Complicated Love

I awoke the next day feeling more rested than I had for a while.

There was a gentle tap on the bedroom door before auntie Morgan entered and sat on the bed. “Good morning hun. Sorry if I woke you. We didn’t get a chance to talk last night.”

I sat up in the bed but didn’t say anything.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you the other night. You should be whatever you want; you definitely are smart enough to do absolutely anything you wanted.” Morgan said, and placed her hands on her lap.

“It’s alright, I was a little over sensitive.”

“Alright, well I have to work today. I shouldn’t be home too late tonight, I will let you know if I can pick you up tonight.” With that auntie Morgan left me in the guest room.

Once she had left, I got myself ready to go to Magenta’s, and forced myself to eat breakfast. When I was ready to leave, I picked up the spare key on the small table in front on the mirror and stepped out of the house and locked it.

Hurrying down the three steps, I bumped into someone.

I looked up and instantly recognised the blue eyes that stared back down at me. "Ric, what are you doing here?" I asked, standing right in front of him.

"I came to make sure you got to my house ok." He said smiling.

I didn’t say anything, I was already lost in his eyes and I was getting deeper and deeper until Ric shook me out of it.

“Are you ok?” He said, his hands still on my shoulders.

Awkward.

I walked away from him without saying anything and stepped out onto the road a few feet away. I didn't look, and then all I felt was someone grab me around the waist and pull me off the road.
I watched as a silver 'Volvo' speeded passed and I realized that I could have been hit by it. Ric’s arms were still around my waist and I allowed myself to relax on him as he held me close as my breath sped up in relief.

"Are you alright?" He asked after a moment.

"Yeah." I answered, my breathing still a little heavy.

"Have you got a death wish?" He asked with a joking tone coating his voice.

I turned around and said "Do you wish for me to hit you?"

"No. Come on." He said taking his arms away and grabbing my elbow to get me to walk with him.

When we arrived at his house, we went round to the back garden where Raven, Magenta and who I assumed to be her eldest son Tony were sitting in the sun.

Raven Magenta and I sat down on the grass while Ric and Tony beat each other with hockey sticks.
“What time is you maths exam at?” I asked Raven.

The only reason I remembered was because she was sitting with her maths revision spread out around her.

“At three, I don’t feel like I am ready for this.” She said giving me a look which I imagined was her ‘please help me. You know you want to’ look.

So I did but every now and then I glanced up at the boys and giggled to myself. But I couldn't stop laughing when Ric got hit with hockey stick by Tony, and made a big deal of how much it hurt.

"What are you laughing at?" He hissed at me.

"Horses get shot for less." I said and Raven started giggling.

"I'm not a horse." He said rubbing his hip where he got hit.

“Man-up dude.” Tony said and smirked.

"Why don't you try?" Ric said as Tony sat down on the grass next to me.

"Try what…?" I said warily.

"Fighting with the hockey sticks." He said handing me a hockey stick. "You seem so cocky."

I took the hockey stick and stood up. "I didn't say I could swar- eh... hockey stick fight."

"I know you didn't. Just try it and you'll see why it hurts so much." He said starting to get ready and standing in a weird pose.

"This should be interesting." I heard Tony say to Raven.

“Shut up.” Magenta said over the two of them and carried on with her magazine.

I copied Ric’s pose and panicked a little but I wasn’t going to let him know that.

Ric made the first move, swinging the hockey stick to try and hit me. I blocked it, just. He just kept swinging the hockey stick at me and I kept trying to block them.

I only kept getting hit on the hands while Ric was aiming for different parts of my body. I started to wave the hockey stick about, trying to hit him.

He swung for upper half of my body and I ducked out of the way and swung for his legs. He jumped and I missed but as he landed, I swung the hockey stick for his legs the opposite way.

He didn't manage to jump in time so I hit his legs. Really hard.

He fell to the ground, holding his legs and moaning. "Ow! That hurts!" he said screwing up his face with the pain.

“Raven help me up.” Magenta said, and Raven did what she was told. “Tony get Ric inside and sit him on the sofa.”

"I'm not speaking to you now you bitch!" He yelled at me and tried to stand up batting away Tony’s help. But eventually accepted it when he couldn’t do it alone.

“Language!” Magenta shouted.

Raven stood outside in the sunny back garden with me, "Oops. I didn't mean to hit him that hard."
Raven started to laugh and said "He'll get over it. It's probably just because no girl has ever hit him that hard and he's probably in shock."

