"Is everything all right?" Trent asked as he stepped out front, his whole body tensing up.

Ann looked back around over her shoulder at him, and quickly went from upset to worried. The brown-furred bear that she was talking to stepped slightly to his left, as Ann stood between them. He was taller than either of them, and pretty built, too.

"Everything is fine. This is a private matter," he replied, his irritation obvious.

"Trent...this is Dennis," Ann said nervously.

Great.

He stepped up to stand beside Ann.

"Everything doesn't look all right," Trent replied.

"This isn't any of your business, I don't even know who you are, and I know about everyone in this town," Dennis replied.

"I'm Trent. Ann is a best friend. This concerns me unless she tells me otherwise," Trent said, his voice flat.

"Best friend, huh?" he muttered. He sighed. "Look kid, I don't have time for simps simpin' for my lady friend, so why don't you just fuck-"

"I'm not your lady friend, or your friend, Dennis," Ann said, straightened up abruptly. "And we've already discussed this. There's a reason I blocked you."

He looked at her for a long moment, frowned, then wincing a little. "God, Selma, really? Him? How fucking old even is he? He looks like a fucking high schooler. You gotta be shitting me. Just give it up, I know you want out of this shithole."

"Dennis, the conversation is over."

Ann turned away and Trent did with her, feeling her intent to walk into the Snack Falcon.

"Selma-" he growled, and Trent saw movement. He turned around and saw Dennis reach out and grab her by the wrist.

Trent felt a pulse of fury rage wildly through him and felt his body beginning to react.

"Don't you fucking turn away-"

Ann reacted first and fast. She twisted and grabbed his wrist. He grunted, then yelled as she squeezed. He released her, his hand opening reflexively, and she shifted her grip so that she was grasping the side of his hand, the bones just below his pinky.

"Dennis," she growled, turning around to face him fully and squeezing hard. He cried out and dropped to one knee. "I said, it's over," she said, her voice low, squeezing on each emphasized word.

"Fine!" he snapped. "Dammit, just let go!"

She held on for a few seconds longer, then she let go and stepped back.

"Do you know what kind of fucking hell I could put you in?" he snarled as he rose to his feet, rubbing his hand. "You and your fucking pussywhipped boyfriend-"

"I know the Chief of Police of Possum Springs and if you don't stop fucking with us, right now, I will call her and she will ruin your day," Trent said, stepping closer.

"You know Molly knows your warden, right?" Ann asked. Trent didn't know if that was true but her bluff seemed to work. That took some of his bluster away.

"This isn't over," he said finally.

"This is over. Leave," Trent replied.

Dennis looked at him, big hands clenched into fists at his sides, then he looked into the window of the Snack Falcon. Trent followed his gaze and saw Gregg standing very close to the door, sneering at Dennis. He reached up and dragged a finger across his throat.

"Motherfuckers," Dennis growled. He seemed to be tensing to do something stupid, and then he looked around, and seemed to notice that he was on a public street. Abruptly, he turned around and stalked away in a hurry. They both watched him go and, once he was gone, slipped back into the Snack Falcon.

"Shit," Ann whispered. She looked quickly at Gregg. "Thanks for the backup."

"Anytime, who was that douche?" Gregg replied.

"My ex." She turned suddenly to face Trent. "Trent."

"What?" he replied.

"I told you not to intervene!"

"I didn't," he replied awkwardly.

"You were going to. That's why I had to do what I did. You were going to do something stupid and I had to stop you. He'd take it if I did that, he wouldn't if you did."

"...you're right. I'm really sorry," he replied. He sighed. "God, I have so much more sympathy for Mae now. Like how she can't contain herself when she sees assholes trying to swing on me. I just-I saw fucking red there for a second."

Ann's expression softened. "I...that sucks. I appreciate it. Don't think I don't. Just...I'm trying to get out of this with as little pain as possible. Because we are in this now." She paused. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you put us in it. I was in it when it became obvious that he wasn't going to just leave me alone."

"Why not just swing on this douche?" Gregg asked. "Or let me pull a knife on him?"

