Baby Love ── RICKY BOWEN¹

six. someone on your side

.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．

"Waddup, bitches!"

I cringed as Amy hollered out of her window, not even fully letting me close my front door. Glancing behind me, I flashed a quick smile to my glaring mother, before scurrying out of the front door. Ben was already standing outside, looking on horrified as Amy grinned at the two of us, completely unaware of anything else. 

I'm starting to regret my decision to help with the musical. Okay, maybe not completely regret it, but this thing is turning into a real hassle. I mean, who cares if it made me cry, spend ten dollars on a clipboard, and got my mom to yell at me. What I care about is the fact that now I'm going into school early to help. Like...a whole hour early. Who does that? It should be illegal to be going to school at this time.

Because of my earliness, I needed to find another way to get to school, as my dad had to take the twins to school before he went to work. So, I called my only option. Amy. Usually, she didn't like driving, not since she almost took out a sixth-grader on a skateboard, but this summer, she said she'd start driving again in preparation for when she inevitably has to dramatically storm out of her house and drive away. Her words, not mine. So, here she is, in front of my home in her shiny, basically new car, peppy like it wasn't the ass crack of dawn.

Ben surprisingly enough didn't fight me when I said he would have to come to school early with me. I think he feels bad about snapping at me yesterday, and also about basically outing me to Mom. I wasn't going to question him at all, because I'd much rather this Ben than the Ben that hurt my feelings yesterday. 

"My mom is going to kill you one day," I tell Amy as I get into the front seat, Ben dropping into the backseat without a word. 

Amy shrugged, her attention settled ahead of her as she turned her car back on. "I don't care how good of a lawyer she is, my dad will avenge me."

I roll my eyes, deciding not to respond to the statement. Instead, I unlock my phone and begin scrolling through my Instagram. Apparently, I haven't been doing that enough, because I didn't even see the post that Big Red made of himself and Rico. When the hell were the two of them together? I usually take Rico throughout the day, not Ricky, since he's very easily scared and still has no idea what he's doing in terms of parenting him.

I snort at the caption. 'Uncle Red reporting for duty.' At least someone is getting some fun out of this project. 

"So," Amy started, and I looked up from my phone to look at her. "When were you planning on telling me that you and Ricky went from fake parenting to real dating?"

I didn't even have time to shoot back my response of shock since Ben beat me to it. I jumped when his head appeared between the two front seats, his eyes wide and brows raised. "You're dating Ricky? Already?" He asked, almost...excited? Was this the same kid who told me I wasn't Ricky's type like last week?