"Okay, don't make fun of me," Mae said as they all ascended the stairs.

"We've been over this, babe," Trent replied. "And you've mostly emptied it out, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. It's kind of a reflex at this point. The only reason I don't live in a pile of trash is because I live with three really responsible and cleanly people."

"Admittedly that is true. You're a walking mess sometimes, but I love you."

Candy giggled.

"Mom, I truly thought that experience we had in the graveyard was going to be the peak of my relationship with you, but seeing you stoned might actually top that."

"What happened in a graveyard?" Lucy asked.

"Nothing we can talk about," Candy replied. "And I am not stoned, I'm just a little toasted, sweetest daughter of mine."

"You're a little stoned, sweetheart," Stan said.

"No one asked you, love of my life," Candy replied.

"You two are adorable together," Lucy said.

"Okay, here it is," Mae said.

They all came up into Mae's attic room. Trent looked around it, surprised by how much larger it seemed with most of the stuff out of it. Besides a handful of boxes, all that was really left was her broken futon and her old desk.

And a lot of trash and dirt on the floor.

"Okay, this is pretty messy, Mae," Claire murmured. "But I love this room. I am feeling this place. It's amazing up here."

"Right?!" Mae replied. "It's great up here."

"I could be happy up here," Claire murmured. "At least, I think so...I hope so."

"You should be happy," Candy replied. "You're a sweetheart, Claire."

"I don't know about that," she murmured. Claire turned to face them all, as she'd walked to the middle of the room. "So...this is really happening? You're really cool with me just moving in here tomorrow and living rent-free until June?"

"Yes," Candy said as Stan nodded.

"What are the, uh, rules again?"

"Don't be loud. Don't be rude. Don't make a mess. Common sense stuff, I think. We'll figure out the food situation, probably clear you out a shelf in the fridge and a cabinet, so you can have food to yourself, but you'll always be welcome for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we're having it here. And if you give me a list and whatever money you can spare, I'd be more than happy to grab what you need when I go to the store. I go about once a week."

"I, um, thank you, uh...oh man, I'm feeling something," she whispered, putting a hand to her chest. "Like, intensely. What the hell is this? I feel like I'm gonna cry."

"It's okay, I cry, like, all the time now," Mae said.

"You do?" Stan asked.

"I mean, okay, not all the time, dad, but it's good crying! Mostly."

"Oh! I know what it is. Um. Oh man. This is really awkward," Claire said, fanning her face. "But...I'm pretty sure I'm suddenly feeling what it feels like to have, um, actual parents who care about you."

"Oh sweetie, I'll be your mom for awhile if you want," Candy said, walking over to her and opening her arms.

"You don't have to...oh man…" Claire suddenly hugged her and started crying.

"There, there, it's all right," Candy said, hugging her.

"Man, this got heavy," Lucy murmured. "I'm gonna...go back downstairs."

"I think I will too," Stan said.

"Go on, I've got this," Candy replied.

Trent and Mae lingered as the other two left. Trent had to admit, after all he'd been through, this didn't weird him out nearly as much as it used to. He walked over to the futon and sat down after seeing that it had been temporarily repaired with a couple of bricks propping up the broken leg. Mae joined him and they waited. If he had the impression Claire wanted him to go for this, he would have, but he didn't, and she'd cried in front of him before.

In a way, he was a little surprised that Candy just seemed to know what to do without hesitation, but he supposed he shouldn't be. During what little he'd seen of her in handling serious situations, she was calm and competent, and although their relationship was somewhat rocky, it had become obvious to him that her and Mae's relationship was ultimately a good one, and Candy cared deeply about Mae. A lot of parents said they'd kill to protect their child, but Candy was one that he didn't have a hard time believing at all.

Mae took his hand. He looked over at her and found her staring at him with a serious, intense expression. He raised an eyebrow in silent inquisition, wondering if he should be concerned, but she just smiled and then pressed herself against him and hugged him tightly. He let out a small wheeze, yet again surprised by her great strength. Now, whenever he was reminded of it, he always instantly recalled Gregg shouting 'How are you THIS strong!?' as they wrestled around on the forest floor during that night in the woods.

"Ah, man, I'm sorry," Claire said after another few moments as she disengaged from Candy. "Jeez, I really kill the mood, don't I?"

"You don't," Candy replied, "and you don't need to apologize. You needed that. I know what it's like."

"We all do at this point," Mae murmured.

"Yep," Trent agreed.

"Well, um, I appreciate it. The hug. And kindness. Um. I'll be right back. I need to wash my face," Claire said.

