Ricky

The wind blew gently, slipping its way in between the overgrown grasses. The blades of grasses move in waves and birds chirping could be heard from a distance, as if harmonising with the gentle movements of the nature while embracing the dawn sun—its orange orb rose from the horizon.

Truly, it was a very beautiful scenery.

For most of people that is. Not for Ricky who woke up from his sleep feeling groggy, accompanied with head splitting severe hangover. He grunted—for a long time and despairingly—before sluggishly made his way through the hallway of his house to reach the kitchen. He was hoping that he could find something to drink—a water or anything—that could at least slightly disperse the insane amount of pain he felt starting from his forehead down to his nape, when he knew very well that he's not the type of person to buy groceries and all his exes never really know how to cook so there's barely any utensils in his kitchen.

Upon reaching the kitchen, his narrowing eyes—which sometimes twitched from the headache—gradually widened when he saw something on the kitchen counter.

On the counter, still steaming hot, was a bowl of hangover soup and a bowl of rice with a side of rolled eggs.

"What…?"

Although he was still suspicious of the phenomenon that he saw right in front of him, being unhinged due to his hangover, he slowly sat down in front of the dishes and looked around. His tummy grumbled simultaneously with his drooling mouth.

He wiped the drool, feeling more starved rather than feeling scared or disturbed by the dish. There’s a strong probability that a stalker might've been sneaking inside his house and cooked his meals, or he's simply just still hallucinating about eating a hearty breakfast when in reality, he's still sprawling on the side of the road, sleeping somewhere random outside his house. His eyes focused towards the steamy hangover soup in front of him.

It was a substance that he’d never seen before, a clear soup, with some dark greens floating above the surface. At a glance, it doesn’t look that delicious at all, but he could’ve sworn that soup fumed the most delicious smell he’d ever smell before, like the smell of the sea.

"Well..."

He looked around for one last time to see whether there was anyone other than him in this house, before mindlessly digging in.

Not far from where Ricky sat as he inhaled the food, at the upper cabinet, a pair of eyes watched him intently as he savoured the soup, while also letting out a delightful moan upon biting the fluffy rolled eggs.

As he finished his food, it grinned.

"Dude, did you take a bath or something?"

That was the first question being asked by Taylor to Ricky when they met at school in the morning.

"What are you talking about?" He raised an eyebrow. Even so, he smelled himself, abiding to his friend’s curiosity. Weird, he smelled like lavender. His mind suddenly recalled the last few hours at his house before he went to school.

After having breakfast—which he’s never done before after enrolling into university—weirdly enough, he had this strong urge to wash his face and brush his teeth, when he rarely even washed his face in the morning especially in cold seasons.

After washing his face, he ought to just wear something that was scattering on the floor of his bedroom when he suddenly heard his wardrobe rattle. Alarmed, he reached his pillow and brought it to his front as a protection. He slowly inched closer towards the wardrobe.

After just a few feet away from the wardrobe, he flung the door open to see a pair of hangers with his clothes on it, other than it being empty because he never folded his clothes. On one hanger, it was just some jeans that he usually wore and a piece of white t-shirt while on the other hanger is his brown leather coat. However, both of them smelled nice, as if they're washed.

Ricky inadvertently froze.

Then, like a normal human being, he freaked out, again mindlessly accepting the hospitality by grabbing the hangers and slammed the door shut. After that, he brought them to the living room and changed his clothes there before quickly leaving the house without locking the door.

"Hey, Rick, are you okay?"

Taylor snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Huh?” Ricky flinched, slowly coming back to reality. “What? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good..." He then ruffled his hair, which, smelled fragrant and felt light.

“By the way, did you finish writing the lecture notes from Madam Frost’s lecture? I kinda manage the beginning, but fall asleep in the middle of it.” Taylor spoke, while he fumbled in his locker to look for something. He managed to somehow pick out his note book from his messy locker, while also gaining a comment of “Dude, clean your locker.” From Ricky.

“You write the notes? Impressive. I doze off until the end of lecture.” Ricky replied. He then added, “But Madam Frost shared the slides in the group, so we can check it back anytime if we want.”

Taylor grumbled. “But the screen of my phone is too small to see the notes. I wrote it all down so I can see it clearer in bigger font. In this, trusted note book of mine.” Taylor said, as he proudly showcased his thick, obviously used frequently note book in his hands.

At the same time, Ricky took out his iPad from his backpack. Sensing that Taylor was silent all of a sudden, Ricky glanced at Taylor. He thought that Taylor was probably expecting a response from Ricky, so Ricky responded with a nonchalant “I see.”

Taylor let go of his notebook—which Ricky managed to catch with his hand— before he shook Ricky’s shoulders, voicing his annoyance by Ricky’s wealth in a form of action.

While Taylor continued on shaking Ricky, and Ricky following along Taylor’s whims and allowed himself to be shaken, Adam appeared in between them.

“Hey guys.” He said to them. He stopped for a moment to register what Ricky and Taylor were doing, before he resumed, unbothered by their almost usual shenanigans. "Anyway, you know about the pouch that we got from that new kid yesterday? It's a fake."

"What? All of them?" Ricky’s eyebrows furrowed. At that time, Taylor had released him from his grasp.

Adam nodded. "After we went to drink last night, me and Taylor went to the money exchanger to exchange money for the gold nuggets inside the pouch. But when we took out the nuggets, it turned into stone." He informed, while he took out the pouch. What’s inside is as intriguing as the outside look. A velvet pouch with golden string, with golden nuggets inside. At least, that’s what Ricky overheard from the scene. He didn’t take a look at what’s inside it and handed it to Adam to take care of it.

Ricky suddenly snickered. “So, you’re telling me that we got scammed by a new kid on his first day of the semester?”

Adam shrugged, before handing the pouch to Ricky. “Well, not exactly scammed. We weren’t exactly doing something good either, confiscating this thing from that kid. Who knows what he wants to do with this ‘magic’ pouch. Knowing that we also received karma for this doesn’t seem that bad in return.”

“Hmm…” Ricky simply noted. He fumbled the exterior of the pouch, while Adam opened his locker, which is located next to Taylor’s opened locker.

“Dude, clean your locker.” Adam commented as he took a peek at the locker, gaining a troubled grin from Taylor.

In that moment, Ricky opened the pouch and stuck his right hand inside. There was a rocky sensation touching his fingers, further convincing Adam’s claims. “I guess…” Ricky said, pulling one stone out from the bag. “We have to return-” He suddenly went still.

“Guys.” Ricky called, causing Adam—who was partially unearthing some of Taylor’s items from his locker—and Taylor—who tried to stop him—to halt in their motion.

Ricky moved his hand in front of their view, showing the object in his hand. It was big enough to fill his entire palm. “I may not be a stone connoisseur, but I myself knew that this is no normal stone.”

Taylor blinked his eyes, puzzled. While Adam, in return, dropped his jaw on the floor in shock.

“That’s…!”