I woke up the next morning, highly refreshed and ready to start day two of the scavenger hunt. When I got home yesterday, I was still pretty bummed about the whole love memory thing, but immediately perked up to the thought of this: if Ryan was writing the notes, why would he give me one himself?
That led to me knowing for sure that Ricky set this whole thing up, and I was itching to know why. I had to hold myself back from opening the letter right when I woke up, and instead took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, and cleaned up a little around the house. Once the dishes were clean however, I ran to my bedroom and sat Indian style on my bed as I opened the envelope to find a page long clue. At least, I think it was a clue. It wasn't hand written, but typed out from a computer. It was in letter format, and I smiled as I begun to read it, heart melting knowing it was from Ricky.
- Sara
You probably know it's me now that you've seen the only other R person you could possibly know. So I wanted to write you this letter and let it hold every clue for the last day of this cheesy scavenger hunt I've put together.
You no longer are going to have to figure out what the riddles mean, that shit is difficult to come up with! And I'm very poetic I like to think, but I just couldn't stand them any longer. Plus, knowing you, you hate them and want to kick my ass for making you read and figure them out. So I decided to give you a break, you're welcome.
Today should be fairly simple, for there are only about three clues you have to read and follow in order to finish the hunt and find the prize, yes, there is a prize. And no, I will not tell you what the said prize or whatever you wanna call it is. Your first clue is listed below this paragraph, so read on.
Your first clue is: We usually go to my house in the afternoons, but do you remember what time we usually do? If so, make sure you tell Chris you need to be at my house by then, and he shall be your driver.
This letter has three pages, equaling three different parts/clues, so bear with me. You can't read the second clue until you are at my house, for if you read it now it probably won't make any sense whatsoever. So carry on, you only have today left, Nala.
- Ricky
I smiled at the fact that he called me Nala. It was a long shot, because how was he to know if I remember that nickname? I hadn't even told Ghost about the memories I recalled yesterday, so it isn't like he could've told Ricky. Plus, I don't think he would since I asked him however long ago to allow me to tell other people when I was ready.
I sighed but shook the thought away, focusing on today. The clues were much simpler to me now, since they weren't in riddle form. And Ricky really must know me, considering he knew I wanted to kick his ass for making me solve them.
I knew exactly when he would pick me up and take me to his house to hang out with him. He was always here by three o'clock sharp, sometimes a minute late. We'd go to his house, have movie days, cook for each other, and play video games or board games. We were simple people, easily entertained. A couple movie nights ended in popcorn fights, more ended in cuddling and falling asleep on each other. Ghost was my best guy friend, but Ricky and I just had this bond of best friends that I think was stronger. It killed me so much not being able to tell him what I remembered, and now two more memories are piled on top of the ones I still keep secret from him.
I've really started to like him again, and like I said before I might be even falling in love with him again.
I cleared my head and walked out of my room, down the hall and into the living room where Chris sat watching Scrubs. I preferred The Big Bang Theory but that show was apparently banned from this house unless his mom were to come visit. Although I secretly watched it when he wasn't home or late at night on a low volume while he slept. I was very careful in setting it to record on his DVR, erasing every episode after I've watched it so he doesn't flip ape shit on me. I sat down beside him, stealing a chip from the bowl in front of him.
"Hey," he whined playfully and I rolled my eyes as I popped the Doritos chip in my mouth.
"You're the one eating my favorite chips without me," I replied.
"True." he nodded before paying attention to the screen again.
"By the way, I need you to take me to Ricky's house at three." I told him, just as my clue had instructed me to.
I saw Chris smile slightly, and nod in understanding. The rest of the day until three was spent watching the marathon of Scrubs, and then an episode of The Big Band Theory came on and Chris attempted to watch it to see "how his mom does it" as he said. He got through almost ten minutes of the old Halloween episode, me having to hold in my laughter to not show I liked it, until he turned off the TV yelling 'I give up' and walking out of the room with the long empty chip bowl. That was an entire bag gone, God we were pigs.
-
Three o'clock soon finally arrived, and I got all giddy about it. I grabbed the envelope from my room which held my second and third clue of the day. We climbed into Chris' car and he drove the familiar route to Ricky's. As we pulled into his driveway, I threw off my seat belt and pushed the door open, running into the house with Chris following me. The door was locked, but Chris had a key. He opened the door for me and I sat on Ricky's couch while opening up my next clue for me to read.
