Longest Novel Fall of the Republic Remaster

by morgan kingsley

In 2023, a middle aged author decides to stop running from his past and tell the truth of what happened when he was much younger, as a way to make peace with the past. As he delves into this, the more he learns of his experiences and other peoples experiences in the hellish town of Wayside, Minnesota. An au of the Digimon Universe that takes place in the United States.

5. Cloud City

Volume 2 Scene 1 Part 1: August 22, 2020

My story is one that covers in a way, my entire lifespan. I was born on August 22, 2020, and I am the youngest out of eleven siblings. Partially because my parents finally decided that they needed to draw the line somewhere, and I was where the line was drawn, and also because of the fact that soon after my birth, my older siblings and their own lives started to become very complicated of their own.

I will tell you all ten of my older siblings before we get too deep into this, in the order that they were born in. The youngest one was Todd Jr. who was born on April 12, 2000. By this point, my dad was already over half a century old. My name is Ridge Robinson, and my father was a politician for many years, before becoming a private detective. His name was Todd Robinson. Anyways, Todd Jr. was very into all things media such as movies, video games, audiobooks, shows, songs, etc. His library of media was so vast and so impressive that it was hard for me to keep on track of all the things that he had.

Sorry if this is all sounded disjointed, but in a fair warning, that is what a lot of this story feels like. My second oldest sibling is Gabe, who is born on October 2, 2002. He, like basically all the other siblings, looked very close to being exactly like Todd Jr, and there in turn, nearly exactly like how dad looked. Gabe seemed to be more interested in the general arts than Todd, such as architecture. But unlike one of my other siblings, more so just the general making of it.

The third sibling is Josiah. Born May 17, 2005. He was somebody who liked to hang out with his friends all day every day, play loud music, and just in general be in life more for the fun than he was in it for the serious studies. He was quite good at the music that he made, so it was fun while it was going on. In all honesty, in hindsight, I am shocked that he never got anybody knocked up when he was a teenager.

Seth was the next one in the line up, and the age gap between him and Josiah was the largest age gap between any individual siblings. He was born on February 15, 2009. When I was very young, Seth used to always be in things for the comedy, and he was always cracking jokes at people. He was the one sibling who would usually at least try and have a good sense of humor as he was doing things. But to be honest, he did sort of drop that over time, as things in his life started to get much more serious. And I always maintained when I think on it now, that the thing was slightly depressing here.

The fifth sibling was Jack, born November 23, 2011. He was always the more energetic out of all the siblings. He is the one who was always doing sports, and just trying to simply always be the best there is at things. He was somebody who was very competitive, but he did it in a way where he was willing to at least try and be there for those who were close to him. Basically, he was somebody who wanted to be the best, but he was somebody who respected his competition.

The next one is Lydia, the middle of the eleven, and she is the only girl out of all of us. She was born on July 28, 2013. She was also adopted, which was a fact that was initially tried to be kept a secret, but when each passing year went along, it was very clear that she was not like all of us. And eventually, dad decided to drop the act, because he felt like we all deserved better than this.

The first of the younger five brothers is Henry, born on January 1, 2015. He was somebody who always seemed to be rather distant compared to all the others, always seemed to try and keep himself more reserved, in case things were going to not ever go his way. He always seemed scared that people would hate him for some strange reason. If you wanted me to be honest, I never really got where he was so scared from. But I supposed that he just liked to be to himself.

The next one is Dylan, born June 20, 2017, and the older of the two twins. He was very much a building guy, always wanted to work on creating things, even from an extremely young age, and he took a ton of pride in what he was doing. In a way, I could tell even from just a few years old, that he was always going to be the one, out of any of us, who would break out of his mold, and be able to live his own life without any restrictions.

The younger of the two twins is Drake, who always seemed to have the biggest imagination out of all of us. He seemed to be the one who wanted to become a creator, like of a giant movie or fantasy world. Unlike Todd who liked to consume media, I felt like Drake was the man who would like to create it. Despite him being close to me in age, for a while, he was always the one that hung out with me the least, which is something that I wish that I could take back.

The final of the ten siblings older than me was Calvin, who in a reverse of Josiah and Seth, had the smallest age gap between him and his older siblings, at just barely over a year, with him being born July 11, 2018. Despite him only beating me in age, he did quickly become the smartest out of them all, mainly due to sheer hard cord and total devotion, and pure willpower that was unlike anything a young kid would display. He was always extremely busy, and was one of the few people who truly was a no bullshit type of man.

