Loose Ends

Chapter 52

To Ricky it seemed like an ordinary day as he headed outside to the courtyard to find Amy. He spotted her at a table in the shade chatting with Madison and Lauren. Jesse and Justin were seated as well and chatting to each other. Ricky took the open spot across from Amy and opened his lunch bag, nodding a greeting to the other people at the table.

"Oh come on!" Madison whined. "Ricky!" Ricky looked up with surprise at Madison's tone, his sandwich halfway to his mouth.

"Huh?" he asked with confusion.

"Tell Amy you'll take her to the homecoming dance," she instructed him. Ricky turned confused eyes to Amy and she rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she assured him. Madison's gaze was fixed on Ricky.

"Ignore her. Amy needs to go. And if Amy needed something you'd help her out right?" Madison asked sweetly. Ricky turned to the two guys to his left.

"Someone wanna fill me in here?" Jesse came to his rescue.

"It seems Madison feels that because the three of them have boyfriends at the same time that they need to go to homecoming this year." Madison narrowed her eyes at Jesse.

"There's more to it that that!" she said in an attempt to defend herself.

"Oh?" Ricky said. Madison gave him an annoyed expression while Lauren and Amy shook their heads but remained silent. Glancing at her two best friends and realizing they weren't going to help her, Madison explained.

"When a girl goes to homecoming or prom alone she looks like a loser so Lauren and I didn't go the last two years."

"Hey!" Lauren said, slightly offended that Madison had called her a loser, out loud. Madison waved off her protest.

"Amy didn't wanna go our freshman year because she was pregnant at the time and she didn't go last year because she didn't have a boyfriend at the time. But this year we all have boyfriends and it's normal to go to homecoming. We're working on keeping our lives as drama free as possible and what better way to do that than to do something that's perfectly normal like getting all dolled up and going to the homecoming dance? We've never been to an official couples type school dance." Jesse's brows furrowed in curiosity.

"What about the Halloween dance?" Madison shook her head.

"You're not expected to come with a date to a Halloween dance," Madison explained. Ricky suddenly felt bad for Amy. She hadn't been able to start high school like every other normal teenager because she'd been pregnant and because of him she'd never been able to attend a regular dance, the mother-daughter dance aside. He knew they'd put the past behind them officially but that didn't stop it from occasionally coming back to bite him.

"Amy?" Ricky said, causing her to look at him. "Will you go to the homecoming dance with me?" She smiled and nodded.

"I'd love to." The other guys followed suit.

"Lauren?" Jesse asked. Lauren smiled.

"Yes?"

"Will you go to the homecoming dance with me?"

"Yes."

"Madison?" Justin asked.

"Yes?" she said expectantly. He got a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" Madison scoffed and crossed her arms with a pout. Everyone tried not to laugh as Justin went around the table and gave Madison a kiss. "And will you go to the homecoming dance with me?" he asked her with a smile. Madison sighed and smiled.