Wow. This was life, huh? You really can't think of anything else to do with your time?

Just walking down some stupid old bike trail in the middle of asscrack nowhere, Faraway Town, USA. Nothing but the sounds of some little ducks at some little pond somewhere around here. It'd be a lot easier to figure out the hell you were at if it weren't for the 10 million stupid insects buzzing all around. She decided to drop her bat into the gravel. Needed to hear something different. The nails scraped against the ground with a real satisfyin' screech going everywhere. She could almost block out the sound of her stomach screaming.

Charlie was going with her mom to a doctor's appointment. Kim and Vance were on a fishing trip with their dad. Angel had blown his allowance on stupid cards. Mikhael said he had some incredible adventure he had to undertake. In reality, he was cleaning out the bakery. Now the group had made a pact to avoid the bakery to let Mikhael keep the act up, especially in front of Angel. But...the knot in her stomach was being real persuasive. She was sure Mikhael could get her some little bite of bread. Maybe a cupcake.

Fuck it. It'll pass. It always does.

If there was at least something she could smash to occupy her mind. Just walking around aimlessly fucking sucked. The September trees weren't quite weak enough to go to town on. There were some bushes around but the way they snapped back with those thorns was completely not worth it.

Ugh, this sucks.

Then she saw a rotting log. Well, she smelled it first. It was a tattered little mess of brown and green as moss was spread all around it while being blighted with mushrooms. Basil would probably know all about this. Fuck him. An absolutely wretched sight that no one would shed half a tear over. Perfect.

A quick kick. Step back. A snake, seemingly digesting a meal, slithered out in a panic. Heh. Alright. She got her body ready, gripping the bat as she pulled back for the swing.

Then she heard the footsteps.

Heavy rhythmic pounding rapidly coming from behind her. Whoever this was was definitely on the heavy side. She must have been followed and not realized it. No doubt some creep.

Oh well. Even better honestly. She hid behind a tree while keeping her bat ready. A smile rushed to her face. At least it ain't boring. She peeked around.

Kel rounded the corner with weights in his hand; drenched in his own sweat. The little pink and orange weights had significant shade differences where they were wet versus dry.

"Wha-" Aubrey back into the road. "Kel?!"

It had been a...while since they last spoke. She'd see him playing at the park all summer with the boys and sometimes they'd pass each other in the halls at school. They'd always seem to miss each other sharing classes. She had his early subjects late, and vice versa. Which was wild because the rather small school separated students into two groups: regular and honors. Honors students of course received all the attention. Mari. Hero. Basil. Kim. Charlie. If you did well enough in honors you got some kind of thing for college. Grades-wise, she used to be on par with Basil and Sunny. Kel always did just enough to not get grounded. They used to all be in one class in middle school. But whatever, that's done with.

Wait, what's the problem again? Not sharing a class with Kel was great. Fuck Kel.

"Oh, hey Aubrey!" He dropped the orange weight to get some water. As he pulled a bottle out from his shorts, two more empty bottles fell out onto the ground and they bounced up and down a little bit before coming to rest.

Aubrey's mouth was agape. "I—" Gotta give Kel credit, he never ceases to surprise. She shook it off. No no no no. Do not get sucked into his stupidity. Fuck Kel. Acting like they were friends when that little prick knows what he did. She held her bat out at him. "What do you want?"

"I was just doing some training." Kel backed away as he held his hands up. Best to give Aubrey her distance. She almost turned his ribs into jelly with that bat once. He'd been held down by the rest of her gang as it happened, so it wasn't exactly a fair fight but...still, Christ that was a bad day to be Kel. The scars took weeks to heal and he lied to Hero about how he got them. At least he'd been wearing his shirt. I mean, I guess it all evened out since he was kinda the reason Aubrey started carrying the bat around, but that's enough of that.

"Training for what? I know you didn't make the basketball team. Again. Mikhael was there when they posted the roster." She smiled. "Said you looked real pathetic when you saw the flyer. Again."

Kel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I bet he did. But this isn't for the basketball team. It's for the football team."