On the day that I was brought home, the story was that Todd was sitting down, playing some games on the family TV. He was really into it, and had looked like he was just trying to beat a certain level. While we were waiting, he ordered some pizza from one of the twenty four hour shops, and ordered three family size ones, due to the fact that there were ten kids, and two parents. This was his way of throwing a little bone to the family after the birth.

When the pizza was delivered, Todd opened the door, and he was seeing a girl two years younger than him standing there. She was a girl who had a very clear crush on Todd, from the stories that I heard, and when she saw him, she was having a hard time focusing on anything at all. She was clearly just wanting to be with him.

"Hey Bebe… Haven't seen you in a while. Good to see you again." Todd said, sounding like he was trying to decide what he was wanting to say to Bebe. He looked like he was really hoping that she would just give him a honest answer. Especially since the last time they saw each other, which was when Todd graduated, they had a bad fight, with Todd telling her flat out that they would never be together.

"I'm doing good. I saw one of your streams a couple of days ago. You know, the one where you went to Helios One in New Vegas? You seem like you are really good at that game… Kind of happy that you are doing something you enjoy." She said, sounding like she was being genuine. She was also hoping that saying this was the best way that she would be able to get Todd to open up even a smidge more than he had been earlier.

"Yeah, I have been playing that game for a while now. Just trying to snatch up all the achievements on it. You know, it's been a while, and I thought about how rude I had been earlier, and I feel like I just needed to say that I was sorry for my behavior when we were in school together. You know, you were just trying to simply tell me how you felt, and I ended up just spitting that right back at your face. You never deserved that." Todd said, already holding me for the first time.

"Is this your new brother? Gabe told me that your parents were going to have one more during the school year." Bebe said, and then Todd slowly nodded, feeling like he would just keep the conversation going on for a while.

"Yeah, his name is Ridge. I just hope that when the time comes, I will be there for him. I can tell that he is a good kid, and that I should stay at his side no matter what." Todd said, as if he was thinking that this sibling was finally going to be the one where he was finally going to do the right thing. Where he was finally going to actually be at their side, and not break away.

"Ridge is a very interesting name." Bebe said, and I was finding her of all people saying that ironic, given the fact that her name was fucking Bebe. But to be honest, I felt like I just needed to keep that to myself. Partially because I didn't understand anything at all at the time, but because I couldn't have really made a case even if I had wanted to.

"Yeah, well, I think mom and dad were telling me that they knew somebody who was named that once, and they just liked the name, so they went with it." He said, and Bebe was thinking about that.

Bebe then slowly looked at her watch. "Hey, my hour lunch is going to start in like five minutes anyways. What if I just cleared the order with my boss, and then just gave myself an extra few minutes, and then I can go around and see your family?" She asked, and I was seeing Todd looking like he was thinking about the offer that she had made. As if he was feeling like he was finding her suggestion totally wild, and way out of this fucking world. Before he even responded, she ended up pulling out her phone, and doing just that, clearing up the order as complete. Then she just went inside.

"Well, since you're already inside, I suppose that we might as well start." Todd said, feeling like he just needed to go along with this, despite the fact that he was clearly not happy at herself just entering in without his permission. But at the same time, he was aware that the best thing to do was let Bebe have what she wanted. After all, she had been left to the side by him on several moments, and he felt like for once, it was his turn.

"How have you been the last couple of years? Have you gone out with any guys lately?" He asked, feeling like he just needed to see where she had been up to. She had looked right at him, and she was sounding like she was shocked to hear him just straight up, no bullshit, ask her this.

"No relationships. I did have a couple of one night stands." Bebe said, and then she looked right at him, as if she was trying to decide what she was wanting to say. Then she hook her head, as if she was feeling like Todd did not deserve this statement at all. As if she was feeling like Todd did not deserve to know what he had truly been doing to her this whole time.

"I was lost without you, is all that I can say. I hope that you never forget that the moment that I met you, you were a different type of man. And honestly, I still remember the day that you drove me on your motorcycle. Neither one of us with helmets, and both of us not giving a shit that one small accident would kill us on the spot." She said, looking at Todd, hoping that the moment would sink in to him once again.

