Today was the day. Today was the day Mae had been waiting for. Today would be the culmination of five years of blood, sweat, and tears. Today, she was moving, and Bea was coming with her. They were moving to Bright Harbor.
Mae threw the last suitcase into the back of Bea's car. She slammed the door shut with fervor.
"Mae, could you please not do that? This car's already falling apart. It doesn't need you slamming the doors shut.", said Bea, as she carefully shut the back door on her side of the car.
"I'm sorry. I'm just so excited! We're finally getting out of this dead-end town!", replied Mae excitedly.
"I am, too, but we can't exactly carry our stuff all the way to Bright Harbor if my car breaks down."
"Sure, we can! We'll be like survivalists! We'll carry hundreds of pounds of stuff through the wilderness and survive off of the fat of the land."
Bea chuckled a bit at that, "And what will you do about food? We don't have anything to cook with."
"Well, I do have a bat. I'll just kill something and cook it on a fire.", replied Mae, as if that should have been obvious.
"Uh huh, good luck trying to chase down a wild animal with a bat and hundreds of pounds of stuff on your back."
"Do you doubt my hunting skills?"
"Yes. Yes, I do.", deadpanned Bea.
Mae gasped, "Beatrice, how could you? I thought we were friends. Does our friendship mean nothing to you?"
"No, our friendship means nothing to me. I just hang out with you because being friends with the 25-year-old Taco Buck employee who lives with their parents is just so appealing.", said Bea sarcastically.
"I know. Who wouldn't want to be friends with a taco enthusiast such as myself?"
"I can think of a few."
"Oh, shut up. Can we get going already?", urged Mae.
"Are you sure we have everything?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Have you said goodbye to everyone, yet?"
"Yes, I have."
"Then yes, we can get going."
Mae threw her arms up in the air, "Bright Harbor, yeah!"
"Woohoo.", added Bea, noticeably less excitedly.
The two got into the car and shut the door. Bea started the engine and was about to leave when Candy and Stan appeared in the rearview mirror. They were running to the car. Mae rolled down her window.
"Dad? Mom? What are you doing here?", she called.
The two reached Mae's side of the car. They were panting heavily from running.
"We *pant* wanted to *pant* give you this.", Stan managed to say as he extended his hand out. There was an envelope in it.
"Um, thanks.", said Mae.
"Don't open it until *pant* you get to Bright Harbor."
"Okay. Is that all?", asked Mae.
"We also just wanted to be here when you left. I know you already did all of your goodbyes and everything, but we're your parents. We wanted to be there to see our little kitten finally leave this place for good.", said Candy, who was also breathing heavily.
"Mooom, I'm 25. I'm not a little kitten anymore.", groaned Mae.
"You'll always be our little kitten, sweetie.", replied Candy.
Bea simply smiled condescendingly from the driver's seat.
"Well, goodbye. I'll visit soon, I promise.", said Mae.
"That's what they all say, sweetie. Don't worry. We'll be fine, even if you don't visit."
"How little faith do you have in me, mom?"
"Ha, I'm sure she's joking. You'd better at least keep us updated on how your life's going, okay?", said Stan.
"Geez, you act like I'm a horrible daughter who wouldn't even want to see their parents once in a while.", replied Mae.
"See? It's already gone from soon to once in a while. Soon, it'll be never, just watch.", said Candy.
"Alright, whatever. I'll come visit you soon. Is that better?", asked Mae.
"Whatever you say, Mae. I'll let you go now. Have fun in Bright Harbor. Love you." With that Candy began to leave.
"I love you, too, mom.", Mae called back.
"Bye, kitten. I love you." Stan began to follow Candy back home.
"Love you, too, dad."
When they left, Bea turned to Mae, "So, you're their little kitten, huh?"
"Shut up and drive.", replied Mae facetiously.
"Whatever you say, 'Queen of the Taco Buck'."
Mae rolled her eyes and said nothing. Soon, they were on their way. It would take a few hours to reach Bright Harbor, so they had some time to kill. They passed the time with games of I spy and 20 questions. 2 hours in, the games became boring.
"Ugh, I'm so bored.", complained Mae as she threw her head back into the seat.
"We're almost there. Just be patient.", replied Bea.
"I've been patient for 2 hours, though. How much longer do we have?", questioned Mae.
"I'd say another 2 hours.", answered Bea.
"2 more hours?!", exclaimed Mae, "I thought you said we were almost there?!"
"2 hours is a lot closer than 4, isn't it?"
Mae groaned overdramatically, "Obviously, we have very different definitions of the word 'close'." She made air quotes with her fingers on the word "close".
Bea simply replied, "I guess we do."
Mae sighed, "At least we're not in Possum Springs anymore."
"Yeah. That town is almost dead. Everyone's leaving."
"Yeah, Germ went to college… somewhere, and Lori's a film major in Bright Harbor. I've heard their film program is really good."
"Bright Harbor has good colleges in general. It's just a good place to be."
"Maybe you could go to college.", suggested Mae.
"If I do, it won't be for a while. We'd need to save a lot of money unless you managed to get a job that pays enough to support both of us."
