Samuel takes some time to look around the twins bedroom, seeing how much it changed since the previous school year. The room has always been separated in two, with each of his friend decorating their side as they please. The contrast between Mabel's colorful personality and Dipper's more subdued is obvious, but there's some feeling of harmony regardless, much like between the kids themselves.
While each of his friend have their own wardrobes and other places to store their stuff, they do share a two seat desk in front of the window between their beds. And Sammy can't help but notice...
"Oh, you put some pictures on your desk recently, didn't you?"
Mabel gets excited to talk about it. "Yeah, I got copies of pictures from our vacations and we decided to frame them for display! So we can showcase our great memories and still feel like this is a part of our lives!"
Dipper smiles too. "As you know now, it was a very special vacation for us... And we do miss it a bit... But I know we'll see them again next summer, so there's no point in being sad with living in the present!"
Samuel observes the pictures. "So these are your two grand uncles, right?" He looks closely. "Let's see, if this one is Ford, the other one is, um... Stan, right?"
"You have such a great memory for names!" Mabel cheers like he just won a game show.
He keeps looking at the pictures, seeing Wendy, Soos, and all of the friends they made. He gets a short reminder by his friends about who they are, since he never got to put faces on those names before.
"I think it's time, Mabel..." Dipper nods to his sister after some time.
She resists squealing as she reveals. "We got a surprise for you, Sammy!"
Their friend gets intrigued. "Oh...?"
She takes something out of a drawer to reveal another frame to hand to him. He is visibly moved to see it.
"Oh my..." The picture is one of the three of them when they were just starting elementary school. "I..." He's so emotional that he almost cries.
"Aww, Sammy..." Dipper is touched too.
"I knew you'd love it!" Mabel smiles.
"This was like... 5-6 years ago or something...? And... Look at where we are now..."
She explains. "I got this frame done with the rest when I found this older photo in our parents' collection."
Her brother adds. "It's surprising to see that we're still as close, if not closer, than we were back then. But it's a real testament of how much you mean for us."
Sammy rubs his eyes for the early tears of joy. "Yeah... You too... I... I do keep a picture of the three of us in my bedroom too... So... Clearly, we think the same..." He's a tiny bit embarassed about it, but he also feels comfy from it as his friends laugh it off gently.
He follows that with a confession. "In a way, though... I do hate the passage of time... I don't dislike the idea of aging, but I often feel discomfort when I think about "it's been that long since ...". Sometimes I wish time would just be dead so I could avoid it..."
The statement causes the twins to look a little concerned as their minds immediately associate it with what Bill wanted and made the town experience in the summer.
And their friend realize that misstep quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about..." he doesn't dare to name it, both for their comfort and because he knows Bill is most likely listening. "... I didn't mean it like that..."
Dipper answers. "It's okay, we understand! I can't say I don't completely agree..."
Mabel smiles too. "If we remain friends for a long time, I know we don't have to think about time passing!"
Samuel puts the picture on the desk gently before taking a last bit of snack and saying. "Well... I'm starting to feel tired... I don't know if I'll manage to stay up for long..."
Mabel pouts. "Oh come on, did you have to mention it? Now I'm feeling a bit tired too..."
Dipper laughs a tiny bit at this before having to suppress a yawn.
She suggests. "How about a game? The last one to fall asleep wins!"
The boys accept with humor. But obviously, no winner will be able to be determined, since each of them falls asleep very close to each other once the lights are out.
Bill has been listening in silence since then. He is still having a lot of hateful and conflicting thoughts about the matters discussed. He can't forget about how he lost contact with his friends, how his dream of killing time and altering other rules can no longer be achieved by a mix of promises and impossibility to repeat it due to a lack of colliding dimensions to empower him. But the words about enjoying the present as it is do seem to have gotten to him somewhat. And seeing that each kid is asleep, he silently looks that the yellow friendship bracelet that Samuel did for him. One that he has yet to show to the Pines kids... But he still feels like he can't get himself to do it.
The morning lights started showing themselves, and Dipper is the last one of the three to wake up, opening his eyes weakly. The first thing he sees is a front-facing Bill floating above his head and looking at him directly... And let's just say that it's a bit of a brutal awakening for the boy... He looks so scared that he backs down against the wall out of fear.
