through the draws to find an extra dish towel. Once he found one, he tossed it to Ricky and got right to work.
Ricky furrowed his eyebrows, his lips quirking up slightly, "You like cleaning, don't you?"
EJ looked up from his task, catching Ricky's brown eyes, "What makes you say that?"
Ricky looked down at the counter, waiting to dry the dishes, "I don't know, you just seem very clean... you always fold the blankets and make the bed, and your car was pretty clean that one time, I don't know."
EJ felt heat rise to his cheeks, and paused for a moment, focusing on the plate he was washing. He couldn't understand why he felt this way over silly little observations made by Ricky Bowen.
He cleared his throat, "Yeah, I guess I do. I can't stand when things are messy."
Ricky nodded his head slowly and hummed in response. They were complete opposites in that sense—he could lie in his filth all day and not care whereas EJ needed everything clean.
They fell into silence and Ricky waited patiently for EJ to hand him something to dry. He felt awkward watching him scrub the plate that he was currently washing, but where else could he look? Plus, the way that Ricky could see his muscles flexing as he scrubbed the plate was a nice sight.
Oh, God—it was happening again. Just like the other day, when he saw EJ topless with a towel hanging from his hips and he couldn't get that thought out of his mind.
Ricky's cheeks burned slightly and he adverted his eyes to the dish rag that he was holding, trying to get the thought of both his arms and his abs out of his mind.
"Here," EJ said gently, causing Ricky to look up at him quickly. Their eyes met, and then Ricky looked down at the plate that EJ was holding, and took it.
He dried the plate off, and then searched around the kitchen for where they kept the plates and finally found the cupboard in which they were kept in. He walked back over to the sink and EJ handed him some more.
This went on for a while, them falling in and out of silence and only exchanging a few words with one another while handing each other the cleaned kitchenware. They could vaguely hear the laughs of their friends coming from the living room while they cleaned.
Now that EJ was washing the last pan, Ricky was leaning against the counter, waiting for him to finish while stealing a glance at him every now and then. He was concentrating really hard on making each dish the cleanest that they could be, and frankly Ricky found himself watching him too intently whilst getting a warm feeling in his stomach.
And EJ pretended not to notice that Ricky was stealing one too many glances in his direction. But, to say he didn't like it would be a lie. He liked it but he didn't know why. So he focused really hard on making sure that pan was squeaky clean.
Once they finally finished the dishes, and cleaned the counters off, they took care of the dish rags and did a final sweep of the dining area and kitchen. They met back in the kitchen, and stood there for a moment.
"Thanks," Ricky said, bringing his hand up to his neck, "for helping. I, uh, appreciate it." It felt awkward getting those words out, but he really did appreciate it.
EJ's blue eyes met Ricky's brown ones, and then he nodded his head, "No problem."
With that, the two teenage boys greeted their friends in the living room. Ricky found a seat next to Red and EJ sat next to Ashlyn—which happened to be on the opposite ends of the living room, nowhere near each other.
"Thanks for doing the dishes, guys." Ashlyn smiled warmly, and then everyone followed, flooding them with thank yous.
The pair glanced at each other from across the room, and then adverted their eyes elsewhere. They both mumbled responses to everyone.
"So, who what movie are we watching?" Red asked, sitting up in his seat.
"While you guys decide, I'm gonna go get snacks!" Nini got up from her seat and ran into the kitchen.
Everyone had decided to watch the newest Spider-Man movie, Far From Home—Ricky, Red, EJ, and Gina's reasoning being that they loved marvel movies, and the rest agreed because they think Tom Holland is cute (Ricky didn't argue that point, either).
—
After their movie hangout was over, everyone decided to head to their rooms for the night. Everyone headed up the stairs around the same time, saying goodnight to each other in the hallway as they all went their separate ways.
EJ walked into their room first and Ricky followed him in. He closed the door behind him, watching EJ carefully as he grabbed a pair of sweats and went into the bathroom.
"You know," Ricky said, clearing his throat, and walking over to his duffel bag, "We should probably get to know each other a bit more."
He nervously fiddled with things in his bag, anxiously waiting on the other boy's response, hoping that he wouldn't say no. Ricky couldn't understand why his opinion mattered so much to him, or why he's so scared of him "rejecting" him.
