After AnimeCon 2: Arriving at Aunt Mattie's

    Out on the edges of town, the strip malls and shopping centers rolling by their windows dwindled and became infrequent, and then the neat lines of curbs and sidewalks alongside them gave way to sprawling stretches of gravel and grass. In no time at all, Brian and the girls left the streetlights behind, the four lanes became two, and the roadside an untidy shoulder sporting thickets of growth. The moon still painted a canvas of light across the clouds in a strip overhead, but the road itself was framed with darkness that brightened into swathes of forest only within the passing beams of their headlights—the tree trunks vanishing again into impermanence as the light moved on.

     Brian always drove a little faster here on the outskirts, because this felt like his area. These back roads were where he had first learned to drive, and these ones leading to Aunt Mattie’s ranch house he knew like the back of his hand. He found himself in better balance here—this wasn’t the rural isolation they saw on the way to Tionetta, and while the central areas of Seneca weren’t exactly oppressive cityscape, downtown Seneca was still a yuppie, ritzy place where everything was clean, new, and uniform-looking. Around the city center there were a lot of wealthy neighborhoods and private schools, and to Brian those had always had a veneer of insincerity that he found off-putting.

    Hell, and I WENT to a private school for rich kids; Truliet, Brian thought with a bitter smile. My father was absolutely loaded, I lived in the awful McMansion and everything—but, I was never one of them.

    He had grown up in relative poverty with his mother, but she transferred custody of him over to his father when he turned fourteen, thinking that going to a better high school would dramatically improve his chances at a better life. Rather than a rags to riches story with him landing in the lap of luxury however, Brian quickly realized he was an eyesore and an inconvenience to this other side of the family. His father was a neurotic, cold and distant man, and his stepmother treated him like hired help that they—unfortunately—had to provide room and board to for a few years.

    The dissonance in treatment he experienced when comparing his life to his time before had been pretty devastating at the time, which of course made him start to romanticise those living on simple means as more honest, warm, or real with each other. While he was experienced enough now to know terrible people could in fact be found along every step of the income ladder, there was still an easy comfort to be found in returning to his old haunts here along Seneca’s back roads, away from all of the upscale areas of Seneca.

    “Brian, I’m just realizing,” Emily spoke up from the backseat behind him. “We uh, we never pulled out the cooler from the trunk and checked things, huh?”

    “Oh, shit,” Kelly winced. “We didn’t, did we?”

    “Sooo, ice is probably all melted,” Emily sighed. “It woulda been from, well, yesterday morning? When we packed all that stuff in. S’just, we never actually broke all that stuff out or used it. ‘Cause Rebecca cooked for us.”

    “Lasagna night before last,” Kelly ticked off their meals on her fingers. “Lasagna and garlic bread. Brian made us breakfast yesterday morning; eggs and toast. Then, in the afternoon yesterday we kind of just… snacked? On stuff we grabbed from that gas station. We didn’t have any kind of real dinner, there was too much going—”

    “Well, somebody had a real dinner that night,” Emily chortled. “Christine sure did?”

    “Christine?” Katie asked. “Have I met her?”

    “Don’t worry about it,” Emily scoffed. “Long story.”

    “—Okay, yeah,” Kelly chuckled. “Then, Rebecca did us up french toast this morning, and we grabbed wings for lunch at… damn. Randy’s?”

    “Rudy’s,” Brian corrected.

    “Whatever,” Kelly scoffed. “They were okay. Anyways, that means the pack of hot dogs, the thing of buns, the condiment stuff, annnd, all the stuff we brought for s’mores? Yeah, got forgotten in the cooler. Probably been sitting in five inches of water all day, at this point.”

    “Hot dogs’ll be fine?” Emily guessed. “They were still sealed in plastic. Buns? Probably soggy as hell, though. Marshmallows? Should be fine. Graham crackers? Uhhhh. Iffy, they were in a box. Well, maybe the actual crackers were still in their own sleeves? The chocolate… guess we’ll have to see?”

    “We can just order pizza,” Katie suggested. “Or, Chinese or something. Lee’s Chinese delivers.”

    “Damn though, we’ve been eating out a lot,” Brian said. “Hate burning through money so fast when I’m out of work, hah. I’ll probably just pop a hot dog or two on a stick and be alright tonight.”

    “Brian, this one’s on me,” Emily insisted. “We can grab pizza, my mom gave me babysitting money. To look after Katie and Dottie for tonight.”

    “Excuse me?!” Katie scoffed. “Yeah, right. I don’t think so. We’re nineteen freaking years old, okay? We don’t need babysat or chaperoned.”