"You shouldn't," Ann replied. "He's a security guard for the prison in Briddle."

"So?" Gregg asked.

"So, he has a lot of big, buff, no doubt racist asshole friends he can call on and, more than that, he's all buddy-buddy with the local cops in Briddle. We have shit we need in Briddle. That's where our doctor is and Mae has to go there for her own...issues, soon. The cops could start harassing us, and you know they would, and they'd get away with it."

"Oh," Gregg said.

"Was it true, what you said about Molly?" Trent asked.

"I have no idea. It was a shot in the dark, but he believed it." She sighed. "God, I hate that asshole."

"Are you all right?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I'll be honest, the only other times I've seen you, like, actually worried about something that wasn't, like, the cult shit, is over Dennis. I just want to make sure you aren't downplaying his effect on you to yourself, so we can calibrate our response."

Ann pursed her lips. "...hmm. Objective. You're right. I...have to admit, he freaks me out. He's still got some kind of power over my mood, my emotions, in that he scares me. So I guess you're right there. But...I don't know, hopefully we won't have to deal with him again. Though I doubt it. He's persistent. I don't even know why he wants me back."

"Well, you're amazing," Trent replied. "I mean, I'd want you back."

Ann smiled at him. "Yeah. Although you wouldn't be mean enough to get into this situation. Even if it didn't work out, I feel like you'd still respect me and we could be friends still."

"Pretty much," Trent replied. "God, I'd fucking miss you, though."

"I'd miss you, too," she said. She hugged him suddenly. "Thank you, for coming to rescue me. You always seem to be doing that for us."

"You're welcome, and don't forget Gregg. He's more willing to step than I am," Trent replied as she released.

Ann laughed and nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Gregg. I'll hug you too, if you want."

"Yeah, hugs are good. And you're welcome," he replied.

They hugged. "Wow...you're soft, Ann."

She laughed again and released him. "I'm glad you think so."

A moment passed as they all stood there, looking at each other.

"So...now what?" Trent asked.

Ann sighed. "Now we finish getting our shit and go home," she replied. "And update Mae and Bea on the situation. And maybe Claire and Mae's parents…"

"I'll finish ringing you up," Gregg said, returning to the counter. "I'll talk with Angus, but we'll probably be by around, like, seven? Would that be good?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. I'll let Mae know you're coming over."

"Okay. Hopefully this'll all be good."

"It'll go fine," Trent said.

"What were you arguing about?" Trent asked suddenly.

They were almost home, and he'd just remembered.

"What? With Dennis? I thought that'd be obvious," Ann replied.

"No, on the phone. With your mom? I saw you arguing with her at one point."

"Oh...it's just...I guess Dennis talked to her first. And I guess he really sold her on us getting back together. I gotta talk to her. I didn't really tell her that much because it was...embarrassing. But she needs to understand that he's a piece of shit and it's never gonna happen."

"Aw...man. I'm sorry. That's not going to be a pleasant conversation," he murmured.

"No it isn't. I guess I'll get it over with soon, before he can do any real damage."

They walked up to the front door and went inside, then went about putting away the snacks they'd bought. Once they had, Trent called house, "House meeting!"

"Coming!" he heard both Mae and Bea say at the same time from upstairs.

He frowned as Ann sat down and he waited for them to come down, wondering what they'd been doing up there. Although he had no idea why. Maybe he was just in a paranoid frame of mind.

"What were you two talking about?" he asked as they came down.

"Nothing," Mae replied immediately, and Bea sighed.

"Nothing, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, nothing that matters," Bea replied, and she did a much better job of lying. "What's this about? What's going on?"

Well, he'd find out eventually. It was strange, he could tell they were both lying to him, and they'd been talking about him or something related to him, but...it didn't bother him that they were. Well, probably because he trusted them and whatever it was either wasn't his business or maybe was some kind of surprise.

"First thing," he said. "Ann."

"Right. Uh, Dennis is in town, and he wants to get back together with me, and I told him to fuck off. With force. Physical force."

