Sunday, July 18, 2010

Orange Part 4

After I had left Rick's house I did not have much to do. I tried reading a book I had brought with me, but I could not focus. I wanted so badly to know what the adventure was that Rick and I were going on later. I was so distracted that I ended up asking my mom if she had any chores that she needed done. I figured that I should schmooze her before I asked her if I could sleep over at Rick's for a second night.

I'd say that was a mistake, if it had not worked exactly how I wanted it to.
My mother gave me a veritable mountain of chores. I miraculously finished them just a little after three.
Rick came in as I was vacuuming.

"You ready?" Rick asked, still in his work clothes.

"Not exactly, I gotta get some stuff from my room. I'll meet you at your house OK?" I shouted over the screaming vacuum.

"That's fine, I should probably change out of my work clothes anyway." Rick said.

I grabbed a change of clothes, a pillow, my backpack, a flashlight and lighter. I had no idea what our 'adventure' entailed, hence the flashlight and lighter.
Eager to find out what was going on I bolted out the door and in to Rick's house.
When I entered, Rick was nearly ready to go. He seemed to be searching around for something.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"A flashlight" Rick answered.

"Already got one, I figured it would be useful" I said.

"Perfect! Let's go then" Rick said, grabbing my hand.

"But where the hell are we going?" I asked.

"Some place only stupid teenagers would go" Rick said smirking.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" was all I said before I decided to just go with the flow and not question Rick.

After jogging for about 5 minutes behind Rick we arrived at a very old, large, and decrepit building.

"Riiiiiiiiiick. I do not like where this adventure is going, more specifically I do not like the looks of that building. What is- what was it?" I said stopping in my tracks thinking that maybe I did not like where the flow was going.

"Well it used to an old insane asylum, like one of those buildings where they'd do 'experiments', if you follow." Rick said getting an odd look of wonder in his eyes.

"Yeah I do, why would you want to go in there?" I asked.

"Adventure my friend, adventure. I hear it's crazy haunted. Don't worry though, it's probably just urban legend or whatever" Rick said with a playful grin.

"I'd rather not take my chances" I said.

"Oh come on Tom, what are you, chicken?" Rick said jokingly.

I wanted to say something along the lines of "what are we five? You gonna triple dog dare me next?", but like the legendary Marty McFly, I felt the need to prove that I in fact was NOT a chicken.

"Fine" I said as I took a couple steps towards the building.

I let Rick be the first to enter the creepy building, I turned on my mammoth of a flashlight and tip-toed in behind him.

"This place is awesome!" Rick shouted.

"Yeah that's a word for it..." I mumbled.

I took a look around with my flashlight and immediately wished I hadn't, the interior of the building looked exactly like a B horror movie set. I was convinced something with a hideous face that wanted to eat my soul was going to pop out any second. All of a sudden, I heard something moving and I stopped in my tracks.

"Rick, did you hear that?" I asked, grabbing my flashlight as if it were my first born child.

"Hear what?" He asked.

"That sound, it sounded like-" was all I could get out before a large something came down on my head. Everything went black.

Next thing I knew I was looking up at an orange sky and at Rick. I had the start of a very large bump on my head.

"Thank god, I thought you were dead or something..." Rick said, rubbing his eyes, they were a little red and his face seemed to be lined with worry and shining tracks. I was too confused at the moment to realize what he had been doing while everything had been black.

"What. The hell. Happened " I asked, thoroughly confused.

"Ummm, from what I can tell a piece of the ceiling fell on your head. Maybe it was loosened by something scurrying around up there...but whatever...just happy you're OK" Rick said with a sniffle.

"Rick, are you OK?" I asked. Now that I had really come to, I was pretty sure Rick had been crying. Scratch that, I knew Rick had been crying; it was quite obvious.

"Yeah, I'm fine the dust just got me is all, allergies, you know" Rick said. Something in the back of my head told me otherwise, but I did not press, maybe it really just had been allergies. I always looked a mess when mine acted up.

"OK. Hmmmm well since our 'adventure' sort of literally fell through, what do you say we scare ourselves silly a different way?" I asked, trying to cheer Rick up a little. He looked like a kicked puppy, and no one likes wounded baby animals.

"Oh?" Rick responded, immediately perking up a little.

"How about I go grab a couple of horror flicks from my house, we make some popcorn, and scream like little girls until we fall asleep. That sound good to you?" I asked while lightly touching the bump on my head. It was not as large as it felt, but it hurt twice as much as I thought it would.

