Hello! Finally, another hopefully wonderful chapter of Far From Perfection! Firstly, I'd just like to give everyone who has reviewed so far, a massive thank you! 62 reviews and this only chapter 5, wow! I really hope you all continue to enjoy it so much. Because I knew many of you were looking forward to Rikki's chapter, I decided to make it a lot longer than I've made my other ones so far.
Where the chapter starts, it skips a bit from where chapter 4 ended with Rikki arriving at Will & Zane's place, but further into the story there's a flashback that explains a lot.
I really hope you love it, and regardless, I would love to know what you all thought xx
Men! You can't live with 'em and you can't shoot 'em - Becky Howard, McLeod's Daughters
Chapter 5 – Home Matters
Rikki's POV
I'm in.
Me along with my 4 bags which represented the entire material life of Rikki Chadwick.
4 bags.
The majority of people came home from shopping with 4 bags. Not their whole life.
There was 2 light knocks that vibrated against the wood of my partially opened door.
"Unless it's Steve Martin or Lincoln Lewis, go away."
Not expecting either of my choices, I wasn't fazed when the door opened, revealing Will.
"Sorry, no can do. But seriously, Rikki? Steve Martin?" Will asked, cringing at me as he leant against the doorframe that he was standing next to.
"He's better than you two."
"Ouch."
"Richer as well..."
Will rolled his eyes. "Okay, I didn't come up here to discuss the perks of Steve Martin."
"Good for you." I knew that Will was trying to lead me onto the path of asking "Oh, why did you come up then?" but I was playing under my own rules, not his.
"I came up to see if you wanted a tour of the house" he stated regardless of the fact that I didn't ask him what he wanted me to.
"A tour? What do I need to know? My natural instincts will lead me to the fridge, my sensor will lead me to the bathroom, the noise from you guys stupid game will lead me to the lounge room and the stench will lead me away from you guys rooms. What more do I need to know?"
Will rolled his eyes again. "I'm sorry Rikki. I was just trying to be nice. We're all living together, it's better to get along with each other rather than start a World War III."
"Like I care, and sweet talking isn't going to change the jerk you were Will."
"But it wasn't my fault Rikki! Why doesn't anyone listen to me or my side of the story?" he said appearing to become rapidly frustrated.
"Right, so whose fault was it then? Santa Clause?"
"Whoever's fault it was doesn't matter. It's got nothing to do with this."
"Go."
"You're not in control here! You're just one part of a shared household, Rikki."
"JUST GET OUT WILL!"
Will sighed, turned around and shut the door as he walked off.
I took a deep breath, before resuming my unpacking which really wouldn't take me that long.
I'd gotten through my clothes and underwear, carelessly throwing them inside cupboards, when I'd reached that brown bag that had been haunting me daily, without fail for the past two months. I took a deep breath, before getting that churning, washing-machine-in-my-gut feeling that I'd felt every time I'd touched it or thought about it. I snatched the bag up and hurried over to the largest wardrobe in the room, dropping it into place in the back corner and closing the door as fast as I physically could.
Panting heavily, I leant against wardrobe, trying to reason with myself to make me feel better about my total cowering. I wasn't being big, brave, courageous Rikki Chadwick, just tearing the bag open and moving on with life. I just couldn't do it. Every single day for the last 47 days, I've been telling myself; "Tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. No excuses this time." But every morning, tomorrow came, just to become yesterday.
Realizing my breathing was back to normal, I inhaled one last deep breath to stabilize my breathing, before I went downstairs.
The loud screeches of simulated car tyres echoed throughout the lower level of the house and I squinted, making my way into the kitchen.
Zane was sitting on the breakfast bench in the kitchen, drinking a beer and watching Will who appeared uptight from the adrenaline rush, determinedly focused on the game he was playing.
I saw Zane look up at me as I was scanning the room, coincidentally when my eyes were on him. Well the area of the room he was in anyway. I awkwardly changed my focus to the fridge, barrelling straight on towards it.
As I scanned the first, then second and third shelves, I was slightly thrown from the unexpected 'WOOP!' coming from the next room over.
