"Unexpected Love" Chapter 4

Alright now here is the fourth chapter of Unexpected Love! A lot happens in this chapter between Marva and Rick and it's much longer than the previous ones. Hope you all like it. I'll have the next chapter up soon.-Makka (Waiting For Love).


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Unexpected Love

Chapter 4

I scan over Rick’s writings, trying to decide which one I want to read first. As I flip through the pages one title catches my eye, “Forever Gone”. I pick it up and begin to read.

You are gone, away

Forever gone from here

You are gone, today

No longer near

You took yourself away

Far away from home

You are lost to me

You are forever gone

I reread the poem several times, realizing that this poem must have been written about Rick’s father, Eric Collins. Rick never talks about his father but this poem seems to sum up his feelings about him.

I put the poem back in the folder and continue to flip through more writings. Another poem catches my eye. This one is called, “She Is”.

She is beauty, grace, and love

She is sweet, delicate, a flower blooming from its bud

She is gentle, soft, smooth as silk

She is my dream, my wish

She is the one I long to kiss

She is not mine to have and never was

She is…

She is…

Confused by the ending I turn the paper over to see if there is more, but there is none. I gently place the paper back in the folder. I read some more of Rick’s poems enjoying each one that I read. Some are about life; others about death; some are about emotions explained metaphorically.

I lie down in bed and reach over and turn off my lamp on my nightstand. I smile as I think about the poem “She Is”. I am pretty sure it’s about me. At least I hope so. Aaah! I quickly throw that last thought out of my mind. I turn over unto my side and try my best to fall asleep. But nagging thoughts of Rick, Ronnie Brimstone, and prom keep me awake for much longer. Finally after an hour of trying I drift off to sleep.

To say Mom was happy about my choosing the University of Pennsylvania would have been an understatement. She was so ecstatic when I told her my decision when she got back home from work last night. She dropped her briefcase and pulled me into a bear hug before running in her heels to the phone and calling my Grandma Marion to tell her the news. They yelled happily with each other until my Mom gave me the phone so I could listen to Grandma Marion exclaim about how proud she was of me, over and over.

I sat as my Mom brought me my breakfast, a plate stacked with blueberry pancakes. My favorite!

“Mom you really didn’t have to make these. I don’t want you to have to be late for work”, I say in spite of my stomach grumbling loudly.

“Rick, please”, Mom says with a beaming smile. “I won’t be late. And even if I would be late, I don’t care. My boy’s going to the University of Pennsylvania and he deserves a special breakfast.”

She sits down in her chair and sips her coffee, while I scarf down my pancakes.

“I am just so proud of you Rick! I first thought that you were going to choose Columbia. But when you said Penn. It just blew my mind! Your father would be proud, you know.  He always wanted you to go there”, Moms exclaims staring at me intently.

“I know”, I say flatly. I refuse to tell my mother it was that very reason why I wanted to go to Columbia. But me being close to her was more important, so Penn it was.

We sit and talk some more about college, including if I want to continue to live at home or live in the dorms. I suggest living at home. But Mom insists I live in the dorms. “I think it’s better in the dorms. You can live on your own and be more independent”, she says. I nod my head in agreement as I wash down the delicious blueberry pancakes with orange juice.

“Oh. Mrs. Virginia wants you to call her to set up lunch this weekend” I say as I throw on my backpack.

“Oh wonderful”, Mom says.

As I leave I give Mom a kiss on her cheek. While I slowly walk towards the bus stop I replay the images of Mom smiling and laughing last night and this morning. It has been years since I saw that kind of expression on her face. My father was never good at making Mom laugh. It was almost like she couldn’t laugh while being married to him. Somehow, someway he managed to only bring her grief.

“Hey Rick”, I hear a sweet voice say, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I look up and shyly smile into the heavenly, brown face of Marva Mallory. My love.

“I-I hope you don’t mind me asking you. But is “Forever Gone” about your dad?” I ask Rick.

