"Oh Ruben, you look beat." Ronnie said hugging me. She turned back to her locker and laughed. "What did you do last night? I heard you were with Ricky. And John.
  "Word travels fast. Ricky told you?" She nodded. "Oh yeah, Ricky like..." I ended that conversation right away. "Where is he?"
  Ronnie shook her head and snorted. "You're not going to believe this one." She slammed her locker shut and looked back up at me. Before I could answer, she said, "He's talking to Bear."
  My jaw dropped and my thoughts raced. Hypocritehypocritelyinghypocrite! "Wha- why!?" I said instead. "What about his rant? His 'spaz session?'"
  "He said that they needed to 'work things out.' I guess Bear's moving to California." She said. No emotion in her voice, no sadness, no joy, no nothing.
  "Oh... why aren't you freaking out?" She shrugged. I tried to change the subject again, not doing to good a job. "If she's leaving, why do they need to work things out?"
  "I don't know, Ruben. I don't know." We started walking. "Things work fast with B, you've gotta work problems out with her. You've got to fit it in sometime. Because if you don't, things are never... never the same."
  "Oh, okay..." I don't get it. "So got any plans for the weeke-" And then I saw them. "WHAT!? No, tha- that's our's!" I was talking of course about the kiss. The one where he stood on my toes, and we just. Bianca can't be on his toes. No, nonononono!
  "Oh Ruben." Ronnie shook her head at them and grabbed my hand. "Oh Ruben, I'm sorry."
  I squeezed Ronnie's hand back and waited for one of them to step down. For one of them to open their eyes. I waited for time to speed up again. Before I even realized Ronnie had let go of my hand, she had walked over to them, pulled Ricky away by his arm and over ot me. "What was that?" She yelled and pointed in Bianca's direction. Ricky was silent, but looking Ronnie right in the eye. "WELL?!" She yanked on his arm, trying to force an answer out of him.
  "Iunno." He mumbled. She looked at him and frowned.
  "Get out of here, Ricky, go." She said, pushing him away. Pretty roughly for a girl her size. "Ruben, I'm so sorry." She hugged me tight and nuzzled her head into my chest.
  I wrapped my arms around her and stared blankly as Ricky walked away, past Bianca. She shot me a dirty look, that kind of scared me, and followed him, asking "what just happened?"

  Ronnie and I strolled into the lunchroom, ignoring Ricky, but still sitting right across form him. He looked up angrily at Ronnie. "We're not giving up our table for you." Ronnie grimaced.
  He grunted out a "Whatever" and looked back down at the table.
  We got half way through luch with out saying a word. Until I blurted out "Why Ricardo? Why?" Full name?
  He sighed, threw his fork on the food he refused to eat and began. "Why not Ruben? Huh? I've loved Bianca for the longest time. so long, that I know its safe to say I love her... and mean it."
  "So you didn't mean it when you told me?" I snapped. "Did you mean it?"
  His eyes widened a bit at that, and he gasped. "Well, I- I don't know." He stammered. "I do love you, but I don't know how. There's no connection. With B, there's a spark, with you... I don't even know what to feel."
  "THAT'S BULL!" Ronnie interupted. Here it comes. I thought, shaking my head. "I heard him talk about you forever! About how much he liked you. How bad he felt when Haylee hurt you! He's wanted to tell you for the longest time! And do you know what he did while you guys 'cuddled?'"
  "Oh no, Ronnie. Don't." I said, knowing it wouldn't help.
  Ricky shook his head. "He sent me extatic text messages. Uhhuh!" She nodded and pointed to herself. "'Guess what I'm doing!' 'God I think I love him!'" She quoted my messages. "And my personal favourite... 'Ronnie, this is the best thing you've ever done for me.'"
  He looked at me with a sad look on his face. "You- you really said that?"
  "Typed." I smiled trying to break the tension. "Is it that hard to believe?"
  He looked more past me that at me and whined. "I'm sorry. Bianca's already lefet, you know? This whole thing was pointless."
  "No." I said. "It wasn't pointless. I learned alot about you. Alot about how you work." I pushed his foot with mine and smiled a bit wider.
  The bell rang, signalingthat lunch was over. But the "thing" was far from over. "But Ricky." I whispered, standing in time with them. "What led you to that... that kiss? I have to know. Because I hate to say, unless its a good reason, I'll never be able to look at you the same way."
  And so he began. "It started the other day. When we went down town." We started walking. I made sure to hear this all. "You fell asleep, and about two minutes later, Bianca texted me, saying she was moving. We worked a little bit out on the phone and with random text messages throughout the day. And when I yelled at you that night, it was all lies. And I couldn't be more sorry about that. But today, we walked together. I helped her clean her locker, and I don't know wha-"
  "Who kissed who?" Ronnie freaked. "Huh, Ricky?" She was still mad. Insanely mad.
  Ricky was silent for a few seconds. "I kissed her." He uttered so low I could hardly hear.
  But Ronnie heard. "You shallow bit-"
  "I'm so sorry Ruben." He cut her off. "I'd take it all back if I could. If I knew how much you cared." And then, just like nothing had happened, he kissed me. Long and deep. It happened so fast, but I could recall it all in a millisecond if I had to.
  He finished what he had to say, gripped my arms right above my elbows, and pulled me into a kiss. Tounge and everything. I was shocked at his sudden lock, but kissed back. Tounge and everything.
  "Screw you both." Ronnie growled, leaving us to our amazing kiss.
  I love you, but I'll never have the same view on you Ricky. I thought, leaning into the kiss.