Ricki wasn't sure how long he stared at the ceiling. A tap at his window jolted Ricki out of his bed. The only bonus of living on the tenth floor of an apartment building was the fire escape right outside his window. He clambered out of his bed and stumbled over to the window. His head still ached from making contact with the wall earlier. It was possible that Ricki had hallucinated and that Black Mask indeed did not exist. 

Another tap at the window came. Ricki pulled open the curtains and saw Ezra grinning at him from behind the glass. Ricki opened the window and a gust of cool air entered his room. 

"Hey, Richard!" Ezra stage-whispered. Ricki rolled his eyes and grabbed Ezra's arm. 

"My name is not Richard, for the millionth time, Ezran." When the two had first met in the sixth grade, the teacher was going down a roll call list and pointing to the assigned seats. 

"Lily Abercrombie. Right there on the left. Jonas Abbot. Right next to her." The teacher looked up from the top of her glasses and scanned the sheet. "Alright. Ricki Borrolo. Ricki? Short for Richard?"

Ricki panicked at being called out. "Uh, yes? Maybe. No, sorry, I meant no." The class laughed and the teacher raised her eyebrow skeptically. 

"Okay, then Yes-No-Maybe-Ricki, right there behind Jonas. Ezran Bueller?" Ricki had found that name hilarious. He giggled as Ezra sat next to him. 

"Shut up, Richard! I'm Ezra." 

"I'm Ricki! Not Richard." Ricki glared at this bold newcomer. 

"Whatever, Richard." Ezra snickered and faced the front. 

"Your mom," Ricki mumbled. He wasn't proud of that comeback, but he didn't know what else to say. 

"That doesn't even make sense, dumbo!" 

"Richard! Ezran! Silence, please!" They both shut up immediately. 

"Your mom, dumbo," Ezra whispered.

Ricki didn't realize he was still holding Ezra's arm when he was inside. He jumped when Ezra cleared his throat and let go quickly. Ezra snickered and sat down on Ricki's bed. Sneaking into Ricki's bedroom was something that happened all of the time. 

Ricki sat quietly and stared off into space. He only realized where he was when Ezra knocked his forehead with his knuckles. "Hello? Anyone home? What's up?" 

"Sorry. A lot has happened today. Can I ask you something important?" Ezra sat up straight and paled. He fidgeted with his hands and cleared his throat. Ricki frowned at this strange reaction. 

"Sure thing, Ricki. What is it?" 

"Can someone hallucinate after hitting their head hard?" Ezra froze and then doubled over with laughter. He fell off the bed and rolled around, tears streaming down his face. 

"O-oh, my gosh. I actually thought-" he snorted "-that you were going to ask something serious!" Ricki laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Y-yeah. Ha." Ezra stopped laughing abruptly and stared at him. 

"Oh. Oh. You're being for real. Are you okay?" Ezra stood and ruffled Ricki's hair. Ezra touched the spot where Ricki had smashed into the bricks and he sucked in his breath violently. The contact hurt much more than it should have. It brought tears to Ricki's eyes. Ezra pulled back and looked at him with concern.

"Shoot, dude. Are you okay?" 

Ricki felt awkward as Ezra scanned him. He couldn't possibly tell him what had happened because there was no way he would believe it. Ricki could hardly believe it himself. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just fell earlier and was thinking about it. Nothing serious, you know? I mean, I was wondering if someone could hallucinate because that would be interesting to know on the off chance I get on Jeopardy! one day." Ricki babbled. Ezra furrowed his eyebrows. Ricki noticed the way his left eye twitched. 

"Right. Sure." A silence fell between them. "So, how was work today?" 

Ricki freaked out and stuttered. "Uh. Uh, it w-was f-fine. Yeah. For sure." Why did he have to be so terrible at lying? "There was like, this really wacky customer today. Yeah. And she was like 'Why is your finance section so small?' And I was like-" 

"Dude, Ricki. It's fine." Ezra got up onto his bed again and smiled at him. His eyes were wary. His lips were pulled too tight at the edges. Ricki felt uneasy, an emotion totally foreign when it came to Ezra. "Anyway, are you sure you're fine? You hit your head pretty hard on that wall." 

Ricki's eyes widened as he sat up straight. How did Ezra know?