"We'll be here," Candy replied. She studied Mae and Trent as Claire left the attic, then a small smile came onto her face. "I know that look," she said. "That's the 'I love him so much I'd do anything for him' look."

Mae laughed a little awkwardly. "Yeah. It is."

"What provoked it?" Candy asked.

"I guess...I saw Claire start crying, and it reminded me of Ann saying that she couldn't cry around her ex-husband. He got mad if she did, or ignored her. And that was really sad. But now she's with Trent, and she's cried around him-that's what I was thinking of, I guess. One of the earliest memories I have of all three of us is waking up in the middle of the night because I'd gone to sleep, and Trent and Ann were hanging out downstairs, and she was crying, and it woke me up, and I was so worried, and I came downstairs, and she told me it was okay, she was crying because she felt safe enough to cry around Trent, and he was trying to make her feel better. And he's done that for all of us, me a lot. He doesn't get weird about it, or angry, or just ignore us, and he doesn't try to stop it. He just holds us and lets us cry and it feels really, really good, feeling safe like that."

Candy smiled at them. "I'm so glad I was right about you. When I met you, Trent, I could tell two things right away. The first was that Mae was extremely smitten with you, and the second was that my gut told me you were very caring. I've been wrong before, but I didn't think I'd be this time, and I wasn't. And tonight I was just thinking about how you two have had such a positive impact on our lives! You both got the ball rolling with that big Longest Night party. Stan and I reconnected with people we haven't seen in years. Bea's dad, Jacob Warton, Ann's mother. And then when you were telling us we really need to make more parent friends and we aren't all that old, Mae, that really struck a chord. Lucy and I are becoming fast friends, and your father is happier than he's been in years, hanging out with Jacob and Allan and now he's getting to know Lori's father. And it's all so much fun!"

"I'm really glad, mom. It's nice seeing you and dad happy," Mae replied.

"Likewise, daughter of mine."

They looked over as Claire returned. "Sorry about that," she said. "I feel better now, though. Also, Candy, I don't want to, like, impose on you or anything. I appreciate all that you're doing for me, but I don't want to make it weird, like I'm trying to get you to be my stepmom or anything."

"It isn't weird Claire," Candy said. "There's a lot of things I don't like in life, and more that I just tolerate, but one thing that I found I don't just like, but love, is being a mother. I'll never stop being Mae's mother, even fifty years from now I'll be her mother. And it's become obvious to me that most people need that, and too many people don't get it. And if I can give that experience to someone who needs it, even a watered-down version of the experience, I want to. I'd be thrilled to, Claire. I know your parents have been...difficult."

Claire sighed. "Yeah. They're...I don't know. I can't say they don't love me, exactly...or maybe I can. I don't know, I'm sure if you asked them directly they'd be insulted by the question, like of course they love their daughter. But it's all lip service. At least for the past several years. They only ever care about me when they have to, you know? They thought I was missing tonight because I stormed out of work and my brother said they were going to call the cops, but I know it's only because they're worried it'll somehow screw them over if something bad happens to me. I always felt like they resented me, because they had me young and not on purpose."

"I know how you feel," Trent muttered. "My parents are the same way. So glad they're not in the picture anymore. None of my family is."

"Bad families suck," Claire agreed. "But, if you're comfortable with it, then okay. You were always nice to me when I was babysitting Mae."

"You were a great babysitter," Mae replied.

"Yes, you were. Mae was...a handful," Candy said, then giggled when Mae sighed.

"Would it be too much to ask to let me clean this room up by myself like, right now? Like vacuum and stuff? It would make me really happy," she said.

"Yes! Go nuts! Also, I'm going to leave a spare key on the kitchen table for you, make sure you grab it before you go back to Trent's and Mae's place, so you can come and go as you please. The vacuum cleaner is in the hall closet on the second story, and there's cleaning supplies in the bathroom under the sink. Don't worry too much about keeping us up. I'm off tomorrow and Stan took tomorrow off so we could actually celebrate four twenty for the first time in...oh lordy, over two decades. Lordy," she whispered. "I'm getting old."

"I still can't believe you used to smoke, mom," Mae said.

Candy laughed. "I think you'd be surprised by just how many parents toked up when they were your age. Or still do. I'm really glad I tried it again. It feels good and just...calms things down." She smiled. "On that note, I'm going to go heat up some lasagna and smoke some more and try not to fall asleep. I imagine your father will have a hard time with that."

"Man, I can't even imagine being sleepy at nine at night," Mae said.

