Here's the second chapter! I'm sure a few people are wondering why I'm writing this when I'm already so close to finishing Audrey's path in the main story. Well, a couple of people have actually asked me if I was going to include other characters. So, this little 'What if' story is my response to those people. Nikki is coming first, and then Jessie later, maybe.

Anyway, please enjoy this next part. Thank you for all of the continued support!

Social Problems – Part II

"Are you sure you don't want to give music one more try, Mike? The twins and I are worried about you. Ever since you quit you've… well… you haven't been yourself."

I hold the phone to my ear and let out a sigh of unease. Friends will be friends, against all the odds they face. Honestly, I've been really hard on the guy that was supposed to be by best friend as of late. "I'm sure, Markus. I've screwed you around enough over the last month. Besides… I'm making ends meet just fine at the bar."

"Maybe so, but what would your uncle say if he saw you like this? The gigs were going so well, and whatever happened to that girl you were dating? Every time I see her now she's on her own, and she looks really pissed off." Mark's words hurt to hear. I don't like being told when I've done wrong, but all the same, I think he's doing it because he cares about my wellbeing.

"I'm grateful for your concern, but I'll be fine, Markus. If I can't keep my own life in check then just how am I supposed to keep on going?"

It's true. It's been a month since Kyu's departure and I keep on struggling along. She made fixing my life look as if it was a simple job. No, it was more than that. She made it look as elegant as a magic trick. In the space of time since her exit, I feel as though I've allowed things to slip backwards. I threw away the band; stopped singing, and practically shut the rest of the world out.

"….You're an extremely stubborn guy when you want to be, Mike Winters. I need to tell you that, purely for your own good…. Look, if you need anything, please let me know. I'm saying this because I can see how far you're beginning to fall…."

The tone in Mark's voice changes. I can hear it as he speaks. He's actively concerned, and yet I can't help but feel frustrated by it. I can't simply take charity from people like that. I mean, the last person I took free help from walked away without as much as saying goodbye. The thought of having to deal with something like that a second time frightens me immensely.

"Alright." In a single word, I feel even more frustration. Markus Kane is not one to back off when he wants to get a point across. After all, I know him too well. "If I need anything I'll call you."

"Good. Now… I hope you-"

I hang up before Mark has a chance to finish what he's saying. I can't carry on listening to his rambling. No, I need something to occupy my attention long enough that I don't think about how much my life has changed over the recent weeks.

I keep on walking down this half-empty road. It's all bars and clubs as far as the eye can see. Well, those are the only venues that seem to catch my attention right now. I feel as though I've been drinking far too much lately. Finally, I come to a stop at the end of the street and let out a defeated sigh.

"The video arcade?" My eyes take note of a small building ablaze with flashing neon lights. I take my focus away from the intensity of the outside lighting and dare to glance inside. From here I can see slot machines, and a few of those light-gun shooting games that used to be around when I was little.

Am I really so bored that I want to waste my time in here? Have I really got so little to do now my shift at the bar is over?

Finally sighing to myself in defeat, I step inside the small box-like building. Further inspection shows me just how run down this place is. The walls are painted a line green of all things. Not to mention the actual paintwork is chipped to hell. Beneath my feet there's a dirty carpet riddled with pieces of dried out gum.

"How low I've sunk…."

The only other person in here is an old lady. She's sitting quietly on a little stool mindlessly pulling the handle of her slot machine. Her tired eyes, they don't even seem to shift from the reels once as I watch her.

"Reload…. Reload…. Reload…. Shoot outside the screen!"

My attention is diverted by a repeating voice coming from one of the gaming machines. I decide to take a look. On the side of the arcade cabinet is a zombie with discoloured skin of blue. His eyes are a sickening shade of white, and in his semi-decayed hands, he holds a pair of axes. As if by some weird instinct, I find myself looking at the name of this unusual game.

"House of Zombies?" I reach into my pocket for a handful of coins, "Looks like I have enough for a couple of-"

There's a girl stood at the machine. It looks like she's already playing, too. How did I not notice her before? Blue hair and a look on her face so serious that she could even scare the zombies. I don't think I've ever seen somebody so committed to something before. Her reflexes are something else, too. I'm intrigued, so I decide to quietly move behind her amd watch.

