Be Somewhere

Danny waited for hours at the park for his friend to awake from his self induced comatose state. While he panicked patiently, him and Brad continued the conversation they started earlier with the occasional interruption from Lily as she input her opinions on how they were treating each other.

“I just think that Danny needs to show affection more, and when he does, Brad shouldn't look at it as pity.”

“Thank you princess, but when I want your opinion, I'll ask for it,” Danny replied snidely. This girl was starting to get on his nerves. She waltzed in with her nose high in the air and expected them to do whatever she said simply because, in her eyes, she was the queen.

“Maybe I like her opinions,” Brad said stubbornly. “She listens to both sides and judges both sides equally. You're just being bitchy.” Sighing, he turned to Lily and apologized. “I'm sorry for my friend's behavior. Please forgive him, he's pms-ing.” A growl erupted from Danny's throat and Brad rolled his eyes and continued to ignore him even when the growl faded to a pleading whine.

“Friend?” Lily asked suspiciously. “Whatever happened to boyfriend?” Tears collected in the corner of Brad's eyes before he wiped them away in a gesture that was a little less subtle than he had intended. He sniffled and Danny was beside him in a second.

“Fuck off. You're making him cry,” he snapped in Lily's direction. With a hint of faint amusement on her face, she smiled at the two as Danny wrapped his arms around Brad and continued to glare at her. “I said back off,” he growled. She obliged and took a few steps back and had to hide her satisfied smirk when the couple started murmuring in each others ears; soon giggling along with the whispers.

“So you two are bipolar?” Tucker asked cautiously. Brad glared playfully and stuck his tongue out at him. A high squeak was emitted from him as Danny surprised him by wrapping his arms tightly around his midsection. Low groaning was heard from the body they assumed was unconscious under the picnic table. “Ricky? Are you not dead?”

“Of course I'm dead,” he growled as he gripped his forehead. Without opening his eyes, he sat up and hit his head on the underside of the table. Swearing, he carefully opened his eyes and examined his predicament. “Who had the bright idea to put me under the table?”

“The same person who had the bright idea to put you under the influence. You bitched about the sunlight and then rolled under there,” Danny replied shortly. “By the way, that splitting headache you now have is natures way of telling you I was right.”

“About what?”

“Nothing. I've just always wanted to say that to you.” It was obvious that Ricky wanted to reply, but he couldn't. His tongue was tied in as many knots as his stomach and he found himself emptying the contents of his stomach beside him. “I could have done without being right about that part,” Danny muttered just loud enough for his friend to hear. A swift middle finger was raised to salute him and he grinned at his friend's reaction.

“You know, I could have thrown up on your shoes, but I chose not to,” Ricky said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Out of the goodness of my heart, I chose to turn the other way. There's no need to be bitchy.” Danny had to laugh at his facial expression. It was unclear to him how his friend was able to keep such a stoic mask on.

“Don't make me laugh, you could barely keep yourself from puking on your own shoes, you weren't all that worried about mine.”

Ricky glared at Danny, but didn't protest. He spoke very little over the next two hours, but remained awake, even if he was slightly hung over. Whenever someone made an overly loud noise or gestured wildly, he would flinch, but still he kept his mouth firmly locked in a grim line.

After a while, they started to get worried. He had gotten drunk and high so quickly after the news of his sisters death had reached him that it was almost impossible to tell whether or not he remembered being told at all. Lily sat down beside him while the others continued to exchange worried glances.

“Do you remember about your sister?” She asked quietly. Lily had never been one for subtlety; she didn't see where it got a person. Nodding in reply, he averted his eyes to the ground. A wave of relief washed through her. Even if she wasn't happy that he was depressed by the news, she didn't want to have to inform him of it.

For the rest of the night, they all just sat and talked quietly. All except for Ricky, who opted to remain silent. They spent the night in the park; the school year was coming to an end and it was fairly warm outside. When they awoke, everyone was surprised to find Ricky missing and a small note in his place.

Went home to get clothes. The ones I'm wearing have too much puke on them and smell like a liquor cabinet. I'll meet you guys at school.

“He's going to go to school anyway? Right after his sister died?” Lily asked; incredulous that anyone would think of doing something like that. She took another skeptical glance at the note and then returned her gaze to Danny's eyes which just happened to be rolling upwards. “How do we know that he isn't going to go home and try something like he did before?”

“Ricky wouldn't go home,” Danny replied flatly. “He would rather be at school with people he can tolerate than at home with them.”

It didn't take them very long to reach the school. Some of the other kids sent them confused glances and others doled out spiteful glares. Danny smiled; they probably looked like a group of vagrants today. None of them had bothered to fix their appearances before daring to show their presence in the halls.

They went the entire morning without so much as a glimpse of Ricky and before long they started to worry. It was completely like him to disappear like that; which gave them all the more reason to panic. Around the time of their lunch break, Danny started to hear whispers about some students. He anxiously awaited the clocks dismissal and bolted out of the classroom the second that it started to ring.

Danny flinched as he heard Ricky's laughter coming from behind the school. Cautiously he poked his head around the corner to see what he might be doing and had to cover his mouth to stifle the cry that he didn't want to emit.

One of the teens Ricky was sitting with looked up at him with a dopey grin on his face. The boy's skin was pallid and clung to his frame so that his bones looked like they would poke through. He looked pale; almost to the point of being gray, with eyes as black as coal. Danny flinched at the dead eyes that invited him closer.

“Danny?” Ricky questioned when he finally realized what the other boy was looking at. He slunk out from the shadows and waved at his friend. There were still packets littering the ground and Danny tried not to gape at them. Everything was there; heroin, cocaine, marijuana. Ricky was in over his head and Danny knew it.

“I thought you quit a year ago?” Danny meant the question to come out as more of a statement, but failed miserably. Many eyes were narrowed as the people Ricky was with started to glare at him viciously.

“Yeah, two actually. As soon as I got home from boarding school because I didn't want Aggie to get involved in this kind of shit.” Ricky replied flatly. A few of the glares that resided on Danny switched targets and were now aimed at Ricky as he decided to continue speaking. “I mean, who really wants their baby sister shooting up? No one.”

“Then what makes now so different?” Ricky glanced up at Danny as the frightened words poured out of his friends mouth. No reply fell from his lips but his shoulders seemed to sag and he sighed.

“Why don't you stop by a party out by the cliffs tonight? I'll show you that I'm fine and that I know what I'm doing.”

“Ricky, you just ditched all your classes. You are not in control.”

“Just promise me you'll be there, okay?” Reluctantly, Danny nodded before he turned to leave his friend behind. A quiet sob escaped him as he heard his friend's faint laughter from behind him. This was going to end horribly; it always did whenever Ricky started to use drugs again.