"God damn it, that moment was truly wonderful Bebe. I never pretended like it wasn't. I just always felt like you could do better than me. You were always somebody who knew what you needed, and I feel like you need a better man than somebody such as myself." As he said that, he sounded like he was a bit upset at the fact that he was even needing to explain this.

"Then why did you invite me out to do that, if you were just simply going to not follow through with any more dates?" She asked, sounding like she was ready to fucking throw down at Todd here. She knew that Todd was just making excuses, and she was not really in the mood to hear any more of them. Todd then slowly nodded, as if feeling like she did deserve to know the truth.

"Because I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to show myself that I was a good enough man for you. I wanted to show everybody else that I was a good enough man for you. But that just never fucking happened, and I was making a fucking joke to myself ever thinking that this could work. You are a much better person than I will ever fucking be. There is no reason to pretend like you aren't." He said, finally hoping that she was going to listen to him.

"I was scared that you were going to just waste your life away by being with me. I barely even keep my streaming schedule up, and you are keeping a full time job and going to high school. You have been able to have a god damn dream, which is more than I will ever be able to fucking have." He said, feeling like he just needed to be straight up with that woman.

"It's not a waste if I enjoy my time that I do spend with you. Only when that no longer is the case is it a waste. So come on, give me a fucking chance here…" She said, and then Todd was slowly thinking of what she had just said. Deep down, he understood the logic of what she was saying. Deep down, he understood that she was right. But he was feeling like the fact of the matter was that he could never live up to her.

"Fair enough. I guess that is a good point, that I never thought of. Okay, I mean, you're already here, why not take the time to talk to some of my brothers at least." He said, and then he handed me to her, as if he was wondering how she was going to feel about carrying a baby.

The smile on her face made it clear that she did not mind at all. In fact, I was feeling like she was wanting to do something like this the whole time, and she was scared that Todd was not going to fucking allow it. "He does look kind of cute. Crazy how I am one of the first ten people in the world to ever lay my eyes on him." She said, thinking that this was a really cool moment.

"Yeah, in a way, that is crazy. Look, Bebe, I am so fucking sorry for everything that I have ever said to you. For everything that I will ever fucking say to you. I have been wrong this whole time, and I feel like every time I think of how I want to make things right, I just find myself running everything through my mind again. Truth of the matter is, I always felt like my friends were better for you. I felt like Gabe understood you more, as much of a dunce as he might be." Todd said, feeling like he just needed to be straight up with her here.

"Gabe barely paid attention to me when we were in school together after your graduation. It was like he forgot that I even fucking existed. He is a nice guy, I admit… But I feel like you aren't seeing the bigger picture on what he is truly like here." She said, sounding like she had hoped that telling Todd this, would get him to quiet down on the whole Gabe idea, especially since they were both aware that this whole thing was ridiculous.

"Well, did you ever try to reach out to him?" Todd asked, feeling like he just needed to get her to open up again here. He was feeling like if she was going to be dramatic, and she was going to just throw Gabe down under the bus like this, then he needed to see where this was truly going, and if he was feeling like he deserved this.

"Not really. At first I did, but I gave up after a while. I just never really thought it would be worth it. I thought it was annoying, and I thought that he had made it clear to me that he had no interest in getting to know me more. So I was wondering what the hell the point of this was even going to be. I just decided that I would respect his space, and leave him alone." Bebe said, mainly as a way to just sort of get Todd to leave her alone, and not say or do anything else with her.

"Well, I feel like that is just how things need to fucking be. He needs space when he needs it, and when he doesn't, then he will open up, and he will tell you when he is ready to talk. Simple as that. Look, I will talk to him about this, and I will see what he is willing to fucking tell me. Maybe he will just open up more on why he is so fucking distant with you, and I think you guys can come to more of a understanding with each other." Todd said, feeling like he just needed to give Bebe something to work with. Even if it was very marginal, and probably not really going to lead anywhere here.

"They don't need to be a certain way at all. They just happen to be this way, and you are too fucking stubborn to fix this. Or, I guess I should be saying that Gabe is too fucking stubborn to be fixing this, because I feel like you would actually do the right thing here." She said, sounding like she was over trying to constantly get Todd to listen to her about the fact that she was feeling like his brother was being a asshole here.

