"Bye Sam. Bye Eric." Ralph waved to the light-haired boys as we left. "I'll text you later." He promised.
The twins waved back. "Stop by anytime Ralph." They said in unison. Their carmal eyes lighting up with sincerity.
Ralph was still grinning ear to ear as we made our way down the street. "They were fun to hang with, don't you think?" He asked nudging my arm. "You could've talked a bit more though." He wrapped his arm around mine.
My body stiffened out of impulse, but then I relaxed. Ralph did not seem to notice and continued to chat, mostly about Andrew. I kept replaying his answer to my question last night. 'He sure talks a lot about someone he says he doesn't love.' My brain kept messing with me.
"And he says he wants to take me to one of his college's soccer games in a couple of weeks." Ralph sounded really excited about that. "It's going to be farther away, but he says he'll get me a hotel room and he'll drive me to the game."
At that, my attention was on full alert. "What?!" I stopped, causing Ralph to be pulled backwards. "You're going with him?!" My shouting got the attention of a few by-standers, but none of them actually stopped to see what was going on.
Ralph looked at me confused. "Yeah? Is there a problem with that?" He asked, reading my expression.
I looked back at him blankly. "You're taking things kind of fast don't you think." I did not mean for it to be a question. "I mean, you two have only been going out a few days." I said, backing up my theory.
Ralph gave me a disgusted look. "Nothing like that is going to happen!" His face turned red at the thought of it though. "Is that how you think of me? A slut?" Ralph looked as if that tore him up inside. "I have more respect for myself Jack!" A pang of guilt hit me. "I can't believe you think I'd let him take advantage of me." He lowered his voice.
"That's not it Ralph. That's not it at all." I said meeting his volume. "I was just worried that..." Come on Jack. Think up a lie. I mentally yelled at myself. "...You wouldn't want to come to my mother's vacation house next week." I said blurting out the first thing that came to my mind. In all fairness, it was not exactly a lie either. Every year before the holidays, my mother would invite my sister and I to the beach house. This was her way of bribing us to see her and if I told her I would be going she would love to have Ralph down too.
"Your mother's vacation house?" He asked a bit skeptical. "And where is it located?" Ralph asked crossing his arms over his chest. Challenge accepted Ralph.
"It's on Round Rock, in the British Virgin Islands." I said giving his a cocky smirk.
Ralph seemed to be impressed. "A tropical island." He said amused. "Some holiday trip." Ralph looked me over, thinking to himself. "And why would you want me to tag along? Wouldn't it make more sense to take your room-mate? He seems like he'd like it." I had forgotten how good he was at making people sweat.
"He's already been before." I lied. "And with what's happened to you, I thought it would be a nice gesture to ask you to go. But I can see you're not interested, soo..." I teased and started to walk away from him. Three, two, one.
"Now hold on a second!" Got him. "Who said I wasn't interested?" Ralph caught up with me. "Going to a tropical island and enjoy warn weather and relaxing on the beach actually sounds really good." He bit his lip. "I'd have to beg Brianna and promise to be her slave for the rest of my life, but I think I could make it." Ralph gave me a smile and I smiled back. "Now that we've discussed that...Race you back!" He yelled as he took down the street.
I let out a chuckle, before I ran after him. Ralph, being an athlete and in more appropriate clothing, made it to my place before I did, leaving both of us out of breath. Ralph was holding his side, while I was bent over, resting on my knees. "Best two out of three." I said out of habit. Every time he won I would through that comment out.
Ralph just stared at me in confusion. "What did you just say?" He asked.
"What? Best two out of three?" I said again, making sure that was what he meant.
He nodded and kept looking at me as if he were concentrating on something. The next thing I knew, Ralph was doubled over clutching his head.
"Ralph?! Are you okay?" I grabbed ahold of his shoulders.
He shrugged them off and winced. Looking up at me, I could see pain in his eyes. "Head hurt." He said surprisingly calm. "I feel like I've heard you say that before. I must be going batty." Ralph rubbed his head, trying to lessen the pain.
I helped him up and took him to my room so he could lay down. "Stay here. I'll go get you some aspirin and a glass of water." I said keeping the lights out for his sake. The house was oddly quiet, not that I was complaining, but it did make me some what nervous. I quickly went to check Maurice's room. A note was on the door stating that he was 'socially occupied' and would be back sometime that night. I could not help but wonder if he was ever going back to work. Crumpling the note and getting the stuff for Ralph, I returned to the room.
Ralph sat up and held his hands out for the glass and pills. "Thanks." He said tossing the pills to the back of his throat. I noticed the circles around his eyes had darkened a tad and the bandage over hid nose needed changed.
"How much sleep did you get last night?" I asked as he handed back the glass half empty.
He rubbed his forehead. "Ummmmm." Ralph squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm not sure. Why?" He began picking at the bandage.
"You kinda look like shit right now." I said getting straight to the point. "Not to be rude. Just letting you know." I pulled out my phone to text Roger.
Ralph got up from the bed and went to the mirror that was attached to the closet door. He let out half-hearted laughs. "Yeah I guess I do." I looked up after texting Roger and telling him to remind my room-mate he has work the next day. He finally just pulled the bandage off, revealing a small bump where the bone had cracked. Ralph caught my reflection staring at him in the mirror. "Take a picture. It'll last longer." He said a smile tugging at his lips.
I looked back to my phone, blushing. I had no new messages to use as an excuse to be distracted.
Ralph's smile faltered a bit as he reached for his pocket. Pulling out his own phone, he hit the answer button and held it to his ear. "Hey Andrew." He sat back down on my bed, back to me. "Yeah, you can come pick me up now." Ralph switched ears. "No, but I have a pretty bad headache." Ralph looked at me apologetically. "See you in a bit." He hung up and turned to me. "Andrew's on his way. I had a great time hanging with you." Ralph said going to back his things. I stayed back, flopping on my bed.
A/N: This chapter is finally finished. :D Please leave a review and tell me what you think of it and your feels on where you think it's going so far.
windsurfergirl: That's fine about the reviewing. ^^ Thanks, and I liked that part too. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)