Your second clue is: Every movie night we've had there is one movie in particular that we have to watch per your request. It is so bad ass and funny, also a classic. You're favorite line in the movie is the key to your next and final clue. Don't open number three until you arrive.
- Ricky
I smiled, again knowing exactly what Ricky was talking about. I marched over to his movie cabinet, and opened it to reveal a shelf specifically filled with movies for our movie nights. I grabbed The Ghost Busters, and walked over to Chris who stood by the door. He leaned against it, with his arms crossed, keys still in hand.
"Wow, you're good at this." he acknowledged.
"Riddles were my only weakness in yesterday." I informed him. "And my favorite line in this is 'Next time if someone asks if you're a God, you say yes!'" I told him.
"Nice," he said, complimenting my acting skills. "Now, off we go to location two." he said, tugging me along as he locked Rick's house back up.
We climbed back into his car, and he turned on some music. I started bobbing my head and Chris and I sang along terribly to This Is Gospel by Panic! At The Disco.
"By the way, you should get comfy. We've got a long ride," Chris warned.
I sighed and groaning playfully, but ended up falling asleep about five minutes later.
-
Something poked my shoulder, but I merely moved maybe an inch and scratched at my shoulder. It poked me again, earning the same reaction but with a groan in annoyance. I didn't want to get up, I was having a peaceful sleep and was hoping to dream of another memory. Maybe it could even be one that involved everyone, not just Ricky and I. Although, I did love those and it explained a lot of the pictures in my phone. I heard somebody distantly say my name, my ears weren't awake yet either. I was slow at waking up when I wanted to be, and this was one of those times. The person moved on to poke my cheek, and I swatted their hand away earning a laugh from them. I was aware I'd fallen asleep in the car, so I knew who was attempting to wake me up. Let's just say, Chris Cerulli had a death wish.
He poked my cheek again, but I didn't even bother moving again. That only made him think I was going to get up and I planned nothing of the sort at this very moment in time. I heard him huff, and then felt a light but still stinging sensation on my cheek. I jolted awake, putting a hand to my cheek. Goddamn, that hurt. I looked over at Chris, who was holding his hand's up in surrender and scowled.
"It was the only way that got you up." he defended himself. I sighed and crossed my arms, looking out the window.
"What are we doing at a dress shop?" I asked him.
"Well you see, it isn't mentioned in the clue and really this is just a pit stop; but you'd kill me if I let you go to the last location in sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt."
I raised an eyebrow and he just smiled, getting out of the car. I groaned and followed him, getting out and following him into the store. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a ton of manikins wearing some pretty, but some overly ugly dresses. A lady walked up to us, and wow she was pretty. She had dyed bright green hair, half her bangs dyed black. Her hair reached down to her mid torso just about, and she wore a nice looking black shirt and black dressy-ish pants. Her eyebrows looked drawn on a little, or at least filled in to make them darker. Parts of her left eyebrow were shaved away, it looked pretty cool. Her makeup was done to perfection, eyeliner on point and green eye shadow being the perfect amount over her eyelid. A black choker was around her neck, I've always wanted one of those.
Chris said I had one, I just could never find it at his house so it must be somewhere at Rick's.
"Hey there, I'm Shannon! How can I help you today?" she asked politely.
She was pretty short, I was like an inch or two taller than her while Chris, well Chris has always been a giant to a lot of people. Before I could reply, Chris started speaking.
"We need to find Sara here a dress for a somewhat fancy yet casual occasion."
Wow, he was right. If it was a fancy but casual thing then I really didn't want to show up in sweats and a t-shirt. Good call Christopher, you know me well.
"Alright, let's go Sara." Shannon said happily.
She tugged me towards the dressing rooms, promising to be right back with a few options. When she did come back, I liked none of them except maybe the red lace one. The other's were too bright for my liking, which she understood when I explained it to her. She only guessed on what my size might be, and it was the right one. I slipped on the red dress, feeling kind of slutty in it. It only reached down to about mid thigh, maybe a little higher than that. It showed a lot of skin by my chest, and fit my "curves" a little too snugly. It made my breasts look huge even though they weren't, and it just all around would tell guys "Hey come bang me".
