Chapter 2 - Same Old Rick

Rick checked his phone again. Still no reply.

Not one word in five days.

He was chewing on his fingernails, foot tapping the floor. Had he done something wrong? Was Taylor avoiding him?

The last time they’d spoken, Rick had finally confessed his feelings for her. He had also given her a golden locket. It wasn’t exactly his first choice, but nothing about that day had gone according to plan.

Rick had, in fact, been kidnapped by the Explorer’s Guild. Had also been interrogated, shot at, and blown up, to say the least. All of that before going to see Taylor.

“I was such a mess…” he groaned, slumping even deeper into despair. His hair had been messy, his clothes all torn, and somehow, he’d thought it a good idea to go talk to his crush. Great job, Rick.

Maybe Taylor had changed her mind. Maybe she had kissed him on the cheek and said she liked him back, but then woke up the next morning and decided otherwise. It was a crazy thought, of course it was crazy, but Rick couldn’t stop thinking it.

Taylor wasn’t well known for being the best communicator. She didn’t have any friends outside of Rick, and even then, most of the time they spent together was in school, or at her dad’s garage. Spending time with Taylor was time spent in her hyper focused world, and talking wasn’t a big part of it.

Rick didn’t want to be overbearing, or seem obsessive, even though the way he was checking his phone was most definitely obsessive. It had been five days though. It wasn’t just that she didn’t respond to his messages, though. Taylor had skipped school for a couple of days, and even when she was at school, she would go out of her way to avoid him.

Something about it felt off. It felt wrong, but Rick couldn’t put his finger on it. Even Vivien had seemed excited when he told her the story. Well, some of the story. He’d forgotten to mention the part about Jim Bones and his skeleton mafia.

Speaking of Vivien… Rick blinked himself out of his thoughts and looked around the coffee shop. He was so scatterbrained that he wasn’t even keeping an eye on his little sister. She’d probably gotten lost, kidnapped, or worse…

“Why do you look so panicked?” Vivien asked, sitting down in the booth opposite him. “I just wanted some more whipped cream.”

“Sorry,” Rick mumbled, slumping lower into his seat. So much for being the responsible big brother. If it wasn’t for Vivien, the O’Brien household would barely function.

“You’ve been in a real slump, you know.” Vivien brushed her hair behind her ear, hearing aid just visible. “Which, isn’t unusual, but this feels a little worse than normal.”

“I just,” Rick groaned and rubbed at his eyes. “You know after talking to Taylor, I thought that maybe I’d changed, you know? Like maybe I could be brave, and I could… I dunno I thought I could do things. Now I’m back to being me, and somehow, I’ve messed everything up. Taylor hasn’t talked to me since…”

“Would you like to tell me about it?” Viv casually sipped at her drink.

“You’re eleven, you’ve never dated anyone.” Rick turned his head away and looked out the wide cafe windows into the bustling streets.

“Oh, come on,” she leaned back and crossed her arms. “Neither have you, plus you don’t have any other friends. So that makes me the best you got.”

“You… are brutal.” Rick winced.

“Just honest,” she shrugged.

“I don’t…” He struggled for the words. He always did when it came to Taylor. “I just don’t understand her.”

“That does seem to be the common consensus among boys,” Vivian said. “Boys never understand girls.”

“No, it’s not like that,” he objected, then hesitated. “Well, at least I don’t think it is. We talked you know, I did tell you about that right?”

Vivian smiled, rolled her eyes and made a circular motion with her hands. It was sign language for: Over and over again.

“Gave her a medallion or something,” she said absentmindedly glancing out the window. “Trust me, I remember.”

“It was a locket,” he corrected pointedly, “had a little crystal in it too, but the point is I told her I liked her, and wanted to spend more time with her, and she kissed me on the cheek.”

“That’s a clear signal,” Viv agreed.

“Exactly,” Rick continued, “but something’s going on. She won’t respond to any of my messages, and I haven’t been able to talk to her at school or anything. It’s like she’s actively trying to avoid me.”

