Author's Note: Very productive day! All of my stories have been updated and I now have established a fine enough system to get chapters out faster. Feels good to have some organization. Anyway, enjoy!

Meeting Up

September 5th, 2011

I had never seen such a dreary day like this: Nothing but dark clouds and rain the whole day, with light wind to follow. Despite the bad weather, I had to meet up with someone. Someone I hadn't seen in a while.

We met under a flickering street light outside a diner.

The person I was talking to, appeared as a silhouette and nothing else.

But somehow, I knew who this person was.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why what?" the person responded.

"Why did you do all of this? What was the reason?"

"The reason..."

My eyes popped open as the sunlight from the window hit me.

It was just a dream.

I rubbed my eyes and stretched. Today would be yet another busy day, as always during the fall. The workload usually isn't that bad until later in the month, so everyday Rigby and I would always have time to head to the coffee shop for an early lunch break.

And every day, I would check to see if Lizz was there. She didn't seem alright last I had seen her. There was definitely something wrong, and I don't know why, but I just wanted to help out. If I could, that is.

"What will you guys be having today?" Margaret asked.

Yeah, it's one of those rare moments where Margaret would wait on us.

"The usual," Rigby and I both said the same time.

"What's that again?" she asked.

And yeah, it been long enough to the point she doesn't remember our regulars that well. We reminded her that it was usually just a sandwich and a drink, either juice or soda.

As we waited for our orders, I noticed that that booth Lizz and I were talking in a few days ago, had someone sitting in it. Sure enough, it was Lizz, not wearing a black hoodie, but certainly something as dark.

"Hey Rigby, I'll be right back. She that girl over there?"

"Yeah?" Rigby looked in the direction I was looking.

"That's the girl I saw at the carnival back in South Carolina,"

It took a while for Rigby to remember who I was talking about. "Oh yeah, it was Lizz, right? Why is she sitting by herself?"

"I don't know. She was like this last time I saw her. I'm going to see what's up." I got up from my seat and went to her, seeing she had her head done and was pretty much motionless.

I tapped her on the shoulder, "Excuse me,"

"What, huh?" she shook her head, sounding like she was waking up from a nap. She raised her head up and made eye contact with me. "Oh hey Mordecai, what's up?" she yawned.

"Just wanted to see if I could sit down and talk with you for a bit."

"Sure, knock yourself out." She motioned her arm for me to sit down and began to rub her eyes.

"So," I started.

"So?"

"What's been going on?"

"What do you mean?" She gave me this blank look as if she really did not know.

"Well, I don't want to presume I know much about you, but the first time we met, you just seemed...I don't know, happier?"

She looked at me with a fascinated expression and answered, "Things happen."

I figured that by the short answer, she really didn't want to talk about it. I could take a hint, I didn't want to pry.

"Well, I at least wanted to see if I could cheer you up someone by tal-"

"Boyfriend troubles. Things happened with me and my boyfriend and...it's not pretty," she interrupted, despite how she didn't want to bring anything negative up. She realized this and then took a deep breath, "But you're right, just talk about something else and I should be fine. What do you got?"

I was afraid to say anything. It would seem like if I didn't choose my words wisely, she would blurt out something unintentionally again. I definitely couldn't say anything about the Margaret situation. That would probably put her in a more depressing mood. Unfortunately, that's all I could really think of at the moment. I don't know why though, I usually have a lot of material.

"Well?" she asked.

"Uh," I stammered. "What do you want to talk about?"

She groaned, "I'm asking you. You're the one that said you could cheer me up," she said impatiently.

God, I hate being pressured into saying something.

You're the dumbass that said you could.

Yeah well, I'm running a blank.

Lizz crossed her arms and shrugged, "Any cool stories from work?" she asked. "You know what...never mind, most of the time they aren't that interesting to me anyway."

Bingo!

"Then I may surprise you," I said confidently.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah and I'm going to need some help." I turned my head to Rigby, who was enjoying his sandwich, while mine was left untouched. "Hey Rigby! I'm going need your over here."

"Not now, I'm eating," he said.

I shrugged it off, "Eh, I should be able to handle it myself," I told Lizz. "I'm warning you though; you're not going to believe me."

"Show me what you got."

[xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

"You are so lying," Lizz tried to say through her constant laughter.

"I swear I'm not!" I couldn't help but smile in amusement with Lizz's reactions to my stories. Every time I'd finish up with an ordeal I went through at work, she'd either be absolutely speechless or just start laughing at the craziness of it all.

I have to say it felt good to make her laugh. Reminded more of the Lizz I met at the carnival. Again, not saying I know a lot about the girl, but just by the happiness she's showing right now, I can tell that's how she usually might be.

"God..." she said, trying to calm down. "I haven't laughed so hard in a long while. It's amazing...what one person can do..."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I haven't laughed ever since the...you know..."

"Boyfriend troubles?"

"Yeah..." she said. "After what happened, I wasn't able to be happy about anything...for a long time..." Her voice seemed lifeless.

A very disconcerting silence came up between us. Her head slowly went down and I saw her eye twitch a little bit.

...

[Bang!]

She had raised her arm up and slammed it on the table. Every one's head rose up from the sound and looked our way, including Rigby who was giving me a, "What just happened?" look. I just answered him with a shrug.

Lizz's head was down far enough to the point I couldn't see her face.

I did however; hear her say something through her teeth:

"I fucking hate him..."

She was breathing very slowly, but forcefully. I could just feel her anger by the way her fisted was still clenched on the table and her head still down.

After being so surprised by her action, I cautiously tried to get her attention.

"Lizz?"

She slowly raised her head, with her eyes darting left and right, as if looking for a way out of this.

"I-I-I gotta go!" She quickly got up and left the coffee shop without another word. While I just sat there wondering what just happened. What happened to her to causes her to snap like that?

I felt a tap on my shoulder, only to realize it was Rigby.

"What did you say?" Rigby asked.

"What do you mean, 'What did I say'? I didn't say anything. She just...I don't know..." I said to Rigby, still confused.

"Well...come on, our break's almost over and you haven't eaten anything yet."

"Yeah." I got up from the booth and went back to my seat to eat.

I knew though that if I run into Lizz again, I need to find out just what went wrong with her.

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