"Okay, let me talk with my brother. I promise you right now, that everything that you might want to say about him, I will clear up with him. I will make sure that he doesn't have a chance to spread this shit around." Todd said, sounding like he had hoped that she would listen to him, and that this would end the discussion once and for all.

"Anyways, look, despite everything, and despite the fact that he has always been more popular with his graduating classmates than Gabe and I ever have been, will you promise me one fucking thing? Will you promise me that no matter what happens, you will be there for Josiah, and make sure that he has a good friend at his side? I always feel like you are the one person here who will actually respect my request. And I feel like whenever I talk to Josiah about you in my stories about you, he has always been rather interested in knowing more. Look at it this way, I think that if you guys were the same age, he would totally be willing to ask you out." Todd said, feeling like he didn't need to go into why it wouldn't work the way that it was.

While it wasn't an official law, it may as well have been, that the men in Wayside were required to marry women young enough to be their daughters. In Todd's entire graduating class not one of his classmates had parents where the father wasn't at least eleven years older than the mother. This was how things were, and everybody known that this was just the way that things were.

"Well, I feel like I have grown to known how your family operates to know I don't want to date any one of you guys." Bebe said, and before long, this was when Seth walked into the room. He was shocked when he was seeing me being held by Bebe, and was also shocked to just be seeing Bebe there in the first place. He was aware of the fact that they were a previous fling Todd had in high school. But he was thinking that they had long been broken up by now. Not realizing that things were only starting to reconnect literally all of five minutes ago.

"Hey Bebe. Glad to see you again… Never knew that you and Todd were still talking. That's pretty cool, honestly." He said, sounding like he was just piecing it together. He was then thinking for a moment. "I know that I only met you like once or twice… But you were always so nice, and I wanted to thank you." He said, sounding like he was finally ready to just give her the respect that she deserved.

"Yeah, well, things have been a work in progress. But I am glad that we are finally giving this a go again. I never wanted to just stop talking to you guys…" Bebe said, hoping that saying this was going to be enough for Seth to feel happier about. Seth slowly nodded, as if he was feeling like he just needed to wrap his mind around what had been going on here.

"That's good to hear. Todd is super duper lovey fucking dovey over you, and he just does a better job hiding it than he fucking used to." Seth said, and then he was smiling he said this, hoping that this response would get me to have a flusterred moment or something. Instead, I just looked right at him, and I was shaking my head, as if wishing that he would just shut the hell up.

"Oh my god Seth, sometimes your comments can be super fucking insufferable." Todd said, sounding like he was wishing to just strangle Seth right then and there. But then Seth sighed, and shrugged, as if feeling like this was something that Todd needed to stop pretending wasn't true then, since it was fucking true, and he fucking knew it.

"Sorry Todd, but I am just telling the truth. If you don't want me going around telling people this stuff, then maybe you shouldn't be acting like this all the time." Seth said, sounding like he was hoping that this comment could sink through to me, and I was shaking my head as he said this.

"Anyways, sorry for being a bit rude, but I am actually glad to see you again. Do you have any advice for how I can be ready for the next school year?" Seth asked, suddenly, and then Bebe just looked right at him, as if feeling like what he had just asked her was a bit strange. Almost as if she was just being asked to do something impossible here.

Bebe shrugged, and shook her head, as if feeling like she just needed to end this discussion before it got too out of hand. As if she was feeling like Todd needed to try and be there for her before she said something that she was really regret. "I don't know how I will be able to fucking help you out at school. I think that you will have to fucking find your own way." She said, sounding really annoyed at the fact that she had to say this in the first place.

"Oh... Okay. I suppose that if you really feel this way, I guess that I will have to find somebody else who can fucking help me." Seth said, and then he looked right at Todd, and then he was just shaking his head, feeling like he regretted even saying anything at all. "Sorry to intrude, but I guess you two love birds can just continue to hang out, and do your own thing."

Bebe held out her hand, as if she was wanting to say something, and just to make her case more, but then she just sighed, as if feeling like there was no need to say anything. She just decided that she was just going to let Seth have his moment, and when he was ready to actually talk with her again, then she would take it.

As Seth was starting to head off, Bebe looked at Todd, and then shook her head. She soinded annoyed as hell at the fact that Seth was acting like this right now. "Is your brother always that fucking hard to get along with? I thought that you were just making it up when you said all he does is just make constant jokes." She said, and then Todd was shrugging, feeling like she made a mistake not taking his warning on the matter.