“Hm…” Viv sat back, pondering. 

“That is a doozy, isn’t it?” She pulled out her phone and checked the time.

“Gotta go?” Rick asked, noticing the expression on her face.

“Yeah,” she nodded and began scooting out of the booth. “But keep me updated, alright?”

“Yeah, sure. Thank you.” Rick said. “Need me to go with you?”

“Oh, no,” Viv answered, “my friends are just…” she gestured around the corner.

“Okay,” he touched his lips and gave her a small salute. She repeated the gesture, and made her way out of the cafe.

Now it was just Rick again. All alone with his thoughts. He swirled the tiny straw in his coffee, watching the steam twist and swirl up from the cup.

“Stupid,” he muttered under his breath. He had known better. He was probably being too clingy or something. Taylor wasn’t close to many people, and he’d tried to get too close, too fast. Even so, he checked his phone again.

No reply.

As Rick sat staring into the steam from his coffee, he suddenly found himself looking back over his shoulder. At the smoke twisting and swirling from the helicopter crash. He found himself hiding beside a vending machine and all he could hear was the deafening grinding of bullets tearing into a building.

He jolted back to reality, his breathing quickened, a small bead of sweat forming on his temple. It wasn’t a machine gun, someone had dropped a metal spoon.

Maybe he’d been on edge a little bit more than usual. Every time he turned a corner, he expected the Explorer’s Guild to be there waiting on him with a pair of handcuffs. After all, they had his file. Knew everything about him. That was the part of the story he hadn’t told Vivian, or Taylor, for that matter. He himself could hardly believe it was real.

If it wasn’t for the fading cuts and bruises, and the spot on his cheek where Taylor kissed him, he might have thought it was a dream. The whole thing was… ridiculous. 

There was a skeleton guy, with a helicopter, and then Rick was sliding down a building with a vending machine.

He looked out the window at the busy street. Maybe that’s how he moved on, he let it all be the dream that it was. After all, why couldn’t it be a dream? It was over, done, never happening again.

But there was something about that dream. Something Rick couldn’t quite shake. He’d almost died a thousand times, but there was something about that chaos. About the heat of the moment, that made his mind clear. For just a single life-threatening moment Rick had a moment of clarity. For a moment he wasn’t scared or nervous, well… he was. He was absolutely terrified in those moments, but it was about doing. It was about stopping all thought and simply acting. One foot in front of the other.

He really thought he had changed. Maybe he hadn’t, but he’d gotten a glimpse of what could be.

“This sucks.” He said again to himself. His coffee was starting to cool, and while he didn’t have a lot on his To-Do List, he didn’t figure he could sit there in the coffee shop all day. He grabbed his stuff and stood up to leave when his eyes caught a glimpse of the TV in the corner.

It was on the news channel, muted, with the subtitles rolling down the screen just like always. Only this time, the reporter was talking quite quickly, some of the words hard to catch as they flashed by.

“Sorry to interrupt the news but we have been notified by local law enforcement that there is a high-speed police chase currently taking place, we have a news chopper on the scene filming as we speak, take a look.” The camera cut from the newswoman, and the screen was filled with an overhead view of Old York, in the streets below there was a convoy of red and blue flashing lights, chasing after what appeared to be a yellow taxi.

“What in the world…?”

Rick breathed as he watched the muted footage, whoever was driving the taxi had to be absolutely insane. Not only was it going at mach speeds down a crowded highway in the middle of Old York, but it was also flying at those mach speeds through oncoming traffic.

However, as the taxi sped by, Rick noticed there was something on top of it, no… There was someone on top of it. The taxi swerved towards an exit across three lanes of oncoming traffic, leaving in its wake two black tire lines. The person held tight to the small white box atop the yellow car, the lower half of their body slinging off the roof of the car.

The taxi jolted forward in a burst of speed, leaving the remaining cop cars struggling to catch up as they navigated past traffic. In a flash of yellow, it disappeared under a large bridge, the chopper attempted to readjust and find a good camera angle, but by that time it was gone. Just another yellow taxi in a city filled with them.

