Finding Pride - story from The Dumping Ground

Chapter Six

chapter six

'Rick?' Faith called, knocking on the door simultaneously. She already knew he was inside, for she could hear his loud bass-playing from the other side of the house. It was a routine practice he did everday after school.

The tune stopped abruptly and she could hear the sound of shuffling of footsteps approach her. The door swang open.

'Yes?'

'I need to talk to you about Elektra.' Faith exclaimed.

'What about her?' Rick replied, looking back longingly at his guitar.

'It's important, trust me.'

'You better come in then.' He welcomed Faith into his bedroom. It was currently rather cramped, as his amp was taking up the majority of available floorspace. Faith sat awkwardly on the corner of the bed.

She took a deep breath.

'Okay. Firstly, why were you in our room with her the other day?' She laughed slightly at the rare occurrence.

Rick grinned.

'Well, I don't know if I should be telling you this... but you and Elektra are pretty close, so she wouldn't mind that much.'

'Go on,'

'She wanted me to help her with a secret project.'

'What?' Faith smiled, intrigued.

'Basically, she wanted to mix her poems with music. Quite cool really. She didn't like my ideas though.' Rick sighed.

'Wait- she let you read her poems? She doesn't let me near that notebook.' Faith was in disbelief.
 
'Only parts of them. Still, I was pretty shocked myself.  Especially since they were all love poems about some girl-'

Faith's eyes widened.

'Are you sure? I mean, I strongly doubt she would let you read those.' She questioned, suddenly confused.

'She told me the poems were about friendship. Clearly a lie.' Rick leaned back on his chair, his hands resting behind his head.

'W-why would that be?' Faith shuffled around uncomfortably. She could predict what was coming next.

'She touched her nose. A classic sign. Plus, can you really picture Elektra writing 5-page long sonnets on friendship? Nah. On top of that, the pride flag also gave it away-'

'You know she's gay.' said Faith quietly. She had reassured her friend that nobody knew, she didn't stop to think about Rick's visit. An overwhelming sense of guilt began to rise in her stomach.

'It's obvious, she has a pride flag!' He spotted Faith's changed expression.
'Was I... not supposed to know?' He now questioned, feeling guilty himself. 

'I'm... not really sure.' She replied, fiddling with her fingers. Faith was not looking forward to letting Elektra know of this peice of news. She shook her head to try and rid herself of this thought.