"I tried to fucking tell you guys, but nobody fucking listens to me. Nobody fucking cares to hear what I say, because they always think that I am being a asshole here." He said, sounding like he was just making peace with this fact right now. And then he looked right at me, and I was trying to decide what I was supposed to say now.

"Okay, you made your point. I suppose that I should have fucking listened to you more. Why do you always make a fucking point to just make things sound twenty thousand times worse than they need to be? My god, I was just asking a question. Speaking of questions, which one of your brothers are here tonight?" She asked, and then Todd shrugged.

"I think basically everybody but Josiah is here right now. If you really want to talk to them, then I suppose you might as well just go around and see what they have to say." Todd said, and then he smiled. "Josiah is off doing one of his concerts that he had set up several months ago. If he didn't go, then everything would have to get canceled.

"Never really got to talk with Josiah much. He always seemed to be off in his own world. I mean, I know he's fifteen and what not, so he probably has no interest in talking to me, but still. How well do his concerts do?" Bebe asked, and then Todd Jr. looked right at Bebe, glad to be hearing her showing some more interest in the subject once again. Then he sighed, feeling like as long as she was showing interest, he would tell her what she had wanted to know.

"They usually attract one or two dozen people every time they have an event. Not really a ton, but he has his fans, and I would rather have him have his moment than to cancel for several weeks." Todd Jr. said, sounding like he would just be honest about what he felt.

"To be honest, Ridge is never going to know what happened here. I doubt that he would have any interest in even knowing most of this stuff if he had a chance to. I am just glad to know that Josiah is finding something to keep himself happy, and as long as he is happy, then I think that should be enough for me." He said, and then with that, Todd Jr. just looked down at me, and I was really having no idea what was happening at all. I mean, even all these years later, I am not sure if I was ever able to fully understand what was happening here.

As both Todd Jr. and Bebe were sort of off thinking for a moment, that was when dad walked into the room. He looked right at Bebe, and he was instantly realizing where this was going to go. He smiled widely, as if he was trying to decide where he was going to fucking go with this. Almost like he was finding himself aware of how Todd could be able to fucking find her tempting given what had been going on here. But given the fact that he was a man in his early seventies, there was literally nothing he was going to be able to fucking do about what had been happening here.

"Are you the girl that my son was talking all about those years ago? The one who he thought really liked him." He said, sort of feeling like he might as well just see where this was going. Bebe flashed a blush as she heard this. As if she was sort of realizing the fact that Todd had indeed been talking about her to the family, and this was something that made her feel like she was finally seeing the world for what it really was.

"Yeah, I think I might be. I am glad to hear that he has been talking about me. That makes me feel so much better." She said, looking right at me, and I was seeing her looking like she had been thinking of where to go with this. "Are you still working in the private detective business. If you are, then would you be willing to tell me what is taking so long on figuring this whole thing out?" Bebe asked, feeling like she just needed to be utterly straight up as she was talking to him. Todd shook his head, looking like he was actually mildly offended that this was where she was taking this direction. He looked right at Todd, as if feeling like he should have done so much better than talk to this woman. But then he decided to put on a fake smile, as if feeling like he needed to just act like this did not bother him at all, for Todd's sake.

"I don't want to talk about that at all. I would rather you never ask me anything like that again. I have been dealing with so many things that I am never sure if I will be able to figure it all out for you guys." He said, sounding like he was mildly ashamed of the fact that he was even needing to say all of this in the first place. He then rubbed his eyes, as if he was feeling like he really did not understand where this could be heading.

"Trust me when I say that I was not trying to offend you at all. I am just simply stating what I have noticed. Simple as fucking that. I understand if you do not like it. But I feel like getting angry at me, and just shooting me down, for asking a simple question, is not going to accomplish anything." Bebe said, feeling like she just needed to make Todd Sr. hear her out.

"I have been working with Lars Needlemeyer much more than I ever thought that I would be. That guy seems to understand everything, and seems to understand everybody. He is the one man who seems like he understands how to keep this shitty ass town running and running and running. I feel like he is the only one you should be looking at the moment here. I am a dectective, but Lars is the one with the social connections. Lars is the one with people who have been talking to him all day every day, and Lars is the one who seems to have people who want to just give up everything to." He said, and I was seeing dad looking just simply tired.

