A few hours later, the monitor lit up showing that Chris had won. The rest us high fiving him as a congratulations before going to the restaurant part of the alley. Ricky took his seat to my left while Justin was on my right. Everyone but Chris and I ordered drinks, and we took a moment to look through the menu. "I hate pizza," Ricky spoke up and I laughed, leaning my head against his shoulder to look at the menu as he looked at it. "I've never heard of someone hating pizza, but there's a lot of other options too," I looked to him then and he nodded, "Yeah, you're right, I think I might get chicken" he decided, and I lifted my head from his shoulder. 

Once the food came out, the rest of us shared a pizza while Ricky had his chicken. Ryan started joking to Chris about something he had seen before as Chris laughed at Ryan's poor attempt to form a coherent sentence. As we all talked about future plans, I felt Ricky's hand on my thigh. I looked over to him, his focus instead on Justin who was talking and gave him a soft smile. Every few moments, Ricky would put his input on Justin's ideas with the others. I listened closely until I felt his hand go higher. I looked back to Ricky, shaking my head. He stopped moving his hand for a while until he started moving his fingers to now move his hand into my skirt. I shook my head again, "Ricky, no" Chris gave me a questionable look when I said that, and I felt my cheeks heat up. Justin too gave me a worried look, but I brushed it off. "I'm going to run to the bathroom," I just needed to get away for a moment. 

As I continued to walk, I heard footsteps behind me, seeing Justin following behind. I knew he wouldn't let me get out of this, so I just stopped and turning to face him. "What just happened?" He took my arm, making me stop. I let out a sigh "I know he's drunk and probably doesn't mean it, but Ricky was touching me under the table after I told him to stop." When I said that, I saw Justin's face grow red. I immediately started to shake my head, knowing what he wanted to do. "Justin, Justin..it's okay, I'm okay," but before I could finish my sentence, he was already on the way back to the table. "You think you can just touch her whenever you want?!" He looked down to Ricky who was obviously drunk and confused. "Justin ple-" "No, Eden. No one gets to do that shit to you, not even him," Justin grabbed Ricky by the shirt and pulled him up. I just stood there in shock, unsure of what to do. Chris tried to calm the two drunk friends down but failed. "If you ever touch her like that again, I'll see to it you never play again," He spat to Ricky before putting him down. The rest of us just stood there in shock at what had just happened, silent. Vinny shot me an apologetic look and I just sighed sitting down as we finished.

After everything, we all went out to our cars. I stopped Ricky by taking his hand. "Ricky I'm sorry," I tried apologizing for what happened earlier, and he immediately shook his head. "No, Eden, I'm sorry.  I was reading your signals wrong and that's on me. None of what happened tonight is your fault, so don't think it is" he then opened the passenger door for me just before Justin came up "You're seriously going home with him?" "Justin, it's okay, I promise." I shook my head and looked up to him. "He's apologized." "Doesn't mean I trust him now" "You don't have to, but I still do" I shut the door and Ricky got into the driver's side. He took my hand, resting our hands in his lap and drove toward my house. 

"I really am sorry.." Ricky looked at me after a while of silence and I nodded, lowering my head, "I know...that doesn't make it okay, but I appreciate your apology," I then looked as we pulled into my driveway. I looked at him for a moment before letting out a deep breath and getting out of the car and walking inside. Once I had the door shut, I just slid down it, letting out a long, deep breath. I sat like that for a while until I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket with an unknown number displayed on the screen. Hesitantly, I pressed accept and set the phone on speaker, laying it on my lap "Eden?" the unfamiliar voice called out causing me to raise my brow. Who was this? "Uh- yeah, who are you?" "It's Vin," when I heard that, all my worries washed away."

"Vin? What's up?" I asked now sitting up, holding my phone. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay and got home safe. That was...that was a lot back there" I sighed at that and nodded, not that he could see. "Yeah..I'm okay, Ricky took me home and I just went straight inside. I actually just got in not too long ago," "Well...how are you feeling?" I thought about that for a moment, "Conflicted. Ricky and I aren't together, but the fact that I feel like I belong to him in a sense? It's an uneasy feeling." Vinny stayed silent after that for a few moments until speaking again, "I promise to make sure you never feel that way again, okay? I'll even pinkie promise..I know those mean a lot to you," I couldn't help but to smile when he said that. "Thank you, Vin..that truly means the world to me." Before I knew it, Vinny had requested to FaceTime. I took a moment but accepted, bringing my phone up. Vinny had his pinkie held out and smiled, "Pinkie promise?" My smile grew and I nodded, raising my own pinkie to virtually link ours together. 

It took a moment for me to muster up what I was about to say, but I knew I wanted to. I could tell Vinny was either confused or concerned, maybe both. "Do you want to come over and watch movies?" I asked and the smile on his face was almost instant. "I mean, yeah, if you think that's what you want I would love to," "I do want to, please" "I'll be there in ten?" he asked with a dorky grin and I let out a small laugh, "Don't be late, Mauro." I smiled, earning a roll of his eyes. "You say that like our last names aren't the same just different spelling...but yes ma'am, I won't be late"