The drive to the location of the double date was a short one. It seemed like a high-profile place. Everyone was dressed in very formal attire. Now, Angus knew it had to be something special. What was it, though? It wasn't anyone's birthday or the anniversary of any significant events. There was no way Bea would agree to a place like this if it wasn't something big going on.
Once they were inside, they were greeted by someone at the entrance, "Welcome. Do you have reservations?"
Bea pulled out her id, "Santello. Table for 4."
"Right this way.", the man led them into the restaurant.
"Reservations? Wow.", thought Angus. He wished they had warned him ahead of time. They almost couldn't make it because of the home study.
Once they were seated, they were told to wait for a waiter for just a moment. Angus seized the moment to start asking questions.
"So, are you going to tell us why you of all people would decide to drop what I'm assuming is a lot of money on taking us to a place like this?"
"Come on, Angus, be patient. Let's at least order our food first before you start interrogating me.", replied Bea with a smug smile. She was clearly happy about something.
Before Angus could respond, a waiter came up and asked them what drinks they'd like to start with. Angus went to just order a soda, despite the other exotic sounding drinks on the menu, but Bea stopped him, "Come on, you can do better than a soda. Please, order anything. I'll be paying."
Angus wasn't even sure he was talking to Bea right now. This was insane, but he gave in and ordered some purple drink with a name he couldn't pronounce. He knew he would probably regret it, but if Bea was insisting, he figured he'd give it a shot. Gregg and Mae both ordered a drink that managed to be multiple colors all at once just because it looked cool. Bea ordered a martini. She was the only one getting an alcoholic drink.
After the waiter left, Angus began his questions again, "If you don't want to tell me why we're here, fine, but why didn't you check with us before you made reservations for all four of us. We had our home study today. We almost missed this."
"Yeah, that was totally my fault. I forgot about that. I was just really excited."
"Why?", asked Angus.
"Nice try, but no. I'd rather we not be interrupted by a waiter in the middle of the moment."
"Does Mae know what it is?"
"Nope.", replied Mae, "I think I might have an idea of what it is, though."
Angus sighed, "Fine, I'll drop it."
"Trust me. It'll be worth it.", promised Bea.
Their drinks came. Bea, being the only one to get a normal drink, enjoyed hers. Mae and Gregg took sips of theirs before spitting it back out into paper towels and drawing attention from nearby tables.
"How could something so colorful be so bad?!", exclaimed Gregg.
Angus slid Gregg's drink over to him and drank some himself. It was incredibly strong and bitter. He swallowed it but slid it back, not wanting to drink anymore, "Okay, wow, that is something."
Angus looked at his own drink. He was afraid to try it, but he did anyway. As soon as he did, his mouth was engulfed in sweetness. It was overwhelming. It wasn't as bad as Gregg's, but the overly sugary taste wasn't something he could drink a whole glass of.
"I knew I should have just gotten a soda.", said Angus.
Bea laughed, "Come on, trying all of the crazy stuff is part of the fun… Well, it's fun watching other people do it at least."
Angus did have to admit that the looks on Gregg and Mae's faces were pretty funny.
"Okay, sure. I guess we should look at what this place has to eat.", said Angus, picking up a menu. There were plenty of options, and he could recognize most of them this time, being a decent cook himself.
Angus chose a nice-sounding casserole. Next to lasagna, a good casserole was one of his favorite things to make and eat. They were so flexible. Gregg decided on a medium-rare steak. His love of meat was limitless. Mae settled on some salmon. If she couldn't have tacos or pizza, fish would always be the next thing on the list, or any seafood, really. Bea went for a salad. With Mae around, Bea could only enjoy a good salad if she made something else for Mae, which she never really felt like doing. Mae refused to ever eat a salad, and she held her position very strongly to Bea's minor annoyance.
Their waiter soon came back and took their orders. Then, they were left to talk amongst each other again.
"Hey, Mae. How's that computer coming along?", asked Gregg. Mae had been saving up for a gaming computer as her next big purchase.
"Pretty good. I have a thousand saved up.", replied Mae.
"You have a thousand dollars, and you don't have a computer yet?", questioned Angus.
"No. Good computers are expensive."
"Okay, when we get home, I am ordering you enough parts to build a gaming computer that can run almost any game on high settings for under 500 dollars, and I will build it for you.", said Angus.
"Wait, really? You can do that?", asked Mae.
"How do you think I got my computer to run so well? It's not like we had tons of money to throw around back when we used to live in Possum Springs. Over a thousand dollars on anything wasn't affordable back then. Trust me, you'll get a better computer for so much less this way."