"Lars seems to be focused on the simple restoration of the Republic, into being what it once was. I can really respect what Lars is doing for that reason. He seems to not apologize at all over the fact that this is the main thing he is focused on. And honestly, I feel like I understand where he is coming from. He understands how precious something like Democracy can be, and he is scared that nobody else fucking understands how important something like this might be." Todd Sr. said, and then Bebe just looked right at him, looking like she was trying to decide what she was feeling here.

"Why does Lars think that Democracy is in danger? I mean, that seems like a really heavy statement to make, and I think that you guys need to back something like this up before you just throw that around, with no context." She said, and then Todd was slowly nodding, feeling like he needed to respect where she was coming from here.

"Well, that is the main thing that his father kept telling him when he was growing up. Jesus Christ am I a fucking hypocrite. I kept calling out Larry for beyond way too old when he had Lars, and then I end up having my final kid at a older age than Larry was when Lars was born. What a fucking mess I got myself into here." He said, sounding like he just needed to think outloud here. "Damn, no wonder some of my friends used to think that I was a piece of shit when I got older. Anyways, I agree with him. Something is going on here, and they can't fucking be ignored for any cost." He said, feeling like he just needed to be real with that."

As they were talking, this was when Todd Sr. took out a cigarette, and he was looking like he had been thinking about what he was wanting to say now. "Well, just make sure that when you're here, that you don't do anything too wild. I do have a family here who is probably trying to sleep. I probably should have waited until the afternoon or evening before bringing Ridge home. But I just wanted to get along right with it." He said, sounding like he was aware that this whole thing was not going very well at all.

"My wife and I decided when we were talking earlier that this will for sure be the last one. We both realize that there is only so much we can do here, and we both feel like we have been stretching ourselves too thin here. Part of me feels like it might have been a mistake to even go as far as we did. I mean, I am glad that we had as many kids as we have, but at the same time, I feel like in hindsight, we could have done things differently." He said, and I was seeing him looking like he was just ready to go to sleep at this rate.

"Well, hopefully you actually follow through with that then." Todd Jr. said, and then he was looking at Bebe, and he was looking at her watch. She then snapped back to reality, and she was looking at it as well. She was seeming to be taken back when she was seeing the time. It was already forty minutes into her lunch break. Then she looked right at Todd Jr. and she was having a smile on her face.

The smile was clearly showing that she was aware that this was not going to work out very well, but that she wanted to just give it a fucking try. "Hey Todd, I was hoping we could talk a bit, in private. You know, I just wanted to talk about some things." She said, and while I did not realize what she was doing at the time, in hindsight, it was super obvious where she was going with this. Todd looked at her, as if he himself was shocked at the fact that she was genuinely trying to do something like this right now. Then he looked around, trying to figure out if she was insane for even suggesting such a thing or not.

Then he sighed, feeling like he might as well just go along with this question. After all, if it was what he was thinking, then the two of them could finally have a moment that they were both wanting this whole time. Maybe, in his eyes, he was feeling like this could provide any remote amount of closure.

"Yeah, sure, I think that would be nice." He said, unable to believe that this was going to happen in the first place. "Well, we don't have much time." Todd said, and then he was heading to his room, where Bebe followed him, and I was seeing Todd Sr. looking shocked to be seeing something like this happen so quickly. But then he sighed, feeling like maybe this has been just a long time coming.

Once Todd and Bebe were in their rooms, I didn't know it at the time, but I remember years later Henry accidentally saw what happened because he was through the vents just hanging around (why he did that in the first place, I really don't fucking know, but that was what happened, I guess. Anyways, Todd and Bebe went into the room, and Todd looked at Bebe, and he was seeming to be rather lost on what to do here. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

Before he was able to ask any further, Bebe had already taken her shirt off, and she had already started to smile widely, especially with the reveal that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath, which Todd probably not the best choice when you were working a fucking job, but he was choosing to not say anything because he probably knew that Bebe was just having her own preference on what she was doing here.

"Well, I guess that answers it." He said, and then with that, she went up to him, and unzipped his pants, and took his underpants off as well. When she had saw how hard he was already, she started to suck him off, and Todd was moaning in the moment, trying to clearly hide his pleasure, and trying to not make people know what was happening, even when it was totally obvious what they were doing.

