Be Somewhere

When Ricky awoke, he couldn't help but notice that Lily still clung to his side. Her scent had a hint of sweetness to it and he buried his face in it. She wasn't quite awake yet; she wouldn't mind. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon and Ricky could smell the cold of the morning. Brilliant gold swam on every surface and painted beauty on the face pressed against his chest. She was beautiful naturally, but the gold and pink combined with the peacefulness of being at rest just complimented that fact. Once again, he pushed himself as close to her as he possibly could without forcing her to wake. Sighing in contentment, she stirred in his arms and he had to fight to contain his joy as she pressed against him.

He didn't realize how long he had been staring at her until his alarm clock went off signalling that it was seven thirty already when he had woken up at sunrise. Before pulling himself off the floor, he took one last look at the girl who was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. With a sigh, he headed towards the door to grab something out of the cupboards for everyone to eat.

"Ricky, turn off that god damned racket machine!" He leaned his head out the door to see Richard storming up the hallway. Motioning for Danny to turn off the alarm clock he nodded in reply to Richard. To his dismay, his stepfather didn't stop advancing towards his room. With a wave of his hand, he implied that he wished for them to enter the bathroom without ever having to turn around or take his eyes off of Richard. Danny would take them into the bathroom, and he would deal with Richard.

Ricky backed up a few steps and almost tripped. A cry out of pain from the floor left him reeling for breath as he recognized the voice as Lily's. The pounding of Richard's footsteps started to approach the door with increasing speed and Ricky felt like he was about to cry. He could not allow Richard to harm Lily. If anything ever happened to her, he would never ever forgive himself.

"Ricky, what's going on?" Lily asked sleepily as Richard pushed the door open in near silence. With a touch of a smile on his face, Richard took slow, calculated steps towards Ricky, and by default, Lily. Behind him, Ricky could hear her terrified voice whimpering his name. As Richard wound up his swing, it seemed as though time started to slow down until it finally came to a halt. All he could hear was his own stopped breathing in his ear. Hesitation whispered in his ear and drowned out his breath, but he soon had it under control.

With a disconcerted "oof", Richard fell to the ground as Ricky threw his entire weight against the older man’s stomach. Ricky attempted to usher Lily into the other room, but her eyes just stared at him; wide with shock. When Richard finally managed to pull himself to his feet, his anger was unmatched by anything Ricky had ever seen. It took only a few seconds, but Ricky was shoved against the wall.

“How dare you! You are a worthless little asshole, you know that?” Richard whispered in his ear. With a flick of Richard’s hand, Ricky felt a new bruise starting to form on his shoulder. “I cannot believe that you would even think about hitting me back. You are worth less that the dirt sticking to my shoes.”

Ricky felt a large wad of spit hit his exposed arm and he winced. More jeers and taunting followed, but Ricky managed to just bite his lip and keep from lashing his tongue. If he back talked Richard, this would only last longer. He wanted Richard out of there before he got the notion in his mind to harm Lily in any way.

“Leave him alone!”

As the words fell on his ears, Ricky prayed that he had only been imagining them. When Richard’s strong grip on the front of his shirt loosened, he knew that he hadn’t been. Ricky watched in horror as Lily pulled herself off of the floor and met Richard’s fierce eyes with a defiant gaze of her own.

“What did you just say to me?”

“I said to leave him alone.”

Richard took a step towards her and Ricky quickly intervened. Their breathing filled the room, not a single angry remark or curse word lay in between them and Ricky dared meet his eyes. A small smile of amusement danced across Richard’s face before he went to take another swing at Ricky. He ducked and came back swinging himself; hitting his step father square in the jaw. With a bitter look of disapproval, Richard touched his fingers to his lips and gave out a low hiss when he looked at them and they revealed a slow drip of fresh blood.

When Richard tried this attack again with more enthusiasm, Ricky repeated the manoeuvre and tripped him after. Growling, Richard picked himself up off the ground and tried to stare Ricky down. The boy’s eyes matched his own: never blinking, never giving any leeway. The two competed in a push and shove match; neither one of them giving an inch of leeway.

Lily watched with an expression of pure horror written across her face as Ricky got covered in blood: some his, some not. For the first time, Ricky took fighting back as a serious option. He was finding that it came naturally to him; he was good at it and Richard was finding this out to. In desperation, Richard copied Ricky’s move from earlier and threw his entire weight against the petite boy. Richard had more weight, height, and physical strength to him, which caused Ricky to crumple like a cheap paper cup.

Immediately, Richard tried to head for Lily again, but Ricky rolled and took out his legs. The two got to their feet again; both of them grumbling to themselves and practically growling at the other. No matter which way Richard tried to head around him, Ricky cut him off. It was painfully obvious that Richard was beginning to lose the little patience that he still possessed so he did the only thing that he knew how.

"You think you can protect her, hmm? You think you can save the little princess? How did being the hero work out for you when it came to Aggie, hmm? She's in her grave because of you, and this little bitch will be, too," His sneering mockery had Ricky doubting himself for a moment, but only for that. Lily's horrified whimper set his mind strait. When Richard tried yet again to take a route around him, Ricky blocked the way.

"As long as there are people like you in the world, I'm going to play the hero. You will not touch her,” Ricky said slowly. His head was bowed slightly, making his eyes look even more focused and determined than they already were. Resolve never dropped from his voice and their eye contact never broke. “I’m going to protect her, or die trying.”

Richard smiled at him for a moment, but it wasn’t a mocking smile. When he walked forward, he kept his arms at his side and never blinked. Almost regrettably, he brought his tone down to a whisper so that Ricky had to strain to hear the words being mumbled to him.

“I realize that you want to impress her, but this is a bit much. Just let me pass and I swear I’ll go easy on you.” Ricky’s gaze hardened and it took every shred of willpower he possessed to not hiss and dislodge the bad taste growing in his mouth.

“You’re disgusting to think that I would agree to that,” Ricky replied before spitting on his shoes. Sighing, Richard rolled his eyes and nodded. As if to signify that this was the only option left to him, Richard shrugged his shoulders at Lily. In an attempt to conserve time and energy, Richard promptly hip-checked Ricky against the wall and hit him in the stomach with his elbow.

A low groan of pain made Lily gasp and Richard laughed at the concern in her eyes. This, of course, was unacceptable to Ricky, so he retaliated by stomping on his toes and elbowing the older man’s chin. With a smirk on his face, Richard hit one of Ricky’s few week spots. Ricky knew what was coming the second that he saw the gleam in Richard’s eyes, and he winced. With a triumphant grin, Richard hit his lower spine and Ricky fell to the floor gasping for breath. He didn’t know exactly what it was about that spot, but he blacked out.

When he awoke after a few minutes, he was surprised to find Richard gone as opposed to giving either him or Lily more bruises to cover. He turned to see a bewildered Lily staring off into space with a dazed look on her face.

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly and her attention snapped to him. “He didn’t hurt you too bad, right?” His voice was laced with horrid dread and worry. Smiling sadly, Lily shook her head and showed him all of her exposed limbs as proof.

“All he said was: ‘Thank you for proving he’s not gay, but you could do better’. Then he left the room.” Ricky stared at her in disbelief, but didn’t state any grievance with what she said. After a few moments, she started to giggle. The giggles turned to loud howls of laughter which had tears streaming down her cheeks. Soon, she stopped laughing and just kept crying. “Are you okay?” She asked through her sobs when Ricky remained silent from being lost in his own thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m just surprised that he took this as proof that I’m not gay. I didn't think that anything would ever prove that to him.”

Lily started to laugh again.