"Reload… Reload… Reload….."

She just keeps on shooting. The precision of each blast is remarkable. Bang, bang, bang. With every single bullet, another zombie goes down. How does she know all of the enemy patterns inside out?

"You're good…. You're really good."

She flinches slightly as I speak, but continues her ritual of undead annihilation all the same, "It's not that hard…. After all, the first House of Zombies is really simple. Just aim for the head."

"You mind if I join you?" As much as I don't want to admit it, the more I watch her play, the more this is beginning to look interesting for me. Right now, she seems to be blasting away at a massive spider that lunged from the corner of the screen.

"Alright, fine, but… don't screw up my kill streak… or else!"

Smiling to myself, I move beside her and reach for the second gun, "Or else, what?" I ask my question playfully, but she scowls. It would seem she was quite serious.

"If you mess up my game I'll die, and then… well… you owe me change for a retry."

I put a couple of coins into the slot and press the button on the side of my gun. My life bar and ammo count pop up on the left-hand side of the screen, and just like that, I'm thrown into the action.

A zombie comes rushing toward me with a chainsaw, "Alright…. Time to see what I can do."

With a couple of squeezes on the trigger, the undead fiend falls to the floor with a howl. I smile, feeling accomplished, but it seems like this girl at my side is already way ahead of me. In the space of time I've taken to kill one, she's already downed four.

"You're not too bad," she says to me disinterestedly as she continues her almost methodical shooting. "It's almost time for the boss…. Be sure to aim for his head. It's the only weak point."

"Gotcha. I think I'm getting the hang of this."

I'm faced with the sight of the game over screen. The blue-haired girl beside me lets out a small chuckle and puts the gun back in its holster.

"You're… actually much better than I thought you would be."

Smiling faintly, she holds her sweaty palm out and gives me a look as if to say, 'Just take it already.'

I do just that, "Nikki," the young lady says in a nervous squeak, "My name is… Nikki."

I sense her fearful demeanour from here. Not wanting to make things any more complicated, I give a nod, "I'm Mikey. This is my first time in here…."

"Could've fooled me." Nikki responds to me quietly. Her entire aura has switched, and I find it a little jarring. Now that we aren't playing the game she seems as timid as a mouse, "After all…. Most people die against Hell Knight on their first try, but you beat him… with my help."

"I guess I did, didn't I?" Honestly, I have no idea what she's talking about in terms of the specifics of the game we just played. I simply enjoyed the adrenaline rush. In addition, it helped me let off plenty of trapped steam. Ever since let my musical interests slip into the background, I've been feeling a lot more tense.

"….I'm gonna go," I get a brief look at the flush on Nikki's cheeks as she speaks. She abruptly pulls her hand from mine and looks away, "But… I'll be back tomorrow…. You're not as much of an asshole as my other friends. We should play together again..."

Somewhere within that insult, I think Nikki is trying her best to compliment me. Well, at least I think she's trying to compliment me. Smiling, I give her a wave. "Have yourself a good night. I might take you up on your offer. Well, as long as my shift doesn't run over or something."

"Bye." I watch as the bespectacled lady hugs her arms around her chest for warmth and bravely runs outside. How can she be cold? I mean, that pale sweater she's wearing must be the thickest piece of clothing I've seen in my entire life.

It has to be late by now. I haven't been keeping track of time. A quick peek at the shiny silver watch on my wrist confirms just that, "It's already midnight? Yeah… fuck it. I'm heading home."

The following night I find myself waiting at the video arcade yet again. I had fun playing with Nikki yesterday, and I'm hoping she comes back for another round of zombie shooting. Still, it's already close to eleven. I keep on watching the screen of the arcade cabinet. It's the same tutorial on how to shoot the zombies over and over again.

"Maybe she isn't comi-"

A little tug on my shoulder catches my attention, "You wanna play again? Well… we don't have to, but my boss is a total bitch. She kept me late even though I was only on the rota until Nine."

