SHILOH SMILED as she removed her hands from Ricky's. There was no way she was going to remember the chords for the song let alone practice because she had no ability to do so in her free time.

"Well, as fun as that was..." She started, removing the guitar strap, and handing it back to Ricky, "I do have to head out now. Promised my dad I would be home on time."

She grabbed her bag from the ground. Ricky quickly standing up from the bench and rushing front of her.

"Wait! What if we got milkshakes? On me."

Shiloh paused. No, she wasn't going to deny the free drink but she definitely didn't know why Ricky wanted to be by her side all of a sudden... more so than normal.

"Fine. I'll take on your offer."

Ricky smiled, "Great... how about a movie?"

"Uh, I don't see why not."

Shiloh rarely had people over her home. It wasn't a bad thing. Her house was just at max capacity and a lot for one person to possibly take in. She liked being at home, but it was crowded, so she did spend more time at the Love Club to think, do homework, to relax even. Shiloh lived in a very full and loud house.

Ricky took notice of Shiloh's silence. He didn't want to tell her everything going on at home, but he didn't want to go there either. So, it was either spend as much time with Shiloh until she grew sick of him or go home to seemingly, an empty place.

Shiloh dug through her backpack looking for her keys. Was she an excellent driver? No. But she was good enough to pass the test. Maybe her instructor felt bad for her.

She finally found them and lead Ricky to the tan Jeep Renegade. Wasn't Shiloh's dream car. She didn't really have one. A car was a car to her. She was lucky her dad didn't want it anymore and handed it to her instead of selling it.

Ricky and Shiloh sat in her car for a moment before she threw her backpack in the backseat. Ricky didn't know if he could do the same, but after he saw Shiloh's hand reaching out for it, he passed it on.

He also took notice of the car seats in the back. Two of them. One of them big enough for a toddler, the other for quite literally a very, very small child.

It left his mind racing with questions on questions. From the mirror above he could see the mess of toys on the floor.

She was a babysitter. That's what Ricky was going to go with. She was a babysitter on the side. Taking care of two very small children and forgetting to return the car seats. That's what he was going to go with.

He shut the visor and looked over at Shiloh who was staring down at her phone with furrowed brows and quickly typing away at her phone.

So much was going on in the matter of two seconds, but Ricky rather question this than what was happening at home.

Shiloh sighed at shoved her phone back into her backpack. Not bothering to bring up what she was doing, she faced Ricky and opened up the center console.

"Any specific choice?"

Looking down, plenty of CDs from various artists. You know how you can sometimes look at a person and just automatically know what type of music they may listen to? For example, you could probably spot a Taylor Swift stan from a mile away, i.e. Jenna.

But sometimes some people just shocked you with what they listened to. You could never expect this person to actually be listening to that artist.

That's how Ricky felt when he pulled one random CD by a band he hadn't really heard of.

Shiloh smiled softly, taking the CD from Ricky and inserting it into the car radio.

Ashley had begged Shiloh to get one of those cars with the cool touch screens so she could change the song on Spotify however she pleased, but Shiloh liked her car, like said, she had no dream car, but this car was her first car and would have a place in her heart.

"Have you ever heard of this band before?" She asked before pulling out of the school's parking lot.

"Uh, no. Definitely something new."

Shiloh nodded. The song starting of the CD sounded very Disneyesque but soon turning into something very, very different.

Ricky saw Shiloh tapping her fingers against the stirring wheel. People tend to that forget once you're out of school you could be a completely different person. Shy at school and outgoing with friends or troublesome at school and polite at home. Various ways to say, some people act differently when they're out of a certain element.

Shiloh seemed more relaxed in her car and the Love Club than she was when she would be in class or the library, even when she was at helping with the musical.

"What is this?" Ricky asked.

"Glass Animals. That's the band." She answered, "I just burned all my favorite songs on a CD and slapped the band's cover on a random case. Evie really likes them, so that's how I heard about them."

Ricky nodded. He knew he was being awkward and he knew that Shiloh knew he was being awkward. He just couldn't act like everything was okay when he knew that something big in his life was changing and he didn't know how to handle it. He didn't even know how to handle the breakup with Nini and had to go to the Love Club for help.

He was so out of thought that he hadn't realized that the two do them had been sitting in a drive-thru of Shiloh's favorite place to get milkshakes.

Before the two of them could pull up to the speaker, Shiloh's phone rang loudly from the backseat.

She dug around for it and finally pulled it from the bunches of toys on the floor.