Bill leaves his usual cackles before saying. "Morning, Pinetree!"
Dipper is not amused at all. "What was that for?"
Bill answers in a playful way, his eye squinting appropriately. "You look so cute when you sleep... How couldn't I want to take a closer look?"
Dipper just sighs out of annoyance and leaves the room to join the others for breakfast, leaving Bill alone to talk to himself. "Heh... He barely changed, hasn't he...?" He says that with humor. Meanwhile, Dipper thinks the same thing about Bill, in a more annoyed way.
"Morning, Bro-bro!" Mabel greets him very cheerfully while she's already chewing on her breakfast.
"Hey, morning, buddy!" Samuel also got up a little earlier than him to get breakfast.
"Morning..." Dipper says as he enters the kitchen. He seems conflicted.
"Rough night, Dipper?" Mabel asks.
"No, more like rough awakening!" He says, seeming unhappy. "... I woke up and first thing I see is Bill's eye being inches away from my face."
"Oh yeah, he does that..." Sammy casually reveals.
"WHAT?" Dipper kinda freaks out to hear his friend say that so casually. "Why didn't you tell us that?"
Samuel feels a little bad. "Sorry, I should've..."
"No, that's not what I meant... I think I'm still a bit shaken by the experience, I'm not really angry at you..."
Mabel, meanwhile, finds this amusing. "Since he's quite the jokester, so that sounds like something he'd do. I might freak out if he did that to me, but I'd laugh it off afterwards, I think."
"You kinda get used to it, in some weird way." Sammy says with some humor.
Dipper can't help but feel a tiny bit wary. "You know, about what Bill told us yesterday... I feel discomfort..."
Mabel says. "I really felt bad for him. Sure, what he did was horrible, but he clearly regrets it deeply. I'm glad he confessed to it too!"
"But what he did was..." Dipper tries to make an argument, but Samuel cuts him off.
"Look, it's complicated to look past that, but if he wants to and confessed to us about it, it's best that we don't dwell on it. It'll only make things worse, don't you think?"
Dipper sighs. "Alright, alright..." He joins breakfast without bringing it up anymore. Mabel instead brings up how well she slept and enjoyed the evening, even with the presence of that second guest. In fact, when they return upstairs, Bill disappeared silently after being left alone in the bedroom.
Around an hour later in the morning, the twins are leading their friend outside.
"Thanks, I had a great time!" He smiles.
"Us too! It was awesome!" Mabel lets go of a hug after saying that.
"So, see you on Monday, buddy!" Dipper says with a smile.
"Yup, you too! Bye!" Samuel gives a wave before going home.
After a tranquil walk home and greeting his parents when he gets back, Samuel goes to his room to unpack his stuff. Then he suddenly says. "Did you have a good time, Bill?"
As he expected, the triangle being started showing himself when he entered. "Um... I don't know if you could say that... What I said was bad enough, but then having to endure Shooting star's embrace was just... Ugh..."
"Aww, come on, she was just trying to make you feel better... Like a friend..." He says that with an encouraging smile. "By the way, I've noticed you still hide your bracelet from them. Are you still in discomfort with showing them that you opened up?"
"I don't know, Fuzzball, it still feels awkward for me to showcase that..."
"Hey, I get it... You can take your time. But you should look at how much they're willing to trust you. It's kinda... sad to see that you're still lacking confidence..."
"Don't you try to pity me!" Bill's eye frowns when he says that defensively.
"Sorry. Just trying to encourage you. I know you'll manage." He then takes his notebook to follow up his observations. "So you understand that I'm gonna have to write what you revealed to us, right...?"
Bill's confidence sure got a beating from having to reveal what he did, and the following consequences, so he tries to get rid of the matter. "Yeah, sure... Sixer already knows what I did, he just doesn't know in which circumstances. But whatever, it's part of our agreement and whatnot..." In order to not be questioned anymore, he decides to disappear for now, leaving Samuel to write about the sleepover.
Author notes: Really not sure what I could say about this one. Just some friendly or emotional character banter happening to balance with the heavier matters and strong lenght of the previous chapter. As well as what's to come soon...
Thanks for reading!