Gen Two- Chapter Twenty Five

Stretching out my legs in front of me, I tried not to move much otherwise. A hearty lunch stuffed my stomach fuller than it should have been. It was Tuesday- one of my days off. Normally that meant I watched Riny for longer than normal, I went to see a movie by myself, or I visited mom as everyone else was either at school or work. I can't express how thrilled I was to hear Malachite was on vacation and that he was down for entertaining me at his place. I didn't require that much to keep me satisfied anyway. Simply being somewhere different was good enough for me. Heck, I think Malachite had forgotten I was there. It was that or he either didn't care in the slightest that I could see all the stupid faces he was unknowingly making as he got involved in the television show he was watching.

When my body felt like it could handle all the extra weight I forced upon it through our meal, I took to my feet and wandered over to the fireplace. Comfortable silence passed throughout the room as Malachite remained engaged in his show. Then it concluded several minutes later, and the air wasn't quiet so comfortable.

     "So, what's interesting that's been going on with you?" Malachite asked after turning down the volume of the television.

     "Huh?"

I kept my eyes on the fire as I could see from the corner of my eye Malachite giving me quite the stare at my comment. I had said it as if he had been speaking a foreign language to me.

     "Tell me what you've been up to," he clarified slowly, "I ended up talking too much during lunch. You didn't get the chance to say anything."

     "It didn't bother me," I shrugged, "But, um, I guess something funny did happen yesterday. Riny suddenly started saying 'piss off' to me constantly."

     "Yeah, I heard all about it from Wisp. He and Paya weren't paying attention to what they had playing on the television, and, of course, that out of everything was the phrase she picked up from one of the characters." Malachite chuckled.

I nodded. A longer period of quiet stretched between us. I expected Malachite to take full control of the conversation like I had been letting him do so far, but he was determined to wait me out.

     "Those old ladies at the bookstore came in again. Um," I paused as I desperately tried to think of something to tell him that I hadn't said a million times before, "The doctor said mom would be able to come home in a few days."

     "Wisp told me too. That's good news."

I groaned at my brother in my mind. Anything I could say he had ruined. There was seriously nothing else of note to tell my cousin, and thus I was as happy as could be when the awkward silence was broken by an irritated grumble.

     "Mal, I am going to fucking kill you."

That was Lavender's catchphrase recently. And who was she? Malachite's girlfriend. She had moved in with him as soon as Hunter had moved out, for he himself had gotten married and was now living with his wife more in the center of the city. It hadn't taken more than a few months for the news to come that Malachite and Lavender were going to be parents. Lavender, who was that tough outside but sweet inside type, was ecstatic despite the fact that her unending back pain had her dramatizing otherwise.

     "Why the hell did I let you get me pregnant? This is torture." she continued to mutter.

     "I'm going to assume it's because he gives you really good sex?" I jumped in, which had Malachite chuckling again.

     "A good assumption." he agreed.

     "Coal, you're extremely lucky I like you, otherwise you would be getting a good smack for encouraging him. Also, I can't move. Seriously, it feels as if this baby has a personal vendetta against my spine." Lavender whined with a pout.

Malachite's smile turned sympathetic. He stood up and made his way over to her with an outstretched hand.

     "Here." he offered.

He began rubbing at her back, expertly hitting all the points to take away the pain fast. It had been weird, but I let Malachite give me a massage once. All those anatomy classes and the such he took in college definitely paid off. He knew right where everything was and how to manipulate it to have it working as it should. It was no wonder the gym had gotten him to help with some of the light physical therapy classes they offered.

     "I gotta wonder," I began a moment or so into the massage, "Since you said you let him get you pregnant, did you actually plan the baby?"

Malachite and Lavender both laughed rather hard.

     "Do we look like the kind of couple to plan having a baby?" Lavender wondered.

     "You don't. That's why I was curious." I explained with a smirk.

     "One hundred percent total accident." Malachite added with his own grin.

     "You're just keeping up the family tradition." I noted.

Lavender's mood improved immensely as Malachite's fingers rubbed away her pain. Her inclusion in the group also made it easier for me to participate in the talking as it kept me from having to speak about myself.

     "Any preferences about gender?" I continued the questioning.

