Departing from the warm hospitality of the coffee shop, Mordecai was immediately engulfed by the chilling breeze that blew outside. A gust of the numbing wind shoved against the avian, causing a series of shivers to course through his body.
"Now I know what Rigby was talking about..." Mordecai chuckled to himself.
The bird crossed his arms; somewhat hugging himself in an attempt to conserve his body heat.
Sun setting behind the autumn trees in the faraway distance created an array of somber colors and bittersweet euphoria. Mordecai couldn't help but stand in awe at nature's sudden majesty, observing the scene, as well as himself. Life was good and short, and there was no need to spend any of it fighting with his best friend.
It was a moment where you look back and realize your own faults rather than those of others, and guilt consumes you.
"How should I apologize...?" Mordecai thought to himself, rubbing at the back of his neck. They both said some pretty terrible things in the heat of the moment, but the bird would try and be the bigger man and patch things up. He wouldn't be able to stay mad at Rigby anyhow, so it would be stupid to try.
"Maybe I should get him something," the blue jay jested. "I guess I could get him that new game he wont shut up about." he decided, crossing the street towards the shop with a neon 'GAME' sign in the window.
There were dozens and dozens of shops around town, yet it was as if Mordecai truly only knew about the game store and the coffee shop. He lived in such a big and vast city, but he seemed to lock himself off to those two only places. Perhaps he and Rigby should do some exploring through the city sometime... The fact that an amusement park, of all things, had been constructed at some time and he'd never even heard a word about it should be proof that the park was its own little bubble that ignored the outside world and its rules. Quite literally at times.
Opening the door, he was once again greeted by the cheery sound of a bell, drawing the attention of the store manager to him.
"Oh hey! It's you!" The employee greeted in a bright manner.
Mordecai looked over the male with a puzzled look, observing the brunette's khaki pants and pine-green shirt. "Realm of Darthon" came to mind; a terrible roleplaying game that Rigby and he had purchased from the store a couple months back. It all resulted in a supernatural showdown, as usual, as well as Mordecai impaling the male with a wooden ruler.
"Uh, hey." Mordecai replied uncomfortably with a wave. It's hard to think of what to say to a man you nearly killed.
"I haven't seen you since that incident that we had." he continued, creepily.
"Er- yeah. You're alright- right?" Mordecai asked.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sure it's hard to believe, but that wound wasn't even near as fatal as one would think," the manager stated with a laugh. "You should have seen the look on the doctors face!"
"Well, good thing you didn't die and all..."
"Ha, thanks? But hey, where's your friend?"
"Oh, uh, he's not with me, but in a way I'm here for him." Mordecai explained, "There's this new game that he's been talking about lately, I figured I'd get it for him while I out."
"Hm, what game?"
The avian remained silent for a while, trying to think back to all the times Rigby had spouted non-stop crap about the thing. Something about how great the graphics were even though their gaming system was about as 8-bit as it gets. Hell, Pong may as well have better graphics than their Dig-Champs game.
"As many times as he's probably said it, I can't remember..." Mordecai sighed, "Something with an apocalyptic theme I think- with good graphics apparently."
"I think I know what you're talking about. 'Out of Time' ring a bell?" the man asked, Mordecai's face lighting up and coming to a nod.
Looking through the games whilst running his fingers along the cases in search for the title, the man eventually came to a halt, pulling out the game with a sly grin. "Found it." he stated, showing the case to Mordecai for approval.
The blue jay nodded in agreement once more. "Yeah, that 's the one. At least, I hope." the bird answered, flipping the game over and reading the back while the manager walked back behind the counter and to the register.
"Okay, it'll be $49.99." The man said, entering information into the computer.
Mordecai nearly choked at the price. "Do I even have that much?" the bird thought to himself. He could barely afford to buy his own lunch off the salary that Benson paid him. Not that he ever expected to be rolling in dough when applying to work at a public park as a low-class employee, but...
Ironically, at least 70% of his income was probably spent at the coffee shop as a front to see Margaret. Not that he really minded all that much. The coffee shop was a small business, and he saw no reason to choose not to support his friend's jobs in any way he could.
With much doubt, Mordecai eventually came to the positive decision on buying the game, despite it requiring about every spending dollar he had on him. He and Rigby played video games together though, so it a way, he was getting both of them a gift.
"Make sure to keep track of that game; you don't want to end up losing it!" The man chuckled as Mordecai left the store with nothing but a dinging bell behind him.
The blue jay laughed to himself. "There's no way in hell I'm losing this after paying that much for it."
It was getting dark now, the sun almost fully set as the stars became visible in the night sky one by one. It was also very quiet, the only sound that could be heard through the silence being the rustling of the plastic bag in Mordecai's hands and well as the patter of the bird's steps on cold concrete.
There were a few people scattered around the town here and there, barely any cars driving through the streets, which seemed odd. Irregular.
Modecai wasn't against it being quiet; it was definitely more pleasant, but its out of the ordinary nature slightly frightened him. Stepping off of the concrete sidewalk and onto the dirt trail through the park's gates, the bird could see light escaping the windows of the house in the distance.
Once again, he began to think about his apology, practicing saying it in his head. What would be the best words to use?
Step by step up the porch's stairs, Mordecai froze in front of the door as if it were all a life-or-death moment. The bird placed his hand on the knob of the front door and stopped. Today had started off as any other day, but then transitioned to severe argument with his friend, and even him working up the nerve to ask out Margaret... somewhat. There had been a little good and bad in this day in short.
"Hopefully it can just keep getting better..." Mordecai thought, walking into the house and becoming engulfed in the warm air. The door closed behind him and his eyes began adjusting to the florescent lighting.
"Hey, Rigby!" The blue jay called immediately upon entering the house, "Come here for a second, bro!" Mordecai added, heading towards the kitchen. It'd been a long day, and the bird had been kicking himself about not ordering anything to eat at the coffee shop.
"Wonder if Pops kept leftovers..." Mordecai thought hopefully, scavenging through the fridge.
"Hey Rigb-" Mordecai began once again, stopping himself at the sound of metallic footsteps clicking against the kitchen's wooden floor.
"What are you yelling about?" Benson groaned, walking up next to Mordecai and taking a bottled water from the fridge.
The blue jay gave Benson a puzzled expression. "Why are you here so late? Shouldn't you be at your apartment already?"
"I'm the one who asked the question first," the gumball machine retorted snidely, "And while it's not really any of your business, I got called here."
"What about?" The bird questioned, now slightly interested.
"Skips has been working on something and he needed me to come and help out for a while." Benson sighed, "I kinda wish he'd made the decision to tell me before I drove all the way home though..." the metal man stopped for a moment, taking a swig of his water, "But Rigby ended up calling in about needing something too, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone."
"Of all metaphors to use..." Mordecai muttered incoherently, "Speaking of Rigby, where is he? Helping Skips too?"
"Are you joking..?" Benson frowned.
"What do you mean?" Mordecai asked, "Is he still upstairs? He might be mad... we had a bit of a fight earlier."
"Thanks for finally answering my question." Benson mumbled.
"Huh?"
"Mordecai," Benson began, taking a deep breath, "Rigby quit earlier today."
The two figures just stood there, looking at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Not a single sound could be heard throughout the entire house. Not a single sound.