Peering out from the fridge, I saw Will throwing his arms up in the air, before belting out into a little victory dance. Zane got off the bench, walking over to him and starting to detest, throwing his hands around and babbling on with his mannerisms that made him look like an annoyed Greek, even though I couldn't tell what the two were saying to each other.
Taking one last look, I shut the fridge door on the beer, milk, block of chocolate and Coke Zero with 'ZANE'S' imprinted on it as largely as it could be in permanent texta, and the microwave meal, Kit-Kat and Sushi labelled similarly with 'WILL'S', realizing that neither was a feasible option for me.
"Hey Rikki, we're getting Chinese for dinner tonight and we reckon it'd be nice to eat together communally. Wanna join us?" Zane asked, sounding marginally sincere.
"No. I've already got plans for dinner and I'm just living here and sleeping under this roof. I don't give a damn about being communal or whatever you were implying. Just because we all live together, doesn't mean we're friends."
Will smirked, shooting a look at Zane. "Ooh, have you got a boyfriend now?"
"Maybe. Maybe not."
"Well who are you going out with then?" Zane asked with a serious frown.
"Just the girls, but even that's none of your business... Grandpa."
I was expecting an argument or whinge from Zane in his defence and not being a Grandpa, but it was Will who piped up next.
"The girls? Will Bella be there?"
"None of your business!"
"Rikki, please just tell me."
"No Will. I'm not doing you any favours! With any other housemate you wouldn't find out where your ex is, and that's going to be no different with me. End of story."
I stormed out of the room, going back up to my bedroom. I got changed into a figure-hugging cocktail dress, applied some black mascara, foundation, blush and a not-quite-coral lipstick, and grabbed my heels and bag, coming back downstairs within 10 minutes later.
I didn't bother saying goodbye to the boys who were back on the lounge, now watching a movie as I left.
#
"Hey! We're over here" Cleo said as she walked over to me from where she was sitting at a table under the balcony of a club.
I followed her over and dropped my handbag on the stool, as Cleo gave me a quick hug.
"How are you? Have you heard from Bella whether she's coming tonight?"
Sitting down again, Cleo smiled "I'm great. And yeah, she's inside getting a drink."
"Oh okay. How long have you guys been here?"
"Well I've been here for nearly half an hour and Bella got here about 15 minutes ago" she said as she swished her drink around in the cocktail glass.
I nodded and trawled through my handbag for my metallic purse that was somewhere inside it. I snatched it up the second I laid my hands on it. "Can you look after my bag for a sec, Cleo? I'll be right back – I just need a drink."
She nodded, before awkwardly shuffling her stool closer towards my handbag, preparing to babysit the inanimate object for me.
As I waltzed confidently inside to the bar, I noticed a petite blonde in a white cocktail dress with her recognizable hair pinned up, facing the bar and appearing to be waiting for a drink.
"Hey stranger" I said feigning the deepest voice that I could, while pouncing my hands onto the back of Bella's bare shoulders.
Feeling her jump under my grip, she turned around and slapped my hands off.
"Rikki! Don't do that again" she warned me seriously.
I resisted the urge to laugh, sensing how annoyed Bella was with me from my little joke.
"Guilty conscience there?" I joked with a smirk, just getting an eye roll in response. "So how's things anyway?"
"Terrible. That's the reason I snapped at you. Sorry about that."
"I deserved it. What's up?"
"Work's been a bit full on, I saw Will for the first time a couple of days ago, Amy's sharing her cold with me and to top that all off, Dan's leaving to go to Cairns for two, frickin weeks."
"Wow. Poor you. Anything I can do?"
"Nah, don't worry about me. I haven't got a patch on what you're going through. How have you been coping the last few days anyway? I'm sorry; I've been meaning to call and touch bases with you sooner, but with everything going on I didn't get around to it."
"Well I finally found a place, so that's good news I guess."
"That's great Rikki!" Bella said with an enthusiastic smile. "Where is it?"
"It's actually about a block away from your apartment. Malak Street."
"Really? Awesome! That's like right in-between Amy's place and mine.
