Death of a Dream
Chapter III: A Night on the Town
"Biggs? Biggs….?" That voice…I know that voice. Jessie.
I cracked my eye open a bit. When my vision cleared, I saw Jessie's concerned face hovering over me. I wasn't laying on the box anymore, more like one of our blankets spread on the floor. I sat up and looked around. We were the only two downstairs. Hn, Cloud. I saved him from being a greasy spot on the wall and how does he repay me? Not a thank you, kiss my ass or nothing. I still had a headache, but I stood up and half walked, half stumbled over to the elevator. Jessie stopped me.
"Biggs, please, sit down…"
"Bu--Aw…fine." I sat down on one of the boxes.
"You don't like Cloud, do you?"
"What makes you say that? Who's the one with the black eye and the broken jaw here?"
Jessie remained silent. "Oh nevermind…"
I stood up and made my way to the elevator again. She didn't make a move, still bent over the table in deep sorrow. Was it something I said? The elevator slowly took me up to the upper level. Wedge was poking at his food, Tifa and Cloud were talking at the bar and Barret sat at one of the corner tables. They all looked at me but I said nothing. Barret gave me kind of a glare. I left the bar without a word.
Shortly after I left the bar, Wedge came running out and caught up to me.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
I sighed then turned to face him. "…Nowhere."
"Please, come back…"
"Barret is still in his mood. I don't feel like becoming a human pancake on a brick-wall griddle again"
Wedge sighed, then went back into the bar without another word.
I headed for the weapon store that was across the 'road' to our bar. Morris greeted me.
"Hey! Biggs, how's things?"
"Peachy." I replied flatly.
"Great! Hey, I got this new gun you might like, take a look?"
"Sure." He handed me the gun and I inspected it.
"Hey, what's the matter? You look down."
"Thanks for noticing, nothing is wrong. How much?"
"300 gil. I'll throw in the bullets for free."
"Good deal, fine." I handed him 300 gil and he gave me a large box of bullets.
For the next few hours, I wandered around the different sectors of the slums, stopping by and Wall Market and getting something to eat, checked out the armor store and picked up a few pieces of materia for my new gun. A cure and a bolt. That will come in handy. I also picked up a few potions and a phoenix down.
I glanced at my watch. 2:30 AM Midgar Standard Time. By now they were all probably sleeping. I headed back to Sector 7 and went over to the bar. I took my key out and silently opened the door. In the shadows, I saw Barret, still sitting in the same place.
"Where've you been?" He said in barely above a whisper.
"Shopping." I put my bag of things down on the table then laid down on the cold wooden floorboards. Barret sighed and climbed down the elevator hole.