I turn around and catch the familiar and strangely comforting sight of those glasses and the dyed blue hair. Both of them, the combination of the two, they complement her wonderfully, "Sure thing, Nikki. I brought some extra change tonight, too. I'm determined to kill that thing with the double swords."

Nikki barges in beside me with a grumpy huff of anger, "Yeah well…. I'll try and save you some kills, but right now…. I'm feeling so shitty I can't promise you anything."

I'm laughing all over again. It's exactly the same as yesterday. As soon as Nikki is playing the game her entire persona switches around. I'm so taken aback by it for a moment that I barely notice she's already put in some money and started playing.

"House of Zombies! Press your gun to begin."

I do as instructed by the game. The arcade cabinet shrieks like a foul beast. With very little warning, we're both thrown into the chaos. I watch for a moment, my hands clutching the gun tightly as I see a cutscene I must have missed yesterday. A zombie in a fancy suit limps toward a screaming man and bites a whole in his neck. A car comes screeching to a halt just down the driveway shortly after, and two people I can only assume are our characters, get out.

I'm pulled away from the cinematics by Nikki's shooting. It seems like she knows just when the game will start. Just how many times has she played this thing?

"Well… come on," she scoffs impatiently, "Let's see if we can finish it today… I didn't come all this way for nothing."

"Right, got it!" I bring my eyes up observe the game's surroundings. A pair of rotted corpses are crawling closer and closer. I raise by gun to fire, "Alrighty…. Time to see if I've learned anything."

I pull the trigger. In a flash of light, one of the enemies goes down. Half a second later Nikki takes out the other. I hear her giggle a little bit. "You're getting faster…. I'm half impressed. Just… don't go slowing down or something."

Another half-compliment from the sweater-clad girl beside me is enough to give me this vague sense of accomplishment. "Hey…. I learned from watching you. I'd never even played this game before yesterday."

"You're lying," spits Nikki between downing another zombie, "There's no way you could shoot the enemies so fast without playing this before. Some of them move in really random directions."

"Call it luck," I smirk and reload my gun. There's a giant werewolf running straight for the screen now.

Before I even have chance to react, Nikki has emptied her entire chamber into the beast. With a swift flick of the wrist she reloads the gun and gets straight back to business, "There's no such thing as luck in games like these, Mikey. There's only skill."

"Then I guess you could say I'm skilled." My ego is getting the better of me. I'm enjoying House of Zombies far more than I should be.

I'm surprised as Nikki gives me a nudge in my side. From the corner of my eye, I can see a playful smile of competition on her chapped lips, "I'll only admit you're skilled if you can beat Hell Knight without losing a life."

Oh, that's fighting talk if I ever heard it before. It fills me with a sense of desire. Now I want to get through this game no matter what it takes. "You're on!"

"You must stop him…" I watch nervously as a girl our characters rescued starts talking. "Right through those doors is the Hell Knight, his greatest experiment yet. You must destroy it, or else the world is in terrible danger."

"Alright…. You're going down!" My hands tighten around the plastic gun as I prepare for the inevitable boss battle.

Nikki laughs a little and gives me a poke in the ribs. "Remember…. You have to beat him without losing a single life."

"I know… I know…. Just leave it to me!" I can do this. I have to do this! Wow, I'm being extremely invested in this game. Or maybe it's the girl next to me I'm more invested- No, that's a stupid thought. I only met her yesterday, after all.

"Pay attention! He's coming." Nikki's voice snaps me back to the gameplay. I was so caught up on my thoughts that I didn't even realize that Hell Knight had already appeared on screen.

This colossal undead behemoth in his heavy armor is fast becoming my nemesis. I hold the gun with determination and begin to fire away mercilessly. All of my shots bounce off his body, and seemingly unaffected, he keeps on moving closer.

"Aim for the middle of the chest. It's his only weak point!" Nikki barks in a barrage of shooting. She's easily able to knock him back where I had failed. The way she makes this game seem so effortless is a little mystifying in its own way.

"I've got it… I can do th-"A red slash mark across my side of the screen signifies the end of my hopes and dreams. Once of my life torches flickers out, and in an instant I'm cast to the void.

"Dammit…. He hit me! Ohhh… that's it! Now I'm serious." As if driven by some kind of instinct I take aim with the gun and begin blasting remorselessly at the gigantic monster on screen. "I'm not going to take such an insult lying down."