“It seems they’ve lost the culprit,” the news lady picked up, “we’ll use our chopper to see if we can find them, more on this after the break.” The channel cut to commercials, and Rick was left staring at the screen.

He checked his phone once again, and decided he might as well go ahead to school, so he finished off his coffee and left the shop.

It was a busy morning in Old York, the start of a new week. People were hustling back and forth to work. Kids were traveling in their little groups to school, some of them Rick recognized from his own. Others made their way to the docks, where they could board the morning ferry and travel to another island, some for work, others for vacation.

It was a beautiful day that summed up the daily life of the city. Cars were honking and stuck in traffic. The brightly colored banners were held high above the streets, like a rainbow of fabric against the backdrop of the sky.

It was a comforting sight for Rick, one that almost helped pull him out of his nervous thoughts completely until he found himself passing by a taxi.

A taxi that was scratched up on either side and a person still laying atop it. A person that Rick unfortunately knew. The boy looked up, groaning slightly. Rick pretended not to notice, and kept on walking.

“Oh, Rick, is that you? Hey, how’s it going?” Asked David Echoe, sliding off the top of the taxi with a squeak. He went to the passenger side door and opened it, and there, holding a small box of donuts, was a familiar Gormaden.

“Hiya Rick!” Dustbunny squeaked. David shuffled around in his pockets, and finally pulled out a blue salt ingot, which he tossed to the driver.

“Well, I was fine…” He answered, turning around. He glanced at the taxi, and what appeared to be various bullet holes peppering the metal. “But now I don’t know.” 

Rick looked David up and down. Despite hanging atop a taxi in the middle of a high-speed police chase, he seemed unharmed except for a few cuts, bruises, and a little dirt on his “iconic” hoodie. “What was all of that about?” he asked, gesturing toward the taxi.

“Well, you see, what had happened was…” David started and then trailed off, he reached behind his back and pulled his hoodie over his head, revealing a simple cobalt blue t-shirt underneath. “My favorite donut place was down for some maintenance, and so I went to the next best place.”

“The donut store across the street?”

“The police station,” Dustbunny grinned, and held up the small cardboard box with pride. “Behold, our spoils.”

“Hey David…” Rick rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but you’re actually kind of insane.”

“What can I say?” David shrugged it off and opened up the box Dust was holding. “There’s only one chocolate glazed, who gets it?”

“You can have it,” Dustbunny said, “I want the cream filled.”

“You know…” David grabbed the chocolate glazed donut and took a big bite. “Can’t say I’ve ever been the hugest fan of cream filled donuts. What about you Rick?”

He licked his fingers. “You a cream filled donut guy?”

“I mean, I don’t know, I guess.” Rick shook his head confused.

“Personally,” Dustbunny said, he’d already swallowed a donut whole. There was frosting and sprinkles stuck to his fur. “I have to be in the mood for it, but when I am it really hits the spot.”

“Can I just- can we just time out for a second?” Rick didn’t mean for his voice to come out that loud, or that exasperated. Both Dust and David paused mid-bite and looked at him. “I haven’t seen you guys for a solid week. Like, you were gone, and I never thought I’d see you again.”

“Tadah,” Dustbunny grinned. “You’ve seen us again.”

“And you’re acting like it was nothing,” Rick inhaled through his nose, he needed to calm down. Why was he feeling so angry? “You just disappear and come back and pretend like everything is okay and normal and fine.”

“Is it not?” David raised an eyebrow. “Have the Explorer’s been giving you any problems?”

“No, actually. They haven’t.” He admitted.

“Sweet,” David said. “Are you sure you don’t wanna donut? You’re looking a little…”

“A little uptight,” Dustbunny supplied.

“Yeah, uptight, that’s what I was thinking.” David propped himself up against a light pole and crossed his arms. “What’s going on dude? We are world famous adventurers, whatever is going on, I have no doubt that we can help.”