"The football team?" Aubrey had to repeat it to believe it. I mean she guessed remembering some Super Bowl parties at Kel and Hero's. But Kel was 100% a basketball guy. It was hard imagining him doing anything else.

"Coach says I need to bulk up quick! I've only got a few days until practices start."

"Is that what those weights are for?" She didn't want to ask that, but she-she just needed answers, okay?

"Yep! Mom let me run with them. She used to use these for her exercise videos but she can't anymore." He showed off the pink one, decorated with white stripes and stars. "They look like Starbursts! But they uh...don't taste like Starbursts."

Just gonna act like I didn't hear that. "Dude, I don't think your mom's five-pound weights are gonna turn you into Hasselhoff."

"Well, Dad won't let me use his when I go running." He downed the whole water bottle in seconds. "Hey, you should come on this run with me. You need to work out too, right?"

Aubrey blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Like, don't you want to join the girls' baseball team? I know they're doing tryouts right now."

"I'm a girl. It's called softball, Kel."

"Well, what's the difference?"

"Well for starters: baseball pitches overhand. Softball pitches underhand. Also, the softball field is shrunken down and softballs are bigger and—"

Aubrey shook her head and crossed her arms. "Never mind all that. Softball is stupid. I'm not joining the team."

"Come on Aubrey." Kel's voice got softer. Almost a little whiny but not quite enough to make her block him out. It was a tone that could really eat at Aubrey if he used it right. "You obviously love it. I get that there are apparently a bunch of differences from actual baseball, but it's still the same thing really. Remember how often we used to hang out at Sunny and Mari's to watch baseball?"

How could she forget? It was the best time of her life and now it was over.

She held the bat out. The farthest nail hung only inches away from his chest. "Don't act like we're friends, Kel. We're not."

"Come on, Aubrey, are you still mad?!" Kel stepped back. Aubrey stepped forward. "T-That happened such a long time ago!"

"You don't get to beat the shit outta me and be my friend!" God, even admitting that all this time made her want to puke. Losing a fight to this goober. In front of everyone. She could still feel the blood fill her mouth.

"It was one punch! You hit me first anyway!" Kel's back hit something sturdy and coarse. A tree. Oh no.

"Does it look like I care?" Aubrey grabbed his shirt. She instantly regretted it. His sweat against her palm was instantly nauseating to feel. Of course, she couldn't back away now. "You don't get to care about me. And I'm in more than enough to kick your ass. Got that?"

He looked at her for a few seconds. She could see it in his eyes. Just like they were kids. Fear morphing to curiosity to excitement.

"Are you sure about that, Aubs?"

"I—"

A rush of air against her ears. A quick yanking sensation from the top of her ears. Kel was already running down the trail. He had something in his hand. Turquoise.

"KEL!" Aubrey started tearing after him. Bat in hand. "GIVE ME BACK MY BOW!"

He looked back at her and stuck his tongue out. "This isn't even yours. It's Mari's! Maybe I'll stop by Sunny's and give it to him!"

"I WILL KILL YOU!" She was running as fast as she could. Kel was only getting farther. She was not out of shape. Mari used to dust Kel whenever he challenged her to a race. And that was after Mari got her knee fucked. So what the fuck was he doing getting away from her?

"You're never going to catch me as long as you're holding that bat, dummy! YEAH!" Kel was so far away he was starting to echo."

Aubrey gritted her teeth. Cheeky bastard planned this. She dropped her bat and holy shit what a difference. She instantly started eating up the distance between them. Oh, she was gonna get him. She was gonna get him. He even had the pink weight in his hand! Oh, this ass-kicking was going down in T-minus 5...4...3...2...1...

Just as she reached out to grab him, Kel leaned forward and—

Holy. Shit.

He EXPLODED forward. Aubrey gasped, stumbling over until she hit the ground. Her hands and stomach skidded against the gravel. She looked up. He was already down the road again. "Fucking...shit." She could tell just by watching she didn't have a prayer of catching up. Nothing that big and oafish should be that fast.

