— prologue: icing on the cake

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     Megara crossed her arms, tapping on her forearms with her fingers.  Her fingernails were nowhere near perfect, chipped OPI nail polish in the colour "Darth Vadar" — impulsively painting them at three in the morning last week after binging the Star Wars prequels again.  The gold cuff bracelet that Savannah bought for her created goosebumps as it touched her bare arm.  It wasn't cold out, or else she probably would wear something with a little more coverage than an off the shoulder summer dress.  Of course, it was black, but it was cute — hugged her in all the right places and everything.  

     "What's Bowen doing here?" Megara turned her body to her father — who was having trouble starting up one of the grills — though her head was still turned in the direction of the boy who just walked in.  He would normally stick out like a sore thumb, what with being paler than the palest girl in the family, but Megara's family actually liked Ricky Bowen.

     "Huh?  Honestly, I uh, I don't know," her dad looked up briefly before shrugging and then turning his dark eyes back to the grill.  "Your Nina probably invited him."

     "You're just mad because you guys actually get along," like magic, her Nina appeared with a sympathetic smile.  "Even if you pretend like you're enemies.  Unless you really are.  I don't know, I can't keep up anymore.  Maybe I'll never understand you two."

     Okay, say you're right?  Doesn't make Ricky Bowen any less annoying!

     Megara rolled her eyes.  She loved her Nina, but she grew tired of the questions.  "This is just the icing on the cake," she growled before walking towards a table full of relatives to busy herself with.  Her dad didn't add anything else — Megara knew there was a time and place for everything and no matter how much she hated Ricky Bowen, she'd get along with him for the sake of a good time.

     The day quickly turned into evening.  Her twin cousins were still far too young to play basketball, so they watched Megara and a great uncle take turns throwing a couple of hoops as the sun went down.  "Ah, shit!" he cursed, watching the ball go into the basket swiftly.  "Looks like Papa Dion has done it again!" he laughed, sticking his tongue out as her Nina laughed and clapped, before advising he sit down soon.

     Megara placed her hands on her hips, sticking her tongue in her cheek as she watched Papa Dion brag about his win.  "Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get some drink," she turned on the heel of her sandal and headed for the table with the pitcher of punch was.  Ricky stood on the other side, casually sipping from his own cup.  Surprisingly, nothing snarky or witty came to mind.

     "I saw what you did," Ricky said.

     Megara focused her gaze on the cup in her hand, not the curly-haired boy who was across from her.  "Did what?"

     "You let the old man win."

     "Hey, Papa Dion is not old," she raised her head and looked him in the eye, losing her train of thought as she noticed how generous the golden hour was treating him.  She softly cleared her throat, watching Ricky burst into a fit of laughter.

     "I never thought I'd see the day when little miss Megara Montez did something nice for someone else!" he grinned.  His stupid grin.

     Megara set the pitcher down, satisfied with the amount of Kool-Aid in her cup.  "He's my Tio, you dipshit."

     Ricky raised his hands — one of which was still clasping to a cup — in defense.  "Alright, no need to get defensive," he furrowed his eyebrows in a teasing way.  Megara didn't like that, and he knew it, almost immediately grinning after seeing her unamused face.

     "What are you even doing here?" she asked before taking a sip.

     "Your Nina invited me?"

     "Sounds more like a question when you say it."

     "What?"

     "Yeah."

     Ricky rolled his eyes.  "Listen, I figured being at a party with other people was going to be better than the usual Saturday night where I stayed in with no girlfriend, no peace and quiet either since all my parents wanna do is fight!"

     His parents.

     Ricky and Megara didn't have much in common, but their level ground was family issues and things of the like.  Megara relaxed her body, setting her now empty cup down on the table.  "I'm sorry.  They fight a lot?"

     Ricky nodded.  "It keeps getting worse."  Megara moved to the left side of the table, closer to Ricky so she could place her hand on his forearm in the most comforting way she tried.  He looked to her hand, chipped nail polish and all, then looked up at the girl standing in front of him.  "I—"

     "Ugh," Megara cut him off, Ricky noticing the second her touch left his.  "Look what the cat dragged in."

     "Your cousin Maddison?" Ricky asked.  Megara nodded.  "Is she with... no way!"

     "Drew from the formal?  I can't believe it either!" Megara exclaimed.  Ricky shook his head, remembering the night Drew had asked her to the formal, how excited Megara was ( even if she tried to hide it ) and then how he started dating her cousin the week after.

     Ricky turned his attention back to her.  "Hey, I uh, never got to say I'm sorry about your mom."

     "She just moved away, she's not dead, Bowen," Megara rolled her eyes.  "Unlike Maddison, if she doesn't get out of her with her stupid quarterback!"

     "Hey," he took her hand in his swiftly.  "Let's go dance," he said with a kind smile.

     And so, they did.  And surprisingly, they weren't all that bad at it.  By now, a lot of the older people had retired to the comfort of the living room or even the kitchen where there were even more snacks — not to mention, the A.C.

     But while they were inside, the younger kids stayed outside, not thinking about the mosquitos bites they'd suffer from later or how swollen their feet would be.  It was just Megara, her cousins, family friends, and of course, Ricky Bowen.  Every time the song would change, they'd get lost even more in the crowd, but they didn't care.  At that moment, that summer night, there was not a care in the world.  One of the last songs they danced to — which was probably not appropriate for a group of teens — brought Ricky and Megara back to each other on their makeshift dancefloor ( which was really just the concrete in her dad's backyard with the automatic lights turned on and her cousin's Bluetooth speaker ).

     Megara's dark curls flew over her bare shoulder as she turned to glance at the white boy dancing behind her.  She couldn't stop her lips from turning upwards once she saw how into the music Ricky was — his cheeks were flushed and somewhere along the way he'd lost the jean jacket, he'd walked in with, leaving his signature silver chain ( her Nina had bought it for him for his birthday years ago ) bouncing against his fitted white tee-shirt as he eyed the Latina for her next move.

     She didn't know if it was the look on his face or the light in the place, but she was feeling quite into it.

     Ricky and Megara flew up the stairs in a fit of giggles, pushing each other lazily as they raced to her bedroom.  He plopped down onto Megara's bed, leaning on his elbows for support as he watched Megara unzip the back of her sandals and toss them across the room.

     "You should've seen the looks on Maddison and Drew!" Ricky grinned as he watched Megara pull a make-up remover wipe from a pack on her dresser by the mirror and quickly swipe off her signature mauve lipstick and natural makeup.

     "Huh?  Oh!" she chuckled, tossing the wipe on top of her dresser.  She turned around, tucking her long hair behind her ears.  "Yeah.  I guess it's safe to say we had a good night?"

     Ricky nodded sleepily, holding onto her stuffed bear from the state fair that she won years ago.  His curls were spread as he snuggled into her soft pillow — Megara couldn't blame him, not only was her bed incredibly comfy, but her signature scent of vanilla was everywhere.

     In the morning, however, when Ricky and Megara woke up in the same bed, there were different things on their mind.  It was really the icing on the cake.

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#JJ
everyone say thank u isabela merced
for bringing me out of retirement!! 💓

for clarification, her aunt is like
the mom she never had and the
sister she always wanted, period!
plus ricky being a family friend for
years is already cool with the fam!