"I'm sure I could do it.", assured Mae.
"Maybe if you had a college degree. What did you even major in?", asked Bea.
"Art."
"Really? I never took you as an artsy person."
"I draw in my journal a lot, but those are just quick sketches, so they don't look really good."
"Okay. Maybe that college degree wouldn't have helped you as much as I thought."
"Hey! Don't be hatin' on my art skills!", replied Mae with playful anger.
"I'm not saying your art is bad, it's just that art majors usually end up homeless more often than, say, an engineering major."
"I guess that makes sense. I was always terrible at math and science."
"I can see that."
"Okay, that's just mean."
Bea snickered, "Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"
Mae thought for a moment before blurting out, "I challenge you to a math competition!"
"Mae, I was valedictorian. Do you really want to do that?", warned Bea.
Mae hesitated for a bit, "No, I guess not."
There was an awkward silence afterward that Mae ended up breaking, "Are you excited to see Gregg and Angus again?"
"Angus more so, but yeah."
"What, do you not like Gregg?", questioned Mae.
"No, it's just I thought Angus would have found someone else by now.", replied Bea.
"How could you say that? Those two need each other. Why would you want them apart?"
"I didn't say I wanted them apart. I just thought it would be inevitable that Angus would leave Gregg for someone more his type."
"I… I don't think you understand how much they need each other. Sure, Gregg can be a handful, but he's what Angus needs in his life. He's like… the jelly to Angus' peanut butter."
"What?", asked Bea, confused.
"Angus is the peanut butter, thick and flavorful, while Gregg is the jelly, sweet and simple. You can't just have peanut butter without jelly.", explained Mae.
"What about Nutella?"
"Nutella's overrated. Look, what I'm trying to say is that Angus needs Gregg just as much as Gregg needs Angus. They saved each other from being lonely sandwich toppings that no one would eat alone."
"I know people who eat peanut butter sandwiches.", said Bea.
"Well, tell those people that they're weird. Do you get what I'm saying, though?", asked Mae.
"Not really, but I know that Gregg's a good person. I won't doubt his decision. I just never saw him as Angus' type."
Mae settled for that, "Good enough, I guess."
"So, do you think we'll be living close to them?", asked Mae.
"I'm not sure. They did just upgrade apartments, so I don't know where they live now."
"Have you even told them we're moving there?"
"No, have you?"
"No. Wow, I can't believe we haven't said anything."
"Well, your decision for us to move was very sudden, and there was a lot to do, so we haven't had much time to talk to them.", Bea pointed out.
"I just wanted it to be a surprise."
"And it was a good one. There was nothing left for me in that town, especially after my dad went missing…"
"Do you really think he was one of them?", questioned Mae.
"That's the only reason I can think of. I really doubt he would just leave like that."
"I guess, but don't you ever just hope that he's alive somewhere?"
"If I hope for something that's impossible, it's only going to hurt more. No use in putting myself through more pain than I need to."
"I don't know. I feel like if it hurts, then that means it meant something. Trying to detach yourself from it only makes it worse. If you hope, even a little bit, then whatever you're putting hope in has to mean something, right?"
"Damn, someone decided to get philosophical all of a sudden." There was a silence for a few moments until Bea spoke again, "I guess maybe, I hope he's alive a little bit, or at the very least, that he's happy wherever he is."
"That's all it takes, just a small amount of hope in the back of your mind, even though you know that it doesn't make sense. Now, you know that your dad was more than just… shapes."
"Is that how you've been dealing with that?", asked Bea.
"I went through a lot during those first few weeks. We all did. I needed some way to cope because being back in Possum Springs wasn't enough anymore. So much had changed, and so much was going to change. I needed something to hold onto, or I would've fallen apart."
"… I'm sorry if I ever hurt you during that. I had no idea what was going on with you."
"No, no, it's fine. I was being an ass, and I hurt you, too, and Gregg, and Angus, and my parents. Even if I was going through all of that stuff, I shouldn't have let it hurt you."
"I do wish you would've told someone. We could've helped you a lot sooner if you had."
"I know, I was just scared. I was worried about driving away the only people that still felt real to me."
Bea placed a hand on Mae's shoulder, "Mae, we wouldn't have abandoned you. We care about you. We want you to be happy, just like we want the rest of us to be happy."
"I know that now. Thank you for being there for me."
"Hey, what are friends for?"
The rest of the car ride was fairly uneventful. The two transitioned from the previous heavy conversation topics to more car games. That was able to get Mae through the last two hours of the ride.
Finally, the shining city lights of Bright Harbor rose over the horizon.
"There it is! We're finally here!", exclaimed Mae.
"Yep. And this time, we're here to stay."
It was almost night, and the sun began to set. The hues of orange and yellow gave a wondrous backdrop to the start of the city's energetic night-life. Neon signs pointing to bars, clubs, and restaurants passed Mae and Bea by as they drove to the apartment Mae had picked out for them.
By the time they reached their apartment, the sun had almost finished setting. When they pulled up to the front of the building, the door opened, and a very familiar fox stepped out.
"Gregg?!"
