relapse ≫ ricky horror

nineteen

PLAYLIST

The Maine - Into Your Arms

Crown The Empire - Evidence

Green Day - Warning

Never Shout Never - Robot

HIM - Scared to Death

30 Seconds To Mars - Stay

Ricky Olson

Star and I were returning home after a long day of working at hell - wait, sorry, I meant to say 'Love Culture'.

More like 'I'm-gonna-fucking-staple-my-dick-to-a-tree Culture'. Star hated it when I complained about working there, but that store was literally the spawn of Satan.

I turned my head slightly to the right, aiming to keep my eyes on the road, as I suddenly felt Star tap on my shoulder.

"Yeah? What's up?" I asked.

"Do you think I can stay at your house for tonight? Just this one time, I promise." I watched her lower lip beginning to tremble as she spoke.

"Why? Is something wrong?" I asked curiously, slowly tilting my head. What was she not telling me?

"My aunt kind of went berserk this morning before you picked me up for work. Then we got into this really personal topic, and I just don't think that I should see her tonight; it'll just bring back the memories and that's honestly the last thing I need right now."

"Alright, it's fine with me. I'd love to have you over, too. And you can stay as long as you'd like, I honestly don't mind at all," I bit my lip. "And hey, you can finally meet my friend Chris."

"I did meet him once though, remember?" She told me, shaking her head. I thought for a minute and recalled the day I sent him to go talk to her about how sorry I was.

"Oh, yeah. Can't believe that even slipped my mind," I chuckled. She looked down and took out her phone from her jacket.

"I'm going to tell my aunt I'm sleeping over at yours tonight, if that's fine."

"Go ahead," I said, throwing my mind back to the wheel. We were a few minutes away from my house, so I decided to have a quick smoke. I rummaged through my jean pockets and pulled out my cigarette box, flipping the cap to get one out.

"Please don't." I heard Star mumble quietly.

"Why?"

"It's not good for you, Ricky."

"They're just cigarettes."

"Yeah, and it's just cancer."

"Oh my god, Star, don't be one of those girls." I sighed, rubbing my face with my hands.

"I care about you, Ricky. Don't do this to yourself." She took my right hand which was available and entwined our fingers together, before I disconnected and pulled away. She noticed and looked down at her hand, pouting as she saw my quick reaction.

"I won't do it right now. It's too hard to stop. You wouldn't understand." I told her bluntly.

"Gee, thanks." She spoke in monotone, clearly oblivious to what I meant.

"Are we really going to have an argument about this?" I let out, trying to keep peace between us.

"You don't know me like you think you do, Ricky."

"And you don't know me. We've been dating for a few days, and you're already trying to get me to stop smoking." I scoffed.

"I don't want you to get hurt. Is it bad that I worry? I still want to make sure that you're okay."

I let out a deep breath and centered my eyes back on the road, stopping at a red light just a few blocks before we reached my house.

"I'm sorry."

"Whatever, Ricky. I shouldn't have mentioned it to begin with." She murmured, crossing her arms over her chest. The traffic signal became green and before I knew it, we finally arrived at my neighborhood. I parked in an empty space a few feet away from my house. Before opening the car door, I grabbed Star's hand and planted a kiss on it, stroking the skin afterwards.

"I'm really sorry, okay? Please forgive me. I didn't mean the whole 'you wouldn't understand' thing. It was a mistake of mine." I said sincerely, looking her straight in the eyes. She nodded and got out of the car, me following in her steps as well. We both walked over to my house door and stood over the mat. I knocked twice and called for Chris, knowing he was home at this time. A few seconds passed and no answer. I knocked again and again, but no response was heard regardless of the number of times I called.

"That's weird." I whispered. I bent over and picked up an emergency key we hid under the mat, using it to open the door. I took a full view of my surroundings as we both walked in.

"Come on in," I chimed, trying to lift the mood. She walked behind me and followed.

"Chris?" I called out. Again, nothing was heard. I took a few steps in and saw him laying on the couch. I looked over at Star and noticed she was staring at him, too. I set my eyes on him again and noticed he must've fallen asleep while I was gone. Walking over to the couch and sitting next to him, and nudged his shoulder and tried to wake him up.

"Chris. Wake up. I'm here." I told him, not stopping to shake him. His eyelids didn't even move. His mouth was slightly open and from the moment I smelled what lingered in his breath, I knew what had happened.

"Star?"

"Yeah?"

"Call an ambulance. Right now."