"Okay." I said, not that excited about it. I'd only met Amy a couple of times and I hadn't really connected with her that well. But then again, I take ages to connect with anyone, so maybe it was just a matter of time. Regardless, I'm not going to go the extra mile chasing her up for a friendship.
"All we need to do now is convince Cleo & Lewis to move back to where they were living before, or near there and then we're all basically living on each other's doorsteps!"
"Yeah... doorsteps... five minutes away!" I said laughing at her enthusiasm that overruled her logic.
Joining in with a light laugh, she rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean!"
I nodded and ordered a drink as Bella was handed hers.
"So tell me about it anyway. House? Apartment? Flat? Give me details!"
I took a deep breath to prepare myself to tell Bella all about how I was living with Zane & Will and the irony of it all. Well, I prepared myself until I realized if I said anything to her about it, and about living with Will especially, then I doubt she'd be coming over to visit anytime soon. But was I lying if I didn't tell her about the guys? I didn't think so, but Bella might not see it that way.
"It's a house; you know that cream-coloured one on the corner? I share it with a couple of guys. There's no way I could afford something like that on my own."
Bella cringed slightly. "Eugh. A shared house? You're brave. I'd be paranoid that I was living with an axe-murderer or a rapist."
"I know. That thought crossed my mind a couple of times, but I sort of know them."
"That's not too bad then. How do you know them?" she asked in between a sip of her cocktail.
"Um... they're family friends."
Okay. Now I was definitely lying, but I will tell her, eventually.
"That makes it better. A bit safer, I guess."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
A barman caught my attention and handed me my drink, before Bella & I walked back outside to join Cleo who sounded like she was just wrapping up a call when we reached her again.
"Alright, I will do. Bye" Cleo said before hanging up and slipping her phone back into her bag with a sigh.
"Who was that?" I asked nosily, but Cleo knew me well enough to be expecting the question.
"Lewis. Kim cooked tea tonight and apparently it was as close as you could get to being inedible and still be able to call it cooked."
"Aww! You two are so cute! Calling each other up just to talk about your meals..." Bella said with a smile, just getting a laugh and eye roll from Cleo.
"I wish, Bella! He called me to ask me to pick him up something to eat on my way home!"
Bella blushed a little upon realizing the normality of the couple. "That sounds a bit more like it. Guys are hopeless. I know that when I get home I'm gonna have to do all of Daniel's packing for him if he's going to turn up at Cairns with anything other than the clothes that he's wearing at the time."
"Really? I'm surprised. He seems like the type who'd have everything ticked off of some petty little to-do list, a week in advance!" I commented with surprise.
"Nope. You're getting neat freak and organized mixed up with each other."
"Mmm... neat freak. Maybe that's what I was thinking."
"Probably. You should've heard how panicked he sounded when he called me at work today to ask if crayon came off floor tiles! I think he nearly had a heart attack!" Bella said with a laugh before having another sip of her drink.
I laughed along with her and Cleo for a short time, with our alcohol intake affecting increasing the humour of it, before Bella stopped and took another sip of her drink, prompting Cleo & I to stop also.
That was how most of the evening continued on like. Talking, laughing and laughing past the point of whatever whoever had said was funny.
#
That night, I'd gotten home at about 1:30; two hours after Cleo had left Bella & I at the bar together, where the two of us had continued talking for another hour and three quarters or so longer.
I resisted the urge to stomp and slam around the house to annoy the guys who I assumed would be in bed by now, seeing that all the lights were out when I walked in the house.
Proving me wrong, I walked into the lounge room where Will had his head slumped over the back of the lounge, eyes shut, and Zane was massaging his temples.
"Rikki" he stated stupidly.
"Last time I checked, yeah."
Will groaned and moved slightly, softly mumbling, but loud enough for both me and Zane to hear. "She's home. You can relax now."
I scoffed, in annoyance. "You waited up for me?" I asked, hoping to sound as disgusted as I felt.
"No. We were just watching a movie, right Will?"
"We were watching a movie at 7. Now we're just re-re-re-watching a movie."
I felt the recognizable feeling of my temper beginning to flare up inside of me.
