Complications

Chapter Ten – Failings of a Clueless College Student

Early on a bright Thursday morning, Vidcund is fast asleep in Loki's guest room, experiencing the best sleep of his life. Vidcund's forehead swiftly scrunches when he hears tapping at his window. The young man groans as he turns to the side, catching a glimpse of a small, gray rock hitting the glass. Vidcund sighs and approaches the window only to find Pascal chucking rocks from the ground below.

"Pascal?" Vidcund calls out, opening the window and sticking his head and torso out of it, "What are you doing here?" he wonders.

"Vidcund! Please come back!" Pascal shouts, unable to believe that his poorly thought out plan actually worked, "The bathroom smells like maple syrup and bean dip, and I'm pretty sure the kitchen's already been on fire twice this morning!"

Vidcund cocks his head to the side, "You do know I've only been gone for a day, right?" he reminds him, "But you guys made your choice. You wanted Stinky, so you're stuck with him!" he shouts, "And you're just lucky Loki's not here to scream at you."

"Hey yeah," Pascal begins, scanning the premises, suddenly noticing the raging student's absence, "Where is that little scamp?"

…

Across campus, Loki is sitting in the center of his favorite table at Sim State library rereading his physics book for the fifth time that month. Suddenly, a young blonde woman walks by him and throws a folded sheet of paper on the table. Loki looks up from his textbook and eyes the folded sheet, which conveniently landed a foot in front of him. He watches the college student walk off, slightly intrigued, before picking up the note. Loki unfolds it and reads the overly-feminine handwriting.

"Your girlfriend, Circe, is cheating on you?" Loki reads aloud. He is immediately hushed by the librarian who is sorting through the periodicals at the desk behind him. Loki scans the area once more before crumpling up the note and flinging it over his shoulder. The note lands into the trashcan, "Geez! Clean up your garbage!" he blares, before picking up his textbook and resuming his work.

…

A few hours later, Pascal arrives at Loki's doorstep holding an apology cake for his brother. Pascal steps back slightly when Vidcund prematurely flings the door open, dressed in his best outfit. "Whoa! Where are you going all dressed up?" Pascal wonders, completely forgetting about the cake in his hands.

Vidcund smiles, "On a date," he beams.

Pascal slaps his knee and erupts into a fit of laughter. After a few moments of uncontrollable giggles complete with a heavy eye roll from his brother, Pascal looks up at him, wiping a single tear from his eye. "No, seriously, where are you going?"

"I'm serious, Pascal, I have a date," Vidcund repeats, surprisingly calm for someone who is about to put themselves out on the market for the first time in three years.

"Oh, well that's great!" Pascal chimes.

Vidcund nods, "Yeah, it'll be nice to have someone who adores me and listens to me," he states as Pascal's attention turns to the walkway, "Honestly Pascal, sometimes I just feel like I don't even exist-" Vidcund looks up only to find Pascal sniffing the strawberry-frosted apology cake in his hands. Vidcund's face drops.

"I'm sorry, were you saying something?" Pascal replies, "I was busy sniffing this strawberry," he remarks, gesturing to the decorative fruit.

"Of course you were," Vidcund mutters, "But even you can't ruin my good mood today!" he smiles, snapping back into his happy state, "For once, I'm actually excited to get myself out there and go back on the dating scene," Vidcund beams, clasping his hands together.

"I don't know why," Pascal responds, "You have almost impossible to please taste."

"What? No, I don't," Vidcund objects, crossing his arms over his chest, "All I want is someone who is smart, attractive, extremely well-off, and knows exactly what they want," he lists.

Pascal brings his hand up to his chin in a ponder, this description sounding oddly familiar. "Uh, you just described Loki," he states, turning to his brother.

Vidcund steps back, his face crimson, "What? No, I didn't!" he cries.

"Well, even if you didn't, good luck finding all that," Pascal speaks, watching as his brother rolls his eyes and heads down the walkway, passing by Loki in the process.

Loki storms over to Pascal and holds a sheet of paper up to the graduate's face. "Look at this!" Loki commands, pushing the paper closer to his rival, "Who does the library think they are charging me four simoleons for a book that I didn't even check out?!" he rants, "I mean, sure, an intelligent, attractive, extremely well-off guy like me can spend this amount of cash on a square of toilet paper, but they're not getting a cent of my money because that is not what I want!" Loki screams, throwing the sheet of paper down on the ground and stomping it into the dirt. He smiles and breathes in the fresh air around him, narrowing his eyes at the young man who is about to exit the lot. Loki turns to Pascal, who is frozen in shock next to him. Loki points his thumb over his shoulder at Vidcund's unusual appearance. "Where the hell is he going?" Loki wonders.