     "This little guy is definitely going to be a boy." Malachite said proudly, pointing to Lavender's stomach.

     "Oh, did you go ahead and find out the gender then? I thought you were waiting until Mary got home for the fall vacation."

     "We are waiting. We have no idea yet," Lavender revealed, gently pushing Malachite's hand away, "He just keeps on saying that because he doesn't want a girl, unlike me."

     "Why are you against a girl?" I asked him.

     "Because it'll be terrifying!" Malachite exclaimed, "I know how many douchebags like the kind I used to be are out there! No poor girl should have to be subjected to any interaction with those idiots."

     "Except she'll have me as her mother," Lavender boasted, "Trust me, she'll be able to handle herself."

     "Listen to the woman," I agreed as I encouraged my cousin, "She's got you all trained, hasn't she?"

     "Excuse me?" Malachite retorted in disbelief.

     "And this is why you're my favorite of Mal's cousins." Lavender beamed, stepping between the two of us to force Malachite to huff and fold his arms.

I steered clear of him for a while, but twenty-seven-year-old Malachite was a whole lot more mature than seventeen-year-old Malachite. The light teasing was quickly forgotten about as the three of us played some video games. Then Lavender had to excuse herself to the bathroom for the dozenth time since I'd arrived, and Malachite and I ended up outside on the balcony. When the awkward silence from before started to rear its ugly head again, I caved and sighed heavily.

     "Mal?"

     "Hmm?"

     "Tell me how to make more friends."

At that, another loud laugh escaped his lips.

     "Finally gotten sick of being a homebody with no life?"

     "I was seriously somehow completely oblivious to the fact that I'd have no one to hang out with once my friends left for college. There were a few underclassman I meet up with last year, but there's no way I can chill with high schoolers anymore lest I look entirely pathetic." I moped.

     "You know what you should do? Spend some time in Bayport."

     "Bayport?"

     "Yeah, it's not that far of a drive. Go there on the weekends or on the nights before your days off. There's so many more people there, especially people your age. They have everything you could want to do and more."

     "I suppose..." I hesitated.

Malachite glanced sideways towards me.

     "But?" he pressed.

     "Bayport's kinda close, but it's also kinda far. I know mom isn't exactly dying, but I feel as if it's getting to the point where we don't really know what can happen anymore. Perhaps it's wrong to be this paranoid, but after not being able to say a proper goodbye to dad I want to be close on the off chance something happens to mom." I explained quietly.

     "I see," Malachite mused gently, "Well then, find people your age here in Berrybrook."

     "But I don't know how I should do that. Anyone my age will surely be in college."

     "Oh, please," Malachite scoffed, "Berrybrook's not that small. You're not going to be the only one in this area who's taking a nontraditional route in life. It's true you're not likely to find someone just randomly walking around, so use the internet. There's lot of websites that facilitate meetings of all different kinds. Use those to find a group that does stuff you like, and if there aren't any then make one yourself. I bet you there's plenty of people out there wanting what you're wanting, but they simply don't have the initiative to make it happen."

     "That's...a really good idea. I'll look into it." I promised, feeling relieved at having gotten decent help so easily.

     "No problem. Just make sure not to make yourself too busy. Lav and I will be wanting a babysitter too once the baby is born, and you're at the top of the list." Malachite jokingly warned.

     "Maybe I will start having to charge for my services then." I contemplated in amusement.

I put the plan Malachite made take off into action that afternoon. I tried the simple route first of looking at already established groups. I found a few in Berrybrook by using various websites, but that was when I hit a problem. All of the groups were either way too strict about attending meetings, they merely didn't do anything I was interested in, or the ones I did like were incredibly inactive. I took a deep breath before continuing then. There was only the option of me creating my own group left, but this was naturally uncharted territory for me. How would I even set up a group let alone run it and make it successful? You can bet I spent most of the rest of my hours that day researching everything from what kind of activities I should focus on to how I should set a page up while drawing attention to it. I was able to get the basics of what I wanted created that evening, and I sat outside in the beautiful late summer weather several days later checking my results.

I'd just finished bringing up the numbers when I was joined by my favorite little sister.