"I knew this would happen! I can't trust you to let everything go Zane! It's over! We're over! Don't you get that? The chance for a relationship anything above us just knowing each other is OVER!" I yelled, storming out of the lounge room.
On my way back upstairs, I heard a yelp and a male yell "Owww! What the hell was that for?" and I knew it wasn't coming from Zane.
I felt marginally guilty that Will had copped my flip out at Zane, especially considering that it was courtesy of him that I'd known the truth about Zane's over protectiveness, but I was just so, so angry to do anything about feeling bad for Will. Zane had already gone against everything that he'd promised me, just one day ago...
"Rikki! Rikki wait!"
Zane had hooked his hand around my wrist, although I'd already been turning around to yell at him to back off again.
"5 minutes ago you were out of my life and in another 5 minutes you will be out of it again. End of story. Bye." I stated sternly, but of course, I knew better than anyone, Zane Bennett doesn't give up.
"Can we talk about this?"
"There's no 'this' to talk about, Zane! This was meeting was an accident and I'm leaving" I said, turning around to walk back to my car once again.
Again, latching onto my wrist, his strength stopped me. "Just hear me out calmly and then I'll let you leave or stay or whatever."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll be leaving, but fine. This just sounds too easy for you..."
He ignored my last comment and continued to speak. "Look Rikki, Will and I are sharing a house, in case you didn't work that one out yourself."
"No kidding" I quickly added before he continued on.
"Right, so we've got a four bedroom place, two of us, two rooms spare and we can't afford to pay for those two bedrooms if we're doing nothing with them. My Dad's agreed to pay me for one of them so he can use it as a guest room when he occasionally comes down from Townsville."
I crossed my arms in annoyance. "I really don't care about your Dad..."
"Sorry, I'll try not to drag the rest of it out. Anyway, we've still got a room left and Will really can't afford to pay me more for it and I can't afford to cover that extra cost anymore either."
"Get a bank loan..."
"Rikki! Just listen! We need someone to share the rent with, and by the looks of it, you need somewhere to live. It'll be good for you and good for us. It's a win-win situation."
"If I lived with you Zane, I know how much of a hard time you'd give me and how much pressure you'd put on me. You've proved that to me in the past!"
"I won't Rikki! I promise! A lot of time's gone by, remember. I won't bug you. We'll just be two friends, doing each other a favour."
"We're not friends and who said that I wanna help you out?"
He looked set back for a moment, before he composed himself once again. "What about Will? You'll be helping him too. Besides, isn't it better to live with someone you know, rather than a complete stranger?"
I sighed. Damn Bennett had hit me in a nerve. Moving away from the safety of the trailer, Zane had mentioned one of my biggest fears. I wasn't scared of much, but I admit it, death scared the hell out of me. And that was one of my big worries about moving in with total strangers. Who knew what they'd be like or what they'd do.
"Come on Rikki. We can just try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. If you, me or Will aren't happy then we can forget about it, but isn't it worth a shot?"
I took a deep breath, hesitating to respond either way.
"At least you'll know that Will and I aren't murderers or rapists..." he added.
"Fine." I frowned. "But we'll just do a trial run for a few weeks and see how that goes."
Zane's face lit up. "Great!"
"But- if you even think of acting the way you did or if you do anything like you did after we broke up, then I'm gone. No second chances."
He nodded seriously.
"Okay" I said, throwing my handbag back onto my shoulder. "Oh, and this still does not mean that we're friends."
I turned away, walking towards Will and my new home before I could see Zane's reaction. I don't think I even wanted to see his response...
~ 2 Days Later ~
I knocked on the door and waited for a few seconds before it opened. The boys didn't have a spare house key for me to have yet, but we'd worked out a rough plan so that someone would either let me in or would loan me their key, depending on our schedules.
"Hey" Will said with a friendly smile, letting me inside.
I walked past him, rudely, not acknowledging his greeting.
I walked upstairs to dump my work junk from the day. Since about 8 months after I graduated, I've been working as a photographer for a small business nearby.
