Disclaimer: I don't own these characters – they belong to Brenda Hampton and ABC Family. No profit is being made from this fic.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Sorry this chapter is a little short.

Chapter Seven

Ricky's POV

'What is this? Round 2?' I asked Adrian with casual disdain. I pretended to check the time on my watch. 'You should've given me more notice. There are things I could have TiVo-ed.'

'You don't have TiVo, Ricky,' Adrian shot back. She strode up to me and put her hands on her hips. 'And I guess if there was something worth watching, you'd watch it here at Amy's house.'

Griffin and Ashley had already backed away. Shame. I could've done with an audience – maybe that way someone else would see how crazy Adrian was acting. I stood my ground, literally, and continued to lean on my car. Adrian backed up a step or two so that she was standing on the cement of the Juergens' driveway. Maybe she needed more room for some theatrical hand gestures or something. Or maybe for the backswing of another slap.

'Well it would've been handy if I'd recorded last night's conversation,' I said. 'Because I'm guessing this little confrontation here is going to be a bad rerun.'

Adrian pursed her over-lip-glossed lips and then nodded in that I-knew-we-weren't-over-this kind of way. I hated it when girls acted like that, as if they were so sure that I was incapable of understanding where they were coming from. Amy was guilty of that too. I couldn't stand it. I knew where Adrian was coming from, alright – a little place I liked to term the 'Land of Insecurity'. Just because her mother was a flight attendant didn't mean she had to make so many goddamn trips, if you know what I mean. Gave a whole new meaning to the term trippin'.

'Yeah, let's recap last night then,' she said aggressively.

'Is there going to be a slow motion replay of when you slapped me in the face for being honest?'

'How about we show that again in real time?'

'I don't know. I'm a fan of slow mo. I can put on that low, warped voice whilst coming very slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm being bitch-slapped for no good reason.'

I knew Adrian was still extremely upset. I would bet a month's wages that she had been crying and crying over our argument. Now she was overcompensating with all this anger. It was a front. She was trying to act tough. No doubt some of this hostility, if not all, was triggered by the fact she now knew I had spent time at Amy's house instead of being at school.

The theatrical hand gestures started.

'No good reason? No good reason? No good reason?!'

'I said slow motion, not repeated playback.'

'You basically admitted to me that Amy means more to you than I do,' she yelled.

Her voice caught on the last few words, which showed how vulnerable she was feeling. Despite my knowledge of this vulnerability, I really didn't appreciate the way she was yelling the accusation in front of Amy's house.

'I did not say that,' I clarified. 'You're twisting my words.'

'You mean the words you used when you said that there's a higher chance of you getting married to Amy than there is of you marrying me?'

'What are you, a reporter? There's a little something called context that you may want to consider. You know I'm not going to promise you that I'm going to marry you. I'm not going to say things I don't mean just so that you'll continue having sex with me. Amy is the mother of my son. If some crazy law was passed demanding that everyone get married then I would consider marrying her because of John. And you're forgetting two important things. One, I really don't plan on having more kids. And two, Amy hates me.'

Adrian was fuming yet again. Jealousy was a pretty dangerous emotion.

'As I've said to you before, let's just see how things go,' I added. 'You're so insecure. You know I love you.'

'No, I don't really know that. Sometimes I feel like you're hiding something from me. Like how strongly you really feel about Amy. The girl ruined your life. And I told her that to her face.'

This time it was my turn to fume.

'You had no right to say something like that,' I said through gritted teeth. 'Don't talk about John in that way, no matter how indirectly.'

'You said it when you first found out she was pregnant. You said she was a girl you hardly knew who was ruining your life by having a baby.'

'That was ages ago. Things change. If we're going to retread the same ground we covered yesterday then why don't I bring up the fact that you lied to me about Ben? I mean, that was the subject that started the fight. You withheld that information from me for your own selfish reasons! Don't blame me for all our trust issues!'

'Come on,' Adrian argued. 'What was I supposed to do? One, I was sworn to secrecy. Two, why would I want Amy and Ben to break up? Telling you what Ben had told me would've broken them up. It was Ben and his two sidekicks, what are their names…Alice and Henry…who let slip about Ben not being in love with Amy anymore. It's ridiculous that people still think it's me who spread that rumor.'

'Well, Amy and Ben are going to break up,' I revealed with annoyance. 'I spoke with Ben today.'

'You did?'

'Yeah, I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I was about to drive home. I'll call you tomorrow, even if you're still angry. Let's face it, you and I can't go three days without sex.'

'I am not having sex with you if we're in a fight.'

'Yeah right.'

We exchanged angry and disbelieving looks. I then went around to the driver's side of the vehicle and got in. I shook my head. I glanced at her one more time through the passenger side window and then I turned my attention back to the road.

I was tired of talking about the same things over and over. As I drove back home I again realized that I wanted to talk to Mr Juergens about something. Something that wasn't the same conversation, but an extension of a previous conversation. In light of Amy's words to me today, which had further revealed her own insecurities and issues, I had a few things to think about.

I guess I had a few things to work through in therapy this week with Dr Fields.

Sex and therapy…I had said previously that they were the two things I cared about the most.

Well there are two people who I probably should've factored into that kind of ranking. Wait…two? No, there's one. John. That's it.

I turned up the radio. I needed to drown out the sound of my own thoughts.

***

Adrian's POV

I walked back into my house feeling positively infuriated. He had no idea how much it hurt. How much it destroyed me to know that no matter how hard I tried to show him that I loved him, my efforts would always be overshadowed by Amy and her role in his life. He had cut school in order to talk to Ben and to take care of Amy in her time of need.

He probably does care about me. But he wants sex, not a lifetime commitment.

Yeah, on some level maybe I did know I was kidding myself. I just couldn't bring myself to give up knowing there was a chance that he would realize one day that I really was the one for him. Thing was…

Amy may say she loves Ben, but that's over now. With Ben out of the picture, it's just a matter of time before I'm kicked to the curb.

Amy and Ricky. Ricky and Amy.

It's inevitable.

***

Author's note: There will probably be a time jump after this chapter.