     "How's it going?" she asked with a surprising amount of curiosity.
     "Much better than I expected, actually," I answered with relief, not noticing her unusual amount of interest in what I was doing, "I thought I'd be lucky if I got around even a dozen people to join within a few weeks time, but there have already been about forty people who have added themselves since I set this up Tuesday. I think it helps that I allowed people up to thirty to join. From what I can tell, there looks to be a good mix of ages, and it's half and half for gender too."
     "I'm happy for you. You won't be a lame shut-in anymore." Cerise teased.
     "Thanks." I scoffed.

Ignoring her at first like normal, I resumed browsing through the information of all the people who had joined just to start learning about everyone. Having used the most popular social media site at the moment to host the group meant there was a lot of stuff to look at. I assumed Cerise wanted nothing else but to enjoy the weather and my presence, but it soon dawned on me that was the stupidest thing I had thought in a long time.

     "What do you want?" I rolled my eyes.
     "Can I get a ride to Clematis' place?" Cerise asked instantly.
     "Fine." I sighed.

Thankfully, my older siblings were much more supportive of my endeavors. I managed to get a call through to Prism on an early afternoon yet a few more days later. It was difficult enough to get in touch with him as it was, so that he picked up during the time he was typically the busiest was quite something.

     "Starting with something casual, huh? Sounds like the best way to go about it to me." he said.
     "Yeah, I figured the summer festival is something everyone who's lived in Berrybrook will be more than familiar with. The setting will be comfortable, and there's so much to do there it will allow everyone to spread out and mingle at their leisure."
     "What's the turnout looking like so far?"
     "There's forty-three people in the group, and there's twenty-one people who've said they're coming. Since the meetup is tomorrow I don't think anyone else is going to decide to come, and I'm not going to be naive and expect that all twenty-one people are actually going to show. Right now I'm reasoning about half, so ten people, to be there. Which is fine by me. I didn't even think I'd have that many people in the group yet."
     "That sounds like a good number to me for starting out too. Enough people to avoid everything turning awkward, but not so much that you can't handle it and it becomes a disaster. You're doing well, Coal. I'm glad you were able to find something to help you start getting on your way again." Prism encouraged genuinely.
     "Thanks, Pris."
     "No problem. And, if your group decides to do anything super fun, who knows? I might just have to fly out and join you. I could use a break." Prism spoke longingly.
     "You're always welcome to join. Until you turn thirty-one. We don't need any old men bringing down our fun."
     "Careful there, my dear little brother" Prism chuckled mischievously, "If you're not, you might find a character who shares a lot of similarities to you ending up in one of my movies- and I can't guarantee anything good happening to them."
     "How about you actually get your own movie first, Mr. Co-Director?"
     "Oh, I will. Just you wait." Prism warned impishly once more.

When the following evening came around, my mood was rather high. Seven or eight people wrote on the group's page at the last second that they were essentially bailing, but, as I told my brother, that was quite expected. There remained an acceptable number of people still attending, and the nerves I had as I approached the city park were the good kind of nerves. Mostly. I couldn't deny that I was somewhat afraid as well. I had never been the shy type, but I was definitely out of my area of expertise in wrangling a group together like this.

Thinking back on how everything went down, I wish I had asked Midas or Azure for a favor in order to get them to come home for the weekend to help me weather the storm. I truly had thought I kept my expectations reasonable. The evening appeared to be proceeding fine when at least one person showed up on time. One of the slightly older members, I think he was twenty-four or twenty-five, Coconut, unfortunately, turned out to be the lone one who gave any sort of indication that he had any interest in being there. The blue and orange guy, Rapids, who showed up next, well, I never really figured him out. Then there were the girls.

There were three of them to match our three boys. So, yup, that meant, excluding me, that only five people showed up. In a group of over forty, ninety percent couldn't be bothered to attend the maiden voyage of outings. I tried not to let it bother me, but it did bother me.

Especially with how things would soon progress with the two girls who were already friends and our third female companion.

     "Oof! P, you accidentally turned the flash on. Like I'm not already blind enough." the gray girl rebuked lightly as she blinked a dozen times.
     "Oh, hush. You can't see the screen facing this direction. I couldn't tell what my finger was hitting."

