: Though there aren't graphic details, this chapter contains mentions of sexual assault.

Ricky was standing on the sidewalk opposite the school, his temper racing as he pulled out a cigarette. He needed a plan for how to handle this situation before he saw his father. He needed a way to find out what he had been doing at that stupid dance.

He found his phone and sent a text to Sebastian.

Need 2 talk. Important! Outside school.

He was on his second cigarette when Sebastian finally showed up.

"What's going on?"

"Not here. The park."

"Okay...?" Sebastian furrowed his brows and jumped down the steps.

They headed up the street, crossing Madison and 5th Avenue before coming to Central Park, walking a bit until they found a sunlit row of deserted benches with no one around.

"Ricky, what's going on?" Sebastian asked, pushing the sleeves of his maroon school cardigan up his arms, and sat.

Ricky dropped his bag on the bench next to him. But instead of taking a seat, he started to pace the path in front of the benches. Too worked up to sit still, he grabbed the back of a bench and shook it violently, making the entire row of connected benches quiver before he started pacing again.

Sebastian observed him quietly with raised eyebrows.

"I need a drink. You want a drink?" Ricky suddenly stopped and grabbed his school bag, pulled his silver flask out, and took a large drink.

"I'm good," Sebastian declined, holding up a hand. "What the fuck is going on?" he repeated, this time with more force. "Is it the shit with the chauffeur and your missing shirt?"

Ricky gave a hollow laugh and shook his head, exchanging the flask with a new cigarette. Lighting it, he finally sat down beside Sebastian, inhaling deeply. He unbuttoned his blazer to cool his overheated skin, playing with the ring he wore in the long necklace around his neck.

"Fuck it." He exhaled a cloud of smoke and rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand. "Could I've, you know, raped Birch at the dance?" His voice was hushed, casting Sebastian a quick glance.

"What?" Sebastian looked at Ricky with a wrinkled brow. "Why would you ask that? No. No way you did that." He shook his head and brushed his curls out of his eyes.

"Then why was I just called into Correll's office and suspended for the suspicion that I did?" Ricky looked at his friend with a gloomy expression, quietly trying to suppress the surge of rage rushing through him. "He said he's going to call the police," Ricky got up and kicked the bench angrily with the bottom of his shoe, "and my fucking dad," he said through clenched teeth.

Sebastian furrowed his brows even more, deepening the crease between them. "That's preposterous."

"And I fucking told him that." Ricky pointed at Sebastian with his cigarette between two fingers, sitting back down heavily after pacing shortly back and forth. "But he said I was seen pushing Birch from the restroom. That our clothes were a mess." He shrugged as he placed the smoke between his lips and inhaled.

"She was assaulted in the restroom?" Sebastian looked at Ricky with mild surprise, the fresh glow in his cheeks deepening.

"How the fuck should I know? I remember jack shit from that night." Ricky shrugged, his voice laced with irritation.

"What?" Sebastian's squinted an eye in confusion. This was news to him. "What do you mean?"

Ricky sighed and ran a hand through his messy quiff, scratching the back of his head. Not meeting Sebastian's gaze, he hunched over and burned a mark on the edge of the green-painted bench with his cigarette.

"That whole night is a complete blank. All I remember is waking up next to an open bottle of vodka and..." Ricky stopped. He rolled the smoke between his fingers before inhaling deeply from it, resting his elbows on his knees, and fixed his gaze on the patch of dirt between his feet.

"And what?" Sebastian insisted, tipping his head to get a look at Ricky's face.

"Don't judge," Ricky said in a low voice, squinting against the sun as he looked back at Sebastian. "I found a used condom in my underwear."

"Seriously?" Sebastian looked at Ricky in disbelief.

"Which means I definitely had sex." He ignored Sebastian's remark as he sat back up, leaning against the backrest, and absentmindedly started playing with the silver ring on his necklace. "But, obviously, I was too fucked up to get rid of it before I pulled my pants back on. Baz, I have no idea who I used it with. For all I know, it could have been Birch." He looked at his friend with a worried expression.

"Seriously," Sebastian repeated, sounding tired this time. "How the fuck do you manage to keep getting yourself into these types of situations?" He turned a bit toward Ricky as he looked at him, shaking his head before resting it in his hand, leaning his elbow on the back of the bench. "You're the only goddamn person I know who always gets into shit like this. And it's not just once in a while, Ricky. It's all the fucking time."

"Yeah, thanks for the reminder, asshole. You think I don't know that?" Ricky gave Sebastian an irritated look, letting go of the ring as he ran his hand through his hair instead. "I was hoping you could help me out here."