Todd then stopped caring after a point, and started to moan loudly after the first thirty seconds. He was balling his fist, trying to contain his pleasure that he had been feeling. Trying to not make what was happening too obvious. But then before too long, she started to grasp at his balls, and she was not letting go as she was moaning while sucking as well. Then before long, Todd Jr. started to twitch around a bit.

Then when he was taken out of her mouth, he had the last remnants of his orgasm rub on her face. When the whiteness was on her face, she smiled, and licked some of it with her tongue. Then she cleared the rest of it with Todd's shirt. Then with that, she put his underpants back on, and then his regular pants as well. Then she ended up putting her shift back on.

Todd then sat down on his bed, and he looked right at Bebe. "I wish we had done that sooner. That felt really good. But I got to ask, why aren't you wearing a bra?" He asked, feeling like he just needed to be straight up honest with her. Bebe looked right at him, glad to see that he was gaining some interest in that.

"I never wore them, honestly. Well, I did for like a month in seventh grade, hated them, and then would only put them on until I reached school, put them in my pocket, and then go the rest of the day without it on so my parents wouldn't know. Then I stopped doing even that once I hit high school. Once I hit eighteen, I admitted to my parents that was what I did, and they just decided to not get on my case about it anymore as I am now a legal adult. You're just the first person to know this because I never had any sexual activity with anybody before." Bebe admitted, and then she looked at Todd, then deciding what to say.

"Want to go on a date in a few days? I only work a couple of hours on Wednesday, and we can talk more there." Bebe said, and then Todd slowly nodded, feeling like he needed to just go along with this idea. He did not want to reject it at all because this was something that he felt like he could finally fucking have here.

"Yeah, Wednesday would work. I just hope that this actually works out well. You know, since we never done anything like this before." He said, looking right at Bebe, and he was clearly looking like he did not buy that this could work out at all. He was still scared that there was too much resentment that had been building up lately, and that Bebe would catch it.

"See you then. I got to get back to work. Only have four minutes left on my lunch." Bebe said, putting her shirt back on, and was out of the house again in less than a minute. Todd then looked up, and that was when he was noticing that Henry had been watching the whole thing from the vents, and that was when he started to really let the regret coming through, and that was when he did the next part of the story, which I completely forgot all about until years later when he told me what happened. He decided to bring Henry out from the vents, and bring me and him to Lars.

Once we were in Lars's office, Lars took a look straight at Henry, and looked like he was kind of annoyed with Todd Jr. for even bring Henry here in the first place. As if he was feeling like he just needed to see what in the hell was going on here. "You guys know that I am a busy man trying to run a busy life. You guy don't really need to be taking up my time too much right now." He said, sounding like he was barley hiding his annoyance. Todd then took out a cigarette, and looked straight at Lars.

"I want you to talk to my younger brother here. And I know that you were probably wanting to meet the new sibling at some point, so I decided to bring him here, so you can have a moment to see him." Todd said, sounding like he had hoped that this could work out. Lars looked right at all three of us, and then shook his head.

"What the hell do you think you would even need to get from me right now? You know, I don't have much to give any of you guys outside of money for Lydia. Your dad and I just view ourselves as mutual partners in for a similar goal, and that is it." He said, sounding like he was just kind of annoyed at the fact that he was even needing to explicitly state this in the first place. Then with that, he took a deep breath, feeling like he had nothing else to make out here.

"If you cared that little about what was going on here, then you wouldn't be coming here so much. You would show up, give mom and dad the monthly money you pledged to give for Lydia, and then you would be heading off. You would give it no more investment than you have been. And I think nobody would give you a second thought. In a way, I feel like all of us would be feeling twenty thousand times better." Todd said, and I was seeing Lars then looking like he was actually considering what he heard here.

"Okay, so maybe I do have a bit of a soft spot for you band of boys. Maybe I do like you guys a bit more than I would have ever thought. It's hard not to have some kind of strange attachment to you guys, given how you all are. I'll admit it. Doesn't mean that I want to be spending the rest of my life with you guys. And to be honest, I am still mostly in this for Lydia. Were it not for Lydia, I would be mostly avoiding you all. Simple as fucking that." He said, and then he looked right at Henry.