Stella and Peony were their names. They hadn't thought to tell us them when they arrived. The lone reason I knew was because I had gone through the list of everyone attending specifically in order to learn names to makes thing easier for everyone. Stella and Peony had simply walked over with a simple 'Hey', and had then began to take pictures like the rest of us were nothing more than backdrop objects to make their photos interesting.

     "I'm surprised either of you can see anything at all given how you've clearly been gluing your eyes to screens all your lives."

The snapped comment came from Raze. It clearly wasn't her real name, but I had no idea what it might be. To be honest, I had taken a quick glance at her profile and had been sure she would be one of the ones who would never show up. I hadn't tried to check to find more out about her. Stella and Peony though...

     "You said to call your Raze, right? You know, I looked at your profile, and I could have sworn I saw your grandmother calling you by something different." Peony began with mock naive innocence.
     "Buttercup, I believe it was?" Stella joined in, "Is that right? Your name's actually Buttercup?"
     "I'm Buttercup to anyone who has a death sentence." Raze, as that was clearly the safer option to go with, retorted sharply with a scowl.
     "I guess her grandmother had better watch out then." Stella whispered quietly to her friend, but just loud enough still.

Stella and Peony turned away from her and went back to staring at Peony's phone. Raze's glare never moved off them, and I didn't dare address anything. I didn't want to prompt conflict, and Raze kinda terrified me just a tiny little smidge. It wasn't so much her attitude as it was all the black on her. Black tipped hair and almost entirely black clothes- they weren't things you usually saw. As no one was born with black coloring, it was the color of grieving. You were only supposed to wear it when someone died, and it was considered highly insulting if you wore it when someone hadn't. Heck, black clothes and black cloth were ridiculously expensive because so few people manufactured it. There was also the belief that black was the color of demons and devils. It was a belief perpetuated by folklore and modern day storytelling, and aligning yourself with it wasn't something people did lightly. Even famous criminals and murderers and the like spoke out about those who wore black for fashion like they were the scum on the earth.

Naturally, there was a pretty horrible stretch of silence after those contention-riddled comments. Rapids glanced in our direction, but he didn't say anything. I got a sympathetic smile from Coconut who motioned he had no clue what to do either. Stella and Peony, thankfully...I suppose, chose not to let the quiet linger. Peony's head lifted to look my way and finally show some interest in my existence, but that night would prove that what I wanted would not be what I got.

     "So, you're Coal Vivid, right?" Peony asked, looking me over curiously, "And your mom is Ethereal?"
     "Yup." I answered with a shrug, hoping to make my family no big deal just like how it was to me.
     "And you've got your one white brother, Prism, down in Tinseltown making movies, is that right too?" Stella added.
     "Yeah. That is Pris you're talking about. He's steadily getting up there in the industry." I replied while sighing mentally, as I knew where this was going.
     "How often does he come home?" Peony wondered eagerly.

Seriously?

     "Well, a few times a year. Usually around the holidays. I know he's going to try to come down for our one sister's birthday if his schedule allows it, but otherwise he won't be back in Berrybrook until Christmas." I explained anyway.
     "I heard you had another white brother as well?" Stella kept it right on coming.
     "You mean Wisp? Who's been married for almost four years and has a year-old daughter?" I questioned back with a raised brow.
     "Ah, I did hear something about that." Peony mumbled softly with light disappointment.
     "Okay, come on now," Coconut blessedly stepped in, and he addressed them with the perfect mix of amusement and non-threatening reprimand, "This was set up so we could get together and have some simple fun. Not for anyone to try and latch themselves onto Coal's poor brothers."
     "We're just having a bit of teasing fun." Stella replied in a similar manner.

There was a scoff from behind them. Raze, who had turned away and folded her arms, turned back towards the group once more.