Today was a good work day for me as I did a shoot for some company that needed photos to use for promotional work. Landscape was always easier than working with people who were basically always either newlyweds wanting wedding photos done and couldn't keep their hands off each other or else family shots with kids that wouldn't keep still. Scenery was definitely easier!
By the time I'd cleaned all my lenses from today and uploaded the photos onto my computer, it was getting pretty close to dinner time and I was already beyond hungry.
I walked downstairs to both of the boys bustling around each other in the kitchen. Zane was getting chicken nuggets that were coated with a strip of cheese out of the oven and Will was sitting on the breakfast bar, flicking through the junk mail.
"Have we got food?"
Will looked up from a Coles catalogue. "Edible or non-edible?"
"What do you think B1?"
"B1? Huh?" Will questioned me with a look of confusion.
"Yeah. B1 and B2."
This time Zane looked at me weirdly. "B1 and B2? As in 'Banana's in Pyjama's'?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. You're B's just stand for something different."
There was silence for about 10 seconds before Will loudly let out an "Ohhhh! I get it!"
"Go on..." I prompted him.
"The B's stand for Bennett and Benjamin!"
I scrunched my face up momentarily. "Well they do, but I was thinking more along the lines of Bastard 1 and Bastard 2. Oh, Zane, you're definitely B2, cause I don't want you getting all cocky and thinking you're number 1."
"Thanks Rikki" Zane said with an eye roll, putting the chicken nuggets onto a plate. "Want one?"
I considered it momentarily before taking the plate that Zane was holding out in front of me. I didn't have any plans to go out for dinner tonight and I didn't know what else I could have.
"Sure!" I said, removing the plate holding all of the nuggets from his hands and walking off.
"Hey! Rikki! That's to share!" Zane shouted as I walked back upstairs to my room.
"Oh was it? Whoops! My bad" I said with a smile, popping a nugget into my mouth and continuing to my room, unfazed and carrying the whole plate.
#
I stayed in my room, polishing off Will, Zane's and my share of chicken nuggets while I fiddled around and Photoshopped photos that I'd taken today, until about 9:30 before I got bored and went back downstairs.
The boys were again watching TV, each flopped down on a couch.
"Can we change the channel? I wanted to watch Winners and Losers" I said as I walked in and sat on a recliner, trying to establish what was already on TV.
"No. The only show I watch is Underbelly and that's on now" Will said, with his eyes not moving from the screen.
"Well Winners and Losers is the only show I watch and that's on now too."
"You can watch it online tomorrow or whatever Rikki" he said, becoming rapidly annoyed.
"You can watch Underbelly online!"
"You stole our dinner!" he shouted.
"Because your friend's an idiot!" I yelled back.
"You're the one who dated him" Will smirked, just getting an unimpressed scoff from me.
"Zane, just change the channel."
He looked at me, then Will and then back to me before grabbing the remote. "You can watch Underbelly in-between the ad breaks, Will."
Will rolled his eyes, stuck a pillow over his head and sunk down deeper into the lounge, sulking.
#
The boys sat in boredom, while I silently watched the episode for another half an hour until a knock at the door interrupted us. At the time however, Zane was having a shower, leaving Will and I to bicker over channels again.
"You can get it Rikki. You're closest to the door, that's the rule we have" Will piped up.
"No. I'm the newest."
"You're still closest. And it's the Winners and Losers ad break. You can get it."
I scowled and got up, walking towards the door. "Fine..."
As I flung the door open, I didn't know who or what to expect. I wasn't expecting anyone and neither of the boys had mentioned anything or anyone either.
A traumatized cry echoed the room and I was nearly bowled over as the doorknocker rushed inside, where I caught them in my arms.
Bella. Crying. Blood. Blue. Purple. Mess.
"Rikki" rang through the air, with yet another yelp.
I was left standing there, hugging, holding, comforting and trying to make sense of the last 10 seconds.
What the hell have I missed?
So, I hope that chapter lived up to the expectations of all of the Rikki lovers out there!
This was by far my longest chapter of this story so far, so fingers crossed you enjoyed it and it wasn't too long-winded. Please, please let me know what you thought to inspire me to keep writing longer chapters and updating.
Best wishes xo