    “I’m cool with pizza or hot dogs or… whatever,” Dottie said in a timid voice. “S’mores sound cool, too?”

    “Question is; are the hot dogs still okay to eat?” Kelly wondered. “‘Cause, I’m food safety certified, and that’s like. Uncooked meat, that’s probably been sitting in room temperature water all day.”

    “Whoa—Safeserv certification?” Brian gave her an amused glance. “Damn, me too. Mine’s from way back when I was at Marino’s Pizza. Still valid, though!”

    “McBurger,” Kelly explained with a grimace.

    “I never had to have one,” Emily admitted. “Not even at Lucca Italiano. I guess I was just a hostess and server, though, I don’t think us in the front ever needed to do the testing for it?”

    “Probably not,” Brian chuckled. “It was pretty pointless for us, anyways—more than half of the test was all seafood stuff, and Marino’s Pizza… doesn’t serve any seafood. So.”

    “Hah, yeah,” Kelly laughed. “Same for McBurger. Our one manager there gave us a cheat sheet for that side of the test, anyways. We could just look at while we were clicking through.”

    “So… are the hot dogs going to be safe to eat, or not?” Katie demanded. “Like—it sounds cool to have hot dogs over a fire, but are they gonna make us sick?”

    “Ehh,” Brian shrugged. “We’ll see. Maybe there’ll still be ice in there? Or the water’ll at least be real cold? If not, then…”

    “Then we give them to Michael and Will to eat,” Emily said. “They’ve eaten way worse. Besides, you literally can’t even get food poisoning, if you drink enough booze at the same time. The alcohol uh, neutralizes the bacteria. Basically. That’s a fact.”

    “Really?” Dottie made a noise of surprise. “Wow.”

    “Emily, babe…” Kelly let her head fall back against the passenger seat’s headrest as she blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Agghhh… Don’t tell them shit like that! Actually, alcohol, along with food poisoning? Makes the whole experience way way fucking worse. Trust me.”

    “Oh uh, wow,” Dottie let out a weak laugh.

    “S’not what I heard…” Emily grumbled. “But, whatever!”

    “So, we’re not doing hot dogs?” Katie growled. “Will the s’mores stuff even be okay?”

    “We’ll give them to Michael and Will!” Emily repeated with a grin. “It’ll be fine.”

    With that, Brian made the final turn and pulled them past a rustic wooden three rail fence with an eyepatch-wearing deer skull decorating the gate post. The grass beside the long dirt tire tracks that were Aunt Mattie’s driveway was downright crowded tonight, with seven different vehicles already pulled over into the grass at the side. Michael’s old truck and Tanya’s white sedan were parked up beside the house’s wrap around porch, and at a glance Brian also identified Mark’s suped-up ricer—iconic with its oversized spoiler and all of the anime girl decals, the rust-bucket gray minivan Will was living out of, the familiar faded baby blue of what they all called Becca’s Beater, as well as two other ones he didn’t recognize at all; a sporty red compact car and a large black SUV.

    “Dayum,” Emily laughed. “Everyone heard Brian’d be here tonight and came running, looks like?”

    “Nah, they probably barely remember me,” Brian said. “I’m old news. Probably here to see your new girlfriend?”

    Katie gave off a silent scoff and rolled her eyes dramatically to show her apparent skepticism of her sister’s supposed relationship with the bodacious Kelly.

    “Well, I did mention she’d be here!” Emily nodded. “Really do think you underestimate how much the whole posse has missed havin’ you around though, man. Oh—and whose SUV is that? Scotty’s? I don’t recognize that one.”

    “Not sure,” Brian said as he pulled in beside it. “Looks new? S’not bad Let’s see?”

    As they parked in beside it, however, it became apparent that the driver of this SUV was still seated inside, as if she had been waiting for them—a young and pretty Chinese girl whose eyes lit up upon seeing them and greeted them with a shy wave.

    “Ah, fuck,” Emily swore. “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me… Mark let his stupid little sister come to the party? Our party? Who does that?!”

    “Ahem,” Kelly let out a polite cough as she turned in her seat to raise an eyebrow at Emily.

    “I mean, hah, no, these bozos with me don't count,” Emily laughed. “Listen, it’s different when I do it. Katie’s not like, with us. And, she’s gonna wait in the car with her friend ‘til we’re done tonight, anyways?”

    “Pssh, you wish,” Katie scowled as she opened her door. “C’mon, Dottie.”

    “Wait—how do I look?” Kelly asked, carefully arranging her hair. “Still okay?”

    “You look great,” Brian assured her.

    “Babe, you look good enough to eat,” Emily praised with a big thumbs-up. “Promise.”

