Last midnight

Skeletons in closets

Time skip: after school

It was a quiet drive on the way to Ashlyn's house, the only sound that could be heard was the silent drops of rain pouring down the sky. It wasn't that bad however; it was quite relaxing to hear unlike the sounds of chatter.

It had been such a long day; Big Red was almost leaping with joy when he heard the final bell ring.

"Hey Big Red?" Ricky broke the overwhelming silence. "You think that something bad will happen?"

"Explain your point a bit more, isn't this bad enough?" He asked back, he really hoped that this was as bad as it would get. "I mean, having your house vandalised isn't exactly a good thing."

"I know that, but what if stuff start to escalate after the last midnight? Why even did they choose that timing exactly?"

Although Ricky only asked two simple questions, it felt like he had asked a billion of them, overwhelming Big Red more than he was already. He just sighed and turned up the radio, hoping to drown out the sounds of his stressful thoughts.

"Let's just listen to the radio, hopefully it will calm us down."

He could see Ricky shrug and look to the window, inviting himself into his daydreams once more.

As for Big Red, he looked ahead and focused once more on his driving.

~~~~

Location: Ashlyn's house

Her nails and hands were covered with a coat of saturated colours, none complimenting each other and just combined an array of disaster. Looking at the mess even made her eyes squint in stinging pain.

"Hey Ash, you good?" EJ called out to her as he continued to scrub the exterior, he was so determined to get this disgusting display off her house that he didn't take a break. She didn't even know if she should be impressed or worried about that.

"Yeah, just taking a break until everyone gets here."

She was so grateful that her friends were coming to help, as her parents and EJ's couldn't make it since they were held up at work. She understood however, her parents did have to keep a company at bay, and hearing this incident and the treat would surely send them into panic.

Cash and Sylvia on the other hand? They were both busy lawyers, they didn't even come home until late at night. Taking a break to scrub off graffiti would surely get them bad looks by upper management.

"You think Carlos will be alright?" They had heard the news about Carlos from Ricky, it hurt their hearts as he was never prone to just randomly fainting like that. That was why Ashlyn thought it was suspicious, but EJ told her it was probably just skipping breakfast.

Did she trust that conclusion? Not one bit, but there was no time for meddling the poor boy, as there was graffiti to be cleaned up.

"I think so, he is very strong."

"Good point, but Ricky also mentioned something about Seb."

"Seb?" This intrigued her, what was up with her other friend?

"Yeah, he said that Seb looked quite upset. He didn't speak one bit at lunch, just kept quiet and read some blue book."

"Interesting."

Before they could delve further into the issue, a car pulled up in the driveway. A red minivan that was overloaded on bumper sticker, inside was a skater rat and ginger boy.

"Biggie! Ricky!" She called out as they stepped out, Big Red immediately tackled her into a hug and kiss, while Ricky did the same for EJ.

"Hey Ash!" Big Red greeted as he cupped her face into his hands. "You alright? I see you definitely got home safe!"