"Getting older sucks," Candy replied, getting to her feet. "Tell me if you need anything, Claire."

"Thanks Mrs. Bor...uh, Candy."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

"Can I smoke with you?" Mae asked. "That would be just the coolest thing in the world."

Candy pursed her lips, then shrugged. "If you really want to. I've got a mom instinct to disapprove, but I'd be a huge hypocrite, and you are an adult now, and plenty of people your age drink with their parents, so why can't you smoke weed with your parents?"

"Yay!" Mae cried.

"How about you Trent?" she asked as they all began heading back downstairs.

"Yeah, I'm down," he replied. "It'll be so weird, though. But a lot about my life is so weird now, so I don't really care about weirdness."

"Good!" Candy declared. "Life is weird, life is strange, life is painful, life is fun, for all of us, so you might as well just embrace everything."

"I'm a lot closer to being able to do that after all the shit I've gone through," Trent said.

"Yep," Mae agreed.

Candy giggled as they came back into the living room to find Stan asleep on the couch, leaned back, his feet up on the coffee table. Lucy was messing around on her phone. "See, what'd I tell you?" Candy said. She grabbed a pair of thin joints off the table from a little baggie and passed them and a lighter to Mae and Trent as they sat back down in the chairs.

Stan came awake as Candy sat down between him and Lucy. "Oh-mmm. Hi. What happened?" he asked, sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "Mae, are you smoking a joint?"

"Yes, mom gave it to me," Mae replied as Trent lit it for her, then lit his own.

"She's an adult now, dear, and if we're going to smoke then it wouldn't be right to keep her from doing it," Candy replied.

Stan sighed. "I guess that's true. Just feels a little weird. I can't imagine getting high with my dad."

"I can totally imagine getting high with grandpa," Mae said, then giggled. She looked at Lucy. "Hey, Lucy, how's Lori recently?"

"Fine, mostly. She had a tough day today, though. Just one of those days, I guess. She woke up in a bad mood, said she had nightmares. She was really touchy today...I did what I could for her, but she mostly wanted to be alone." She frowned, then took a pull on her own joint. "Also, for the record, Lori's father knows I'm here, doing this. He was going to join me, but with Lori having a bad day, he wanted one of us there with her. I was prepared to cancel but he said I should go, enjoy myself, be with my new friends. There's always another time for a double date, and Lori needed her dad today, so ultimately I came out."

"That sucks," Mae said. "I know exactly how she feels. Sometimes it's just like...I don't know. Like I just wake up and I lost some dice roll. Today, my brain is like 'you're going to be in a terrible mood and be way too emotional over everything for absolutely no reason at all!', and you try to rein it in, but it's so hard, and you just want to be alone. Or sometimes I just don't want to do anything. Or sometimes I want to do something and yet my brain rejects everything. I have to admit, this is helping," she said, holding up the joint for a moment.

Lucy pursed her lips, thinking. "I'm weirdly mentally healthy. I am a little neurotic, sometimes I get fixed on stuff and a little hyper, but I can't really call it anxiety. Certainly I don't have depression. And for the most part I've come to really appreciate that about myself. But on the other hand, I've also come to realize that there is such a strong disconnect between people like you and I, Mae. Or me and Lori. I simply do not understand depression and anxiety, beyond an academic level." She paused, considered that, took another toke.

"Okay, I understand it, but I don't get it, if that makes sense. It's like trying to describe an injury or a sickness to someone who's never had it."

"Yeah, I get that," Mae replied. She took a pull on her own joint, then took it out of her mouth and stared at it.

She went on staring at it for so long that eventually everyone was looking at her.

"You okay, babe?" Trent asked finally.

"What?" Mae asked, jumping slightly, looking around. "Oh man, everyone's looking at me. Did I do something dumb?"

"No, you just sort of zoned out there, dear," Stan replied.

"Oh. Yeah. I was just thinking. Something just hit me like a nuke. I was thinking...huh, how do I put this? This time last year, I was in college, and I was dying. That's dramatic, but it really felt that way. It hadn't gotten really bad yet at that point, but the descent had begun. Every day felt worse than the last. By the end, I was terrified and sick all the time…"

"I really wish you had told me any of this when you showed up at home," Candy murmured. "I would have understood better. When you arrived, I was just-I was so confused. And upset. If you had told me how bad it was, how you were feeling, that I needed to help you-"

"I know mom," Mae said, "and I'm sorry. But for some reason, somehow, I just couldn't. I tried. I tried a few times, but it was like my brain just short-circuited every time I tried to explain what was wrong with me. Maybe...it was the Goat? Or maybe I was just so messed up I just couldn't. But, so, anyway, uh, what I was thinking. What hit me. I guess, I had a vision all of a sudden. Or, well, a thought really, a scene playing out in my head, of me, working at, like, the Ham Panther or the gas station or something, drowning in misery.