     "Please, like anyone will believe that excuse like you aren't shallow sluts using this meeting as an excuse to throw yourself at guys only because they have a melanin deficiency." she jibed.
     "Excuse me?!" Stella snapped in exasperation, her voice growing significantly higher in pitch.
     "Hey, I don't care," I desperately jumped in, "I know it's all-"
     "Like you're one to talk," Peony interrupted me as well in addition to effectively cutting me out of the argument, "I thought your face looked familiar when I saw your picture on the list. A simple internet search showed me all of what you've gotten up to. Seriously, don't act high and mighty when you've done all that crap."
     "So I've lived a life," Raze shrugged with quite the tilted grin, "At least I don't pretend to care. I'm honest about my motives, unlike you."
     "Like you know anything about us?" Stella spat.
     "God, you don't even know that we went to the same high school, do you? You clearly didn't notice me back then, but I heard a lot about you. How did that problem with Ruddy's girlfriend work out?" Raze asked with a scarily sweet voice.

Stella's cheeks grew several shades darker. Her mouth opened and closed several times, and I wasn't sure if she was about to start yelling or burst into tears.

     "Stella, don't bother with her. C'mon, I see Maize and Olive over there," Peony calmed, grabbing her arm, "Sorry, Coal. Some of our friends are here as well. We're going to go hang out with them."

My mouth opened and nothing came out too. I managed a horribly pitiful wave, but it didn't make much difference as neither Stella nor Peony looked back when they quickly walked away. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Rapids seriously did nothing else but stand there. He wore an expressionless and unreadable mask, and that was worse than him looking mildly uncomfortable like I'm sure I did. Raze moved slightly closer to us appearing unperturbed, but I had difficulty knowing what to do with her. Coconut was my lifesaver.

     "Sounds like you have a pretty big family." he trudged on in a friendly manner to yank us out of the chaos.
     "I do. I have two older brothers, an older sister, two younger sisters, an uncle and aunt, three cousins, a niece, a great-uncle who lives with us, and then two more great-uncles and a great-aunt and all their kids, and quite a number of second cousins and all their relatives. I don't get to see everyone who doesn't live in Berrybrook all that often, but we've had several huge family reunions." I rattled off, speaking way faster than usual due to an abundance of bad nerves now dominating my chest.
     "Sounds pretty crazy. I've just got a younger brother myself who's decently younger. He's nine." Coconut said.
     "That is quite the gap," I agreed before daring to address Rapids, "How about you?"
     "I'm an only child," he spoke so softly it was next to impossible to hear him, "But I have an aunt."

I nodded before looking Raze's way. She gave me a 'Dont-Even-Go-There' stare before changing the topic.

     "So what fun shit are we going to do?" she asked in a manner that me confused as to whether she was actually excited or if she was being horribly sarcastic.
     "I...well," I began with a stutter as I glanced at who I had to work with, "The idea had been to let everyone wander about and get to know everyone at their own pace, but if there's just four of us..."

I took a deep breath to force some confidence back in my voice.

     "I did pay for a group pass to the arcade. We could start there." I suggested.
     "Sweet!" Raze cheered.

My eyes widened when she unexpectedly grabbed my sleeve to start pulling me to the arcade. Coconut and Rapids were left to follow, and Raze thankfully let go of me when we walked through the door. I showed the attendant the pass, and we went at it. Rapids picked a game and situated himself in a solitary corner before I could think to try anything to break him out of his shell. Raze motioned me towards the Whack-A-Gnome machines anyway, and I remained too uncertain around her to not do what she said. Coconut made himself comfortable playing skeeball. Things got a bit better, I guess, as we got into our respective games. Raze was determined to keep things interesting though.

     "Hey, Coal?" she asked me when one of her rounds finished.
     "Yeah?" I replied with slight hesitation.

The tone of her voice and the way she stood had me suspicious.

     "You a virgin?" she instantly confirmed my worries.
     "Uh..."

Rapids barely looked in our direction once more. Coconut met my gaze and could only give me another sympathetic expression.

     "N-no? I'm actually not." I couldn't do nothing other than admit.
     "Oh, I'm rather surprised. You seem like that squeaky clean, goody-two-shoes, mama's boy type." Raze remarked with interest.
     "I can't say that that description doesn't fit me a bit too." I did my best to laugh along.
     "You ever drink?"
     "I have a bit of wine when we go out to eat at the fancier restaurants, but that's about it."

Being able to use the game as a distraction allowed me from having to get too into the conversation, but the timer on my round soon ran out. Raze stood far too close for me to start another one without it being clear I would rather she back off. Another deep breath was necessary. I had to do something to make it feel as if I had some footing, so I chose to return the questioning. Raze had certainly been honest about being honest. It didn't look like she had any tact at all. She could probably handle my curiosity with ease.

