Creatures

"I don't know where to start, Hal." Ricky said with sad eyes.

"How about where you were pissed off at me for no reason." I suggested in an otherwise harsh tone, folding the corner of my page, and closing my book.

"Okay. Um...do you mind if I sit down?" He asked.

"Sure." I stared at the wall, like a defiant teenager staring off while getting yelled at. He brought my computer chair over next to the side of the bed where I was sitting. I sat up criss-cross apple sauce style, with my back against the bed board. It took all of my strength to not look at him. His amazing smiley. His beautiful hazel eyes, that I knew looked sad right now. When I was about to cave in and look at him, he started talking.

"I guess it started in the van when TJ asked you to be his mall girlfriend." He looked down at his hands. "and I know it started when you accepted." His voice was small, but his words were big, and I could already feel tears welling up in my eyes. I held a staring contest with the walls, so the tears would go away, and not fall freely down my face. I was not going to let this boy see me cry. That's one victory that I would always hold to myself.

"Why would you have been jealous?" I gulped, hoping I didn't get the answer I knew was true. I don't know why I asked him, because even though I already knew the answer, I didn't want to hear him say it. I didn't want to have any more pain in my life.

"Because." I could feel his eyes on me now, and he started smoothing my fore-arm with his thumb. This action gave me goosebumps all over. It made me want to crawl into his arms and forget about all of it. It made me want to kiss him. Hug him. Lay with him. Be with him. "I like you so much, Halibell Drew. I tried to hide it at first, but look where it got us?" He said, smiling, one tear going down his cheek. I used my thumb to wipe it off of his face. I could tell by the way he was looking into my eyes, he desperately wanted me to do something. Not to mention, I desperately wanted to do something. I knew I would regret what I was about to say, but the words flew out of my mouth.

"That's so sweet, Ricky." I smirked quickly, then went back to a frown. I pulled my hand away and didn't look at him, I couldn't look at the smile that would have gotten plastered on his face. I cut him off as he was about to speak. "But I don't like you back." I lied, mentally punched my face for saying that. I knew that would hurt him. It damn well hurt me.

"Oh. It's okay." He said, more down than he was when he walked in the door.

"But can we be friends?" I asked, looking at him, trying my hardest to put on a bright face. "I understand it will be awkward at first, but we could give it a go." I faked on a smile.

"Okay." His face brightened up. I could tell it was fake. I could tell by his eyes he wanted more than friendship. I wanted to give him more than friendship.

I liked him, too.

But love is nothing but pain, and hurt, and I'm so used to being happy by myself. I didn't need anybody besides Hailey, Skylar, and Hayden.

"So ho-"I started, getting interrupted by banging on my door.

"Halibelllllll! Open the god damn door! We gotta go pick up Hayden!" I heard Hailey yelling from the other side of my door. I had thought that Hayden was driving up here, like she said she was, and that she would be up in a week. But never mind that. Go now, ask questions later.

"Do you want to come, Ricky?" I asked him if he wanted to join. He looked sad when I turned back to him, but his said okay, anyways. I looked down and realized I was in my pajamas. "Shit, gotta get dressed." I sighed. I never really cared about changing in front of people, but I had a walk in closet. I went in and changed into a pair of regular denim skinnies and a Harry Potter Slytherin cardigan. I put on my black vans and tied them. I went to my bathroom, noticing my hair was still curly and I already had makeup on. I put on my silver Claddagh ring and an over sized white knitted beanie cap.

"C'mon Ricky." I said, noticing he was reading one of my notebooks again. We got in to Hailey's Black 2011 Porsche Panemare that was usually kept in the garage. Her family had like, all of the money in the world. She barely uses her car, though I don't see why. It's drop dead sexy. Even Ricky stood and stared at it.

"Get in, Lover boy." Hailey teased, while she was in the driver's seat, and I was in the passenger seat. Those words made it awkward. Once we were on our way to the airport, Hailey started asking questions.

"So, did you two hook up yet?" She teased more. I could tell this didn't make Ricky happy at all, and this wasn't a subject matter I wanted to cover.

"Can we talk about it later, Hailey." I said, under my breath.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry." she started getting frantic.