"What I mean is, I feel like...oh! Okay, I got it. You know how in some stories or games there's a choice to be made, and sometimes you get the good ending, and sometimes you get the bad ending? Or timelines? You get the good timeline, or the bad timeline. I feel like I got the good timeline. The one where I have a boyfriend, and a girlfriend, and have my own place, and live with my best friends, and smoke weed with my parents, and I'm actually making a real go of being a horror Let's Player, and I dealt with all the worst stuff. But it was just as likely that I could've got the bad ending. Working a job I hate, unmedicated, still living upstairs, alone. I mean, I'd have Bea, Gregg and Angus would move on eventually, I wouldn't be as close with Selmers, I'm almost sure. I probably wouldn't have made peace with as many people as I had...it's just really scary."

She looked at Trent. "If I hadn't met you, I'd be in the bad timeline."

"I don't know about that," he replied uncomfortably. "You're strong, and smart, and really determined when you want something-"

"Yeah, but you gave me so many opportunities. You gave me a place to stay. You gave me money. You gave me opportunities to expand my relationships in ways I'm almost positive they wouldn't have. I never would've gone for Selmers, I had no idea she was bi or into me at all. I don't know if I'd be as close with Bea now as I am. I certainly wouldn't be a Let's Player. I know you think you don't deserve all this stuff, that you lucked into the money and the house, but it doesn't matter! What matters is what you did with it and what you did was help basically everyone you came across."

"She has a point," Candy said after a moment.

"I...don't know what to say to this," Trent replied finally.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything. I know it's true, and I know you love me, and you gave me more...than I even thought possible. And I have a lot of really good people in my life, who have done great things for me, and I'm really finally starting to see that, and just how significant it is, but you've done a lot for me, and you didn't even know me. Not really." She paused, lips pressed together in concentration as she stared at him. "Sometimes I see Bea or Ann give you this look, this look of like intense focus, or amazement, and I know what it means. Usually. It usually means: it frightens me, how much I love him, and I stand in disbelief at all he has done for me."

"Jeez, come on, Mae," Trent muttered uncomfortably. "This is like textbook putting me on a pedestal."

"I know, it sounds really over the top, but it's true. Or...maybe I'm blinded by love, but I don't think so, man. Given all the stuff you did for us, like...most dudes would've walked when things got crazy. But you didn't. I asked you to go up to, like, the gates of Hell, and you did it. You didn't even hesitate." She paused, then looked around, then sighed. "This got way too heavy. I'm sorry. I guess weed makes me introspective sometimes."

"Mae may be a little lovestruck," Candy said, "but she's mostly right, Trent. You went way, way, way above and beyond the call of duty as a boyfriend."

"Jeez, what the hell happened, exactly?" Lucy muttered.

"It's complicated and we can't really talk about it," Candy replied.

"Oh. Well, okay then. But...I've got one other question."

"Yeah?" Mae asked.

"What's the goat?"

Silence fell across the room.

Shit, Trent thought. This was the problem with getting stoned and too comfortable, it was all too easy to let stuff slip.

Shockingly, Mae picked up that particular dropped ball, and skillfully.

"I've had a recurring nightmare about a goat for a lot of my life," Mae said in a surprisingly convincing tone of voice, "and it's sort of come to represent, like, all my mental problems? But more than that, too. It's complicated. It's what I call my problems. I don't really talk about it. It's...personal."

"Oh, okay. I can respect that," Lucy replied, and everyone relaxed.

"Thank you," Mae said. They looked up as the sound of a vacuum cleaner started up. Mae laughed. "I can't even remember the last time I vacuumed up there."

"I did while you were gone a few times," Candy said. She grinned suddenly, a grin that was big and goofy and Trent was almost tempted to call it an anime grin. Candy hugged herself and wiggled a little. "It's so good to have you back!"

"Mom, you are like...you get so giddy on weed," Mae marveled, then giggled. "And I'm really glad I'm back, too. Although it's weird. I was back for a long time...but it didn't really feel like I was really back until sometime recently. Or...I don't know. Time is weird."