A text message from her younger brother asking could he be picked up from the skate park.

She held a tight lip and looked over at Ricky.

"I have to pick my brother up from the park. So, you'll meet him today."

Okay, so she had siblings. That could answer the question of why she had the car seats in the back. He didn't have any siblings, Nini didn't have any siblings, Big Red didn't have a sibling. It was rare for Ricky to know someone with a sibling let alone three.

Shiloh pulled up to the window grabbing the three milkshakes (all the same as Ricky didn't care what kind he got) and they were off to the skatepark.

Ricky watched as several kids, definitely younger than he and Shiloh were, enter different vehicles.

That's when he caught sight of a short, blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. Looked nothing like Shiloh, but here he was headed towards the car with top speed.

Shiloh looked up from her phone seeing the boy rushing towards the car and Ricky watched as she moved one of the car seats into the middle so the boy rushing towards the car could sit by the window.

The car door quickly swung up and he hopped inside. He didn't even question the guy in the front seat.

Shiloh handed, to what Ricky could assume was her younger brother, the other milkshake before introducing the two of them.

"Weston this is Ricky. Ricky this is my younger brother Weston." She introduced.

Ricky turned and faced him. Weston sending him a small wave, the straw of the milkshake never leaving his mouth.

Shiloh was quick to pull out of the skatepark and on her way home. They didn't live far away from the park, but far enough that if Weston walked home alone someone was going to be yelled at home. He was fourteen for crying out loud.

The trio finally pulled into the fairly large home and Shiloh ordered her brother to grab one of the car seats in the back.

Ricky looked over at the several different cars in the driveway. Currently, four now sitting there, all different types but nothing that looked brand spanking new.

"Coming?"

Ricky looked back over at Shiloh, who was standing outside of her car, her backpack slung over her shoulders, her milkshake in one hand, and the fairly large car seat in the other.

Ricky swiftly exited the vehicle and offered to carry the car seat in Shiloh's hands.

She sent him a smile and handed the car seat over. They made their way towards the door which was already open from Weston and Ricky couldn't prepare himself from the hellstorm inside.

He almost trampled over a small child, definitely the one who owned the car seat in his hands, who had been rushing over towards Shiloh.

"Sorry..." Shiloh trailed off, "There's a lot. Follow me."

Shiloh picked up the smaller child from the ground. She was a ginger, had big brown eyes, and instantly stopped crying as she was cuddled up in Shiloh's arms.

Shiloh sat her milkshake on the floor and grabbed the car seat from Ricky and placed it somewhere out of view.

Three more people sat on their couch watching something random on tv. One of the three, writing random things on a piece of paper.

Ricky picked Shiloh's drink off of the floor and followed her upstairs.

She finally pushed her bedroom door open and as soon as Ricky was inside the room, she shut the door quickly.

If Ricky wasn't going to question the kids downstairs or the child in Shiloh's arms right now, she definitely wasn't going to bother explaining anything to him.

"Anything specific you want to watch?" She asked.

"Um, no..." He trailed off, "anything she wants to watch?"

Shiloh looked over at the ginger baby in her arms. Enya. Just turned two and cried if she wasn't in the arms of someone.

Enya and Shiloh looked nothing alike. Very different. Enya had freckles dotting her face and Shiloh didn't. Enya's bright reddish-orange hair could be seen a mile away, if you looked at the back of Shiloh's head you might think she was another student traveling down the halls of East High.

"Uh, probably nothing in particular." Shiloh joked, "Sorry... she likes to be held. If you give me two seconds I can find one of my dads and hand her off. Just find a movie."

Shiloh threw the remote his way and quickly left her room, shutting it behind her and left Ricky alone.

Ricky fumbled with the remote in his hands. Shiloh had a pretty big family, bigger than what Ricky would've thought. He was so used to it being just him, his mom, and his dad. Now, it was just him and his dad.

It had grown dark out. Pitch black almost.

Ricky's mind still thinking about how big Shiloh's family was.

There was a twist of the doorknob and soon another little girl walked in. Ricky looked her way.

Aaliyah, he would later learn, looked as if Ricky was going to just take her away. She stood at the door, holding the knob tightly. She looked no older than five.

"What are you doing?" Shiloh asked.

"You said you watch a movie with me."

Shiloh sighed, "Tomorrow. I'm busy... and you have school. You should've been in bed by now."

"But you said—"

Shiloh squatted down, "I know what I said, but I was busy today and I told someone I doing something with them. I promise tomorrow that you and I will watch a movie; whatever you want."

