As was assured, Seth was there not more than ten or maybe fifteen minutes after Kinsey's call, to pick up his late buddy's sister and apparent girlfriend…..as he assumed, anyway.
When he pulled up near the front of the store in his old ford truck, the windows were down and Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads could be heard blaring from the speakers.
When he reached across the bench seat to open the door for the girls, Kinsey stepped in ahead of Sam and started smacking him for it.
"Ow, ow! Easy!" He cried out. "What'd I do now? Oh, psycho girl. Niiice!"
Seeing Sam climb in next distracted him, causing Kinsey to smack him again.
Sam just rolled her eyes as she buckled herself in next to Kinsey.
"Are you done now?!" Kinsey demanded.
"Are YOU?!"
"Well, Cam's not here to do it, so…" She reminded him.
"Yeah, but he didn't do it as hard!"
"Good!"
Sam just snickered to herself at Kinsey's protectiveness.
"It's fine, Kins. I'm used to it." She sighed. "...besides, it is a good song, still."
"Thank you." He cranked the radio back up. "See? Psycho Girl gets it."
"I have a name, by the way. It's Sam. You'd do good to remember that, lest you end up on my list." She said it, especially that last part, with a devious smirk.
Seth looked genuinely scared for a moment. "Wait, what list?"
Sam took her good, sweet time waiting before she answered that.
"...it's more like a notebook…" She finally explained. "...of checkmarks that each represent someone else who has something to say about me or my name. But let's also keep this…" She waved a hand in front of his face, gesturing to his expression in reaction to what she'd just said. "...in mind, the next time you decide to get cute with someone you think was born to serial killers."
He just shook his head and nervously cleared his throat as he tried to change the subject.
"So, uhh, where am I taking you again?"
Sam grinned proudly at the reaction. "That's what I thought." She chuckled to herself in amusement. "...and look, I do appreciate you doing this."
"Yeah, well, it's the least I can do for Cam's little sis…" He reached to mess up Kinsey's hair, to only little protest from her. "...and her….well, you." He chuckled.
"And her me." Sam laughed. "Smooth, Seth.
"Look, I'm just trying not to assume anything, alright?" He chuckled. "Would you cut me some slack already, and maybe go back to appreciating me? Please?"
"Yes, we can." Sam teased. "I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"Your noble willingness to chauffeur around the alleged Seed Of Ghostface has not gone unnoticed." She snickered.
This got another good chuckle out of Kinsey.
Seth just rolled his eyes as he began to pull out of the parking spot.
"Whatever, man."
"...I don't know, can I put it back on?" Billy teased Stu, who was still holding onto his shirt, after Billy was cleared to put it back on after having his freshly stitched scar tended to, back at the hospital.
"Maybe.." Stu snickered, recalling Billy's behavior on the way here. "What's the matter? Not in the mood anymore?"
"Yes, forgive me if the idea of our daughter and her little girlfriend showing up here and probably walking in on us is a bit of a mood killer. Genius." He started to yank at the shirt…..almost immediately regretting the decision. "Gimme tha-Agh! Fuck!"
"Babe?!" Stu panicked, reaching a supportive hand toward where Billy was favoring his wounded side.
"Wrong side!" Billy groaned. "...wrong side. That's all. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." Billy insisted, showing him the injury again. "See? Didn't even fuck up the stitches."
"Yeah, I see." Stu mocked. "Now who's the genius?"
He shook his head to himself and sighed, letting slip a chuckle at his decision that it wasn't worth the argument.
"Touché." He said instead.
"Touché, he says." Stu mocked.
"Yes." Billy smirked, playfully, at his husband. "...You gonna give me the shirt now or are you gonna make me beg for it?"
Stu perked up a little at that and returned the smirk.
"I didn't know that was on the table." He teased, before eventually tossing it over to him. "Yeah, you can have it back. Not like you were getting any now if you did beg for it."
"I thought we already established I wasn't getting any til later." Billy snickered as he pulled the shirt over his head.
Stu didn't say anything else, just smacked Billy's good side, teasingly, as he noticed the girls approaching.
"Dad!" Sam exclaimed, running just ahead of Kinsey. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I told you, I'm fine." Billy reminded her, pulling up from the bottom of his shirt just enough to show the wound. "See? Just the side, wasn't even that deep."
