He's Been Damaged, He's Been Misused

Chris and Ricky meet up like they usually do before they walk home tomorrow, and Ricky greets Chris with a hug.

“Hey, Ricks! Anything happen today?” Chris asks as he hugs his friend back. Ricky pulls away and they start walking.

“Nothing much, really. What about you?”

“Got a new kid’s number. He said he’s gonna text me later today,” Chris answers him.

“Cool, what’s his name?”

“I don’t know, but he saved his contact name as ‘Ghost’,” Chris shrugs, then flinches when Ricky makes a noise that expresses his excitement.

“I know who you’re talking about! I think!” Ricky cheers excitedly. “He’s dating mine and Carter’s friend Balz!”

“Balz?” Chris never heard the name before. Is he one of the friends Carter wanted Ricky to meet on Sunday?

“Oh, yeah, he doesn’t go to this school,” Ricky informs him.

“Oh, okay. So you say he’s already dating someone, then?” Chris asks. That explains why Ghost looked all weirded out when he was checking him out. Actually, that might not be the reason at all. Who knows what the reason was? Why does it even matter right now?

It doesn’t, change of subject.

“You should bring Ghost to Kevin’s this weekend, and maybe you can tell him to bring Balz. You’d love them,” Ricky suggests with a smile, Chris smiling back at him.

“Alright, I’ll talk to him about it. Kevin won’t mind, will he?”

“Dude, this is Kevin we’re talking about, he wouldn’t care if you brought a weird pedophile that smelled like Play-Doh over to his house.”

The two laugh at that. Sadly, yet humorously, that’s quite true. Kevin would try to get to know anyone. He fucking loves making new friends.

The two friends talk until they get to Ricky’s street corner, where they part ways. Chris walks ahead to his own street, stopping at his house. He crashes on the couch when he walks in, his phone alerting him of a text the second he does so. Chris automatically guesses that it’s Ghost and snatches it from out of his pocket.

Ghost: Hey friend :)

Chris smiles down at his screen. This kid called him his friend.

Chris: We’re friends, yet I still don’t know your name haha

Ghost: Oops! I knew I was forgetting to do something! I’m so awkward gawd :/ I’m Devin Sola :)

Chris laughs softly at how awkward his new friend is.

“Someone’s blushing!” Chris jumps when he hears his mom’s voice sing from the doorway. “Who’re you texting?”

“Uh, his name is Devin,” Chris mutters awkwardly.

“Chrissy has a crush? How cute!” she giggles.

“Mom, no! He already has a boyfriend anyway!” Chris whines sheepishly. His mom laughs and grants him mercy before turning back into the kitchen. Chris goes back to texting.

Chris: Don’t worry about it. Me and the rest of my friends are awkward too :D

Ghost: Oh, okay :)

Chris: So me and my friends are hanging out this weekend, and one of them claims to be friends with your boyfriend, and they said that you can bring him over this weekend so we can all hang out together like one big happy motherfucking family. Sound good?

Ghost: Sure, I’ll ask him. Who’s the friend?

Chris: His name’s Ricky

Ghost: Don’t think I recognize the name…

Chris: He’s dating someone named Carter

Ghost: I know Carter, but not Ricky. Sorry.

Chris: Don’t worry, you’ll meet him this weekend

Ghost: Alrighty :) Well, I gotta go. Talk to ya later man

Chris: Alright, bye.

Chris backs out of their messages after that. He loves that kid, all awkward and shy and shit. It’s adorable. Devin reminds him of Ricky when they first met. Maybe Devin will open up more after a while like Ricky did?

Chris sends a text to Kevin, letting him know that a new friend of his and possibly his boyfriend would be going to his house for the weekend too, which only seemed to fuel his excited fire. Kevin replied saying how cool it’d be to get more friends and how popular he’s gonna feel afterwards, and Chris rolls his eyes at him, even though Kevin can’t see that.

Kevin’s awkward, but far from shy. Kevin’s the most outgoing person he knows.