Later, I went to Ric’s bedroom and found him sitting on his white sofa, xbox controller n his hand and eyes glued on the TV screen.

He was obviously still miffed about when I'd hit him with the hockey stick.

"You ok?" It was a stupid question but I wanted to know that he was alright. After all, I did hit him with a silly hockey stick and felt bad for it.

"Am I ok?" He sounded sarcastic. "You hit me with a hard, wooden hockey stick. And guess what." He looked at me with an angry look on his face.

"I didn't mean to Ric! You were about to hit me on the head! I was defending myself and I didn't even want to fight with them." I said feeling a little irritated.

"You started it!" He yelled standing up from his bed. "You called me a horse."

I started to laugh sarcastically, "I didn't call you a horse. I implied that you were." I said folding my arms over my chest.

"Well you know what?" He said coming towards me. And I shrugged, my arms still crossed. "I'm going to call you something, not just implying it." He paused and stopped in front of me, he looked down at me. I could see anger in his eye and something else but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. "I'll just call you a violent slut!"

My arms dropped to my side, in shock and my mouth dropped open. "Violent slut?! I'll show you violent!" I yelled clenching my right fist and raising my arm, and began to swing my arm so I could punch him in the face.

But suddenly the door swung open, and both me and Ric turned our heads towards the door and Raven stood in the doorway.

"I came to see what all the yelling was about." She said coming into the room.

I dropped my hand before I punched Ric and folded my arms again.

"On the sofa." Raven ordered, pointing to it.

I didn't say anything and did as I was told and sat down on the left side, folding my arms and crossing my legs.

"Raven..." Ric began but Raven didn't let him finish.

"On the sofa!" She said very firmly and pointing towards it again.

Ric sighed and came over and sat down on the other side, crossing his arms also.

Raven started ranting about how stupid we were for falling out about a stupid hockey stick fight. I had no idea how long she was going on for, but it seemed like hours. Every now and again, me and Ric glanced at each other and made funny faces, making fun of her.

I gave him a smile and said, “I’m sorry.”

When he glanced at me, he still looked angry but he had a small smile on his face too as if he was beginning to forgive me. "I’m sorry too. I know you didn’t mean it.”

"It's alright." I said smiling and then we hugged.

I felt so relieved to be forgiven, like I’d lost a ton of body weight.

That night after tea, as usual Raven went out with her friends, Tony was with his girlfriend and Magenta was lucky enough to speak to her husband over webcam again, leaving me and Ric alone again.

When I returned from getting myself a glass of water, Ric was watching cartoons. When Ric saw me, he immediately changed the channel to something else.

“Where you just watching ‘Animaniacs’ on Nicktoons?” I asked recognising the theme tune.

“No.” He said impassively, his eyes on the TV.

“Yes you were.” I said and laughed, sitting down beside him on his sofa.

“I wasn’t.” He said, sitting the remote down between us, keeping his eyes on the TV still.

“So if I was to press the back button, the channel wouldn’t change back to Nicktoons and ‘Animaniacs’ wouldn’t be on?” I said, pressing the button.

“Ok, fine. I like cartoons.” He said, huffing and crossing his arms.

I began to laugh, “Don’t be embarrassed, the classics are nothing to be embarrassed about. I would however, tease you for watching the silly ones that are on nowadays.”

He smiled and said, “You know the ‘Nations of the world’ song?”

He was referring to the cartoon that we were currently watching, and I knew what song he was referring too.

“I know all the words.” He said proudly.

I raised my eyebrow and smiled, “Prove it.”

So he did. He sang the song –out of tune- but every word. And when he was done, he was out of breath but very proud of himself.

“Very impressive.” I said and smiled but I couldn’t help myself from correcting the mistakes. “You do realise that the UK is one nation so Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland would be included in that although Wales wasn’t included in the song. Also did you know that French Guiana is actually a department of France. And I’m sure you know that Tobago is now Trinidad and Tobago. One more thing…”

Ric cut me off, closing my mouth with his fingers. “Shut up. I know you’re smart but shush. Showing me up isn’t going to impress me.”

He let go of my lips, “What makes you think, that is high up on my agenda?”

“So it is on your agenda.” He smirked and placed his arm around my shoulders, causing me to lean into him.

I felt so safe and secure; the warmth radiating from him was soothing and made me feel sleepy and I definitely didn’t want to move. The last thing I remembered before being woken up by my aunt arriving to drive me back to her house, was Ric gently stroking my hair, almost enticing me to fall asleep on his lap.