This Place Is Haunted, Possession by a Ghost

My friends are so fucking awesome they gave me a few dollars to give my mom, and I managed to pickpocket a few people, and all of it totaled up to thirty bucks. When I put my money into it, it turns into $105. I’m a bit less than halfway there! Then I’d still have to get the money for the video games I bought. I smile to myself as I enter the house.

“Ricky, I’m back!” I announce as I pull the money out of my pocket, smiling down at it. Ricky runs into the room happily. I’m surprised when he shoves green papers in my face.

“So I had a secret stash of money for emergencies in a box dug in the ground, so I dug it up and here!” Ricky says happily. “I can’t really spend it on anything anymore anyways.”

I take the money from him, smiling my thanks, and count what I now have. I have a tiny bit over what I need to replace everything, so it’s perfect. Suddenly, my arms are thrown around the shorter boy and pulling him into a tight hug, taking him by surprise.

“Wow, Ricks, you’re the best!” I mumble into his hair, secretly enjoying it’s scent. He smells really good for a dead person, I swear.

“Not really, but it’s really no problem,” he tells me as he lets himself get comfy in the embrace. We stay like that for a few seconds before I pull away and go back into the kitchen, putting the money back into Mom’s ugly ass cookie jar. Like dude, it’s so fucking ugly, I don’t wanna talk about how ugly it is.

“So are you not grounded anymore or?” Ricky asks from the doorway.

“Not yet, we gotta wait for my mom to come home,” I tell him as I leave the kitchen. “What do you wanna do?”

“I don’t know, what do you wanna do?” he shrugs.

“I don’t know, that’s why I asked you.”

“I don’t know either, so I asked you.”

I chuckle at him.

“You’re such a dork,” I tell him.

“Well, you’re the dork’s best friend,” he smiles as he wanders back into the living room. I smile. He thinks of me as his best friend.

Well, maybe it’s because he has only maybe two friends.

My smile falters slightly. He must really miss his friends. I follow Ricky into the living room, where he’s sitting on the couch, watching whatever he turned on TV. He doesn’t look very interested in it, whatever he’s watching. I plop down on the couch next to him, looking to the TV. I chuckle.

“Bubble Guppies?”

“If that’s what it’s called,” he answers. “Feel free to change it.”

“Netflix? We can watch American Horror Story,” I suggest, and he nods, a small smile on his face.

“Okay.”

<><><>

We only got in one episode before my phone rang, receiving a text from Nick.

“Who’s that?” Ricky asks, still totally into the show playing on Netflix.

“My friend Nick,” I answer him. He rips his gaze from the TV and puts it on me.

“I had a friend named Nick.”

I look to Ricky then, surprised. He seems as surprised as me, plus a bit of sadness. So he was friends with Nick? Is that why Nick looks so sad everytime he looks at my house? Maybe he was even friends with Ronnie and Craig and Johnny and Blue and Adriana. Then he speaks up again.

“Nick Matthews?”

“That’s him.”

“Can...can I talk to him?”

I nod and give him the phone, he reads the message. I kinda forgot to read and reply, huh?

“He said hey,” Ricky tells me.

“Tell him hey back. Talk to him. I’m sure he’d love to talk to you again,” I tell him with a smile, and he nods as he starts typing, eventually sending. I watch the conversation because why not?

me: Hey, it’s Ricky.

Nick: Not cool, Chris. Not cool at all.

I frown. I really didn’t think about this, huh? He probably thinks I’m fucking with him.

me: No seriously, it’s Ricky.

Nick: Who told you about Ricky anyway?

me: You don’t believe me, do you?

Nick: No. AND you’re pissing me off. A lot.

“I think I should stop,” Ricky tells me as he hands the phone back. “Thanks anyway, though.”

I shake my head. “You’ll get to talk to him again, I promise.”

“How?”

“I can always bring him over here, right?” I smile at him as I send Nick a text, telling him to come over. The text I receive isn’t positive, he tells me that he’s pissed at me and that seeing me right now isn’t gonna help it. “But not today, though.”

“Oh, alright,” Ricky says. I feel really bad, seeing him this sad makes me really sad too.

"What'll cheer you up?" I ask hopefully. He shrugs. “Wanna call Balz and the three of us can talk to him?”

“Sure, why not?” he replies, so I go to FaceTime and dial Balz’s number. He picks up after a bit.

“I’m in school, you’re lucky I’m skipping,” I hear Balz speak as I see his face appear on the screen.

Fucking time difference.

“Yeah, me and Ricky-”

“Woah, I finally get to meet Ricky?!” I hear Devin’s voice chirp excitedly as he snatches the phone from Balz, and his face appears instead.

“If he’ll talk to you,” I tell him.

“Who’s Ricky?” I hear Angelo’s voice ask next.

“Is that Chris?” Ryan’s voice then asks.

The whole gang’s there!

“W’sup, Ricky!” Devin cheers.

“Uh…” Ricky mumbles, very shy towards new people. I see Devin frown.

“He’s not talking to me?”

“Start a conversation, dumbass,” Balz suggests, and I roll my eyes. Typical.

“Oh. Well, my name’s Devin, but I like to go by Ghost sometimes, so call me whatever.”

Oops, forgot about that Ghost nickname. He came up with it, like, two days before I moved, don’t get mad!

“My name’s Richard, but I always go by Ricky.”

That’s new. Eh, I didn’t tell him my real name either, so...

“You sure did get lucky,” Devin- Ghost laughs, and Ricky raises an eyebrow. D-GHOST doesn’t see that because Ricky refuses to show his face to the camera.

“What do you mean?” Ricky asks, realizing what I just thought.

“Usually when people are named Richard, they get a nickname like Dick,”

“Dick and Balz,” we hear Ryan mutter, causing everyone else to chuckle, well, not Ricky.

“Please don’t call me ‘Dick’,” Ricky asks awkwardly.

“We’re not gonna call you that,” Ryan tells him, and Ricky nods.

“Ricky, they can’t see you, you know?” I remind him, and Ricky blushes a bit.

“Yeah, show your face! It’d be nice to know what our friend’s face looks like!” Angelo says. Ricky’s face lightens up at the idea of him having new friends. It’s really cute, actually.

Shit, he could eat shit and I’d find it cute.

Right?

Ew, I might be exaggerating a bit there…

Before Ricky can say no, I tilt the screen so I get his face in it too. Ricky’s eyes widen when he notices and ducks to cover his face.

“I saw you! You’re so cute!” Ghost awes, and I can see Ricky blush.

“I-I’m not!” Ricky protests, shaking his head.

“I see you blushing!”

Ricky tries to cover his face with his arms, and I laugh at him.

“What? You get to see him and we don’t?” Ryan complains.

“Yeah, I was the one who suggested he did!” Angelo adds.

“Quit your bitching, I screenshotted it!” Ghost cheers, earning a whine from my ghost friend.

The one sitting next to me, not the Scranton one.

Haha.

No?

Okay...