Moonrise.

I’m sitting on my hotel bed, ordering tattoo supplies and listening to Peyton Parrish, when the door opens up. I look up and let out a chuckle when I see Ricky walking through the door. “Why do I have a feeling Spencer managed to put us in the same room?”

Ricky just laughs before tossing his bag onto the second bed. He then looks up and shoots me a look. “Is this a cover of Sweet Victory from Spongebob?”

“Yes, yes it is.” I laugh before going back to ordering supplies. “Peyton Parrish is amazing like that.” I say as the song ends and goes into playing, a Mumford and Sons song.

“For someone that’s best friends with Spencer, you really don’t listen to much of Ice Nine Kills.” Ricky notes before sitting on the edge of my bed. “I mean you’re currently working for the band and I don’t think I ever heard you listen to us.”

I look up at him, giving him my full attention. “Just because I love you guys, doesn’t mean I love your music.” I chuckle.

“You have an Ice Nine Kills tattoo.” He states, pointing to my IX tattoo on my left wrist.

I let out a chuckle. “Ironically enough, that’s not my Ice Nine Kills tattoo.” He gives me a weird look and I show him my XIII tattoo on my right wrist. “The IX is the number assigned to The Hermit card in tarot. The Hermit card is the tarot card for Virgos and it’s a card I’m constantly drawn to. The XIII is for the Death card, which is the card for Scorpios; which is meant to be for Spencer.”

“That’s actually kinda cute.” He admits with a chuckle. “It’s a good thing you guys are best friends because those tattoos wouldn’t be as cute.”

“I kept it vague for that reason.” I laugh.

“So what is your Ice Nine Kills tattoo?” He asks. I get out of the bed and stand before him, pulling up my shirt enough to show him the tattoo on my ribs. I have You drown in your true colors and just the truth remains - All you are is a masquerade tattooed in a nice cursive font. “When did you get this? I’ve seen you in bikinis and have never noticed this tattoo.”

“Last year.” I reply, pulling my shirt down. “My apprentice needed to work on his line work so what better way than to tattoo your boss.”

“It must be wild owning your own tattoo studio.” Ricky smiles, before taking my hands in his pulling me down to his lap. “I remember you doing tattoos while on Warped. I think watching you tattoo random rockstars is what really started my crush on you.” He admits laughing. “Watching you so focused was really attractive. Almost like when you're taking pictures; you get so zoned in and forget about the rest of the world.”

I lean in and kiss his cheek. “So Mr. Armellino, we have a day off today. What did you have planned for our long awaited date?”

“So I did my research of the area and there are a few antique shops in town that we can hit up.” He replies. I look at him in complete awe. “What? Did I do something wrong?”

“You remember I love going antique shopping.” I can’t help the smile that’s dancing across my lips. “I told you that years ago. I don’t even think Spencer remembers that. I’m impressed.”

“It was either that or we hit up a bunch of Metaphysical shops and since you own one, I figured we can forgo that.” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. I wrap my arms around him in a hug before getting off his lap. “I did good?”

“You did amazing.” I tell him, leaning down to give him a kiss on his lips. “I’m going to go take a shower, after that I’m always yours.”

**

Ricky’s POV

“What made you like antique shopping?” I ask Helena as we browse the shop hand in hand. “The metaphysical stuff I can see, you grew up around Salem.”

“All my favorite memories involving my grandmother center around us walking the streets of Salem going to every antique shoppe as well as every metaphysical shoppe. She was the one that bought me my first cauldron as well as my first tarot deck. My dad bitched at her because what 10 year old needs a cauldron and tarot deck? He never believed in that stuff. He actually banned all of that from the house for the longest time. Mom finally convinced him it wasn’t evil. And at the age of 14, I fully considered myself a Norse Pagan but by 18 I just identified as Pagan.”

“I’ve got so many questions.” I chuckle. “But that’s for another time. Religion isn’t a great conversation for the first date.”

“True,” she chuckles. “So I have a question. How did you remember this? I told you years ago.”

“I’ve had a crush on you for years,” I remind her. “I knew it was important to you so I remembered it. Believe it or not, guys do listen and remember things. We may not seem like we do, but it does happen from time to time.” She gives me a melodic laugh just as her phone starts going off. With her free hand, she pulls her phone from her back pocket and groans when she sees someone is trying to Facetime her.

She answers it, “what the fuck do you want Spencer?” She angles her phone to show both of us. Both of us have clearly annoyed looks on our faces.”

“Where are you guys?” He whines. “I went to your room and you guys weren’t there.”

“It’s date night.” She informs him, as if it was the most obviously thing ever. And the looks of realization washes over this face.

“Oh, fuck. I’m so sorry.” He immediately apologizes. “I’ll let you get back to that.” He quickly hangs up, causing us to both laugh.

“I can understand why your other boyfriends hated him.” I tell Helena.

“I never blamed them for hating Spencer, I’ll admit. He definitely doesn’t know boundaries sometimes.”

“Was he always like this?”

“God, no. At one point we did hate each other.” She replies. “It wasn’t until I was 16 that we started to get along.”

“What changed, if you dont mind me asking?”

“I went from being the girl he had to protect to the girl that can handle her own.” She smiles. “He watched me take down a guy twice my size after he groped me.” She chuckles. “He didn’t mind me tagging along after that.”

“And the rest is history?”

“Exactly.” She smiles. “Come on, we’ve got a couple more shops to hit. I rather do that than talk about Spencer. He has a big enough ego.”

**

After hitting a few antique shops, we ended up going to a metaphysical one. The moment we walked it, the smell of patchouli hit my nostrils. I make a face causing Helena to laugh.

“What?”

“Not a fan of patchouli?” She questions me. “You do know I burn this a lot in my own home, right?”

“And it’s never this overwhelming.” I counter her. “I don’t know what’s different.” She nods her head before she goes over to look at the necklaces. Her eyes instantly see a rose quartz necklace. The stone was shaped into a moon and had wiring wrapped around it like a tree. Her eyes sparkle when she looks at it. But despite her reaction, she puts it down and moves on. Smiling to myself, I grab the necklace and move on to look at the rest of the store. If she’s not gonna buy it for herself, I’ll happily do it.

“So what is with girls and rocks?” I ask Helena. She stops looking at the impressive sized stone in front of her.

“Because they can become projectile weapons.” She smirks, acting as if she’s gonna throw the stone she has in her hands at me.

“You wouldn’t do that to me.” I confidently tell her. She smiles as she puts down her weapon.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t.” She walks over and places a kiss on my cheek. “I would hurt Spencer though. It amazing I haven’t maimed him yet.”

“A woman with self control, that’s hot.” I smirk at her. She playfully pushes me away before going off to look at tarot decks. While she’s distracted, I go up to the cashier to pay for the necklace.

“This for the girl you’re with?” The older lady asks, smiling. I just nod my head. “She’s gonna love this. Have you been together long?”

“This is our first date actually.” I tell her, smiling. “We’ve known each other for a while, though. This was a long time coming, for sure.”

“I have a feeling it’s gonna last awhile. Your energies balance each other out.” I just smile as she rings me up and I pay her before heading back to Helena.

“Find anything interesting, Hells?” I ask her, shoving the bag into my coat pocket before she notices.

“Nothing I don’t sell myself.” She says, looking at a demonology tarot deck.

“Did you bring a tarot deck with you?” I ask her, causing the brunette to lift her head to look at me. “How about we grab something to eat and you can do a reading on me.”

The biggest smile appears on her lips. I’m assuming no other boyfriend has ever said this to her. “Yea, let’s get out of here.” She grabs my hand and all but drags me out of the store and we begin our journey back to the hotel room.