His Best Friend's Sister

Chapter 5

By mid-November, school was becoming a bland routine once again, and I hadn't had any opportunities to chat with Ricky without Alexander shooing me away. We briefly saw each other in the school hallway a few times, but I reckoned that our secret communicating was over for good now. The usual smiles, and the usual head nods were once again taking place. For all intents and purposes, everything was back to normal. 

Even if Ricky had any feelings for me - which he didn't - we were facing so many obstacles that it would virtually be impossible to even consider dating. First of all, he was graduating at the end of the year, and possibly moving across the country. Impeccably bad timing. Second of all, he was popular, charming, funny, and gorgeous. Standing almost at 6ft with a hockey player's build, it was hard for anyone at our school not to swoon for Ricky. Whereas, I'm painfully average looking with a grand total of about five friends in the whole school. On a social scale, Ricky and I weren't exactly matched. Lastly, and most importantly: he was, in every respect, the absolute closest friend of my older brother. My shielding, overprotective, and overbearing older brother. Ricky dating me would be nothing short of a complete and utter betrayal to his best friend. All things considered, a romantic future for Ricky and I did not seem likely. Besides... I didn't see Ricky in that way. At least, I knew I shouldn't.

Zoey, Bianca, Robin and I had made plans one Friday night to go out to dinner, then catch a movie. Unfortunately, Zoey got grounded, and shortly after, Bianca got a call from Brad asking to talk. She told me and Robin that she was just going to 'see what he wanted' but we all knew they would be together again by the morning.

Robin and I accepted that we would be staying in that night and ended up watching a movie in my living room. My mom had been working late, so the house was pretty quiet.

We heard the front door open and in sauntered Ricky and Alexander.

"I thought you guys were going to a party?" Robin called out. An occasional friend of the boys, Mitch Pitton, was throwing a seniors-only house party while his parents were out.

"The police booked it in five minutes," Alexander sighed, throwing his coat on the sofa and plopping down beside Robin. I noticed Robin adjust her posture when Alexander sat beside her. I kept my eyes on Ricky who followed Alexander's lead and sat on the other side of him. Alexander and Robin were sitting in between Ricky and I so I couldn't get a good look at him, but I saw he was wearing a navy-blue sweater. I liked that colour on him.

We all inattentively watched the TV screen in front of us.

"That's what he gets for sending everyone into his backyard," Alexander continued to complain, obviously distraught about having no plans for the night. Is this how the extroverts of the world live? I wondered.

Robin ignored the topic of the party completely. She was slightly bitter for having not been invited. Robin was invited to parties about the same amount that I was - which was never. Neither of us had ever been to a party with seniors either, which was of course, one level up on the social scale at our school. There was a great divide between juniors and seniors at our school. Only the elite juniors hung out with the seniors, which included many guys on the hockey team. In a sense, it included me, because I was in fact a Morales. That didn't feel like an accomplishment, though. It felt more like a participation trophy. 

"So... since your plans have flopped, and our plans flopped... why don't we all do something?" Robin suggested.

I shifted my neck to look at her, without fully taking my gaze off the television.

"What time is it?" Alexander asked.

"It's only ten o clock," Robin told him.

"The night is young," Ricky spoke for the first time since he came into the house. His voice sounded deeper than usual, slightly tired and groggy. The deep octave of his voice had been catching me off guard lately. When did his voice become so manly? I wondered to myself.