We are sitting in our usual back seat as we make our way to school. We talked about the poems I read of his but I purposely didn’t mention “Forever Gone” until now having been nervous about bringing it up.

“Uh, yeah. It’s about him”, Rick answers quickly. “Just something I needed to write about how, you know, I feel about him.” Rick turns his head to look out of the window to signal he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.  I nod to myself and we sit in silence until we pull up to our school.

Me and Rick jump up and grab our belongings. As we make our way off the bus we quickly walk past Ronnie, who is giving us a dirty look. When we get off the bus I see Amber and a few of my other girlfriends waiting for me.

“I’ll see you in history later on” I call out to Rick as I make my way over to my girls. Tuesday history is the only class me and Rick have together. It’s actually the only place me and Rick talk to each other at school. I have invited Rick to sit with me at lunch a couple of times, but he has always declined. I guess it’s for the best. He would just be awkward and closed off sitting next to the ‘popular’ crowd. And the fact that Ronnie sits at our table would just make it even worse. Ronnie would probably embarrass Rick somehow and send him running back to the table in the far corner of the cafeteria, he shares with Carl and Jose.

“So Marva, find anyone to go to prom with?” Ronnie asks flirtatiously at the lunch table.

“Maybe”, I say sarcastically before I bite into my beef salami sandwich.

Ronnie cocks his eyebrow “Maybe, huh?”

“Yes, maybe”, I say frowning a bit at him while licking the mayonnaise off my lips. Ronnie looks down at my lips before returning his eyes to my frown.

“Well, prom will be here in a couple of weeks. And since you’re nominated for prom queen, you should choose your date wisely. You don’t want to have an ugly prom king”, Ronnie smiles at me cockily as his green eyes twinkle.

“Oh, she’ll probably go with Rick Collins. Her and him seem to getting along quite nice lately” Rebecca Cohen laughs loudly. Some others at our table smirk and chuckle before they notice the glares me and Ronnie are shooting at Rebecca. Everyone gets quiet including Rebecca. Rebecca Cohen and I can’t stand each other. At All! We have been frenemies since freshman year. It started when she realized that her crush Ronnie Brimstone, star linebacker and all around hunk, had a thing for me and me only, that Rebecca made it her mission in life to hate me while smiling in my face.

As Ronnie turns back to face me he leans over the table to whisper in my ear. “Well, I have no one to go with to prom. And since I’m assuming you have no one to go with either. I would really love to take you Marva. I know you are going to say no. But I want you to really think about it. We would make a hot couple that’ll turn heads. Don’t you want to make a big statement at prom? Give me your answer by Friday beautiful.” I feel bile come up in my throat as Ronnie lightly grazes his soft lips against my ear before pulling back. He stares at me with an unreadable look in his green eyes before he stands up. “See you losers later”, he says as leaves the table to go God knows where.

Everyone at our table seems to staring at me, definitely having noticed Ronnie lips graze my ear. If I didn’t dislike Ronnie so much that action would have definitely aroused me. But I don’t want Ronnie. He’s not the one I want. I lose my train of thought before hearing Rebecca cough loudly before she begins to throw her trash on her lunch tray. She gets up and marches to the trash can to dispose of her garbage before she marches out of the cafeteria with her sidekick Melanie Lee following close behind her.

The bell rings and everyone starts getting up.

“Let’s go to the restroom”, I say to Amber. Amber simply nods.

“That’s what he said to you” Amber asks after I related everything Ronnie had whispered.

“Yeah.”

“So what are you gonna do?” questions Amber while she washes her hands in the sink.

“I don’t know. I really don’t want to go with Ronnie. But who else can I go with?”

“Nobody, cause Ronnie’s scared all the other guys away”, Amber sighs heavily. “Look I mean it’s only for one night. It’s not like him being your date means you have to be his girlfriend or worse fuck him.”

“Your right, but I’ll just have to think about it.”

“So are we still on to go dress shopping after school? I have to get my dress now and so do you”, Amber asks trying to brighten up the mood.
“Yeah. We’ll hit up King of Prussia” I say as I wrap my arm around Amber’s shoulder as we make our way to class.

