Quick note, before I start on this one. this kind of seems like a jumpy start, and in hindsight I probably shouldn't have changed the original chapter break, but the first chapter was REALLY short, so I took a section or two from this chapter and put it in chapter 1 instead. So this kind of starts weird, but don't worry about that. =3
Chapter 2: == Invite Jade to the fun awesome times.
"Hey, you like video games?" you ask her.
"Yeah, I play like Minecraft and stuff! I like adventuring! Oh, and Halo! Shooting stuff is fun too!" Jade exclaimed happily. You mentally punch the air, glad that you have the chance to help her out a bit more today.
"Well, hey, I'm gonna be going to some fun awesome times with some friends of mine, some chill guys and gals, and there's definitely gonna be some craftin' of mines, and shooting stuff in quite a few different shooter games, not to mention some DDR. If you're interested, you can come. It's gonna be an all-nighter, and to be honest, I think you could use it." You really think that she could use it too, it's not just some ply to hang out with this cool girl who gets cooler by the minute. You think that definitely would be a plus, though.
== Jade: Decide whether you should go.
You were just asked to go to what appears to be some fun awesome times with some of Mike's friends. You think that this friendship is moving fast, if he's asking you to stay the night with him and his friends, but you know he's trying to help. You try to think of a way to let him down with making it clear that you'd love to hang out with him later though. But as you think about tonight and how it may get lonely, and you might get depressed again, you find yourself saying "Yeah, sure! That sounds awesome!"
He motions to his car, and says "Alright, sweet! I'm headin' out there now. Hop in." He steps over to the driver's door of his dark green cavalier, a color which is absolutely amazing, and once he's inside he reaches over to unlock your door. You get into a car that is a little bit messy, but since he appears to be a college kid, you don't really think anything of it. You remember riding in Dirk Strider's car when he was in college, and it was a lot messier than this. You look in the back and see the remains of a 12-pack that reads "MTN DEW", which is where the can you are holding probably originated. The other contents of his backseat include a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, a black CD case, and some books and folders, which are surely for school. You jump a little as his CD starts blaring out music, and he hurriedly turns down the Japanese rap, apologizing. As he turns down the volume, you notice it originally rested at 50. "Sorry, I like my music. I used to not like rap, either, but hey, I've found that I like my beats fast and my bass down low. Plus my front speakers haven't worked for months, so all my sound comes from the back."
"It's okay, really! It just surprised me!" you say quickly, and it really was just a surprise. Dave played his music loud a lot too, which often upset his neighbors. On the subject of upsetting people, you pull out your phone to try and contact your Dad. You should probably tell him you'll be staying at a friend's house tonight. You know he's at work, though, so you'll just leave him a voicemail. As you call, Mike pauses the music, considerate of the fact you are on the phone.
"Do you want to swing by your place so you can pick up some clothes and whatever else you may need?" He offers as you hang up the phone, "I mean, you could probably fit into my other shirt and pair of jeans, if you wear a belt, but if you want your own, that's cool too."
"That'd be great! I didn't even think about that!" You say to him, and direct Mike to your house. As he pulls into the driveway he remarks how close you actually live to him, just a couple streets away. You think that's awesome, and tell him so, exclaiming how easy it will be for you two to hang out! You are happy about this development as you invite him inside your house, and he says thanks and takes off his shades as he enters.
You say to make yourself at home and run upstairs to your room to pack some things. Your brother, John, walks out of his room, probably to see why you were home so early. But you see he's carrying his PDA, and has a chat open with Dave on it. Dave is your brother's best friend, so you should've guessed that the two of them would be chatting about it.
"Jade, Dave says he really wants to talk to you about this," John says to her, not really wanting to get involved, but probably he just owes Dave a favor. You tell yourself you won't get mad at your brother. After all, he is family. "No, John, I don't think I could possibly talk to him right now. Plus, I've got plans. I'm going to go hang out with some people tonight, and I'm just here to get some clothes to change into," you tell him as you both walk into your room.
"You're going to stay at someone's house tonight? Who could you possibly be staying with? Obviously not Rose, yeah, but who?" John asks, crossing off the obvious choices of who it wouldn't be, and probably going over his mental list of her friends.
"It's someone new. This guy I met today, he and some of his friends, not all guys by the way, are getting together for a gaming party. He invited me to come along!" you tell him happily about your plans with Mike, and you quickly add, "and if you tell Dad that it's with someone I just met today, I will rip your family jewels off, feed them to Dave, make him vomit it up and then make you eat your vomited-up junk."