Aaliyah held her small finger out and Shiloh wrapped her pinky finger around it.

Ricky watched the interaction closely. He shifted his attention away from them as his face began to feel hot and tears building in his eyes.

He heard the door shut and the bed dip from beside him.

"Sorry about everyone. There's a ton of people who live here, but it's just us so whatever... everything okay?"

Ricky sighed, "My mom has been in Chicago for a while and she finally came home today."

"That's a good thing right?"

"My parents are separating and I guess seeing how close you were with everyone here was... just different." He confessed, "I'm really scared. It feels different already."

Shiloh stood from her bed and dragged one of her chairs to sit in front of Ricky.

"Different isn't always bad. I know you noticed that I look nothing like siblings. None of us look anyone in here. Family isn't always blood Ricky." Shiloh explained, "There are gonna be people here for you. People you can talk to and people who can... listen."

"It's really hard to talk about it, you know? Not with you, but anyone else, it's like..."

"You don't have to talk to me about anything. You don't have to do anything, we could just sit here, or I can listen whenever you need me to."

As much as he didn't want to, especially in his vulnerable state, he looked over at Shiloh, a small smile painted on her face.

Shiloh took her hand and rested it on the side of Ricky's face. Taking her thumb to wipe away the fallen tears away.

"This isn't your fault. It will never be your fault. People separate for many reasons, but this will never be your fault. You may not believe and it may take time to think it's not, but I'm telling you it's not your fault."

Ricky hadn't know Shiloh long, he knew he couldn't count the weeks he'd know her, but regardless of that, he knew that there was a difference in the Shiloh talking to him now versus the Shiloh he met on the first day of school.

Ricky knew that this Shiloh was one of the best versions of her that he loved to see. He loved to see her anyway.

"I would offer a bed here for tonight, but... I'm surprised I even have my own room." She joked, "I know you probably don't want to be around them right now, but I'm sure your mom would love to see you before she leaves again and if you don't want to see them... you can find another place to stay right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I can stay with Red or something."

"I'm really sorry we couldn't watch our movie tonight."

"I need you to stop apologizing for little things like that."

Shiloh let out a breath laugh, "I can do that."

She stood from her chair and put it back in its original spot.

Ricky let out a big breath, standing up from the bed, and stood face to face with Shiloh.

"You know where I live now. I only a knock away if you need anything."

Ricky nodded. Not like he wanted to cry in front of her. Like said, he had never been around a family as big as hers, no matter the difference in them. They were a family and they were obviously very close. He's just never really seen anything like that in person. Normally, he saw it on TV, which, in itself, was saying a lot.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

If he were to say her family, she would probably feel guilty. He didn't want her to feel guilty about something she couldn't change or something she couldn't really relate to.

"Can I have a hug?"

Shiloh smiled softly and wrapped her arms around him.

It's like Shiloh had this magic touch. Just can poof any type of negativity, sadness, angry away with just a simple touch... at least, that's how Ricky felt in the moment.

Ricky felt himself sink into Shiloh huh whether he meant to or not.

The two of them stayed in the position for a few more seconds before Shiloh pulled away.

"I can drive you to Big Red's."

"No, no, it's fine. I have my board. I'll be fine."

"Well, I can at least take you to the front door."

Shiloh smiled and Ricky followed behind. Not entirely silent in the house, but definitely not as loud as what it was when he first entered.

"You can always come back... if you need to."

"I really appreciate it, Shiloh."

Shiloh waved a small goodbye as she watched Ricky leave into the darkness of the night.

But, Ricky didn't head to Big Red's. He went straight to Nini's and now Ricky had a hell of a lot to tell the Love Club about his very short, but interesting stay.

— lucy has something to say !!

bro what am i supposed to do every friday now 🧍

also people are saying that olivia isn't coming back and that is literally the least shocking thing i've heard this week. it felt like she was playing herself and i personally love to see nini grow as an artist but i don't want her to go through the same thing as olivia because we've seen it already.

anyways i saw this portwell edit and now i'm punching the walls. the edit is saved on my phone 😔

also don't bash on people's ships (unless it super weird). just because you don't like portwell or rini or whatever doesn't mean you should bash others for doing so...

i remember seeing a ricky bowen (happy) scenepack for season one and it was literally 51 seconds long :(

APPARENTLY KOURTNEY'S MOM IS A THERAPIST ??????? AND THEY DIDNT HAVE RICKY SEE HER ?????????

bye :)))) i gotta learn how to make shorter authors notes :((((