     "I hope you don't mind, but since we're talking about types," I started, "I have to admit that I was surprised that you decided to come. From what I could tell you didn't seem like the kind of person who would be involved in this kind of group."
     "And you're exactly right," Raze confirmed with blessedly no sign of being insulted, "My mom signed me up and marked me as attending this little get-together without my permission. She doesn't exactly approve of my actual friends, so she was hoping I'd come here and meet some normal people. I wouldn't have come at all, but she said she'd cancel our internet if I didn't. She's a complete tech idiot so it wouldn't bother her, but it would drive me crazy."
     "Oh."

I couldn't tell if I was disappointed that she hadn't come here of her own choosing or if I was relieved that she most likely wouldn't attend future meetings and cause further problems.

     "Tell me about this girl you fucked," Raze brought us right back to that before I could blink, "Or was it a guy? I don't judge."
     "It was a girl. I'm straight." I replied hesitantly yet again, my voice faltering some.
     "Good to know," Raze commented with too much intrigue for my liking, "So, was she hot? Was she your girlfriend? Someone else's girlfriend? Was it a one night stand?"
     "I..."

There still wasn't anyone one else besides Uncle Blaze and Holly, and of course everyone Candy told, who knew about our three times together. After Candy and I had eventually reconciled, she was the only one I talked to about it. Even then I couldn't remember the last time we brought it up. Now this random girl I met wanted me to divulge the full details while two other practically unknown guys also listened in?

     "Leave him alone, Raze." Rapids surprised me by saying, speaking at a normal level.
     "I'm just curious. He doesn't have to tell me if he doesn't want to. Of course he can say no." Raze shrugged him off indifferently.
     "Do you two know each other?" I asked curiously, sensing some sort of connection through just that brief exchange.
     "We went to the same high school as well," Raze revealed, "You went to the one closer to the hospital, didn't you?"
     "Yeah."
     "Lucky bastard. Ours was nothing but petty drama and girls getting pregnant left and right."

There were two high schools in our district. While there were various factors including things such as simply which students lived closer to which building, money also had a large part to do with it. It wasn't that the high school I went to was for the rich and elite, but the other high school was mainly composed of those who were lesser off. As such, there came some less than stellar rumors about what it was like to take classes there.

     "Stop being so dramatic. It wasn't that bad." Rapids spoke again, but the volume of his voice had decreased significantly.
     "What are you talking about? I thought you hated your high school years." Raze questioned with a frown.

Rapids went back to speaking silence. His face finally showed some semblance of emotions, but it was a forlorn one. He refused to move his gaze off his game. Raze brushed it all off once more.

The four of us spent all our time in the arcade. Raze had some sort of fascination with me that I couldn't figure out. She was either teasing me or flirting with me, or possibly both. The minutes ticking by did give me enough experience to deal with her moderately better. Her awkward questions were kept to minimum, and I could get past them quickly when they did come out.

     "You actually bother with these crap machines?" she spoke incredulously when I parked myself in front of the claw game.
     "I like the challenge, even though I know for a fact that this one is rigged. The strength of the grip increases after a set interval of times though, so if I'm lucky enough people will have used it for me to be close to that point where I can win something." I explained.
     "Eh, as long as it's not my money that's being wasted."

I must have just missed my chance at getting the round with the strong grip and had to go through the whole cycle. With Raze watching me, I felt like I couldn't give up until I got something. That's why thirteen dollars later I eventually won a teddy bear.

     "Well, I don't mind it," I spoke as I examined but the prize, "But I was trying to get a toy for my niece. She can get spooked rather easily though. I have a feeling this will just scare her."
     "She that one-year-old you mentioned?"
     "Yes."
     "Such a shame. That bear's badass. It's got style."
     "You can have it if you want then. I think it actually fits really well with you." I offered.
     "Sweet!" Raze exclaimed a second time, snatching the toy out of my hands.

