((Almost immediately after writing the first chapter, I went to work on this one.))
The day wore on, boring, simple, easy. Sayori and Zachary spent much of their time enjoying each other's company by watching movies, telling stupid jokes, reminiscing about the old days.
"So, what have you been up to all this time? I know I sorta fell off the radar when I left." Zachary speaks. Sayori fiddles her fingers, unsure how to recap 3 years-worth of life. "Oh, I've been working as a Vet Tech." She says with a half-hearted smile.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, after Graduation I discovered a love for animals and so I've been working reeeeally hard to help them." She pauses, feeling the conversation was very much one sided. Zachary looks on with absent-minded intrigue. "And so, I'm hoping I'll be a full Vet in the future."
"That's great to hear. Glad to see that klutzy girl I grew up with-"
"Hey!"
Zachary laughs. "It's sounds like you're doing great things. I'm proud of you." Her face lights up with approval. "What have you been up to?" Sayori asks as she shifts her weight till she's fully on the couch facing her childhood friend.
"Busy." He says in dry monotone. "I'm serious. You never told us your plans and you just left." She frowns, a hint of hurt can be seen. Zachary sighs in discomfort. Should he tell her? What would rest of the former Club say? Besides, would it even matter? The whole point of him leaving was to find out his passion in life, his journey. So much time spent being attentive to everyone's problems he never truly sorted out his own existence on this planet.
"You just said you were 'going to see the world.' That was it."
"Listen I-"
The front door swings open, cutting off the conversation. "Sayori!" A shrieky woman's voice enters the house. Stepping inside a smaller more petite woman with a bitter scowl on her face stomps her disgruntled self into view. "Are you STILL cleaning up this dump? Ya know full well he might not ever-"
"I should really learn to lock the damn door."
"Who the-?" She stops just as she reaches the living room. Her pink eyes dart from person to person, attempting to make heads or tails of what she was witnessing. Anger, frustration, confusion, all of it spiraling inside of her as she clenched her fists so tightly blood could course through at any moment. Was she dreaming? Or did one of her closest friends just allow a stranger into the house? What's going on here?
"N-Natsuki! H-hi!" Flustered, Sayori leaps up from the couch to face the much smaller woman. The tension in room was crushing. Sayori was in distress now, and Zachary was disturbed. "I was just uh…" She trailed off, fiddling her fingers again lookdown and away at the floor trying to come up with an answer.
"And who the hell is this? You let a complete nobody in here? Are you trying to get kidnapped or murdered?!" Natsuki huffs, her face glowing red with anger and fury. "I swear Sayori. You are completely hopeless sometimes."
"Oh, for God's sake! This is my home. Hi! Nice to see you too?!" Zachary waves in a sarcastic manner. Ugh! This is so stupid!
As if she snapped from a dream her demeanor changes and she calms down. Natsuki stares at the stranger for what seems to be like an eternity. Finally, it registers to her that this man is the one and only. She starts towards the couch, edging closer still in disbelief at who she is looking at. She edges closer and closer. She closes the distance entirely to the point she leans over the couch and stretches her arms out. She clasps either side of Zachary's head and forcibly rotates in every angle.
"The hell are you doin?" Zachary pulls her hands off him. He scrambles to his feet and looks at her with a look of confusion and irritation. Granted his arrival was unannounced. There was no plan, just come home and gradually show his face around. "3 years…" She mumbles.
"Say again?"
"3 YEARS. And you just show up looking like a completely different person! Then you just casually mosey on in here like everything is just A-OK." Natsuki shouts. "You moron! You idiot! Where have you been? What have you done? How? Why? Why now?"
Sayori looks to Zack and he back to her unsure of what to do or how to respond. The man, now a stranger in his own home, sighs dejectedly and motions for both women to sit. He knew him returning would be a big deal, how big was another matter entirely. Really? I just wanna relax.
Zachary proceeds to summarize the course of events from the last three years. Stories of how he felt down on his luck, no direction, no purpose.
"I felt like I was going nowhere fast. Didn't want to go to school. Couldn't bring myself to follow in my dad's footsteps even though it pained me to make that choice." He described the sense of loss, aimlessly venturing day to day. Until he decided "I would join the Army." The two girls gasped in shock; they opened their mouths, but no words could come out. "The Army? GI Joe? Army Wives? That Army?" Zachary looked at Sayori as she mumbled two military themed shows. Ah jeeze. Really? Ignoring her he continued. It was immediately after he finished OSUT(One Station Unit Training) for Infantry that he was scooped up for Airborne School and later the 75th Ranger Regiment.
He stopped immediately after that. "That was pretty much it." He said. "I just pretty much lived that Army Life and all it ever had to offer me for the next 3 years. Crazy, it flew by so fast." He shrugs, the story wasn't as exciting as he could have hoped.
"That's it?" Natsuki sounds disappointed. She furrows her brows in frustration at everything Zachary and her hands ball up into tiny fists again. "That's the absolute dumbest reason for not keeping in touch!" She stood up and raised her fist to him. "You're an idiot Zachary. A complete jerk!"
"Nice to see you too."
"Shut up! It may have been a vacation to you! But after you left…" Natsuki trails off before finishing. "Never mind." She turns and heads to the front door. "It's cool that you're back and we're happy to see you. Truly, you have been sorely missed. But, I'm not so sure about Monika and Yuri."
"Oh, I bet they'd truly be happy to hear this. If your reaction is any indication." That just seemed to piss her off even more.
"They uh." Sayori interrupts suddenly. "They already know you're hear. I sorta texted them while you were rambling about being a Power Ranger."
"I'm a what? You did what?"
"Sayori. Why? He doesn't-"
"It's only my first day back!"
"I know! But I was so happy to see you again and I figured they would be too! Assuming they even show up." Sayori looks down, setting her phone aside. "We finally get to hang out together. All of us." She looks up with a disappointed expression. "Besides, it's not like they responded. I'm sorry" She recoils further into the couch.
I just wanted to be home in peace. Zachary sighs harshly. This is not how he pictured coming home. Sure, he'd swing by and see everyone, if they were even still around. If they were even still around. However, he wanted to do it on his own time, in his own way.
"Look guys. The sun's coming down. Let me unpack and we'll hash all of this out tomorrow. Okay?" Sayori hesitates but gives a reluctant nod. Natuski shakes her head and leaves the house. Sayori looks up at him and forces a smile. "It's good to see you again. We'll catch up more tomorrow I guess."
"Yeah."
The house was finally empty. Peace at last. Zachary locked the door after a few minutes to make sure they were gone. He hauled the olive-green duffle to his bedroom and cracked it open. Removing the contents, he gazes at them fondly. First the clothes, those were easy. Not living in the Barracks meant he could afford to be a bit piggish with his organization. However, his need to compress everything for space kicked in. Each article of clothing was rolled up and placed neatly into each vacant drawer. Next were pictures which he laid out on the nightstand. Then a triangular wooden frame encasing a flag with medals accompanying it on either side.
"There." He says to himself before throwing his worn clothes to the side. Zachary climbed into his bed, the nostalgic comfort sent a soothing vibe throughout his body. Like he never left. Except you did. What were you expecting? For them to just embrace you? Sayori did, but she's a different creature altogether. He shakes his had and pulls up his phone. As the videos flashed to his eyes, he felt the weight of sleep overcome him.
Tomorrow is another day. Let's start over then.
((I've never been terribly good with scenes handling multiple characters at once. The amount of dialogue and perspectives always jars me and causes me to drag it on too long.))