"Wow. Thanks, big guy. I'm so glad we've got you in our group. I mean, not just for computer stuff, of course, but it is still pretty nice that you can do stuff like that."
Gregg wrapped an arm around Angus, "That's my husband for ya. He truly is the smartest out of all of us."
"Well, Bea was valedictorian.", replied Angus.
"Yeah, but that's school skills. You have actual skills."
Bea raised an eyebrow at Gregg, giving him a warning look.
"Uh, I mean, I'm sure Bea has actual skills, too. I didn't mean that you didn't have skills. I was just saying that school smarts aren't everything, you know?", said Gregg nervously, shrinking away from Angus.
"Uh-huh, sure.", said Bea.
"Yeah, Bea has lots of skills.", said Mae, "I mean, she's had to manage stores for years, and do you know how many types of nails she had to know about?"
"I don't see how knowing about different kinds of nails is very useful.", said Gregg. Bea glared at him, which caused him to nervously look around, keeping his eyes as far away from hers as possible.
"It's not the nails that matter. It's the fact that she can remember things well.", said Angus.
"Right, yeah. Um, let's change the subject, please. If I keep talking about this, Bea's gonna try to murder me in my sleep or something.", pleaded Gregg.
"Trust me, she totally would.", said Mae, "She's better at stabbing people than you."
"Mae!", yelled Bea.
"What?! No way! There is no way she is better than me!", argued Gregg. Other customers began looking at the ensuing argument.
"You act like being able to stab people is a good thing.", said Angus.
"In some cases, it is! Like, what if you need to protect yourself?! I've been fighting with knives since we were in middle school! Bea's never been in a knife fight!"
"Well…", started Bea.
Gregg gasped, "Mae! You didn't!"
"Didn't what?", questioned Mae.
"You haven't been knife fighting with her instead of me, have you?! That was our thing, Mae! How could you do this to me?!"
"Gregg, calm down. I haven't been knife fighting with Bea, okay?"
Gregg calmed down a bit and sighed, "Okay. So, what sort of knife fight have you been in, Bea?"
"Well, it was back when you got stabbed. After that guy stabbed you, and Mae ran off, I took your knife and chased after them. He tried to attack Mae and then me, but I was able to cut his arm, so he couldn't fight with it anymore. I left a fight with the guy that almost killed you unscathed.", explained Bea.
"That's not fair! I was protecting that other guy!", argued Gregg.
"And I was protecting Mae. What's your point?"
"I didn't have enough time to get my knife out! You already had it out! If I had had my knife out, I would have won easily!"
Mae lit up, a lightbulb going off in her head, "I know how we can settle this! You two can have a knife fight!"
"What?! Hell, no!", replied Bea.
"What? Are you too scared? Do you know you'll lose?", said Gregg.
"No, I don't want to because getting stabbed isn't my idea of a good time."
"Come on, Beabea.", Mae pleaded, "You'll only be stabbing each other in the hands."
"I don't care. I'm not going to fight Gregg with knives. I'm not fighting Gregg, period. He probably is better than me. Let's just leave it at that."
It wasn't long after that before their food arrived along with a small warning about their volume and not disturbing the other customers. Everyone began eating and enjoying their food. It was then that Bea brought out a folded piece of paper and slid it to Angus. Angus looked at Bea in confusion.
"You seemed to want to know so badly, so I'll let you see it first.", said Bea.
Angus picked up the paper and unfolded it. He began reading.
Dear Beatrice Santello,
We here at Bright Harbor Community College would like to congratulate you as one of this year's students accepted into our school's academic curriculum.
Angus didn't need to read any more to grasp the weight of the piece of paper he was holding.
Angus smiled excitedly, "Bea, this is… No way…"
"What is it, cap'n?", asked Gregg, trying to look over his shoulder.
"Bea's going to college.", said Angus. He finally understood why Bea would be so willing to splurge on this fancy restaurant for them. To her, this was more than worth celebrating.
"I knew it! Yes, you finally did it!", exclaimed Mae, hugging Bea.
Bea was beaming as the contents of the paper were revealed. She knew that all of the effort she went through to hide it until now was probably pointless, but she wanted this moment to be amazing, flawless, and with no interruptions. This marked her finally reaching that dream she had given up on all of those years ago.
"This is great! What are you studying?", asked Angus.
"I'm majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology.", answered Bea.
"Psychology? I thought you wanted to be an engineer? You were always the math and science type.", questioned Angus.