I wait for Marva to call me after she gets back from King of Prussia. In history class she told me, her and Amber would be going there after school to get prom dresses. So she wouldn’t be on the bus, but she’d called after she got back home. I felt so let down that I wouldn’t get to share her company back home.

On the bus I just stared out the window trying to avoid the death glares Ronnie Brimstone was sending my way. I did a good job at that until it was time for me to get off at my stop. As I walked past Ronnie’s seat keeping my head down, he called out at me. “Ay, Collins!” I lifted my head and looked in his direction.

“If you knew what was good for your ass, you’d back off HER! She’s mine!” Most students on the bus starded between me and Ronnie, hoping to see a fight. Ronnie’s friends laughed loudly as I stood rooted in my spot not sure how to respond. I wished the bus driver would have intervened but he remained impassive and ignored us.

“You got that?” Ronnie asked, a dangerous tone in his voice.
“Yes”, I squeaked out quickly before moving quickly off the bus. I heard Ronnie and his friends laugh loudly and yell “Loser” and “Dickface” as I did so.

I lay in my bed worrying about Ronnie and what he would or could do to me. I’ve heard about a lot of guys that Ronnie has beat up because they wanted to get with Marva. I don’t know if he knows how much I care for her, but if he has ever caught the long stares I have given her at school I’m sure he knows. Oh well, I won’t let him scare me away from her. Maybe if it was another girl I would back off, but not with Marva. I may be a wimp but beat down or no beat down nothing can keep me away from her!

I hear my doorbell ringing and wonder who it may be. I get and quickly head downstairs. I look through the peek hole and see Marva! Too excited to hesitate I swing open the door.

“Hey” I say quickly trying unsuccessful not to smile so wide.

“Whassup”, Marva smiles brightly. She steps inside looking around the house. “Nice house, I haven’t been here in ages”.

“Yeah, I remember when you would come over with your Mom. I was too shy to come downstairs, so I would just watch you, uh and your Mom from on the stairs.”

Marva laughs loudly, “I used to see you sometimes. I remember one time I caught you and you went flying back up the stairs”.

I laugh remembering the incident too. I had gotten so comfortable sitting there on the stairs until Marva looked up and flashed me a megawatt smile. I was so frightened at being caught that all I could do was run up the stairs and into my father’s office to hide under his desk.

“Yeah, I remember that too. We were like five.”

“I can’t remember how old we were. All I remember was how funny it was.”

“Do you want to go into the family room? My Mom just bought a new plasma TV.”

Work had surprisingly been proving to be very therapeutic for Mom since she went back. She was slowly coming out of her depression. I know she has months before she gets back to her normal self. But slowly but surely she’s getting there by taking small steps.

“I’ll have to pass on the plasma TV for now. Let’s just go up to your room” Marva says coolly.

“Okay.”

We walk up the stairs. As we walk down the hall to my room, I get a little self conscious of all the old furniture outside my Mom’s room.

Marva looks at it quizzically before asking “Is your Mom redecorating her room?”

“Uh yeah. She’s just getting rid of some of her and my father’s old furniture. I think she’s going to try a more modern look”, I say as we stare at the wooden pieces.

“Modern? You mean like Ikea?” Marva looks at me and smirks.

“Yeah”, I laugh.

In my bedroom I sit on my bed while Marva sits on my desk chair. She looks around appraising my room before looking at me. “Your room’s so neat. That’s kinda weird for a boy”.

“I hate clutter. I try to keep my room immaculate. That’s one trait I got from my father.”

Marva nods her head. “That’s good. My Mom is always on my case about cleaning up my room. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up her affinity for neatness”.

“So”, Marva says as she stretches her arms. “Are you going to prom?”

“No, I don’t have anyone to go with.” I would love to take Marva but…

“Well, prom’s not that great. The only reason why I’m going is because I’m nominated for prom queen. Other than that I think it’s kind of corny. I would much rather be at home dancing to my Sasha Fierce album”.

We both giggle.

