Ch.3

Please,

don't take your love away from me

Don't take your love away from me

Thursday December 18th:

The following day at school, Ricky saw Grace by her locker. He knew he was going to have to make amends with her eventually and after finally settling things with Amy he figured now he might as well settle things with her as well. Ricky casually walked up to her.

"Hey," he said.

"You're talking to me now," Grace asked.

"I want to and I want to have a chance of explaining my behavior."

"That's a first."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you know what it means, Ricky. When conversations get difficult you always run away. You tell me that you want to become a Christian but in order to do that you need to stop running from your problems. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can take away those burdens if you let him."

"You're right. This whole thing is so new to me that my flight response is my first instinct. I'm working on it though I promise, I just need some time. It's not easy to become a Christian over night."

"I guess you have a point and I'm sorry for pushing you so hard. I just want you to experience some of the joys in life."

"And I will but it might take a little longer than you'd like. First things first though, I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day."

"You don't owe me an apology. I know you have your reasons."

"Yes I do. You're my girlfriend, Grace, and you don't deserve to be shut out. What you said about my kid- about having both of her parents around, it got to me. My real parents were around up until I was twelve and since then I've been in foster care. And even when they were around they weren't good people. Not like your parents, Grace. It just hurt that you kind of saw the situation one sided. Not everyone is as lucky as you to have both parents or have good parents."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea."

"It's not your fault. I guess I should have taken the time to explain instead of just running away."

"You called the baby a 'her', does that mean- ," said Grace.

"Yeah," replied Ricky, "I talked to Amy yesterday and she said her doctor told her we're having a girl."

"That's great. How do you feel about that?"

"Honestly, I'm a little relieved. I figure the kid has less of a chance turning out like me. The last thing Amy needs is the stress of having another Ricky running around the house."

"So you worked things out with her?"

"Yeah, we both decided to be friends and we thought it was time we stop apologizing for what happened. We can't change it and there's no going back. The fact is I am going to be a father and Amy is going to be a mother. There's no point in trying to deny our daughter doesn't exist you know."

"That's good. I'm proud of you, Ricky."

Ricky smiled, "Thanks. Hey so I was thinking since Amy and I are friends now what do you say about inviting her and Ben to the Christmas light show parade tomorrow that we had planned on? The way I see it you were all ready coming to my house around 5 and then we can pick Amy and Ben up at 5:30 and then we can go eat some place along Main Street at 6 and then find a place to sit along the side walk."

"You mean like on a double date?"

"Sure if that's how you see it."

"You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?"

"Maybe a little, I just think it would be fun. You're all ready friends with Amy and Ben and I'm only friends with Amy but maybe it's time I start getting to know Ben better."

"That's sweet of you."

"What?"

"The fact that you want to get to know Ben even though I know you hate the guy."

"I don't hate him. I don't know him."

"You haven't tried to get to know him. Are you doing it for you or for Amy?"

"Amy of course, I'm a selfless guy. I just don't want to jeopardize our friendship just because I can't get along with her boyfriend."

"Well I have Amy in class later so I'll ask her."

"Great, thanks."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sure enough Grace did have Amy in English class later. After class dismissed Grace caught up to her.

"Hey Amy, how are you?"

"I'm fine," Amy replied.

"That's good. Hey so are you and Ben doing anything tomorrow night?"

"Not really. We were just going to stay home and watch a movie."

"Ricky and I are going to the Christmas light show parade. He wanted to know if you guys wanted to come."

"This was Ricky's idea?"

"Yeah, he told me you two were friends now and he thought it would be something fun. Kind of like a double date. Since I had you in class I told him I would ask you."

"Sure the parade sounds like fun."

"Great. Ricky said he could pick you and Ben up at 5:30 and then around 6 we can get something to eat along Main Street and then find a place to sit along the side walk."

"Okay."

"Well I'll see you tomorrow Amy."

"Yeah see you tomorrow."

~*~*~*~*~*~

As Grace turned the corner she saw Ricky standing there, waiting for her.

"So what did Amy say?" he asked.

"She said she and Ben would go."

Ricky smiled. He tried to hide it but it was hard not to. He and Amy had been at odds for so long and now, aside from being there for their daughter, this was becoming his own personal way of making it up to Amy alone. Sure this had originally started out to be a date night with Grace but the fact that she had agreed to a double date made things a little better since as far as technicalities went, there were no hidden agendas.

Ricky placed his arm around Grace and the two of them walked out together.