"I'd like that" Rick said with a smile. Then I smiled. That kid's smile is 100 percent infectious.

So we went quickly to my house and away from that. I told my mom I was sleeping over at Rick's. She gave me a face that said "well, I'd hoped you stay for dinner, but fine" as she nodded her head. I grabbed 'Stephen King's IT' and Pet Cemetery. Two of the most ridiculously scary Stephen King movies by far in my opinion.
This was saying a lot, because I can fall asleep while watching most horror movies.

As I perused through our collection of horror movies Rick chuckled a little and said, "It's funny how you have an entire library of horror movies and you were scared to go in some silly old building"

"Aaaah but that is exactly why I didn't want to go in to the building, I've seen several different groups of teenagers meet their untimely death by doing exactly what we did. Getting torn apart by some maniac left in the building or having my soul stolen by an ancient evil is NOT how I plan to go" I said with a stony expression on my face. When it came to my paranoia spurred by my vast horror knowledge, I was dead serious. Pun intended.

"Oh, well I'll be sure to not doubt you in the future. I also hope to not die a gruesome death plotted by a nasty screenwriter" Rick chuckled. I just chuckled back as we left the room.

"Oooooh good choices" both my mom and dad said as they noticed the two movies I had in my hand as Rick and I headed for the door. I got my morbid fascination for horror from them.

"Oh mom, Dad, do we have any popcorn?"

"Yeah honey, it's in the cupboard to the left of the sink" my mom said as she pointed to the cupboard.

I grabbed it, gave my mom and dad both hugs, and Rick and I left. As Rick I walked back to his house I noticed the moon. Big, bright, and orange, it looked like a a giant glowing pumpkin in the sky.

"The moon's beautiful tonight" Rick said. As I looked up at the moon I caught him staring at me a couple of times. I did not think much of it, but I saw something familiar in the way he looked at me. I could think of what exactly it was, but I knew it looked familiar. I tried not to think too much of it as we went in to his house.

"Pop one of the movies in and I'll start the popcorn" I said as I did just so. Rick chose IT and a smile creeped on to my face. It was the longer of the two movies, but also the better of the two movies in my opinion.

Ricks smiled back at me and gave me that look again. I stared at the popcorn in the microwave and tried to think of where I had seen that look.

My eyes widened as I realized why that look was familiar. I say familiar because I realize that I had not actually seen that look, I had had that look on my face before. It was the look I got on my face when I looked at Elena and I first had my crush on her.

Did Rick like me like that? Did I give off a vibe that I liked guys? Did I give off a vibe that I liked Rick more than as a friend?

BEEP BEEP

The microwave broke what could have been an endless chain of panicked questions. I calmed down and realized I was probably just over analyzing things. Still uneasy I sat in the armchair, away from the couch where Rick was sitting. I sat there, quite stiff, for all of the first movie.

Once the movie was over I walked over to put in the second movie. I decided to stop being stupid and sat down on the couch next to Rick. He was my friend, maybe he did 'like' me, maybe he did not. Either way he had been a better friend to me than any of my friends back in New York, so I did not care.
I was not about to be one of those guys who even cringed at the thought of a guy liking another guy. It happened, and there is nothing wrong with it.

As these thoughts buzzed through my mind I started to feel my eyelids get heavy. I fell asleep before the kid had even bit the dust in Pet Cemetery.

When I awoke, the TV was glowing blue and my head was up against Rick's shoulder. Rick's arm was around me. I sat up, half out of surprise, and half just to get myself up. I went over to my backpack and got my pillow. I put myself on the floor and fell back asleep.

I awoke the next morning with Rick behind me, his arm around me. I wanted to be cool with it I really did, but I guess waking up with him holding me sort of freaked me out because I got up and went over to my house. Rick did not wake up as I left, he was still sound asleep with smile on his face.

I did not go to see Rick again that day, I figured he would be busy with work anyway. The next day Rick showed up at the door in his work clothes.

"Tom, can we talk?" he asked. Rick looked really troubled.

"Yes" I responded without really thinking. I felt a giant lump form in my throat. I had a good idea of what Rick wanted to talk about, and I was not sure if I really wanted to discuss that.

Rick took a deep breath as we started to walk down the beach, then he began.

1 comment:

  1. OH ABANDONED INSANE ASYLUMS
    SO FUN TO BREAK IN TO

    also

    "... grabbing my flashlight as if it were my first born child."

    i lol ed

    ReplyDelete