"He's going on a date," Pascal answers, stepping off to the side to stare at his brother.

"You're joking," Loki replies, still staring off into the distance. Loki steps back suddenly, his stomach suddenly filling with a bunch of angry butterflies, "Well, come on, we gotta see that train wreck in person!"

"I don't know," Pascal begins, scratching his chin, "Vidcund's already mad enough at me as it is, if I screw up one more time, he'll probably be done with me," he notes.

"Perfect, then it's a win-win!" Loki exclaims, clapping his hands, "Get Lazlo, we're going to need all eyes on this catastrophe."

…

Forty minutes later, Pascal, Loki, and Lazlo are crouched behind some bushes in front of the student union watching Vidcund, who is standing near the side of the main building, scrolling through his phone.

"Ugh, this is boring," Lazlo groans, "He's been doing this for the last fifteen minutes!"

"Shh! I think I see someone!" Pascal tells him, sinking further into the bush as a young man with dark brown hair approaches the middle brother. The trio watches as the pair exchange pleasantries. Loki's eyes widen as the brown-haired man wraps his arms around Vidcund.

"Oh my gosh, Vidcund's meeting a gorgeous guy," Pascal speaks up, unable to believe what is occurring, "Is Vid bi?"

Lazlo shrugs. "I guess so," he says.

"How come he never told us?" Pascal wonders.

"Probably because he didn't want us to make a big deal about it and then stalk off to watch his date."

Pascal shakes his head, waving away this ridiculous thought, "Now come on, does that even sound like something we would do?" he asks as both Lazlo and Loki turn to glare at him. Pascal lifts his head up slightly, the realization hitting him square in the chest, "Oh, right," he states. "What are they doing now?" Pascal wonders moments later as he redirects his attention to his middle brother.

"I don't know," Lazlo replies, the couple moving further away from them. He squints his eyes, "It looks like they're about to kiss."

Loki's stomach drops as he watches the young man lean towards his newfound crush. Loki scans the premises and spies a pebble on the ground. He picks it up and chucks it at Vidcund's date.

"Ow! Damn it!" the young man curses, holding onto the side of his freshly-injured head. Vidcund suspiciously scrunches his forehead, eyeing the bush that is now snickering evilly under its breath. Vidcund storms towards it and stares down into its leaves, catching the three onlookers in their tracks.

"Unbelievable!" Vidcund cries, throwing his hands up, "Why did you guys follow me on my date?"

"Uh, uh-" Pascal stutters, hoping to come up with a good excuse as he plays with his trembling hands, "It was a team building exercise!"

Vidcund rolls his eyes at the sky. "Then as a member of the team, I should've been a willing participant!" he claims, feeling the anger bubbling up inside of his body.

"Oh, so it's my fault as head coach that you weren't invited?" Pascal stands up, staring down at his brother accusingly, his hands placed firmly on his hips, "Oh, wait. It was," he answers honestly, watching as Vidcund gives a huff and turns away from him, "Look Vid, I know you're mad, but for once in your life try seeing this from my point of view."

"Okay," Vidcund agrees, turning on his heels to face him. Vidcund taps his foot, "Go on."

"Uh…well, the thing is..." Pascal begins, his mind scrambling to think of a worthy response. Pascal eyes Vidcund's date approaching and quickly turns to the others, "RUN!" he screams.

Vidcund watches in confusion as Loki and his brothers take off down the lot. The middle Curious brother sighs and shakes his head, wondering what his life has come to as his Simder date approaches him from the left. "I'm really sorry, Drew," Vidcund apologizes, "I would say that they're not always this crazy, but I don't want to start our relationship on a mountain of lies."

"Yeah…" Vidcund's date, Drew, states, stepping back slightly and lingering towards the nearest exit, "About that…I can't date you, Vidcund."

Vidcund scrunches his forehead, quite hurt by this comment, "Why not?" he squeaks.

"Because…" Drew begins, "your stupid boyfriend is already getting in the way."

"What are you talking about? I'm not dating anybody," Vidcund claims, confused out of his mind.

"Really?" Drew states, crossing his arms and giving a small laugh, "Then who was the dude who threw the rock at my head?" he wonders, crouching down slightly and grabbing his former date by the shoulders, "Vidcund, you're a great guy, but word of advice: If you ever want anyone to date you, lose the blonde," Drew states, tapping a puzzled Vidcund on the shoulder twice before standing up and moseying off the lot.

Vidcund stands in silence for a moment, racking his brain at his date's final comment, as he holds a strand of his hair between his fingers. Vidcund turns towards the empty sidewalk, meekly holding his hand up in a delayed response, "Bye," he mumbles.