“Are you excited that schools coming to an end?” I ask.

“Yes and no”, she sighs. “Yes, because I’ll finally be done with high school. No, because I’m going to miss all my friends. All of them are going away to college except for me. I’ll be the only one doing nothing.”

“You’ll figure out soon enough Marva. It’ll come to you, just stay true to yourself”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll just have to get a job somewhere doing something. My parents are not just going to let me sit around the house until I figure out what my true calling is.”

“I still think you should follow your passions. Dancing and drawing, like we talked about yesterday.”

“I don’t know.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how come you don’t want to go to college?”

“It’s just. I-I just can’t see myself doing another four years of school. Even if I majored in art or something, I’d still have to do the general requirement courses. I mean I am tired of the English, math, etc. I don’t want to do it anymore. It was boring in high school and will be more boring in college. I got the basics down packed, I’m good.”

I nod my head in understanding. Marva even though a good student just wants to be done with it all.

“So what about you? I heard your Mom was ecstatic about you going to Penn. Mom said she called her late last night about your decision.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ve honestly not seen my Mom so happy in years. I know I picked the right college.”

“So will you living in the dorms?”

“Yeah, Mom insisted that I do.”

“Aw, man. Another friend moving away”, Marva says as she slumps her shoulders.

My stomach flutters at her use of the word ‘friend’, but my heart hurts a little at me being just her friend. “I won’t be that far. And I’ll probably be here pretty frequently. You know to check up on Mom and all.”

“True”, Marva acknowledges.

Rick and I talk some more, mainly about his writings.

“Well, I’ve pretty much read all your poems last night. So I’m going to start on the short stories next. Like I was saying earlier you’re an excellent writer. You should really consider publishing some of your work.”

Two red spots appear on Rick’s cheeks. He is so cute when he gets shy. “Thanks. That’s my ultimate goal. But we’ll see what happens. College will definitely help me to improve my skills tenfold.”

I nod my head in agreement. I think hard before I ask this question but it is something I just have to know. “Rick, I know we somewhat talked about this earlier. And I don’t want you to think I’m trying to be nosey. But do you feel some resentment for your dad. I mean, I just sensed it when reading “Forever Gone”.

Rick slightly furrows his brow “No, I have no resentment towards my father”, Rick says quickly.

“Come on Rick. It’s so easy to see. I mean, you rarely mention him. And when you do you never call him ‘dad’, but just ‘my father’ or ‘him’.

Rick lets out a heavy sigh and I wonder if I have pried too much. “Yes. Yes I do.”

“Why?” I ask sympathetically.

“It’s just. He betrayed us! Me and Mom.” Rick pauses for a few seconds before continuing.

“My father suffered with depression for many years. And all those years he pushed through never letting it take him down too far. Sure he was somber and not that fun to be around sometimes. But it seemed like me and Mom were the only ones who kept him sane and happy. He told us numerous times how we made him feel so loved.

He was so optimistic, convinced that everything would get better. And for a long time we believed that too. He took his medication, went to therapy, and did all of his treatments. But a couple of years ago he seemed to take a bad turn. He stopped going to therapy, stopping taking his medication, stopped everything. When Mom asked him why he was doing this, he told her those treatments weren’t curing him. He wanted to cure his depression not just live with it.

He thought if he started doing more “happy” things he would eventually become happy too. Needless, to say that didn’t work. His depression gradually got worse and worse. He would rarely talk. And his job performance declined so bad, his company threatened to let him go. He basically just became a zombie. Go to work, come home, eat, and sleep. And on the weekends he would just sit in his office with the door locked.

Mom would try to talk with him. Try to convince him to start his treatment again. He flat out refused. He would just say “NO! No Debra! I’m not going back to that. I’ll find a cure. I’ll find one”.

He kept saying that until about seven months ago. He-He…”

Rick was softly crying now, tears running down his soft, pale face. I felt my heart stiffen at seeing those tears and I immediately regret bringing up this topic.