    “Um, gross?” Katie remarked under her breath. “Could you just not.”

    “Alright,” Kelly took a deep breath and flashed them a winning smile. “Let’s go.”

    “You really don’t have to be nervous, at all,” Emily insisted. “These guys’re literally just a bunch of weirdos.”

    Brian popped the button to open the trunk, and together everyone climbed out of the car and closed their doors one by one. The weeds were high here where they’d parked beside the beaten path, and they started to tromp back through towards the worn tire ruts of the driveway for once without Emily cracking the usual Monster Battlers joke about the tall grass here. Back in the day when both Brian and Will lived here in the spare rooms, a battered old Windwulf plushie from a grab bag at one of the AnimeCon trips had been hidden in different places around the house and then the yard here by everyone as an ongoing prank—as if the monster were a random encounter. 

    “Hi, Brian!” The girl from the SUV hurried around it to join them. “Mark said you were coming! It’s so good to see you!”

    “Mary—what the actual fuck?” Brian chuckled. “Since when are you happy to see me? Isn’t it usually who the fuck is this clown, or yah, I don’t remember YOU.”

    “Guess mask’s off now that you’re ‘single?’” Emily grumbled, crossing her arms. “Yikes...”

    Like her brother Mark, Mary was of Chinese descent—she was pale and slender and possessed delicate, almost frail oriental features. While objectively speaking she had always been quite lovely, Brian still had trouble seeing her that way—she had been in her early teens when Brian and Mark were in their late teens, and their relationship at that time had been openly antagonistic. Some of that good old mutual hatred between the Ouyang siblings in those days had transferred to Brian simply by association; Mary had openly despised all of Mark’s friends as loser nerds obsessed with games and anime. There was some difficulty in shaking off the impression he had of her being that spiteful little viper—and if one were to listen to Mark’s constant complaining about her, she would always be a cruel, selfish, and incredibly entitled bitch.

    But, Mark never disguised his loathing or bias there, and over time Brian didn’t take any of it as seriously as he did back then. Years had passed, and surely they’d all matured some—Brian and Mark were twenty-three now, and Mary was a young college chick already. The previous vicious insults and petty rivalry from back then seemed like something they had probably grown past by now—mostly—and now was more just something they would tease each other over for old time’s sake.

    At least, it certainly seemed that way with the appreciative way Mary was sizing him up, her dark eyes roaming up and down the tight fit of his shirt in surprise. Back when he’d been in high school Brian had been scrawny and a lot less outgoing than he was now—he’d been going through a lot in a very difficult household. It wasn’t until he started living on his own that he really came into his own confidence and found his stride, and maybe Mary still wasn’t used to seeing him in this new light. Spending so much time with his girls—Emily, Stephanie, Kelly, and now perhaps even Rebecca and Christine—almost had him believing he was some kind of hunk.

    I mean, on the one hand I started to assume that was just, you know, love—our feelings, the magic, Brian thought. Like, of course THEY might be more inclined to think I’m… somewhat handsome. Coming here tonight was supposed to be a bit of a reality check. Touching bases back with ordinary, uninvolved people… yet, here Mary is, eyeing me up and down like I’m some super studmuffin. Definitely feels a bit weird.

    “Hah, oh, stop,” Mary brushed Emily off with a smile and an unfriendly glare. “You uh, well yeah I mean Brian you are single now though, right? Hah. Mark said you still were, when he was mentioning stuff? And um, at the convention I remember you said that you and Chloe weren’t—”

    Mary’s expression fell as she saw Kelly cross around from the other side of Brian’s car after Katie and Dottie.

    “...Oh,” Mary couldn’t hide a grimace. “It’s you.”

    “Uh—I don’t think we’ve met?” Kelly smirked. “You are…?”

    “No, we’ve met,” Mary pouted. “At the stupid convention. You’re Kelly? You said my mouth was like a butthole?”

    “Ah, right,” Kelly nodded at the reminder. “Okay, sure. I remember you—uhh, Katie, right?”

    “I’m Katie,” Katie growled, shooting Kelly a quick glare before turning towards Mary. “Sup, Mary.”

    “Heyyy… Katelyn?” Mary put on a performative smile for her greeting that fell away just as quickly. “I remember you. From Truliet.”

    “Yeah,” Katie shrugged. “This is Dottie—she went to San Michaels.”

    “Hi?” Dottie gave another embarrassed wave.

    “Wait, wait—” Emily held up her hands. “Kell, Bri—you ran into Mark’s skanky little sister at AnimeCon?! Mary the piggy piggy piglet? Nobody told me that. Let me guess, she was sucking up to you, trying to get you to buy her food?”