"And nobody likes vomited junk. Sounds like I'm already rubbing off on you," a solemn, pleased drawl emanated from the doorway, as Mike stepped into the room. He raises his chin at your brother and says, "Sup bro?" before turning his attention to some of the posters and other things in your room.
"Um, hey," John says, and turning to you he adds, "Honestly, I think you've been through enough already today from Dave. I've already told him that I'm gonna have to rough him up a little bit because of it. He doesn't think I can, but he forgets about my pogo-hammer!" John starts pecking away at Dave on his PDA, a hand-me-down from Dad your brother just can't seem to let go of.
"He seems like a chill bro, doesn't he?" Mike observed as he took a look at some of the CDs you had sitting next to your stereo. You reply, "Yeah, he's usually fairly level-headed, unless you diss Nic Cage or something like that."
"Does he have Con Air?" he asked, probably because you mentioned Nic Cage, "I've never seen the movie, and I've kinda wanted to watch it for a while. The whole put the bunny back in the box and the scene with 'How Do I Live' is starting to reach meme status on the internet, and it's made me curious."
"Yeah, he does! It's one of his favorites, actually! You'll have to get with John and have a movie night! I'll watch it with you guys, too! It's not a bad movie, really." You are happy to already have another get-together with your new friend in queue. Just some planning and you'll all be curled up on the couch or maybe in a blanket fort in the basement together, just like you, John, Rose, and Dave used to when you were kids!
You stop yourself at the thought of Dave again and look down, almost bursting into tears again, but you hold them back. Mike seems to know it as well as you do, and you see his two colored shoes come into view next to your own feet. You look up just in time to see him wrap his arms around you into a loose, comforting hug. "It'll get better. Trust me, it always gets better," he said, resting his chin on top of your head. You are somewhat surprised at this, because at first glance he didn't seem quite so tall, but you realize he probably slouches most of the time. You smile as you return the hug, and then after a few moments decide you should finish packing and let go.
Mike turns to your bass guitar sitting in the corner and walks up to look at it. "You play it, then, or is it like my sister who just never got around to it?" he asked, running a hand across the sunburst design body of the guitar.
"No, I play it. I've played since I was eight or so," you tell him, as he picks it up to take a closer look.
"That's pretty sweet. I've always thought it'd be cool to learn bass. I picked up my sister's once and taught myself a couple bass lines from Beatles songs by ear, but I never got to do too much with it. Piano's always been my thing," he says, putting the instrument back on its stand, and walking over to your closet where your many dresses and your collection of shoes are.
"Is it always your habit to snoop around girls' rooms when you are at their house?" you ask, teasing him about his curiosity.
"Nope, you're just a special case," he replies, "I was just thinking how disappointing that your window doesn't have anything I can grapple onto around it. That'll make it hard to sneak in at night." He sends a devilish smirk your way as he says that, and you're pretty sure he's just being a bit snarky in his replies to keep the mood light. Or maybe he's just naturally snarky.
"You could always use the balcony down the hall. That should be easy to get to. That's how John's girlfriend always sneaks in at night," you raise your voice loud enough for John to hear from his room, and as he hastily calls back that she isn't his girlfriend, you add, "You're right, how silly of me! You're HER girlfriend, aren't you?"
"Wow, girl, do you and your brother mess with each other like this all the time?" he asked, grinning at her, clearly amused by you and your brother's silly banter, "Reminds me a lot of my sister and I."
"Not all the time, really," you say, but you decide you should probably add, "but it does happen quite a bit." You shoot him a toothy smile as you finish packing your bag with everything you'll need for the night. "Got everything?" he asks, and you nod in response, turning to the door to leave.
== Mike: Drive to the fun awesome times. But first, show off a bit.
You follow Jade back out of her room and down the hall to the stairs, and as you pass John you give him a quick three fingered wave, like you normally do. You aren't quite sure why your index finger, middle finger and thumb are the only ones you ever wave with, but you're chill enough to just roll with it. You walk down the stairs and only stop to look at the nice looking baby grand piano in the sitting room off to the right.
"You like it? Dad got it for John a few years ago," Jade says as you walk up to inspect it, "I think he even bought it from where you work!"
"Oh, I'm so jealous, man. My parents never really had the cash for a baby grand, let alone even a new upright. And, y'know, lack of space makes it hard to get a baby grand, too. This thing is a beauty," you say, almost having to literally keep yourself from drooling over the piano. "You know, you can play it if you want," John says from the doorway.