"Time is so weird," Lucy muttered. "I can't believe I'm thirty nine. Sometimes that scares the shit out of me. Oop." She covered her mouth. "Should I be cursing less? I feel like I'm way too comfortable here right now and it's sorta slipping out…"

"It's cool," Stan said, and Candy giggled.

"Yeah I...at some point that line got crossed," Mae murmured. "I guess I can't remember when I suddenly thought it was okay for me to say 'shit' in front of my mom and dad."

"It's a gradual thing," Candy said. "I'm more concerned that you know when to hold your tongue, at least for cussing. But that's always been such a problem for you dear."

"Yeah…"

"But, Lucy, it, uh, yeah, time is very strange," Candy said. "It's really weird and sometimes it's really scary. Sometimes I suddenly realize I'm not twenty four anymore. I know it sounds weird but-"

"No! I know what you mean!" Lucy cried. She looked suddenly at Trent and Mae. "I don't know how to get it across to you but, like, cherish your youth while you have it. Because it goes in ways you don't even realize."

"It's not all at once, that's the thing," Stan murmured. They looked at him. He seemed to be contemplating his joint again, holding it between his thumb and finger and staring at the smoking end like it was fascinating.

"Are you going to smoke that or look at it?" Candy asked, trying not to laugh.

"What? Oh. Uh...I do that, for some reason," he mumbled. He took a puff and then put it back down in the ashtray. "I was saying, youth doesn't go all at once. It drains away...really, really slowly. Like sand. A grain at a time. But it's so gradual that you don't wake up one day and feel old, you wake up one day and realize you began to feel old, but you have no idea when."

"Okay. Yes. That," Lucy said, nodding.

"I started having lower back pains in my late twenties. Knew a guy who started going bald at thirty. Another guy who started going gray at twenty eight, and another at thirty eight. I'm still not there myself. Loud sounds get way more annoying. Stuff starts bugging you, you start getting tired earlier, bit by bit, and not all in a row either. It's not like suddenly I hit forty and couldn't keep my eyes open past ten. It was just...some nights I'd find I really wanted to hit the hay at nine o'clock. Then it was more than some nights. Then it was most nights. Over the course of years, you know?"

"That sounds scary," Trent muttered.

"It is, but also it isn't. Stuff bothers you more, but stuff also bothers you less. And I think it also bothers you differently. I remember freaking out over stuff as a teenager and into my early twenties, but now? When something goes wrong, it bothers me for sure, but I don't, like, panic. I guess that's what mellowing out is. Things are less AHHH and more uhhhhh. If that makes sense."

"Oh my God that makes perfect sense!" Mae cried.

"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "I still kinda freak out like a teenager though sometimes, but I'm a little manic. But I have mellowed, yeah."

"Yeah, you mellow, and you slow down too. I could pull all nighters a lot in my twenties and even into my thirties. But now? Forget it. I mean, I can if there's some kind of emergency, though I'll probably catch a nap at the first opportunity."

"Got any advice?" Trent asked.

"Yeah. Find a balance. That stuff we always tell you kids about exercise and eating right? It ain't bullshit. Right now you can pretty much survive on whatever the hell you want, and that's a great feeling. You kinda feel invincible. But in your thirties, that'll catch up with you. And if you don't catch yourself soon, you'll be paying for it. And the thing is: it's a lot harder to start making a habit of exercising and eating right at thirty five than it is at twenty five, and way harder than that at forty five. It isn't impossible, but you'll have a much better time if you get the habit started sooner rather than later. On the other hand…" He hesitated.

"Come on, dad, don't hold out on us," Mae complained.

Stan laughed and picked back up his joint. "I guess, on the other hand, don't let yourself get too into 'doing what you're supposed to do', if that makes sense? Don't work your life away. Don't diet your life away. Let me tell you, suffering through your twenties and thirties and forties so that you can probably have a great retirement is a really dangerous bet. More now than ever before. And honestly, I don't really enjoy a lot of things the way I used to. Don't be afraid to live in the moment...just not all the time. Take vacations, take walks, waste time, sleep in, smoke a little weed, get a little drunk. Just...not all the time, you know? Enjoy your life while you got it." He pursed his lips, then laughed. "Although I guess you aren't having any problem with that, huh?"

"After all the absolute BS I went through...I earned it," Mae said.

"I'm not disputing that. I'm also not discussing it. Because you're my kid. And I'm not discussing certain aspects of your life. But one last thing I wanted to say is...don't fall into the trap of believing that you're gonna get what you deserve. Mae, I love you and I would give you the whole world if I could. I know Candy feels that way, I know Trent feels that way. But the world doesn't feel that way. For the most part, it doesn't even know you exist."