Eventually, he stopped and looked back at her. Realizing she was still on the ground, Aubrey quickly got to her feet. She looked at the marks on her hands. "Tchh—" The red marks were a pretty good indicator of how much she was burning up right now. This wouldn't have happened if she had just creamed him with the bat the first chance she got. Bet that fucker can't run when his kneecap's rotated by 90 degrees. Instead of doing something sensible, you just let him make a fool out of you. Weak as ever. Congratulations, Aubrey. You deserve this for being so stupid, Aubrey. You haven't learned a fucking thing, Aubrey. You're still the little girl shuffling home late at night like the little coward you are.

"AUBREY!"

She looked up.

Kel was holding out the bow. It felt like he'd been standing there for a while, waiting. "Come on already. Take it. It's yours."

She looked at him, then back at her hands.

With a snarl, she snatched the bow back and tied it around her head. "You think you can toy with me?! I'll kick your ass, Kel! I swear!"

"Look look look! I know you're upset, but I miss our friendship. I wanna talk things out with you."

"Go to hell and stay there." Aubrey turned away. She was going to get her bat and he better not be here when she got back.

"Don't be like that. Let's just hang out! Like we used to! How about we get burgers?"

"Fuck you! I don't want any burg—"

"Gah!" She bent over holding her stomach. Keep it in. Keep it in. Keep it in. Fuck food. She'd skip plenty of meals before. She certainly didn't need food from him. She was fine. She was fine.

It'll pass. It always does.

She glanced towards him, freezing him in place. Concern was all over his face. Damn it. Damn it all.

"Where are we eating?"

Kel perked up instantly. "Well, I was gonna go to Swanton's. It should be off the road somewhere around here."

"And you're just going to walk into a restaurant with your sweaty musty ass? Go home and shower, you idiot. Have some courtesy." She was not about to eat anything with Kel smelling like a raccoon's corpse.

"But what are you going to do?"

"Look, I'll just wait for you. You better show up."

"Are you sure?" Kel scratched his head. "That's gonna be a while..."

"I'm sure! Just meet me."

"Alright. Do you even know where it is?"

"If you can find it, so can I."

He shrugged. Guess that was fair. At any rate, he'd gotten the opportunity he was looking for. He gave a little wave. "See you later."

As he walked off, Aubrey went in the opposite direction to retrieve her bat. To think he'd gotten her to do this. Pathetic.

Grabbing her bat, she dusted some of the dirt off and gave the nearest tree a few good whacks before keeping it moving. And that's when she noticed a couple of water bottles on the road. And a small orange weight among them.

She walked past it, stepping on one of the bottles and letting the air collapse under her foot. It felt good. "I'm not your mother, Kel. I'm not cleaning up after your messes." As soon as the words left her mouth, she found every step quickly becoming harder and harder to take.

She stopped.

No. Whatever happened to Kel for this was his fault. He wants to be careless with other people's things, that's on him. They should make him haul ass off in the middle of the night to go find it. Bet that would teach him a lesson. Do not go picking that up. Do not go picking that up. Do not go picking—

Kel and Hero's parents were always good to her.

Their mother was the first person who told her Mari's bow looked good on her. They always had Spanish music playing on the radio seemingly nonstop. No matter where—what she was coming from. Aubrey didn't understand a word of it and yet, it was always so soothing.

She could still remember sitting on the couch and watching telenovelas with their mom, going over the episodes with Basil. Kel and his dad hated how cheesy they were. Hero would be in and out unless Mari was latched onto him. Sunny would watch quietly; never missing watching an episode with everyone if he could help it. And their father...damn could he cook. No wonder Hero wanted to be a chef. If she had a dad like that, she might've wanted to be a chef too. And their dog...what a stupid, goofy, lovable thing he was. Always happy to see her. He always seemed extra perky on days she really needed it. Aubrey would like to own a dog someday. It seemed nice.

As she walked up the road with the bat in her hand and the weight in her pocket, she could only think one thing.

Kel was definitely paying for everything.