    Emily and Mary had obviously never, ever gotten along.

    Unlike Brian, who’d always held back quite a bit because Mary was both younger than them and a girl… Emily grew up with her own little sister, and had no qualms ripping into Mary whenever Mary made fun of them. This created enmity upon enmity over every little grievance, and really seemed to draw out the worst from each of them. Emily and Mary were both on the shorter side and had petite figures, and in similar fashion, both girls also often bummed food from the rest of the group any and every chance they could. Except, while Emily would be stuffed full to bursting on a slice and a half of pizza, Mary possessed the more common teenage bottomless pit physique, which of course prompted Mark and Emily to start calling her piggy.

    I don’t think she was never even THAT bad, Brian remembered. Had a normal appetite for her age. Pretty sure Michael alone can polish off a whole damn pizza by himself, and Becky’s probably only a slice or two behind. Just, I guess Michael and Becky were always chipping in for their fair share of orders, at least, whereas Emily and Mary—and yeah, sometimes Will—were usually leeching. Thing is, no one ever cared if Emily or Will have one slice of something. But, when Mary tags along and then always takes like FOUR slices, without ever contributing a dime…

    It was a little funny to him how something so trivial could blossom over time into a full on feud in their local circle of friends. As young adults in a small town where either one of them was working at the local Marino’s or at least someone always had a friend working there, their group rarely paid full price for pizzas. Back when Brian worked there, he would just borrow something from the buffet table to slide into a box to take back for everyone, because his manager never cared. When Will worked there and saw anyone he knew ordering, he would make the pizza and then cancel the order from the computer, so that nothing needed to be paid for. Combining the constant freebies with Aunt Mattie always cooking up big meals for everyone, and it usually wasn’t any kind of big deal if some of them weren't paying their share.

    “Um, I’m not the skank. You’re the fucking skank, psycho,” Mary made a face. “Blueberry-head-looking goompa-loompa. Midget motherfucker…”

    “Aww, Oinker McPorkface wanna cry about it?” Emily shot back, rolling her eyes. “Jealous much? Hah, I see mommy and daddy Ouyang only let you get lame little highlights? Or wait, were you just too chicken to dye the whole thing?”

    Yeppp, there they go again. Just like old times, huh?

    When Brian retrieved the little carry cooler from his trunk and slid the top open to check its contents, he was surprised to discover that against all odds, most of the ice had persisted. Several inches of meltwater sloshed along the bottom, but other than starting to soak up the side of the box of graham crackers, it didn’t seem to have affected anything else. The perishables were all still cold to the touch and probably fine to eat. Shit, honestly—I probably didn’t need to put the marshmallows or crackers in here. Or the buns? Those all woulda been fine outside the cooler. Coulda fit in even more ice. Just, my mind wasn’t really on things back then and I shoved everything in the cooler.

    The more intrusive thought was that maybe that mysterious magic that kept having them wake up clean and refreshed extended somehow to the stuff they’d kept in the cooler. That seemed like quite a bit of a stretch though as Brian considered the circumstances, and with a wry smile and a shake of his head Brian closed the lid, hefted the box out of the trunk, and swung the trunk closed.

    “Yeah, well you look like one of those gender reveal videos gone wrong,” Mary scoffed, running a hand through her hair as if intent on showing off the bright streak of blonde amidst the black. “For real. Uhh, guess it’s a boy? Congratulations.”

    “Ooh, burn,” Katie laughed, apparently thrilled to see someone dissing her sister. “Can I get an F in chat?”

    “Like, was that on purpose?” Mary continued. “Or, is this shitty blue look like, some sort of pick me girl thing? Screaming for attention?”

    “Exactly…” Katie mumbled in agreement.

    “Hey, at least I try to look like something,” Emily retorted. “ Fuckin’ boring-ass basic bitch—bandwagon highlights, sleazy sweater, yoga pants, ‘Ugh’ Boots? They stamp out basic bitches like you in bulk. You look like you drop common loot.”

    Despite clamping a hand over her own mouth, Dottie let a snrk of laughter escape at that one.

    “Alright, alright—Jesus, everyone, ease up,” Brian warned the girls. “Let’s all be chill, tonight?”

    “Okaaay, just, she looks like a clown?” Mary took Katie’s encouragement to preen herself up even more. “Except, Emily’s gonna Emily, so s’more like she’s the whole fucking circus. Like, geez if my hair was short and looked like that? I’d—”

    “Hey, how ‘bout I slap the shit out of the next person who talks down to my girlfriend?” Kelly suggested with enthusiasm, glancing around as everyone went silent. “Yeah? Sound good? Don’t care whose sister it is.”

