Back To You | Ricky Garcia

Chapter Five

Ricky's POV

5 hours, 4 pizzas, and 2 movies later, Charlene, Jon, Evan, Francesca, and I were contemplating what to do next. Charlene shot her arm up, and waved her hand in the air. I nodded my head in her direction, and all eyes were on her.

"Let's watch another mo-" she started to say. She's obsessed with romance movies, and I, on the other hand, am slowly dying because I've heard too many sniffles and screams of "Relationship Goals!" whenever Leonardo DiCaprio appeared on the TV screen.

"No! No more chick flicks!" All us boys screamed. I think we were all on the same page. The two girls huffed, and put on a sad face. Charlene shot me a death glare, and I just smiled happily at her. Then, an idea hit me.

"How about we all play Hide and Seek?" I suggested.

"Like we did when we were 10?" Jon laughed. "We're 17 now, bro. I think it's a little too "elementary school."

"You didn't let me finish" I stuck my tongue out on him. Okay, so maybe I still am a 10 year old. Who said we had to grow up so fast?

"Instead of just tapping each other out when we're found, we'll hit them with Nerf guns. I'm pretty sure we have a bunch in the closet upstairs. Oh, and we also play it in the dark, so it would be harder. " I said. This was going to be fun.

They all agreed, smirking. We ran upstairs and opened the closet. Inside were exactly 5 Nerf guns. We each grabbed one and got ready to play.

"I'll seek first. I'll give you guys 5 minutes to hide. It better be good!" Jon volunteered.

We all nodded and ran off to our hiding places.

Charlene's POV

I tried to think of where to hide. It had to be sneaky, somewhere no one would ever think of me going. I got it.

Ricky's Bedroom.

No one could possibly think of me entering the dungeon of the guy I despised. I walked over to what I remembered was his bedroom. I haven't been in there ever since we were playing 20 questions (more like 100 questions) on his floor until 3 in the morning when we were 13. We got in so much trouble that night because we kept laughing so hard that his parents couldn't sleep. I giggle escaped my lips as I reminisced.

I twisted the door knob, and quietly entered the room. I made sure to close the door silently, so that Jon wouldn't hear the door and suspect something. I looked around the taupe colored walls, and the shelves filled with football trophies, and some singing awards as well. Ricky was multi-talented. Yea, most people recognized him as the Jock, and he was definitely a great athlete, but he was much more than that. People didn't know he could sing like angel. When we were together, he used to write songs as a hobby. He absolutely loved it. I guess it was his way of expressing how he felt.

I don't know if he still wrote songs, but I hope he did, because if there was anything that made him happy, it was music. I used to see this twinkle in his eye whenever he sang, and he looked like he didn't have a worry in the world. Something inside of me told me that behind the popular, athletic Ricky, the old him was still there.

If there was one thing that I wish he would have kept from the old Ricky, my Ricky, it would be his passion for music. That was when he was truly himself.

"5 minutes is up! You better be ready! The lights are closing in 3,2,1!" All the lights flickered. I was silently panicking, because I spent all this time thinking about the boy who lived in this room. I turned on the flashlight on my phone, and dimmed the light so only I would see it.

I crawled under his bed, and hid in the very edge on it, so I was pressed to the wall. I felt dust all over me, and a bunch of his random things under me.

Damn, Ricky, don't you ever clean under here?

I used my flashlight to see if anyone was coming. I looked around me, and saw that I was lying next to a book. I grabbed it, and examined the cover. It was made out of leather, and the only thing on the cover was a little carving on the bottom corner.

CJ + RG

I opened the book, and a small photo came out. I stuffed it in my back pocket. Whatever it was, I could probably use it against him as revenge.

I heard the door click, and I quickly shut down my phone, and rested the book behind me. I stayed as still as I could, and held my breathe. Please don't find me, Please don't find me.

I heard scurrying, and suddenly I felt a large mass lying next me. I gasped and felt a large hand on my mouth. I grabbed my Nerf gun and shot below me, for defense. I took a deep breathe, and I smelled a familiar scent. The large hand left my mouth, and started to groan in pain.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I just got scared!" I whispered, feeling out for whoever I just hurt.

"Out of all the places you could aim for, it had to be there." The voice winced.

"Ricky?" I whispered, so that only he could hear. I suddenly didn't feel as guilty.

"Charlene? What are you doing under my bed? Are you hiding here?" he whispered back to me.

"No, i'm just casually rolling on the millions of dust bunnies under your bed. No duh, i'm hiding." I whispered, still noting the sarcasm in my voice. He chuckled, and I felt his minty breath fanning my face.

"I came over here to escape from Jon. He was so close to finding me behind the curtain, so when he passed by, I ran straight over here. I guess great minds think alike." He said, feeling accomplished that his plan worked.

"Yeah, sure. You and that great mind of yours." I giggled. "Have the others been caught yet?"

"Yea, they both just got caught a few minutes ago. Jon shot both of them in the butt. We don't have much time unt-" Ricky put one hand over my mouth again, and wrapped his other arm around my waist.

"Where are they? We checked the whole house! They have to be in here." Jon exclaimed with defeat in his voice. Ricky pulled me closer to him, and I laid my head on his chest. I felt my cheeks heating up and my face reddening like a tomato. I have to admit, even though I strongly disliked him, being in his arms almost made me weak at the knees. It's a good thing I was lying down and it was dark.

"Get the Nerf gun ready because they're right... here!" I heard Jon screaming, and a loud slam on the closet door.

"This idiot." Ricky laughed. I grabbed his face, and slapped it lightly, so he would shut up. We were doing so well, and he wasn't about to ruin it for the both of us.

The bed skirt that concealed us was suddenly lifted up, and Ricky was shot in the back with the foam bullet.

"Ow, ow, it hurts so much, Charlene, kiss me so I could be healed!" he yelled into my face.

I smacked his arm and slid the both of us out from under the bed.

"I would've just left you to die, you know?" I said with a smirk on my face. He pouted, and pretended to be offended. I looked up to see three smirking faces staring down at Ricky and I.

"So... you two were under the bed... together... in the dark." Francesca laughed.

"It was simply a coincidence that we both thought of the same hiding spot. Nothing else." I reassured them. A very cuddly coincidence.

"What did you just say?" Evan asked, a huge grin forming on his face. Oh no, did I just say that out loud?

"Nothing, she said nothing." Ricky said quickly, throwing me a wink as his eyes passed mine.

"Yea... okay. " Jon smirked, mocking us. Both Ricky and I had our heads down, two major blushes rising on our cheeks.

That was definitely not "nothing".