Life goes on

Chapter 15: Jealousy

"What do you mean?" Ashley inquired, feeling utterly confused.

"Grant left because his family was having financial problems and well, his mother is sick...really sick. Yeah, his dad did in fact take a job out of Valley Glen but those were the other reasons." Grant explained to Ashley, wishing that Grant would have told her instead of himself. He hated having to do this because he knew it would hurt Ashley.

"W-why couldn't he tell me himself?" Ashley stuttered into the phone, more confused and concerned then she has ever been.

Confused because Grant didn't tell her.

Concerned because she wanted to know if Grant was OK, and how his mother was doing.

"He didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to worry about him. He knew you would always be concerned for him and his family. He didn't want to do that to you."

"Why didn't you tell me seeing how he wouldn't?" Ashley spat.

"It wasn't my place to tell you and I'm sorry. I've just seen how upset you've been lately. I figured you would understand more if you knew why." Griffin spoke soothingly into the phone, trying to not hurt Ashley even more then she already was.

"I need to call him." Ashley blurted out and quickly hung up, leaving Griffin to apologize into the dead phone line.

Ricky and Amy finally back at school:

"John was great when I dropped him off at the nursery today." Amy filled Ricky in on John's drop-off at the nursery and his night. "He totally crashed when we went home though. Oh, and the weirdest thing happened. My parents called to say good-night and check up on us but it didn't seem like they were at Mimzy's."

Ricky smirked and then grabbed Amy's book bag from her arms as she struggled to grab her history books. They walked down the hall and soon they were standing outside of Amy's first class.

"See you at lunch!" Ricky yelled over his shoulder, not evening bothering to ask if she was going because he knew she'd be there.

She always was.

Not just be there for lunch... she was always there for him.

He loved that.

Lunch.

That one time of day most students look forward to.

"Hey." Ricky smiled as he sat down on at the picnic table beside Amy. She smiled in return and stole a peck on the lips.

"Hey to you, too." Amy laughed and continued to flip through the chemistry book in front of her.

"So how was class?" Ricky asked, trying to fill the silence.

Amy rolled her eyes and put away the book, knowing Ricky didn't want to concentrate on school. "Summer's in a few days but I hate cramming for my final exams."

"Thank god for Summer." Ricky sighed.

Ricky used to love school, in fact, it was his favourite thing to do. His favourite place to be. He would be away from his sexually abusive drunk of a father and away from his abused, drug addict of a mother. This place was calm, fun, and you had no reason to be scared. But once Ricky was taken out of his home, and moved onto better things and better places along with amazing people; school wasn't his favourite thing anymore. It wasn't so much of a hideout anymore but a place he was supposed to go. Though he always accepted it.

But now, he knew that when he went home, he had to work and see John and Amy.

So school was a burden.