“You’re our friend,” Dustbunny smiled, his raspy little voice sounding genuine. It made Rick deflate a little, his shoulders slumping. He sighed again and lowered his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I just, I don’t know, I thought things would get better, I thought that I was better, but I’m not. I’m more scared than ever.”

“Hm...” David pressed a thumb to his lips. “This isn’t really about what happened at the Explorers Headquarters is it?”

“No,” Rick swallowed. “No, it’s about Taylor. I saw her that night, and I--”

“Did you give her the locket?” 

David asked, leaning forward, eyes narrowed. “What happened? Did she say anything?”

“Yeah, no, she sorta liked it,” Rick ran a hand through his hair. “She appreciated the effort. We both admitted that we liked each other. I thought things were good, it’s been a week since and I haven’t heard anything from her. I’ve sent texts, gone by the garage, but I haven’t been able to find her. Hasn’t even been coming to school.”

“And…” he continued with yet another sigh. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”

“Because we’re buddies, that’s why,” David answered.

“Are we buddies?” Rick frowned. “Because I don’t think we’re buds, or friends, or whatever. You got me kidnapped, shot at, almost blown up, and…” Rick pinched his fingers together. “This close to being turned into a smoothie by helicopter blades.”

David’s smile faded just a bit, and he glanced away. “Yeah… sorry about that. But I guess now you’ve got a good story to tell.”

“Yeah, but it’s a story I haven’t been able to tell,” Rick grumbled, “because Taylor hasn’t talked to me since I gave her that necklace of yours. Nothing I’ve done with you has been good.”

“Okay, okay,” David said, fishing a hand down into his pocket. “Look, I’m glad I ran into you because I want to make things right. I screwed everything up, so why don’t you give me a chance to make it right?”

“Does it involve nearly dying?” Rick asked, “because if it does then let me stop you right there, I don’t want it.”

“No, no dying at all, promise,” David answered, he offered Rick a small envelope, and he reluctantly took it. “I managed to get ahold of a few tickets to tonight’s gala at the big fancy museum uptown.”

“David, I’m not really one for fancy galas,” Rick started to say.

“You got two tickets,” David said, raising his eyebrows in a not-so-subtle way.

“Oh,” Rick said, finally understanding.

“You don’t have to use them,” David continued. “Go, don’t go, I don’t care. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to take Tiffany on the best date of the year.”

“Her name is Taylor, but thank you,” Rick said. He felt bad, even if it had turned out terrible last time, David and Dustbunny didn’t seem bad. They were nice to him, and outside of Taylor they were the closest thing he had to friends.

“Just think about it,” Dustbunny said holding up his hands, painting the picture in the air. “A beautiful museum campus, manicured lawn, marble pillars, rich people as far as the eye can see, and even better? Tables, and tables of food, but not just any food, fancy food.”

“That does sound enticing,” Rick admitted, “I just don’t really think that’s Taylor’s scene.”

“Sometimes getting out of the comfort zone is good for you,” David shrugged, “and all you gotta do is ask. I’m sure she’ll love it, not because she’s a museum person, but because she’s a Rick person.”

Rick opened his mouth to object, but it made sense. Rick had never spent any time in or at a garage, but he was more than happy to be there, just because Taylor was there. And maybe trying 

something new would be good. 

Maybe.

“You know, David,” Rick had to hand it to him. “You do try, I’ll give you that.”

David and Dust gave each other a fist bump. Rick gripped the envelope tight. Who knew where David had gotten the tickets from. He had to admit though, the tickets gave him a good reason to go to Taylor and talk to her. If she wanted to go, great, it was a date. If she didn’t, well, then maybe it would be a way to find out why she’d been so distant.

“I’m gonna ask her,” Rick said, narrowing his eyes at David and pointing a figure. “But break me, if you drag me on some ridiculous adventure, I am actually going to…” He trailed off as the loud sound of a helicopter overhead made him flinch.

David glanced up, grabbed Dustbunny by the ear and yanked him into the shadow of an alleyway, crouching next to the trash can.

“I’ll try not to start anything,” David said with a grin. “I promise.”