    “Wait, wait, hold up—girlfriend?” Mary blinked in surprise. “You are with Emily? Like, together? Girlfriends? For serious? Sooo—you’re not with Brian?”

    “Mary, like you would even have a chance anyways,” Emily laughed. “But, yes; Kelly is my girlfriend. Let me guess, you were following around Brian like a bitch in heat at AnimeCon?”

    “Mary was… a rescue,” Brian explained. “We pulled her out of that sweat-box where Mark always plays Mana: the Mastery the whole damn convention. It was pretty bad this year. Packed in like sardines, and… they honestly didn’t smell much better. Hell, I wouldn’t have even gone into that room if I hadn’t had a helmet.”

    “It was so disgusting,” Mary agreed with vehemence. “Literally cannot believe that there’s dozens and dozens of creepy stank dudes who let themselves live like that. With zero showering or hygiene or deodorant. All getting together for their stupid little card game things.”

    “Steph and I wouldn’t even go in,” Kelly said with a grin. “Even after her just standing in there for a while, Mary kind of reeked. We could definitely tell she’d been in there.”

    “I did not,” Mary all but gasped. “I fucking did not. Ew.”

    “Oh yeah,” Kelly laughed. “The smell kind of stuck to you. It was gross.”

    “It did not!” Mary denied, crossing her arms. “Fucking stupid Mark and his disgusting card bullshit… anyways, so I guess if you’re with Emily, that makes you two—what? Activist lesbians? Dyejob lesbos? What do they even call people like you, nowadays? I can’t keep up.”

    “Brian, does Mary count as ‘one of your friends,’ or is she like, fair game?” Kelly asked with interest. “Am I supposed to play nice tonight, or is Mary gonna get sent home sobbing and wailing and probably missing some fucking teeth? Pretty sure I already gave her the last warning she was gonna get, back at AnimeCon.”

    “Let’s all just chill?” Brian sighed. “Emily—you pounce in on Mary with the stupid names, so of course she’s gonna hit back. She’s got plenty to deal with just being Mark’s sister and putting up with him all the time, so please. Cut her some slack? And, Mary—c’mon. Really does start to bother me when you're always just taking snipes at each other.”

    “Okay,” Emily said. “Sorry. We were just messing around, really. It’s not like we’re actually beefing with each other. We’re cool? That’s just how we talk.”

    “Yeah, yeah,” Mary nodded, immediately changing her expression. “We’re cool. I actually really like your hair. The blue. It’s cool?”

    “Thanks,” Emily shrugged. “Your uh. Your highlights look nice.”

    “Thank you,” Mary said. “And uh. Yeah. Sorry, Kelly. We were just messing around. Didn’t mean to actually uhh. Diss on you two. Was just playing around.”

    “What the actual fuck,” Katie looked from one girl to another. “Did you just for real make Emily apologize? Is she… is she on drugs? Emily, are you on drugs?!”

    “Hey—don’t look at me!” Emily protested. “He got Mary all shy and sweet and submissive, too! It’s that stupid fucking tight shirt.”

    “Hey, now,” Brian laughed, raising his arms. “What’s wrong with my shirt?”

    As he did so, however, he felt one of the stitches pop free on his right side. It wasn’t a huge tear—yet—just a triangular notch visible at the one edge, but he hadn’t expected to actually rip anything tonight. He thought they’d been joking about that. Now at realizing it might actually happen if he wasn’t careful, he mostly felt embarrassed. He doubted ripping the seams on his shirt would look anywhere near as cool and flattering as the girls seemed to think, and he hadn’t brought a spare top to wear or anything.

    “Uhhhh—I thought you just got out of the hospital?” Katie seemed to have to swallow a mouthful of saliva as she tried to discreetly check Brian out. “Or something?”

    Everyone here at the edge of Aunt Mattie’s property except Dottie seemed to be gawking at him as if he was eye-candy, and if Brian hadn’t been paying specific attention to her expression, he probably wouldn’t have noticed that Dottie instead wore a subtle look of amusement. The realization was a little sobering, and he felt like it kept him feeling grounded rather than letting all of the attention start to inflate his ego.

    “Recovers pretty nice, doesn’t he?” Emily gloated, slapping Brian’s arm. “I mean—lookit, lookit.”

    “Look at those fat fuckin’ biceps, you mean!” Michael hollered over as he hurried down the driveway to greet them. “Brian, bro—so fuckin’ great to see you back, man. Goddamn, it’s been way too long. And you look great, bro!”

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