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Ricky and Big Red rode up the highway in silence for a few minutes. He figured Ricky would want to be the one to bring it up, so he thought it wouldn’t hurt to wait.
So he waited. And waited. And then he got tired of waiting.
“Okay, so what happened?” He finally asked.
Ricky let out a long sigh. “It’s complicated,” He huffed.
“But you said we’d talk about it in the car. We’re almost at my house.”
He looks up ahead and switches lanes, turning right instead of left, “Okay, and now we’re not.”
Big Red half expected him to be like this. Ever since the summer, Ricky has been...emotionally fragile. He couldn’t predict their heart-to-hearts if he tried, and he did—he recorded them on a calendar, and there was almost no correlation between them. They were almost always about the same things, though—it was always about Nini or his mom.
“Do you even know where you’re going now?” Big Red asked.
“Nope.” That’s also typical of Ricky. He’s not much of a planner or the best with remembering. Big Red knew that the day he got his nickname. Truthfully, he thinks Ricky forgot what his actual name was and just started calling him Big Red instead of asking.
“Okay.” They sit in silence again. It was dark by the time they got out of rehearsal, and the traffic lights were glowing brighter than usual. Maybe that’s just because the theater was dark. It started drizzling about five minutes into the car ride, too, so the lights seemed even brighter. It reminded Big Red of the Homecoming dance. Not because the lights were just as blinding there, but because it was so weirdly tense.
Ricky pulled into a Park-and-Ride a few minutes later and shut the engine off. He rested his head on the steering wheel and let out another long sigh.
“We almost kissed,” he said. He lifted his head up and turned to Big Red. “We were just sitting there talking after a weird vocal warm-up thing, and she leaned in and we almost kissed . Like, she grabbed my face, and—”
“—and I interrupted you guys,” Big Red finished. He interrupted one of the most pivotal things in his best friend’s life for pizza with soy cheese . “Gosh, Ricky, I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, “It wasn’t your fault. Well, maybe a little. But I’m kinda glad you did?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well...she's just so complicated , y’know? One minute she’s with E.J., and the next minute she’s not, and then she’s my buddy , and then she tries to kiss me!” He buries his head in his hands. “I just want to know where I stand with her.”
“Have you, maybe, tried asking her?” Red offered.
“You know, maybe it's my fault,” Ricky says, completely ignoring the question. “I told her while we were talking that she was my first crush, even before Minnie Mouse—”
“—you had a crush on Minnie Mouse—?”
“—actually, I don’t know. I don’t even know, dude, I’m so confused.”
Big Red waits a moment to respond. “Do you still want to be a couple?”
“Honestly, man, I don’t know. I mean, Gina and I are...something, I think. I don’t know, everything is just insane right now.”
“Okay…” he drawls. “Well, I think you should still ask Nini about it. Even if you don’t want to date her, it can be for...non-toxic closure. And to reestablish your friendship. Then, after you figure your stuff out, you can see where it goes.”
“Yeah…” Ricky nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Man, Red, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
He quietly basks in the compliment for a few moments before chuckling, “Trust me, I’ve thought about it, and it’s not pretty.”
Ricky laughs and turns the engine back on. “I hate to say that you’re probably not wrong.” He flicks the wipers on and turns back to Big Red, “Hey, we should go get food.”
“We literally just had pizza,” he reminds him.
“Come on, you know it sucked. I meant we should get, like, real food.”
Big Red rolled his eyes, “What, like McDonald's?”
Ricky doesn’t respond, and Big Red's jaw drops. “Really? What happened to you being athletic, and the whole‘my body is a temple’ thing?”
“First of all, I’m a skater, that’s different,” he defends. “And even athletes have cheat days. Are you in or not?”
Big Red pretends to ponder for a moment. “Are you buying?”
“Uh, duh,” Ricky answers. When Big Red nods, he pulls out of his parking space and back onto the highway. “So…can we agree that this doesn’t leave the bug?”
“Like I’d ever tell anyone,” he responds. “I wouldn’t do that to you, man. Especially since you’re about to buy me a fifty-piece of chicken nuggets.”
“Hey, I never agreed to that!”
“You shouldn’t have said you were buying, then!”
The two of them laughed and continued up the highway. They did buy a fifty-piece, but it was to share, and Red even forked up some money to pay for it. He lived for moments like these, especially since their lives got so hectic. They refused to think about any of that now, though, and instead sipped their sweet teas and just kept on driving.