"Oh...shit," Bea said.

"I knew that fuckhead was gonna do something like this," Mae growled.

"Yeah, he forced a confrontation outside of the Snack Falcon. In that he grabbed my wrist, which in turn forced Trent to begin to...overreact, which in turn caused me to use a move on him," Ann said.

"Whoa, overreact? What'd you do? Hulk out on him?" Mae asked.

"No, I managed to turn things serious before Trent could, because I knew I could walk away from that without it escalating. So, guys, and I'm being serious here: don't attack him. We've been over why. It's still true. Right now, what we're using against him is that we know Molly, and Molly knows his boss. Don't know if that's true, but act like it is. Now, ideally, you won't have to deal with him at all. But, just in case...anyway, yeah, that's it."

"Are you okay?" Bea asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Dennis freaks me out, but I'm okay. Trent was there pretty fast. Gregg, too. He backed us up."

"You can always expect Gregg to back you up in a fight," Bea said. "As unreasonable as it is or not, he'll do it."

"He's a scrappy little bastard," Mae said, grinning.

"I'm worried. Someday he's gonna do it to the wrong person," Bea murmured.

"Gregg's tough. And he's got a knife. So...what's the second thing?" Mae asked.

Trent frowned, wondering exactly how this was going to play out. He focused on Mae, and guarded his mind. "Gregg and Angus are coming over around seven to talk with you about something important."

"...what? What important?" she replied.

"You don't need to know right now," he said. She crossed her arms. "I'm serious. It relates to them, and they need to be the ones to tell you. Don't worry, it's nothing all that surprising or bad. You're still cool and friends. It's just...important, okay?"

Mae sighed heavily. "Well great, now I gotta live with that for the next few hours," she muttered.

"Sorry, but I figured you should know...did you try to read my mind?" he asked.

"No!" she said immediately.

"Mae."

"Okay! I just...left my ears open. I didn't try, really. But I didn't not try. It didn't work, regardless. I can't hear anything from you right now."

"Huh. Interesting. Well just...be patient. Let's have dinner," he replied.

"Okay! I'm hungry," she said, jumping up.

"I'll make some burgers, we need to get that meat made sooner or later," Trent replied, heading for the kitchen.

"I'll help you," Bea said.

"I'm gonna get a little toasty," Ann said.

"I'll join you," Mae said. "It'll help me forget whatever the hell is happening and also that I'm waiting for dinner."

They ate dinner, and sat around smoking until Gregg and Angus showed up. They sat down in the living and Mae was almost trembling with anticipation by now.

"Okay, what is it?" Mae asked.

Gregg laughed. "I knew you'd freak out. Probably shouldn't have let Trent tell you."

"Whatever, you're here now. What's going on?" Mae replied.

Gregg nodded to Angus, who cleared his throat. "So, ah, the situation that Gregg and I have been preparing for, moving to Bright Harbor, seems to have tossed itself into our lap. I have a small but successful company asking me to come out and see about taking a job as their IT guy. I feel that if we do go out there and have this meeting, I'll get the job. I need to respond to this opportunity as soon as I can, but at most within a week. After that, once we get back, I imagine I'll have about two weeks to get out there. And...this is it. We've got to take this. I don't think another opportunity like this will come along for a long time."

A long moment of silence passed.

"Well...that's definitely a big development," Mae said. "Uh. Congratulations." She grinned suddenly. "This is awesome!"

Gregg and Angus both let out sighs of relief.

"Thanks, Mae," Angus said.

"Yeah, I was so worried you were gonna, like, freak out," Gregg said.

"Wow, Gregg," Bea said.

"I mean, it's true."

Trent looked at Mae. She looked contemplative. "Hmm," she said after a long moment. "That's fair," she said. "I mean, I think I would've lost my shit like three months ago. Which isn't cool. But I'm immature, and I'm trying to be better. I'm happy for you guys. I'll miss you, but...you have to live your life, and this is a great opportunity."

"Thank you, Mae," Angus said, a little less awkwardly this time. "We really appreciate that."