Sebastian sighed visibly, closing his eyes and massaging his forehead. "Well, first of all, the condom thing... that's just fucking coarse, man." He gave Ricky a pointed look.

Ricky rolled his eyes because, yes, it was, but did he really need to point that out?

"But, second of all," Sebastian continued, "no way you fucked Birch. Why the hell should you when you have Banks hanging at your balls?" He shrugged. "And even though you can be a dick, you're not the kind of dick who fucks another guy's girl. And Bits' been seeing Birch since the end of junior year."

"Okay. Good," Ricky sighed with a small relief after a moment, scooting down in his seat, playing with his ring again. "How do you know about Bits and Birch?" Ricky cast Sebastian a quizzical look, taking another drag of his cigarette. That sort of information was not generally among the excessive list of things Sebastian just somehow knew.

"Roxie likes to share information." Sebastian shook his head, forbearing, mimicking Ricky by scooting down in his seat a little. "Even the kind I don't give two shits about." Half a second passed before he abruptly sat up straight, turning fully toward Ricky. "You took the blow, didn't you?"

Ricky quirked an eyebrow, looking sideways at Sebastian, at a loss. He had no idea what he was talking about.

"Sawyer offered us some at the beginning of the night. I've told you a million times not to take that crap. It fucks up your head for shit." Sebastian tapped his forehead, getting irritated at his friend.

Ricky just shrugged a shoulder and took another deep drag from his cigarette. If that was true, and he had been taking pain medication and drinking heavily too—which, knowing himself, he definitely had—it could very easily be the reason for his missing memory.

"Could you come with me to Correll's office and tell him this? Not the dope thing," Ricky quickly interjected, looking a Sebastian. "Just that you're my alibi."

"Sorry." Sebastian shook his head, leaned back on the bench, and crossed his arms. "But after you and Casini left for the restroom, you hung around Sawyer and his cohort—"

"Whoa, hold on." Ricky was the one to sit up straight this time as he looked at Sebastian with big eyes, holding up a hand to stop him. "I snuck off to the restroom with Clumsy Casini?" Was that why her eyes were the only thing that kept coming back to him when he tried to remember that night?

"I wish you'd stop calling her that," Sebastian sighed. "She's actually pretty decent."

"What was I doing with her? What the hell happened at that fucking dance?" Ricky asked, ignoring Sebastian's remark.

"You seriously need to stop taking that shit. And lay off the drinking too, for that matter."

Ricky cast him an annoyed look as he leaned back on the bench. "Save that speech for someone else."

"Whatever." Sebastian rolled his eyes, resting his arm on the back of the bench. "We drank a little; you flirted a bit with Casini; we gamb—"

"Whoa-whoa." Ricky leaned away from Sebastian, looking at him with disbelief. "Slow the fuck down. Why was I flirting with Clum— with Casini?"

"Well, we both know you were kind of into her for a week or two when you first started at St. A." Sebastian looked at Ricky with a smug expression.

Ricky waved an impatient hand for Sebastian to cut to the chase. He did not need to hear some insignificant trivia from two years ago.

Sebastian rolled his eyes before proceeding. "Before the dance, Rox helped Casini get ready, and she did exceptionally well." Sebastian couldn't help grinning a little. "Anyway, you unequivocally flirted with her, and I don't think Banks appreciated that because those minions, who suck up to her, threw this huge glass of water on you two. To cool you off or some shit." He shrugged. "That's when you and Casini left for the restrooms. I don't know what happened from then on. So, if you need some vindication for what happened after that, you should talk to Casini."

Ricky rubbed his face with his hands as he sighed, feeling a bit confused. "Okay. Thanks."

"Sure." Sebastian nodded with a slight shrug of his shoulder and got up. "Sorry about this. But now that we've established you most likely did not assault Birch, can I get back to class? I'm not suspended, but the longer I'm away, the smaller my chances are of talking Mr. Wallace out of giving me detention."

"Yeah." Ricky sighed and put out the bud of his cigarette as he got up, swinging his bag across his shoulder. "Thanks for straightening shit out for me."

"Don't worry about it. You know I'm here for you," Sebastian told Ricky as they left the park. He couldn't help feeling sorry that his best friend, yet again, had landed himself in an atrocious situation. He didn't know anyone with as big a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time as Ricky.

"Go and see Casini, all right? She's the one who can save your ass in this."

"Yeah." Ricky laughed lightly and ran a hand through his hair. Of all scenarios he might have considered, this was not even one of them.