You take up the offer and sit down at the piano, playing some chords in rising volume, and after the final cord, you move your left hand from the E two octaves down up in a two octave arpeggio and back down, changing one note each time you move up and back down: G, then A-flat, then A, then back to A-flat. As you start back at G again, you add in chords which the arpeggio harmonizes gracefully with, and as you begin the next section of the song, you see Jade jump up in the corner of your eye. You see her whisper something to John and he nods, watching your rather large hands play the large chords without too much difficulty. At least, probably with less difficulty than he would play it, because you notice his hands are considerably smaller than yours. You wonder what they were talking about but quickly stop that line of thought because you have to focus on your music as you run the arpeggiated chords all the way up and back down the piano, sextuplets occasionally replacing them. You reach a slower part of the song, and here you always relax a bit before it speeds up again. As you draw near to the end of your memory, you fade out, turning to the siblings who applaud.
"That was from Kingdom Hearts, wasn't it? Dearly Beloved?" Jade asks you, and you nod in reply and say "The concert paraphrase of it, yeah. I only have half of it down by memory, but if I had the music with me I could play that whole thing." You learned that piece only a few months ago, and played it at your final recital. You stopped taking piano lessons in preparation for college soon after that recital. Over ten years of lessons has made you a good pianist, or so people tell you. You don't always agree with them, but you don't honestly argue the point.
"That was really good, man," John says, "that piece is beautiful. I've heard the whole thing once. I'd like to hear you play the rest of it sometime." John looks somewhat happy to have found another person who shares such a fondness for the piano. "For sure, dude, we'll have to jam out some tunes sometime. Also, I hear you've got Con Air. I want to watch that too," you say to him, which makes his eyes light up and he enthusiastically agrees that you'll have to get together and do all that sometime, hopefully soon.
"Hey, Jade, we should probably get going, we still need to stop at the store and pick up some drinks," you say, motioning towards the door, "I really did most of the setting up for this, even though it's not at my place. My friends have a bit more open space for sleeping though, so it works." Your friends that you are talking about have been two of your best friends your entire life, and you kind of think yourself as the mediator between the two of them, since they often fight with each other. You wonder if in some alien species if that kind of relationship is considered romantic, because that's the kind of thoughts that pop into your head in times like these.
You decide to drop that line of thought immediately as you and Jade bid John farewell and exit her house. You pull out of her driveway, marking your next destination as the grocery store to pick up some chill drinks and maybe a snack to eat along the way.
"Hey, isn't this the same track that was playing earlier?" Jade asks as the one-track CD that you had in the player restarts. True, it's a half-hour long mix, but it's still considered one track. "Yeah, actually, would you mind finding the CD marked PGL disc 1?"
== Jade: Find the disc.
You look through Mike's extensive collection of burned CDs, looking for the one he mentioned. You pass by many strange titles which you aren't sure why, but they sound familiar: Mobius Trip and Hadron Kaleido, Prospit and Derse, "Strife!", as well as some more assuredly recognizable names like his Legend of Zelda mix, his Kingdom Hearts mix, and the Beatles. You think that the Beatles don't really fit the mood of the other discs, but this is a guy wearing formal clothes and two different colored shoes for goodness' sake. You pass by a few volumes marked "Crush on Hardcore" before finding the two discs marked "PGL", and inserted the first disc. As a guitar riff starts up, you think that maybe Mike was right. Maybe you two meeting wasn't just coincidence.
== End Chapter 2
A few quick notes again! At the current moment, I am actually working on the Concert Paraphrase on Dearly Beloved. It's an incredible piece, and I highly recommend listening to it. Also, a quick note on the CD choices. I honestly just pulled names out of a hat for the albums I used, and the mixes for games is just as arbitrary. In my mind, other realities could be able to bleed through into the one being viewed, if the memories, the ideas, or the mind is strong enough to handle them. Most often, this happens in sleep, when the mind is more easily penetrated. This is what gives someone a feeling of Deja Vu. Also, on the note of recommended material, if you like Hardstyle or Hardcore techno, I can't help but point you towards Crush on Hardcore. Since the project has been finished after the 5th album, unfortunately the website is down, but if you look you can still find them. Finally, "PGL" is the shortened name for PreGame Lobby, a Halo machinima series from a couple years ago. Unfortunately, it was never finished, but the music they use in it is great. I really do have the two-disc mix I put together from it in my car.