"Oh my god!" I shrieked. Ricky walked over to the window beside me and looked out. I barely peaked out; I was actually trembling.
Ricky stared at me like I had lost my mind, but as he looked at this window, his eyes narrowed at the sight of the blood. But then a different emotion flickered across his face; he looked irritated.
He shook his head and muttered, "What the hell?" under his breath. He started to open the window, but I quickly threw my hands on his to stop him. Ignoring the awkward feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, I grimaced at him.
"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped.
He glowered at me and snatched his hands free. "What does it look like I'm doing?" He went to open the window, but I stopped him again. This time he looked impatient. He grabbed my wrists and held me in his firm grip with one arm. I struggled in his tight, firm hold he had on me and tried with all my strength to get him off me.
Whatever it was that was out the window, I didn't want to see it. "Amy, please," his low voice demanded. I shook my head and nudged my elbow into his side, but he didn't look like I had hurt him at all. He finally managed to reach the window with his other hand, and he opened it.
He released me, and I backed up quickly. Not that I necessarily wanted this person or animal, whatever it was, to attack Ricky. I didn't, really, but I had tried to stop him. So I couldn't say that I hadn't made an attempt to save him. Ricky looked out the window and made a face. I squinted, trying to clear my vision to see whatever had made him look the way he did.
And then I heard two guys laughing outside. I cautiously walked to the window, and I frowned at myself. It was just two boys playing a dumb prank, and I realized that the "blood" that was supposedly smeared on the window was just ketchup. I felt stupid.
The window was large enough that Ricky crawled through it. Still frightened, I did the same, and walked outside into the dark. The guys started laughing a deep, humorous laugh, while Ricky and I were both staring coldly at them. I had never seen them before; they weren't from my school. They must have been in the other school's band.
"That was funny! You've got to admit it!" One of the guys with dark red hair said. He was looking at Ricky when he said it, but then he winked at me. I didn't give him the scowling look that Ricky did; I just smiled a tiny smile.
Ricky looked at me for a second, then turned his glare back to the redhead and shook his head. "No, it wasn't funny," he said icily. His voice was harsh, and he looked annoyed.
"Did we scare you?" The guy with black hair said mockingly.
"No," Ricky and I both said at the same time, and he continued for me. "We- well, I," he smirked at me, "wasn't scared." His expression was serious again. "But that was a pretty ridiculous joke. How childish could you get?"
"Oh, whatever," the red-headed guy said. "Maybe you just need a sense of humor, and maybe you're just a little too... grown up, or whatever. It was just a small little joke, and you know it was hilarious! I mean, you two actually looked like you thought we were puttin' real blood on the window! Like you thought we had killed someone or something!" He exploded into laughter with the other guy.
Ricky rolled his eyes. "Well, good night." He turned around and walked back through the window. I followed him, and he shut the window once we were inside. He looked at me. He looked irritated, and I thought he was going to go off on me or something, but then, somehow surprising me, he smirked. "So... where were we?"
"Uh..." I didn't answer his question. I shrugged my shoulders and changed the subject. "What time is it?"
"Um..." He looked at his phone. "It's eleven."
I nodded but didn't say anything. I was really tired, but I didn't want to go to sleep. I was really afraid about sleeping with him. He wouldn't really sleep with me in the bed, would he? Couldn't he sleep on the floor?
I sighed. Without even looking at Ricky, I walked right past him. I was in the middle of the bedroom when I felt his hand on my arm. I froze. His hand was warm and for some reason made me feel safe. It warmed me up; I was freezing.
I flipped me around to face him. He removed his hand, and with humor in his eyes, he said, "You look distressed."
"Well...let me see. Just a few hours ago I found out that I have to spend a whole night with you, which wasn't even supposed to happen. But, of course, with my bad luck, it did, and whoever made out the stupid list messed it up. And then I got here and . . . well, I thought we were going to be killed."
He chuckled. "You wouldn't have been killed. You were standing back. I would have gotten killed, if anyone. Would you miss me?"
His question shocked me. "Maybe..." I had never thought about it before.
He turned his back toward me and leaned down on the floor next to his bag that was beside the bed. He opened it and started going through it, looking for something, I thought. When he spoke, I could tell he was smiling, and he sounded very smug. "Well, just for the record, I would miss you, too."
I didn't say anything. Instead, I changed the subject again. "What are you looking for?"
He zipped up the bag and stood up. "Nothing," he mumbled, "it's not there."
Confused, I narrowed my eyes and walked over to the bed. I ruffled the yellow covers, smoothing out the wrinkles. I took a rough, nervous breath before speaking to Ricky. I didn't turn around to look at him. I was afraid, and I wasn't exactly sure why.
