Dylan woke up a few days later to her curtains being opened for her, the sun shining straight at her face. The girl groaned, pulling her duvet up higher to cover her eyes. She groaned once more when two people jumped on her, pulling the duvet from her grip and yanking it away from her face.

"Morning." Jeremiah greeted, as she sat up.

"Morning." Dylan grumbled.

"What are we doing today?" Sara asked.

"I am going to meet my friend that I haven't seen in a while." Dylan told them. "Today is the only day in this week that is not planned out to the second so I am using it and getting away from you crazy lot."

"We are not crazy." Sara defended.

"Yes we are."

"Yes you are."

Both Jeremiah and Dylan spoke at the same time, nodding their heads as Dylan got out of bed. She moved towards her suitcase grabbing some clothes before going into her bathroom.

"Now, get out of my room." She called over her shoulder to her cousins, hearing them huff and leave as she closed the bathroom door.

Dylan placed her phone on the counter, pressing play on her spotify playlist and turning the shower on. Enchanted by Taylor Swift began to play through the speaker of her phone. Dylan smiled when she heard the intro, singing along as she got in the shower.

When she had fully showered, and had her shower concert, Dylan got dressed, this time putting EJ's leatherman jacket she had stolen instead of his sweatshirt. She waved goodbye to her family, before heading towards the address Ricky had given her. One she arrived, she knocked on the door, his mum answering it.

"Hi!" Dylan greeted.

"Dylan, how nice to see you again." Lynne smiled, bringing the girl in for a quick hug. "How are you? How's life?"

"It's good, I'm good." Dylan stated, nodding.

"Dylan that you?" Ricky walked around the corner, to see the girl.

"Rickster!" Dylan exclaimed, hugging the boy. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has." The two shared a look as they realised how long it had been since they had hung out, between rehearsals and everything going on with Ricky and Nini and Dylan and her mum, the two had barely even had a full conversation.

"Anyway, we are going out." Dylan stated.

"Do you have to?"

"Yes." She nodded. "We are going out. Ricky I have been coming to Chicago every spring break for my entire life, okay, and I've been barely been able to explore it so we are going."

Before Ricky could protest, Dylan had dragged him out of the house. It was lucky he had already got shoes on, secretly knowing the girl would make him go out, and a jumper. The two were walking down the street, generally catching up with each other. They turned off the street into a random park.

"How you handling the uh..." Dylan trailed off.

"Fine." Ricky nodded his head unconvincingly.

"Liar." Dylan commented, as the two sat on a bench in the park. "How you really doing?"

"Better." Ricky stated. "I wrote a song about my emotions, I spoke to my mum. I'm doing better."

"That's good." Dylan smiled. "I have to listen to it."

"I'll play it for you."

"How are things with your mum?" Dylan wondered.

"We're getting there... I think." Ricky told her, a small smile on his face.

"I'm glad to hear it."

"What about you?" Ricky asked her. Dylan turned to him, her eyebrows furrowed. "How are you doing? What's going on with you and EJ?"

"I'm doing better." Dylan smiled. "And nothing is going on with me and EJ."

"Is that why you're wearing his leatherman jacket?" Ricky's eyebrows raised. Dylan pursed her lips.

"Shut up." She mumbled. "I wrote a song too."

"You did?" Ricky turned to her in surprise.

"A few actually." Dylan shrugged. "I wrote one with Nini, um, like back at the beginning of last semester but only her and me have heard it."

"Can I hear it?" Ricky asked.

"It's kind of a duet." Dylan told him. Ricky nodded, sighing when Dylan smiled, jumping up. "I'll be back."

Ricky watched as Dylan ran off, the girl going up to a boy sat in the park. He looked about their age and after a bit of talking, Dylan had managed to convince him to give her his guitar to borrow. She walked back over to the Bowen boy, grabbing a notebook from her bag, opening it up and handing both the guitar and the notebook to him.

"Here are the lyrics and the guitar chords." Dylan stated. "You are going to sing it with me."

"What?" Ricky shook his head. "No I'm not, we're not doing that."