“It was a S-Sunday. Friday my father’s job let him go. He came home and told Mom. She immediately started crying. My father tried to console her but she just pushed away from him and went upstairs to their room. I was standing there watching the whole thing. He just looked at me with this defeated look in his eyes. It was like he had given up.

Saturday at breakfast he promised me and Mom that he would pull himself together. He was going to make everything right. He wasn’t going to give up. Again we believed him and gave him our support. What bullshit!”

Rick threw his head and let out a heavy breath. He put his head back down as more tears came down his face.

“So Sunday morning, Mom was going into my father’s office to give him his breakfast. She had a key to let herself in. All I remember was hearing my Mom let out a blood curdling scream. It woke me right out of my sleep. I ran down the hall to see Mom screaming and crying. She had shut the door. When I o-opened the d-door…I …see Dad with the back of his head blown off. H-he h-had shot himself in the mouth with this p-pistol.”

I was crying now as I watched Rick cry and sob heavily. He was shuddering and trembling. I got up and walked over to him and sat next to him on the bed. I pull him into my arms and place his head on my chest while he sobs and cries.

“W-why did he l-lie Marva, why?” Rick cries.

“Ssh”, I say while rubbing his back.

“Why’d he break that promise?! Why make it if he knew he wouldn’t keep it?! Why’d he betray us? Why?”
I rock Rick back and forth in my arms while he continued his cries. “Why did he let it win, Marva? Why’d he let get it t-the b-best of h-him?”

“It wasn’t his fault, Rick.” I say softly in his ear. “Your dad was very sick. He loved you and your Mom. I know it hurt him so bad to leave you both. But he was very sick.”

“I miss him Marva. I miss my dad so much. I love him so much.”

“I know, I know. And he loved you too, Rick. He misses you too, Rick. But you have to realize now. And this is important; he is in a way better place now. He’s happy now.”

I continue to rock Rick back and forth in my arms. We stay that way for several minutes as Rick cries some more and as I whisper reassurances in his ear. Finally, Rick stops crying and simply makes small sniffs. He looks up at me and I look down at him. I gently wipe the tears from his wet face. We stare into each other’s eyes and without thinking I lower my lips to Rick’s. Our lips meet and we begin to kiss each other lightly. Rick eyes are wide open in shock as we continue to kiss. Before I can even pull back, Rick opens his mouth and lets his tongue run across my lips. I gasp and let him slip his tongue into me.

In a matter of seconds we are kissing passionately, my tongue dueling with his. Rick let’s out sighs to match my moans and we hold onto each other desperately. Slowly, Rick lowers me down to his soft bed as we continue to kiss. As my head hits the mattress, Rick climbs atop me and presses his warm body into mine. I feel the tingling in my pussy intensify as Rick slowly rubs his soft body against me. My moans before louder and more frequent, as Rick moves his hands up and down my sides.  I begin to slowly rub my body against his, circling my hips against his groin while Rick gasps in delight.

We begin to grind into each other move urgently as our kiss becomes more frantic. Dry humping as we hold on to each other tightly. My pussy tingles wildly as I feel Rick’s hardness become more and more pronounced. He feels big and really, really good. I would have never thought shy, little Rick could be so damn sexy. As we kiss and dry hump roughly, Rick lowers his right hand to his jeans zipper. As I hear the sound of it unzip I quickly come back to my senses.

“Rick. Rick, wait.” I say. Rick quickly sits up breathing hard.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have”, he says lowering his head.

“No, don’t be sorry. It’s just, I don’t want this to move too fast.” Rick nods. He gets off the bed and stands allowing me to sit up and straighten my clothes and hair. I look at my watch and realize the time.

“Oh crap. I have to get back home for dinner” I notice a disappointed look spread across Rick face. With all that just happened between us; talking about his dad and making out I feel bad leaving him.

“Do you want to come over for dinner? My Mom won’t mind.”

“A-are you sure?” Rick asks hesitantly.

“Of course. Come on.” Rick smiles softly and smoothes down his clothes. Checking himself in the mirror to make sure he looks presentable before we head out the door.