An hour into the meetup, the sun had sunk below the horizon. It was also when I got a moment to breathe. The restroom was the one place Raze couldn't follow me, but I wasn't alone. I hadn't noticed Coconut had wandered in there only moments before me. We ended up washing hands together, and he chuckled when I let out a long sigh. Raze had left me alone long enough a few times for us to get snippets of decent conversation in, so I felt comfortable with him.

     "You're doing well," he grinned widely, "You didn't give up the second things started to fall apart. That's tenacity."
     "I just wanted to meet a few more people and have an easy evening and some casual fun. I feel as if I'm walking on eggshells or someone's going to pop out with a camera any second and tell me this is some joke show on television." I spoke with a hint of a pout.
     "Now that last thing would be something." Coconut remarked.
     "Sorry about how everything is going. I'm truly grateful you are sticking it out." I expressed.
     "I don't mind," he encouraged, "I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I work too much and don't spend enough time just enjoying life. This evening's been chaotic, but it's been a fun kind of chaotic. Any time I can jump on a free pass to the arcade is something I'm down for regardless of anything else."
     "I'm glad I could be of assistance then." I laughed.

Raze was no longer in the arcade when we returned. Rapids wasn't there either. In fact, he wasn't anywhere entirely.

     "He took off." Raze told us when I inquired about him after we found her warming herself by one of the fires outside.
     "Did he say anything?" I asked.
     "Nope. I turned away for a second, and when I turned back he was halfway out the park."
     "Oh." I said dejectedly.
     "Don't pay attention to him. He's always been horribly anti-social. He thinks he's this tragic, horribly abandoned character when he's the one forcing everyone away because he does nothing else but act like how you saw him." Raze attempted to brush away my concerns.
     "You sound like you really do know him." Coconut commented.
     "I merely observed him. I spent a lot of time doing that in high school. Way more interesting than listening to the boring teachers," she clarified before addressing me, "What next, boss?"
     "I'm really...not too sure. Like I said, I was planning for a bigger group. All the ideas I came up with revolved around that. Maybe we could get something to eat from one of the vendors, or if you guys want to take off that's perfectly fine. I won't be insulted."
     "Awesome, because my friends want me to meet up with them," Raze reveled in relief at being released, "Not that this was as dull as I'd thought it'd be, but you probably won't be seeing me again unless mom threatens an internet outage for a second time. Thanks for the bear though, Coal."
     "No problem, and you're always welcome to join us whenever- coerced or not."

I'm not going to lie, I wanted to weep from my own relief when Raze was out of sight. She had shown snippets of being a decent person, but there was simply too much complicated personality piled on top of that for me to accept and handle on such short notice. Coconut patted me on the shoulder.

     "And like I said, you did well," he repeated, "I hope you don't mind, but I do have to take this opportunity to head off. I hadn't been planning on staying long anyway since my work schedule is pretty crazy. I have to get up rather early tomorrow morning."
     "No, no, you go ahead. I totally get it."
     "Thanks, and thanks for the evening too. I don't know how many meetups I'll be able to attend as I don't have a lot of spare time, but I hope you keep up with this. Don't let tonight dissuade you."
     "I won't," I promised, "And if you're ever able to get your schedule to me when you want I can always try to plan around it so you can come."
     "I'll let you know then," Coconut nodded, "Well, goodnight, Coal."
     "Goodnight."

As I walked in the opposite direction from him towards my car, I had a troublesome time convincing myself to keep that promise I just made. I could barely keep my head up as I walked. I remembered all the evenings I had spent here with my friends. I remembered all the times we nearly broke curfew because we weren't paying attention to the time. I remembered those amazing days, and it made the emptiness surrounding me so much larger. There were people and sounds all around in the not so far distance, but my world seemed silent. Nine o'clock. It was only nine. After spending days growing excited thinking I found a way to combat the isolated nights of numbing video games and re-watching old movies by myself, I was heading home to get right back into that. An overwhelming sense of of loneliness and dissatisfaction unlike any I had known had me thinking I had no desire to arrange any more meetings.

But I would. This night sucked, but I would try again. Only five people showed up. There were still all those other people in the group. I'd get some different players next time, and things would surely go much better. More people would join after that. The next meeting would be even better than the second. That's how I convinced myself as I walked that silent walk in the dark to my car.