I'm listening to this song on repeat for this chapter (since it's aviva's cast singing) and it's July help me.

Chapter 21

       It was official. We were screwed. Ricky wasn't here and even though we rehearsed as much as we could, we just couldn't make it sound right. I just hope there would be a miracle and we would end up sounding extremely well.

       I doubt it.

       At least we were the very last performers and there were still two more performers ahead of us so we had a lot more time to panic. If that could be considered a good thing.

       Worn Diversion was backstage with us right now and I was still very much tempted to grab something and throw it at them. They were being so loud and obnoxious right now and it was giving me, and probably everyone else, a huge headache.

       "You know what I just realized?" Chad asked me. "That meathead drummer of yours isn't here, and you were the one at the drum kit yesterday. Isn't it kind of unprofessional and selfish to bail from a charity concert?"

       "You know what I just realized?" I asked. "You're an annoying pest and you should just mind your own business. Oh, wait. Who am I kidding? I already knew that."

        "And you know what I already know?" Chad asked. "How gorgeous that girlfriend of yours is."

       Like Alistair told me yesterday, he was only saying that to try and get a reaction out of me. It was only going to make him satisfied if I got mad at him so I chose to say, "She is gorgeous, isn't she? Too bad she kept turning you down every single time. Anyway, I could see your band is about to perform so good luck and try not to mess up. I know it must be hard performing before us because you'll have to set the bar really high."

       "Oh, I'm sure you'll be very surprised with our performance," Chad said.

        I snorted. "Sure I will. In the meantime, I'll just be standing backstage watching. With my girlfriend."

       Chad gave me a sarcastic smile before walking over to where the rest of his band and Agatha were. I flipped him off when he wasn't looking, though I should have done it when he was.

       Aviva walked over to me and gently grabbed my hand. "Do you really have to flip off every single person you don't like?" 

       "Only when they're annoying me," I said. "I don't like the rest of Worn Diversion, but I'm not flipping them off. Chad is really the only one willing to annoy me."

       "Well, I don't blame you but you might want to cut off on the flipping off," Aviva said. "Especially when there are a lot of other bands and performers backstage. You can at least try to be more professional."

       "I will if you give me a kiss on the cheek," I said, leaning towards her.

       "I can do better than that," Aviva said, turning me to face her before gently pressing her lips on mine. When she pulled away, she kissed my cheek as well and I couldn't help but smile. At times, I still couldn't believe that Aviva was actually my girlfriend. I had been hopelessly in love with her for years, but I never thought I'd ever get the chance.

       I guessed my endless amount of flirting worked.

       It was soon time for Worn Diversion to perform and once they did, it was official. We were even more screwed.

       They were actually performing the Christmas song we chose. 

       What little snakes.

       "I can't believe them," Otis said. "There's no way we can perform the same song as them, especially when it doesn't even sound that good. And we can't even choose a new song because Malachi hasn't rehearsed anything else."

       "This is going to look so bad on us," I said. "If only Ricky was here."

       "I'm here!" I heard Ricky suddenly call, so we all looked over to see him entering the backstage area, carrying a two year old boy and having Ash follow him. "I'm here!"

       "Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" Otis asked.

       "It slipped my mind," Ricky said, setting the two year old on the ground. "Ash, there's some food over there. Go take Lee to get some." After Ash took Lee towards the food table, Ricky looked at all of us. "Sorry, I had to do a lot of sudden packing. But I am here and I am ready to perform. What song are we performing?"

       "Well, we are going to have to choose a new song," I said. "Worn Diversion are performing right now and they chose the song we were going to."

       "Of course they did," Ricky said.

       "Oh, and they have a new manager," I said. "Agatha."

       "Seriously?" Ricky said. "Wow, that's going to be very disastrous. For them, that is. The most stubborn people in the world working together. Anyway, I say we should just the song we performed last year at Vancouver's Christmas festival. You all remember how to play it, right?"

       "We definitely do so it's a good thing you're here," Aviva said. "I take it you were able to work things out."

       "Surprisingly, yes," Ricky said. "I thought I wasn't going to be able to but thankfully we have a private jet. I figured I should try to make it down so Malachi doesn't mess things up with the drums because he's not as good as me."

       "You know, I would normally be insulted by that but you obviously are the better drummer," I said.

       And now we were going to do way better than Worn Diversion. I knew it wasn't supposed to be a competition since it was a charity concert, but Worn Diversion were snakes that stole the song we were going to perform.

       I guessed that was all they wanted to do since they didn't go over their set time at all. They just walked off the stage, flashing us a smile. "Let's see you do better than that without your drummer here," Chad said.

       "Uh, I'm standing right here," Ricky said. "And just so you know, we are going to do way better than that mediocre performance."

       Chad didn't even reply. He just scoffed before walked away.

       Chad was rarely ever to argue back with Ricky. I wished it would be that way for me so Chad would stop hitting on my girlfriend.

       When we were called onto the stage for our performance, Ricky told Ash to keep an eye on Lee before the five of us went on the stage. We hadn't performed this song for a year but honestly, we had a better chance at performing that than the other song.

       And we did extremely well, but that was no surprise there. I was glad Ricky was able to make it because we were definitely in sync again.

       This was our first performance without Agatha as our manager so for some reason, it felt a lot stronger. She couldn't give us these ridiculous rules anymore and we could perform however we pleased.

       Like me kissing Aviva's cheek when the line she sang had the word mistletoe.

       This definitely had to be one of my favourite performances that we had ever done. 

       We finished performing with the audience cheering loudly. One of my favourite feelings in the world.

       As soon as we walked off the stage, Lee looked over at Ricky with a huge smile and said, "Daddy!" before running over.

       I had never felt more confused in my life.

       "Did he... Did he just call you Daddy?" I asked Ricky as he picked up Lee.

       "No, he called me Mommy," Ricky said sarcastically. 

       "You never told us you have a son," Otis said.

       "Blame Agatha," Ricky said. "She's the main reason I never said anything. Well, that and I haven't really been in his life much. His mom didn't want me to see him for reasons I am not getting into but she's finally letting me. Anyway, that's why I almost didn't make it. I promised I would have him over today since he had been begging his mom to come over and I couldn't break the promise. It was going to be our Christmas. I just had to convince her to let me bring him with me here."

       "Why didn't you tell us after Agatha quit?" I asked.

       Ricky shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know. I'm not ready for the world to find out about him yet and the more people that know about him, the higher chance there will be. I'm risking a lot by bringing him here, so I brought Ash along so I can just say Lee is my brother."

       "Wait, that's why you brought me?" Ash asked. "I thought it was because you loved me."

       "Not everything is about you, Ash," Ricky said.

_________________

can ricky adopt me because he's such a dad like:

i mean what? i totally meant he's a dad because, you know, he has a son.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

(lol sorry not sorry)