"Yeah, dude, I'll really miss you, but...yeah, we gotta do this. Also, you can visit! And also you're gonna move out there someday, right?"

"Yeah, totally," Mae replied.

"I just had a thought," Ann said.

"All ears," Angus replied.

"So you gotta go out there, right?" Angus nodded. "So, what if we all went out there? Like a road trip? To check it out and everything, since we're gonna move out there someday, too. I could use it to get away from...this town. Which I need right now. If I see Dennis again I might do something fucking stupid."

"Yay, road trip!" Mae cried.

The three of them looked at Trent.

"Your call," Bea said.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"Stop acting like you aren't the main, you heard Claire," Ann replied.

He sighed. "Uh...yeah. Sure. Let's do it. We can pile into the jeep and follow you guys up there. We can get a hotel and chill for a few days." He looked at Angus. "How soon do you think you can get that meeting?"

"Probably day after tomorrow," he replied.

"Perfect. Okay, we'll head out around, I dunno, three tomorrow? It's a four hour drive."

The girls all replied in an affirmative way and Angus nodded. "Yeah. We've got days off saved up. Gregg is off tomorrow and I have an early shift so I get off at two. I can call in day after tomorrow and the day after that, we both can, and drive back the day after the meeting."

"Sounds good," Trent said.

Angus stood up, and then so did Gregg. "In that case, we have stuff we need to do. So, we'll be back around three tomorrow."

"Okay! Congrats again!" Mae said, grinning and then jumping up and hugging both of them abruptly.

"Yeah, congrats guys, I really hope this works out," Bea said.

Trent glanced at her. She was hiding it, but he could tell something was bothering her now. They said their goodbyes and Angus and Gregg headed out. As soon as they were gone, he turned and looked at Bea.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She gave him a surprised look, then an annoyed one immediately came onto her face. "What, are you psychic now, too?" she asked.

"No, he's just, like, really good at reading us," Mae said. "It's scary."

"It's sweet," Ann said. "He cares."

"I do. So what's wrong?" he asked.

She sighed heavily. "It's...embarrassing, and I feel bad about it. But, I know you're gonna tell me I don't have to talk about it if I don't want to, and I don't want to, but I also want to. It's gonna bother me unless I do. Mae already knows this...I said that Gregg and Angus were going to break up once they finally move to Bright Harbor and Angus realizes he has better options."

Trent considered it. "...you really think so? They seem pretty happy."

"Yeah, I mean, I know. I feel it less now, it's just...I don't know. They got together because they were the only gay guys in, like, all of Possum Springs. At least as far as we know. And, I don't know, they just seem kind of mismatched."

"I mean...don't we?" Trent asked.

Bea opened her mouth, then closed it, then thought for awhile. "Huh," she said. "I...guess so. That's a really good point. And they do seem closer, more stable after everything. So, point. I guess I don't believe it anymore." She shook her head. "But it was still a shitty opinion."

"You were a terminally miserable wretch and for very good reason," Mae said. "It wasn't so bad that you had that opinion."

"Gee, thanks Mae."

She smiled and blew her a kiss. "You are welcome, Beabea!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "God, you are so annoying sometime, Mae."

"Well, if you don't mind, I have to go talk to my mom," Ann said, getting to her feet.

"What about?" Bea asked.

"Dennis. I didn't...properly tell her about how shit it was, so she thinks we can, you know, be a thing again. Normally she's got a better opinion about this kind of thing, so I'm pretty sure I can convince her. I gotta talk to her now, and in person."

"You want company?" Trent asked.

"I do, but I should do this alone. Don't worry, I'll be all right." She stood up and then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I'll be all right," she repeated.

"If you need or want anything, call. Or text if that's easier," Trent said, getting up as well and hugging her.

She smiled, hugging him back. "I'll keep it in mind."

She hugged each of them and then headed out the front door. Trent sat down on the couch between Bea and Mae.

"So...what now?" Mae murmured.

"I wanna get baked," Bea said.