"What's sociology?", asked Gregg.
"When are you starting?", asked Mae.
"Okay, everyone calm down. I can't answer you all at the same time. First, I'll be starting next semester at the end of August. Second, sociology, in a nutshell, is the study of human society. Last is why I decided to major in psychology. It's pretty simple, really. I want you all to think about your lives. Think about your lives and tell me what all of you have in common."
"Where are you going with this?", asked Angus.
"Do I have to spell it out for you? It's because of you. The three of you are why I'm doing this."
"Us?"
"Yes! Think about it. Before we all made it to Bright Harbor, our lives were pretty traumatic. We all had our life-altering tragedies or mental breakdowns. I'm honestly surprised we all became functioning members of society with Dr. Hank as our town's psychologist. I wish I could've helped you. I wish someone could've helped me. I don't want other people to feel like they don't have those options. That's why I'm majoring in psychology."
"That's really admirable of you.", said Angus.
"Thanks. You know, Mae's seeing a counselor. It's really been helping her. I know it may not be my place to ask, but have either of you considered seeing one here in Bright Harbor? They're so much better than Dr. Hank here.", asked Bea.
"No.", said Angus without hesitation.
"That was pretty fast. I'm not saying you have any serious mental issues or anything, but I'm sure there has to be something that you might want to talk about. I've actually considered seeing one myself. We've all been through a lot. It might be good for us to have a professional outlet."
"No. I don't have any problems. I'm happy. Nothing's wrong anymore.", said Angus, aggravated.
"Okay. What about Gregg?"
Gregg was lost in thought when the question was thrown at him. The mention of his name broke him out of it, though. "Huh? Oh, me? I mean, I've never really considered it before. Aren't those people really expensive?"
"Does your work give either of you mental health insurance?", asked Bea.
"Mine does.", answered Angus.
"Okay. There are plenty of counselors who accept insurance. There wouldn't be any out of pocket expense. You'd just need to have a time set aside every week or every other week to see them."
Gregg thought about it. He was having some doubts after Angus' response, though. "I mean, if Angus doesn't need it, I don't really see how it would make sense for me to start going. His life's been a lot worse than mine. I don't think I need it." He seemed slightly disappointed as he gave his answer.
Angus could immediately see that Gregg was lying. He'd gotten so used to Gregg hiding his feelings from him that he developed something like a sixth sense for it.
"He wants it, doesn't he?"
"That's no reason not to go. Think about how many people wouldn't see these people if they thought like that. There's always going to be someone who has it worse than you. You can't let that stop you from helping yourself. Now, if you don't want to go, then you don't want to go. That's your choice. If you're happy like you are, that's great. I just want you to know that just because your life is going well, it doesn't mean there can't be things that are hurting you. One common trend in people with depression or anxiety disorders is that a lot of them have lives that should be making them happy, but they aren't happy. That's no reason to think less of what they're going through.", explained Bea, "The same goes for you, Angus."
"I said no! Stop trying to get me to see a counselor when I don't need one! Yes, my life was shitty, but it's over now! I'm never going to see my mother or my father again! They can't hurt me anymore!", replied Angus angrily.
"I never mentioned your parents.", said Bea.
"What else would you be talking about?!"
"What else? Are you serious? What about the cult? What about Casey? What about when Gregg almost died? What about your baby?"
Angus felt the gravity of the things he didn't say pulling on the pit of his stomach. How could he forget about all of it so easily? His anger died off instantly.
"I'm not seeing a counselor.", said Angus quietly, now focusing on only his food.
"…Fine." Bea saw that she went too far and backed off.
Mae and Gregg looked at each other, taking in what just happened. There was an awkward silence for a few minutes as everyone ate, but eventually, Mae and Gregg were able to spark up a casual conversation to carry them through the rest of the meal.
The meal came to an end, and Bea paid as the four prepared to leave.
"…I'm sorry about all of that stuff I was talking about. It isn't my place to try and get you to see a counselor.", apologized Bea. She internally scolded herself for letting her excitement of this new future for her push her that far. She wasn't qualified to psycho-analyze people! She hadn't even started! Still, she had felt something off about Angus recently. It was probably just his stress over the baby and the adoption, though.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm fine. I'm happy now. I have Gregg, after all."
Gregg blushed, "Aww, I'm so flattered."
"As long as you're happy, I'm fine.", said Bea.
After that, they all went out to the car and drove home. It was pretty late by the time they got home, and it wasn't long before they were all fast asleep.
