“Happy to be home?” I questioned as Ricky and I walked hand-in-hand. Today we were in Seattle, Washington, home of Ricky Horror. He now lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania with the rest of Motionless In White, but his family still lived in Seattle.
“Yeah, I’m excited to see my parents and my sister again,” he responded with a small smile. I was a bit nervous to meet Ricky’s parents. I really wanted them to like me. “They’re excited to meet you, too,” he added. His family was suppose to arrive in about a half hour and I could already feel my palms getting sweaty and my stomach doing flip-flops. “They’re gonna love you. Don’t worry about it,” he reassured me, practically reading my mind.
He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before we entered Motionless In White's tour bus to wait for his family, who happened to already be there.
"Ricky!" cried a middle aged woman who looked quite similar to my boyfriend. She scooped Ricky up into a hug and Ricky hugged her back. I stood surveying the scene, feeling quite awkward. He then hugged a man who I was guessing was his father and a woman that looked around our age who I was guessing was his sister. His sister was holding the cutest little boy, who I was thinking was Ricky's nephew, Reagan.
Ricky's sister sent me a warm smile when she saw me standing over to the side. "Ricky, you didn't tell us you had a girlfriend," she teased.
"This is Midnight," Ricky introduced after sending his sister a death glare. They didn't seemed fazed by my nickname, which was nice for a change. "Midnight, this is my mom, my dad, my sister, Rachel, and my nephew, Reagan," he added, pointing everyone out to me.
"It's nice to meet you," I told them all. Ricky's dad stuck out his hand for me to shake and his mum smiled at me.
"You have such a beautiful accent. Where are you from?" Mrs. Olson questioned. I was glad she was being so kind since I had been quite nervous to meet her and her husband.
"Australia," I answered with a smile. Rachel looked pretty impressed. I guess to people who had never been there, Australia seemed pretty awesome.
"Do you still live there?" Mr. Olson asked, sitting down on one of the couches. This probably meant he was expecting some long, in-depth conversation, which was not something I was looking forward to.
"No, I live in Philadelphia now," I replied, taking a seat across from him. Ricky copied my action and then put his arm around me. The contact brought a smile to my face.
"Well, that's not too far away from where Ricky lives," Mrs. Olson told me. The drive from Scranton to Philadelphia was about two hours, which was long, but it would definitely be worth it after this tour when I couldn’t see Ricky everyday.
We talked a little bit longer until my mum came to tell me that Into The Dark would be playing in a half hour. Her and Mrs. Olson seemed to hit it off. They kept talking and laughing as we made our way to the stage.
Jeremy, Aaron, Dan, and Blake were already there, warming up and stretching. Ricky introduced my band to his family and I started warming up myself. By the look on his face, Mr. Olson was a bit surprised by the fact that I was a drummer, but I knew he'd be kicking himself for doubting me after we played, like most guys who doubt my skills just because I'm a girl.
After we played, Mr. Olson, who did look pretty impressed, announced that he'd love to 'get to know me better.' I had to suppress my groan. He seemed like a nice guy, but I was just so terrible at talking to people, especially people I just met. As we walked back to Motionless In White's tour bus, Ricky slipped his hand into mine, causing Mrs. Olson to raise her eyebrows at us. She acted a lot like Jeremy had when Ricky and I had just met. It was sweet that she cared about his happiness so much.
Mr. Olson asked me all the generic questions people ask me all the time: 'what's your real name,' 'when did you move to America,' 'how old are you,' etc. Pretty much the same question Ricky asked me when we had just met. Thankfully he didn't ask why I had moved here or anything about my father. Those were topics I tried to avoid but it could be hard sometimes. People never knew that it was a sore topic.
Thankfully, they seemed to like me. My nervousness disappeared after a while. It helped that my mum stayed the whole time. Hopefully, I'd never have to meet anyone's parents again. After all their questions, we went to go watch Motionless In White play.
"You seem like such a nice girl. How did you get stuck with Ricky?" Mrs. Olson joked as soon as he was out of earshot. I just chuckled, feeling awkward again.
"In all seriousness, you seen like the perfect match for Ricky," she added a moment later. She gave me a smile. I immediately felt relieved. I had been so worried about what her and Ricky's dad would think of me considering I didn’t look like the ideal girl to most people.
“Well, I really like him,” I mumbled as though I was thinking out loud. I ran my hand through my long hand and hoped she hadn’t heard what I said.
“I can see he likes you, too,” she told me in a whisper as if she didn’t want anyone to hear. I looked over at him, my brow knit in confusion. “I’ve never seen him look at any girl the way he’s been looking at you,” she clarified with a small smile. I felt my face get hot as I thought about the way Ricky looked at me with those beautiful eyes.
A moment later, I felt a hand on my back. I looked over to see Ricky. “Time to go on,” he said before planting a kiss on my cheek. I could see Ricky’s mum give us a smile out of the corner of my eye.
“Have a good show,” I told him before he ran onstage. Ricky's family, my mum, and I stood on the side of the stage and watched them play. I honesty love watching Ricky play. He always looked like he was having so much fun.
After their half hour set, they ran off stage drenched in sweat. "You guys were great, as always," I said as Ricky took a swig of water. His lips curled into a smile against the plastic bottle. After he swallowed his water, he came in closer to me; so close that I could feel his warm breath on my skin. As I looked into those beautiful eyes, I could feel my heart rate quicken. This seemed to happen every time I knew he was about to kiss me. He then pressed his soft lips against mine.
"Let's keep things PG. We have young eyes here," Rachel announced, causing us to break apart. I could feel my cheeks instantly get hot.
"Oh, I'm sure Reagan's seen worse, Rachel," Ricky said, rolling his eyes. I could tell she was teasing us by the grin on her face.
He then pulled his guitar over his head and announce that we could go back to the bus. We got stopped by a group of fans before we made it to the safety of the bus. His family didn't seem to mind though. The fans said how cute Ricky and I were, which caused Ricky's mum to give us a grin. God, new spreads fast. It seemed like in a matter of a few days, both our fan based knew all about our relationship. There was no such thing as privacy anymore. I mean, I didn't really care, but still.
"Can you two, like, get married now?" one of the girls gushed, causing Ricky to chuckle and me to blush. I got embarrassed really easily for some reason. It didn't help that we had our parents there.
"Yeah, you guys are so cute together," another one agreed excitedly as I signed her poster. We then posed for a picture with them and went on our way.
"Well, it seems like the fans support you two," Rachel joked when they were out of earshot. I couldn't help but chuckle at the huge understatement. Everyone besides that one girl seemed to love us as a couple.
We the continued to the bus and talked a bit more. Thankfully they laid off the questions and I mostly just listened to the conversation. I also got to play with Reagan s bit. He was do adorable and unlike most little kids, didn't seem afraid of my appearance. I guess having Ricky as an uncle made he a bit more accepting. He actually seemed intrigued by my tattoos. He was definitely going to grow up to be a cool guy.
After awhile, Mr. Olson announced that they should get going. As nervous as I was at the beginning of the day, I had actually enjoyed getting to meet Ricky’s family. they were all really nice and I think I made a pretty good impression on them. Ricky’s mum even gave me a hug before they left.
“It was so nice to meet you, Midnight,” Mrs. Olson told me after the quick hug. She gave a warm smile before fining Ricky what looked like a bone-crushing hug. After Rachel and Mr. Olson said their goodbyes, they all left.
“I told you they’d like you,” Ricky said as soon as the bus door was closed. He snaked his arms around my waist and gave me a small smile. I didn’t reply, I just pressed my lips against his; happy to have him all to myself again.