By the end, I slump against the machine and sigh. How is it possible that playing a video game can give me such a rush?

"We beat it… but you still couldn't take out Hell Knight with all your lives." Nikki puts the gun back in its slot and stretches her arms victoriously. As I'm watching her I find myself feeling a little intrigued by this young lady. What is it that drives my interest though?

"I guess that means I'm still not skilled enough, huh?" I put down the gun I'm holding and nervously await the verdict. As far as this game goes I get the impression Nikki is some kind of expert.

For the longest time she just stares at me, the fingers of her right hand resting against her chin as if she's some evil mastermind pondering her latest plan. "I wouldn't say that," is the response she finally gives me.

"You're being awfully generous. I didn't do much..." I'm kind of taken aback. After all, I got the impression I was playing worse tonight than I was the night before.

I watch in surprise as her cheeks flush slightly. Her body language is changing, becoming stiff and unnatural now that she isn't within the reality of the game anymore. "You did kinda…. You beat the Spider Queen for me…. Just when I thought we were going to lose…."

"The Spider Queen?" I'm astonished. All I really did was act as a glorified distraction by shooting at her webs. "You were the one that did all of the hard work, not me."

"Nu-uh," Nikki is so nervous she has the jitters now. I see just how badly her hands are shaking.

I'm more than a little worried about Nikki's sudden change in attitude. Wanting to calm her down, I reach out "Are you alrigh-"

"Sorry…. I have to go… right now…." Without so much another word she brushes past and bursts out of the arcade with the unlikely speed of an athlete. I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting it.

However, I'm surprised even further when she stops just outside the doorway and glances back my way. Her face is red as a stoplight. "Meet me at Nutmeg Café on Friday night… about ten. Bring plenty of chips and energy drinks…."

This is a turn of events I'm not expecting, "Nutmeg? You mean the place near Lusties Nightclub?"

I'm left waiting for several moments as the statuesque Nikki gives me a nod, "Unless you're busy or something…. I'll understand if you don't turn up or something…. I mean... I know I'm not very good at dealing with people and stuff..."

Without so much as another word she hugs her arms around her waist and runs off again, leaving me even more clueless than I was before. "Nutmeg Café on Friday? I don't think I'm working…. Maybe I should g-"

I'm distracted by a loud buzz of vibration in my pocket, "What in the hell?"

Curious, I reach down into the pocket of my baggy jeans and produce a device I thought I'd never use again. "The Huniebee? But… this thing's dead…. It switched off shortly after Kyu left…."

However, the magical fairy phone looks anything but dead right now. It's screen is bright with life. There's a picture of Nikki's blushing face there too. "An unread message?"

I take note of the 'Unanswered Message' icon at the top left of the screen. This is very unusual. I swear this phone has a life of its own. With a flick of my finger, I open up the message box.

'Wow… You're a mess right now, and I can't believe you're back to wearing those scruffy old clothes…. Well… there's still a tiny ray of hope for you at the end of the tunnel. That girl, the one who just ran out of here…. If you don't want to end up lonely your entire life…. I'd meet up with her if I were you. Oh, and stop drinking so much…. Nikki? She ain't anything like Audrey. Being a booze hound is really going to put her off. Well, that's all I've got for you…. Go get her, Tiger….'

There's no caller information with this message. How am I supposed to know who sent it? With a sigh, I place the phone back into my pocket and begin the long walk back to my apartment.

"Here I am, bumming around arcades and reading phantom texts on my phone. Christ, maybe I do need to lay off the liquor for a while….."

To be continued….

Thank you for taking the time to read this through to the end. I'm sorry if there are a few errors in wording here and there. It's quite a busy time for me right now, and I'm finding it hard to squeeze in my extra proof readings for each new chapter I put out.

Regardless, you have my thanks for reading. Please leave me some feedback if you would like, and I will see you in the next chapter! I'm also considering cancelling Life Problems, the prequel project. In hindsight, I don't see the need for it when so much is already explained in the main story. Nevertheless, we shall see. Keep on supporting the official release of Huniepop!