A few moments later, EJ came out of the bathroom, stopping in his tracks to look at Ricky, "Sure."
The younger boy looked back at him, and his eyes immediately went down to his bare torso, causing his lips to part and cheeks to redden. He quickly adverted his eyes to EJ's face, who's lips were pressed in a thin line.
He definitely saw Ricky stare at his bare chest for a moment too long, and he definitely couldn't figure out why it gave him a warm feeling in his stomach. So, he looked away and moved over to his bag, putting his things away.
Ricky grabbed a random pair of sweatpants and a shirt, then basically ran into the bathroom. He changed into the clothes and brushed his teeth, and made his way out of the bathroom to see EJ sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone.
Ricky put his dirty clothes in his bag, and grabbed both his phone and the blankets. He made his makeshift bed on the floor, then sat down in it, with his back against the edge of the bed.
"So," EJ broke the silence, "do you have any siblings?"
Ricky shook his head, even though they weren't looking at each other, "Nope. Just me. You?"
"Same here."
"Um, favorite color?" Ricky stared ahead of him.
"Orange." EJ replied.
"Mine's blue, I guess."
"Favorite food?" EJ asked, "I love Italian food."
"Grilled cheese." Ricky hummed, staring down at his phone in his lap.
"Grilled cheese?"
"Yeah." Ricky murmured, "What about it?"
"It makes sense." EJ replied, "but I honestly don't like grilled cheese."
"How do you not like grilled cheese? It's a classic!"
He heard EJ laugh lightly, causing his cheeks to redden slightly.
"It's just not good."
Ricky scoffed, "Well, you've never had my grilled cheese."
After a few moments, EJ responded, "I guess I'll have to take you up on that someday."
Ricky's eyebrows knitted together as he heard the words come from EJ. He didn't know why that response made him feel some type of way, and especially made his cheeks burn even more. Weird.
He cleared his throat, "Uh, so, what are you planning to do after high school?"
The other boy was silent for a few moments, before responding, "I'm actually going to UCLA for water polo," he paused. "I haven't really decided on a major yet."
Oh, so he's smart, talented, and actually good at water polo? Is there anything he can't do?
Ricky knew that he was captain of the water polo team but he never thought that he was good enough to get a scholarship. Maybe he was just blinded by his complete and utter dislike of him to see he was good at it. That, and Ricky had never even been to a water polo match nor does he know how the game works.
"That's cool." Ricky said simply, not really knowing what else to say.
EJ cleared his throat, "Do you know what you want to do? You know, for college."
Ricky stared ahead of him, his eyebrows knitting together as he thought about it. He'd never really thought about college or what he was going to do with his life. Truthfully, the thought of leaving high school frightened Ricky completely. He hated change. And change is scary.
"Um," he let out, "I guess not. Not yet at least."
"You've got time." EJ said softly.
The younger boy could hear shuffling on the bed, followed by, "We should probably get to bed. It's getting late."
Ricky nodded his head in response, even though he knew that EJ couldn't see him, "Yeah."
Without another word, EJ got comfortable in the bed, plugging his phone into his charger and turning the light out as soon as he knew Ricky was all situated on the floor. Ricky laid on his back, his eyes wide open as he stared at the dark ceiling.
His mind was wide awake, replaying all of the events of that day. That morning he was scared shitless to even talk to EJ but at least now they've had two solid conversations, and honestly? Ricky didn't want to punch him in the face. EJ wasn't all that bad.
Like Ricky, EJ was wide awake with his thoughts. He couldn't figure out why he didn't like the curly haired boy so much in the past. Sure, their conversation and attitudes towards each other now is stiff and awkward but maybe they'll end up liking each other even more with time.
Maybe they won't be the best of friends, but Ricky felt good where they stood. Granted, it still felt a bit awkward but it wasn't like before. They were both trying.
"Goodnight, EJ." Ricky let out quickly, in almost a whisper, secretly hoping that the other boy had fallen asleep by then.
Though it took EJ by surprise, he decided not to overthink it, "Night, Ricky."
Besides, a lot could happen in just a few days.