"It's okay." Ricky said. I would have a lot of explaining to do to her later about it.

"Anyways, why are we picking Hayden up from the airport? I thought she was driving." I asked.

"She decided to come by plane." Hailey said.

"My cousin is so confusing." I slapped my hand to my forehead.

"So what's your cousin's name?" Ricky asked me.

"Hayden." I smiled at him, happy we were on speaking terms again, then sad that I know we could be so much more. "So what were you and Balz doing yesterday?" I teased, remembering that they were hanging out together yesterday by themselves.

"Nothing." She blushed harshly. I knew that something must have happened, because I knew her cheeks would be hot to the touch.

"Sure." I said, sarcastically. I knew something was up, and this was something I wanted to find out.

"But I think something is up with Skylar and Angelo." Hailey pointed out.

"Well we just come and stir up tons of trouble, don't we?" Ricky said and chuckled from the back, causing Hailey and I both to laugh. After that, it was surprisingly quiet, and calm.

"So." Hailey said when we were close to the airport. "Hayden said she was at the library close to the airport." She said, driving towards there. I knew exactly what she was talking about. It was a freaking huge library, too. We found a parking space, and planned a sneak attack. I showed Ricky a photo of her so he could walk around and find her so she wouldn't see us.

Hailey and I stood in the front of the library while I was on the phone with Ricky.

"I don't see her anywhere so far." He said, then we heard voices in the background.

"Can you sign this, Ricky?" We heard.

"I found her." Ricky said. "Fantasy." He gave us the section he was in and Hailey and eye walked towards there. We noticed that Hayden was turned around, so we ran up behind her, and tackled her.

"Agggggggggggggggggggggggghhh." She yelled, books collapsing on the floor along with her huge luggage bag.

"Hayyydennnn." I gave her a huge hug while I was laying on top of her.

"You're such a fucking turd, Hal." She huffed. "Get off of me, turd." She whined.

"Fine. Fun ruiner. Butt tounger." I teased her, helping her up and gathering the books I guess she planned to check out. "Hayden, you don't need to check these out, I have them all at home, you can just use mine." I offered. We all walked out to the car and helped her luggage into the car. She nearly shit when she noticed Ricky was with us.

"Wait. Why is Ricky Horror with you guys?" She said, trying not to yell.

"You'll see." I winked at her. We all got in, and Hayden got to sit next to Ricky.

"What's next? Chris Cerulli?" She got a hopeful look.

"She's in love with Chris." I turned to Ricky, pointing at Hayden.

"Oh REALLY?" Ricky, Hailey, and I all started to laugh. Hayden was a deep shade of red, and it was so funny, because she had no idea what she was expecting when she got home. We listened to one of Hayd's CDs in the car. She brought an Underoath CD to listen to, and I was too involved in texting Chris about Hayden. He didn't act excited, he was too cool and down to earth about everything.

After a 20 minute drive, we finally pulled into the garage, and I noticed by Skylar's green Subaru that she was home, too. "Ricky, why don't you take Hayden to your house." I winked at him while taking out some of the luggage.

"Okay." He laughed, and they walked off. Hailey helped me with bringing the luggage down the hall and we put it in Hayden's room. It had already been hers from all of the times that she visited. There were four bedrooms in the house. Two were upstairs, and two were downstairs close to the living room. Skylar and Hayden were downstairs, leaving me and Hailey upstairs. We each had our own bathrooms, too, which I thought was pretty awesome. We walked into Skylar's room, and she was there talking to Bella on Facebook. She heard us come in so she turned around, and Hailey and I sat on her bed.

"So how did it go with Ricky?" They asked.

"He told me he really liked me." I blushed. They both smiled. "I told him I didn't like him back." I felt a little nauseous. "I didn't want to get hurt." I tried my hardest not to cry.

"Are you guys at least friends?" Skylar asked.

"Yeah. He came with us to pick up Hayden." Hailey said, getting up and prancing around.

"Why did you lie to him?" Skylar asked me.

"Because." I looked down.

"Because why?" Hailey asked, sitting down next to me, again.

"I'm scared."

(c)Shannon.