"Oh...don't worry dad, I know all about that," Mae said. "Angus once told me, 'I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do'. It stuck in my brain like a bullet. The universe doesn't care because it can't. Things will just happen. But we can care. And we should. And I do."

"That's a really, really good way to put it," Lucy murmured.

"Yeah," Candy said.

"I thought so, too. But yeah, I figured that out, at least. Sometimes I think it's just how we are, like, as a species. But sometimes it bugs me." Mae frowned, then twisted her lips uncomfortably. "I don't wanna start shit, but...I keep hearing from your guys's generation how my generation always thinks we deserve everything, we're entitled. Like it gets thrown in our faces a lot. But also, like, aren't we supposed to stand up for ourselves? Ask for our fair share? It isn't wrong to ask for dignity and decency, and fair pay for fair work."

"I think I can offer some insight there, kitten," Stan said a little ruefully. "I kinda used to think that way a little. Maybe more than a little. But I think it's important we consider each other's realities. My reality, when I was your age, was that, well, we didn't have it quite as good as our parents, but we really could pay for college and a house and a car and a family on two jobs, sometimes even one. That's what we saw growing up, that's how we grew up. And that's a thing about getting older, well, two things, I guess." He paused, considered in further.

"The first is that: it gets harder to adjust to real life. You kinda just...get settled, you know? And real life is always changing, but it's changed more in the past twenty years than it has in the past two hundred years before that, I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but it really feels that way. When I was your age, cellphones were literally science fiction. Barely twenty five years separates us, Mae. Consider that. But the other thing is, that first thing makes it harder to change. I still kinda think the nineties was a decade ago. Hell, sometimes the eighties. The fact that gas prices have reached over four dollars is unthinkable. House prices? Forget it. I know how easy it is to get stuck thinking like that, that it should be relatively easy to work a job, get a place to live, start a family. Except it isn't. I know it isn't, but I got anchored in a different time. I know it isn't, but I feel it is. And most people don't get past their feelings."

He chuckled suddenly. "Older people all go on about feelings, about how all the young ones care about is their feelings and how overly emotional they are, but the ironic thing is I've seen more boomers throw goddamned temper tantrums over a coupon than I ever have seen millennials. Honestly, the more I educate myself about just how screwed the world is today, and I realize more and more what it must have been like growing up, the more amazed I am that you all aren't basically screaming your heads off all the time. I would've lost my damned mind if I had to live through this shit as a teenager."

"It does suck," Trent muttered.

"Boomers are the real snowflakes," Lucy said, then laughed.

Trent felt his phone buzz and pulled it from his pocket.

He had a message from Bea: Everything going okay over there? It's been awhile.

"Oh shit," he muttered, putting his blunt his mouth and responding.

"What?" Mae asked.

"Bea. We never really let them know what's up," he replied. Everything's cool. Claire's gonna move in tomorrow, she's cleaning up the room right now while we're he paused and considered it for a moment hanging out with Mae's parents.

There were a number of reasons why it might not be the best idea to admit to smoking weed with Mae's parents via text.

"Oh yeah," Mae said. "Should we invite them?"

Trent thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "I think it'd be too weird for both of them, honestly."

"...yeah. Bea would get weird about it because she's Bea, and Selmers would get weird about it because she's older."

"Older?" Candy asked.

Mae shifted uncomfortably. "Well…" She sighed. "Don't, like, tell her or anything, but she's always been a little uncomfortable with the fact that she's, like, eight years older than me. I think she's just worried about how it looks."

"Hmm," Candy replied. She seemed to think about it, then finally shrugged. "I don't have anything to offer beyond: your relationship seems healthy and you seem happy and safe."

"Thanks, mom," Mae replied, and for once it didn't sound sarcastic. She yawned suddenly. "Crap, I'm getting tired. Why? This is BS, I'm having fun."

"You're just like your father," Candy said, then glanced over at him, then snorted in laughter. He'd nodded off again.

"Wow, I guess so. I get weird from you and sleepy from dad."

"I love being around you all," Lucy murmured.

"I want to stay for a bit," Mae said.

Trent thought about it. He was positive that if they stayed for much longer, he might end up having to carry Mae back. She still just about straight up passed out sometimes. Well, that was okay. He could do it, and she was having fun.

"I'm down for that," he said.

"Yay!" Mae replied, which caused Stan to come awake with a startled grunt.

Candy giggled loudly.