"Yes we are, okay?" Dylan smiled sweetly. "Come on, singing in public is on my bucket list, alright. And apparently singing is one of the best forms of therapy."

Ricky groaned before standing up. "Fine."

Dylan squealed happy. "Yay!"

"You being happy scares me." Ricky stared at her before looking at her notebook.

"It scares a lot of people." Dylan smiled at him. "You ready?"

"Let's do it." Ricky told her, before strumming on his guitar.

"Sometimes I think I'm falling down. I wanna cry, I'm callin' out for one more try to feel alive. And when I feel lost and alone, I know that I can make it home. Fight through the dark and find the spark." Dylan sang, a smile on her face as Ricky played his guitar.

A few people stopped to listen, bobbing their heads along to the song. Dylan's smile grew slightly as she watched them enjoying the song. "Life is a risk but I will take it. Close my eyes and jump. Together I think that we can make it. Come on let's run and."

Ricky and Dylan turned to look at each other as they both sang, Dylan laughing as she finally noticed the stupid hat on Ricky's head. She took it off of him, throwing it onto the floor, unknowingly placing it in front of them, people putting money in it. "Rise through the night you and I, we will fight to shine together, bright forever and rise through the night you and I we will fight to shine together. Bright forever."

"In times that I doubted myself, I felt like I needed some help. Stuck in my head with nothing left. I feel something around me now so unclear lifting me out, I found the ground I'm marching on." Ricky sang the next verse alone, it being Nini's before.

More and more people began to stop to watch them, the two now having a crowd. People recording as they the pre chorus and chorus together once more. "Life is a risk but we will take it. Close my eyes and jump. Together I think that we can make it. Come on let's run and rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever. And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever."

Dylan turned to Ricky, him singing alone again. She held her hand up to his mouth as if it was a microphone, her mouthing the lyrics so he wouldn't forget them. "In times that I doubted myself, I felt like I needed some help. Stuck in my head with nothing left."

"And when I feel lost and alone, I know that I can make it home. Fight through the dark, and find the spark." Ricky and Dylan sang together, standing back to back before Dylan sang her high note at the end.

"And rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together." Ricky sang

"Shine together." Dylan sang slightly higher.

"Bright forever."

"Bright forever."

"And rise through the night you and I, we will fight to shine together." They sang, standing opposite each other once more. "Shine together."

"Bright forever."

"Bright forever." The two sang the last line together, Dylan holding it out for slightly longer than Ricky. As he played the last strum of his guitar, the crowd that had formed burst into applause. Ricky hugged Dylan, lifting her off the ground as they laughed. Dylan handed the boy his guitar back, him complimenting her song as she did.

"That was amazing." Ricky breathed as Dylan's phone rang.

"EJ hi." Dylan greeted him, his face popping up on her screen.

"Hey Dylan, you finally answered." EJ smiled in relief.

"Yeah, it's finally my free day. I'm with Ricky right now, say hi." Dylan turned the phone to show Ricky, the boy waving. EJ quickly greeted the boy, his smile faltering slightly as he watched how happy Dylan seemed to be. "We just sang one of my songs in the park, and there was a whole crowd and people were enjoying and recording it was amazing."

"Oh my god Dylan!" Ricky ran up to her. "People gave us money, this is so paying for lunch."

Dylan laughed at the excitable boy, EJ watching her, "You guys are going out for lunch?"

"Yeah, we're hanging out all day because we haven't hung out in a while." Dylan explained. "So I gotta go, Ricky is hurrying me along."

"Uh, okay, talk to you later." EJ forced a smile.

"Bye." Dylan waved happily. EJ hung up the phone, the last thing he heard being Ricky's complaints and Dylan's laughter. The boy sighed slightly, as his smile dropped completely off his face, Dylan looked so happy with Ricky, he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that he wasn't the reason for her happiness. He was slightly wary of Ricky Bowen anyway, he managed to steal the girl he liked once, why couldn't he do it again.

𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦
um have this cute chapter of dylan and ricky
and jealous ej lol because not only is it my
birthday but the queen of england died a few
hours ago and i have just been told
sadness :(
next chapter is alright but chapter twenty
one is a big one for caldez :))