"Yes, he is trying to convince himself of that." Stu joked.
Billy just smacked his shoulder, getting a small chuckle out of Kinsey.
"Ow, easy." Stu whined, trying to sound convincing. "You see what I have to deal with here?"
Billy just snickered, before redirecting his focus back to Sam.
"Really, Sam. Everything's fine. You didn't have to uproot your date for this."
"I never said I- " She started to ask, til she was distracted by a small lump that appeared to be moving around under Billy's flannel that was laid out under Stu's chair.
Kinsey began to look just as curiously at it, as Sam walked over to lift up a bottom corner of the shirt and exposed a familiar little tabby cat, whose chest and paws were white and who was now sitting upright and purring.
"Hey, kiiitty." Sam cooed as she leaned down to pick him up. "I know, it's okay."
The cat, briefly confused, seemed to settle down more, once Sam adjusted him more comfortably in her arms and immediately looked at Billy.
Kinsey gave some looks to the both of them, looking equally as amused.
"Team Trash cat, 10. Team Billy, 0." Stu laughed.
"You know, once upon a time, you were team Billy. What happened to that?" Billy teased Stu. "And how is that ten for him?!"
Stu took Trash Cat, gently, from Sam's arms as she handed him to him.
"Because look at him, Babe." Stu urged. "He gets all the points."
"That the three of you have exhausted me over the matter, does not mean he gets any points." Billy chuckled.
"Well, what changed today?" Stu persisted.
"You know what changed today, I wasn't going to leave him out there. Not after that."
"Yeeahh, you were worried about him." Stu giggled at the thought.
"More like you wouldn't let me hear the end of it, if I didn't." Billy insisted. "Now, put him back down before someone sees him."
"Such a softie." Stu giggled to himself this time, stroking his hand down the cat's back, who was still purring on his lap.
"We are not discussing this any further." Billy sighed, looking for a chance to change the subject.
He eventually looked back to Sam as his next thought occurred to him.
"Anyway, how'd you guys get here so fast? Didn't you just say you were getting a ride?"
"Smooth, Billy." Stu chuckled, letting the cat jump back down to the floor.
Billy just rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored the remark.
"Well, Seth was already in the next shopping center over, when I called." Kinsey explained. "That's- he was a friend of my brother's. His girlfriend, Lauren, works right around there.
"That was nice of him, awfully convenient…" Billy tried not to sound like he was too suspicious.
"Yeah, well he and Cam were pretty close before…" Kinsey added.
Billy nodded. "Well, why don't you two go wait out in the car? We'll be right behind you, as soon as this one can find an out for that damned cat."
"Good luck with that." Sam chuckled just as amused again, as she started to leave with Kinsey. "Oh, uh. What about Asami?"
"Still with Kinsey's mom from when we dropped her off there this morning, to keep an eye on her while you were at school."
"Okay, that's good." Sam sighed.
"Yeah, you might wanna let her know we can pick Asami up on the way." Billy added.
"I'll call her." Kinsey agreed, taking her phone out as she started to leave with Sam again.
"Thank you."
Stu looked back over at Billy, after the girls were both clearly out of earshot.
"So, what was convenient about it?" Stu finally asked.
"Nothing in particular." Billy shrugged, looking back down toward the cat.
"...just revisiting the list."
"You're not buying any of the owed favors bit, are ya?" Stu prodded him.
"No, I'm not particularly against it…."
"But you've ruled Leslie out?"
"I'm saying I did a number on whoever was at the house today." Billy corrected. "...and neither she nor that little girlfriend of hers is getting back up and pulling the kind of Michael Myers shit that the bastard pulled on me. Even if she wasn't actually caught at the school."
"Michael Myers shit?" Stu laughed.
"Well, whoever it was sure got out of there fast before I came back."
"But you didn't do enough of a number on 'em for there to be a chance it was someone who drove a car over here?"
"No, Stu. Because apparently the possibility of there being a second person again apparently vanished from the conversation." Billy scoffed. "Now let's go before that damned cat of yours disappears from the equation too."
Stu looked behind him at the cat, who was now slowly wandering the area sniffing everything around him.
He walked over to grab him as Billy was grabbing up the flannel that was still on the ground. "Have an aneurysm, why don't you?" He teased him.
"With you, I just might." He sighed.