I took it off immediately and handed it back to Shannon, who left to get more options. I looked at the time on my phone, and sighed. We'd been driving for I think two hours while I slept, and God knows how long this was going to take. One of the many reasons I hated shopping, but was also a little bit thankful for this one.
Shannon brought back another few dresses, two looking slutty where I nearly fell in love with the third one. I tried the other two on first, but dreaded them like I thought I would. I put on the third one, Shannon helping with the zipper in the back. It was a black lace tutu dress. It showed more skin on the back than in the front, the actual dress part going up to my collar bones. It was sleeveless, had more of a three finger length tank top style to it. It was pretty tight around my torso and then puffed out at my hips but not too much that it looked weird. This one reached to my mid thigh, but not in a slutty way. I loved this dress, and I wanted it really bad.
"Like it?" Shannon called from the other side of the closed curtain.
"I love it," I said.
"Perfect!" she called and tugged me out of the dressing room.
We walked back out front, and she had me stand in front of Chris. His eyes widened and he looked at me without any emotion clear on his face.
"What? Do I look bad?" I asked him, a little self-conscious now.
"No, no!" Chris denied and I let out the breath I'd been holding. "You look beautiful Sara." he smiled. "You wanna get that one?" I nodded eagerly.
"Alright, we'll buy this one then." he told Shannon.
She nodded and told me not to bother with taking it off. I walked around the counter with her, she scanned the tag and then cut it off the dress. I was happy that Chris threw my pair of black TOMS at me before leaving the house, they matched nicely. Chris paid for the dress, much to my dismay although I couldn't argue much since I didn't even have money.
"Alright, now time for hair." Shannon clapped. I looked at her bewildered, I thought this was just a plain dress shop. "Oh please, if this is a somewhat fancy event you need a better hairdo then a knot on your head." she advised.
I sighed and nodded, to which she squealed and got a chair from somewhere. She started messing with my hair, taking different pieces and sticking them different places. Within fifteen minutes she was done, and let me look in one of the various mirrors in the shop. I gasped, looking at myself in awe. Shannon pinned my hair up into a perfect bun on top of my head, little strands of my hair surrounding my face. I didn't have bangs, nor did I need to have them to love this hair style.
"Wow, thank you Shannon." I told her.
"No problem," she smiled.
-
Chris was driving to whichever next place for about forty minutes until he stopped the car outside a large park-ish area. I looked over at him and he smiled and motioned for me to get out of the car. It was dark, but as I climbed out I noticed the path made up of lit candles. I smiled, thinking of this as a movie because I'm a romance geek. I pulled out the last clue, and smiled as I read through it.
Your third and final clue is: Follow the candle path.
- Ricky
I did as told, and began walking in the middle of the two rows of candles. It led me to a pond, and I looked out over the calm water that the half moon shined down on. It was peaceful, and very beautiful. As I kept walking I could hear the soft hum of music. I got closer, and realized it was live music and not something from a stereo.
The candle path lit up my way around the pond, when I finally saw something other than grass. It was a blanket on the grass, candles surrounding it and plates and plastic red cups were on the blanket. There was a bottle of something alcoholic in a bucket of ice, keeping it chilled. A box of pizza was in the middle. The music suddenly got closer, and I turned around to see him holding an acoustic guitar, lips moving as he sang.
"When the memory is a blank page, and the teeth in your mouth are all cliches, your heart is a bag of rocks your, soul is a pile of ashes on the sidewalk." he sang.
"There's and eagle scout project, I used to come to feel some kind of magic, now a story less, we'll wait out the days. Wait out the days till death comes to claim." he stopped there.
"Sara Elena Martin, will you do the honors of going on a date with me?" Ricky asked me.
- - - - -
Oh shit! Long freaking chapter it is almost 3000 words long, that is so many! I love this chapter though, it is so cliche yet very romantic, and I'll be honest. I wanna date like this with Ricky Horror, am I right ladies?!
Anyways, the girl in the picture at the beginning of the chapter is HeyThereImShannon from YouTube, she's super awesome and makes fantastic videos! Check her out on her main channel and on My Digital Escape!
Life's a bitch don't quit, stay happy not crappy, stay rad not sad.
- Gaby