I cleared my throat and tried to sound irritated, which I was. "Okay, so I'm going to sleep. I already didn't practice for the competition, I don't want to mess up even more from being tired." I paused, and when I continued, my words came in a rush. "So you can sleep on the floor and I'll sleep on the bed, okay." I didn't say this as a question.
I knew he wouldn't look past that; he would respond, and my attempt at avoiding it by talking fast was an instant fail. "We can share it," he demanded.
What's the point in arguing? I sighed."Whatever." I walked out of the room into the small, cramped hallway and entered the bathroom. I realized that I didn't have my bag, so I went into the living room and picked it up where it was sitting on the floor.
I slammed the bathroom door as loudly as possible, knowing Ricky would hear, and I locked it. I looked at myself in the mirror above the sink and quickly washed my face. Then I slid off my clothes and let them fall to the floor. I pulled out my satin, dark blue sleep shirt and put it on over my bra. I quickly buttoned all the buttons and hopped into my silky matching blue night pants.
The shirt had short sleeves, but the pants were long so I figured I wouldn't get too cold. Unless Ricky hogged the covers.
I opened the bathroom door and tramped back into the bedroom. Ricky was standing motionless beside the window. I stood beside the foot of the bed, and Ricky walked around me to the left and pulled back the covers. "Good night," he beamed. His voice was smug and a little mocking, or so it seemed that way to me.
I sighed and flipped off the light switch. My heart was racing in my chest, but I had nothing to worry about. I hoped I didn't, anyway.
The room was now pitch black dark. I walked around to the right side of the bed and nervously got in the bed and tucked the covers over me. I lay awkwardly on my back, trying to remain as calm as I could.
But I had a hard time being calm when Ricky started talking to me. "Hey, Amy?" he said quietly.
I swallowed. "Yes?" My voice was almost a whisper.
"Good night."
"Good night, Ricky."
I realized that he wasn't even taking up most of the bed space. He gave me enough room to where I could lay about six or more inches from the edge, but instead I lay at the very edge of the bed. Maybe he was doing the same, not giving me room, just wanting to stay away from me. I didn't know.
Ricky didn't stop talking to me. First I heard him snickering and then he said, "Well, this is fun."
I pulled my eyebrows together. "What is that supposed to mean?"
He chuckled again. "I don't know."
"Whatever," I murmured.
I closed my eyes, assuming he was done talking now. As soon as I thought I might be close to falling asleep, he talked again and I opened my eyes. "Amy?"
I yawned, realizing how tired I was. "Hmm?" I mumbled.
"Are you awake?"
Barely. "Mmhmm."
He didn't say anything, so I decided to try to fall asleep again. I was only seconds away from somnolence when he interrupted it, again. "Hey, Amy. . . ."
I struggled keeping my eyes opened. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but I didn't have the energy. "Hm."
"You wanna do something?"
My eyes shot open. "Um, what?"
"I mean tomorrow. After the competition. You want to do something? Like go somewhere or somethin'."
I was too tired to even think about what the words meant. The sleep was about to overtake me. "Mmhmm," was the last thing I mumbled before falling asleep.
When I woke up in the morning, the sum was beaming brightly through the window. I squinted and blinked my eyes open. I sighed and looked over at Ricky. He was lying on his back, obviously still asleep.
I got up from the bed and went to the bathroom. Then I changed into jeans and my white band shirt that had our school name on it. When I opened the door, I saw Ricky just walking out of the bedroom.
"Morning," he said.
"Hi," I said. "Do we have to stay here another night?"
"Yep."
I groaned. He laughed and said, "That wasn't so bad."
It actually wasn't too bad at all. "Well, I don't want to miss that much school."
He snorted. "That's funny. . . . Anyway, where do you want to go today?"
"What do you mean?"
"After the competition, you know? You said that was okay. If we go somewhere."
"Oh...." I narrowed my eyes, trying to remember when I said that. And then I vaguely remembered, last night, when I was almost asleep, Ricky asked me something that I didn't really pay attention to. "Um, I don't know. I don't think we're allowed to..."
"Yeah, we are. We can do whatever we want after competition, then we have to come back to our cabins at night." He smirked.
I swallowed nervously. "Well... what do you want to do?"
"What I want to do is probably not appropriate," he said. I gave him a cold look. "So you can decide."
"I feel like this is band camp all over again..."
He smirked. "It can be if you want."
I didn't mean that. "What?"
"I don't know." He looked away and talked in a low, pained voice. "I just haven't had sex in a while..."
I clenched my jaw and bit my lip. I couldn't say anything to that.
Ricky peeked up to see my reaction and laughed. "Kidding!"
I still didn't say anything.
"Seriously, I was kidding." He smiled and added lamely, "So, um, we can go to McDonalds or something."
I couldn't help it, I had to laugh. "Sure, Ricky. That sounds great."