"Truth be told, I feel like your entire family has been one big fucking mess, and I feel like you guys all need to work something out here. You guys are just a disorganized mess, and I feel like it is only a matter of time before that disorganized mess becomes too much for you guys to fucking handle. Simple as that. I want to try and fucking help you guys fucking fix that." He said, and then with that, I was seeing Todd Jr. taking that into consideration.

"I know that my family can be a bit of a mess here… And I was wondering if you would be able to fucking help me out with fixing that? You might not show it yet, but you seem like you care far more about the fate of this family than you let on. You just have some strange fixation on not showing your true side, because deep down inside, you know you got this reputation of being this bad guy, that you do not want to break." He said, sounding like he just needed to be utterly honest with this.

"How do you think that I can fucking do that? Your dad doesn't really trust me enough to be around you guys full time, and frankly I don't know enough, at all, about the situation, to really give you guys any fucking advice. I think that you will all have to fucking work on your own, to figure this shit out." Lars said, sounding like he had hoped that this brutal reality was going to be sinking in just a little bit more than it had been.

"I think that you start showing up more, showing everybody the things you have been working on. Showing everybody what you are capable of. I think that is the way you can show people how you can help us. My brother Henry has been getting himself into some situations that he should have never gotten himself into, and I feel like you can be a good person to help him go down the correct path again. I would really love for you to do that." Todd Jr. said, and I was seeing Henry looking like he was horrified at the fact that this was coming up.

"I don't want to do this." Henry said, feeling like he just needed to try and stand up for himself here. He was feeling like what Todd was doing was something that was beyond uncool, and he was feeling like he needed to finally start standing up for himself on what was happening.

"Sometimes we all have to do things that we don't want to do. It is how we adapt, and how we move on from that anger, that makes us who we are." Lars said, and then he was slowly nodding. As if he was feeling like he finally was starting to have a purpose here. He was sounding like he was finally willing to do this.

"That is shockingly deep." Todd said, and then he was feeling like he just needed to run with this, and not run away from what was happening any longer than he had been.

"Fine, I will see what I can do to turn this family back to shape. I have no idea if it will fucking work out for the best or anything, but I suppose I might as well fucking try." Lars said, sounding like he was relatively scared out of his mind what the hell he was saying here.

"But if this doesn't work, then I need you to not be on my asshole about this anymore. I need to fucking do this, and do this my fucking way. Simple as fucking that. If you guys aren't able to handle me doing things a certain way, then I suppose that this where the issue is." He said, and then with that, I could see that he was getting proud of where this was already heading.

"Henry, come talk to me more about this tomorrow. I just want to talk to you about your issues with your family, and what you are feeling. You know, I want to just see where your heads at on this whole thing, and I promise that I will not be making fun of you, or tearing you down at all. You don't deserve something like this." He said, sounding like he was making his mind up on this, and sounding like he was sort of coming around to this, and not making this any worse than it already had been.

"Fine. I guess that this is happening either way." Henry said, sounding like he was genuinely pissed at the fact that his was happening mostly without his consent, and he was feeling like whatever the hell they were wanting to do, he just needed to get this shit over with, and stop fucking playing along with this as if it were fine.

"Alright, thanks for talking to me guys, and just letting me talk to you all about this for a while here. But the reality is that I was telling the truth when I said that I did have some work that I needed to fucking do. So with all due respect, I need you guys to leave me alone, so I can fucking do my god damn job." He said, sounding like he needed to start being the asshole again. The asshole that in many cases, he genuinely felt like he had no real choice to be.

"Lars, what will you do now?" Todd asked, sounding like he just needed to see where Lars was heading with this. Lars smiled, sounding like he was finally coming together, and sounded like he was actually kind of excited to see where this was going. He knew that they were working with him, and that was going to be enough to make him feel like things were coming together.

"I will do what you guys asked of me. I will talk to all your siblings, and I will see what the hell you guys want to fucking know, and I will see what I can get. You guys have a lot of stuff that you need to unbag, and with the new kid on the way, you still haven't told me his name, then I feel like I am going to be here for years trying to unpack all of this shit with all of you." He said, sounding like he was kind of hoping that this could actually make any real difference at all.

"Ridge." Todd said, referring to my name. Lars slowly nodded, finding it to be a bit of a strange name, but he was not going to be saying anything. He thought that this was something that we would talk about later. With that, Todd looked glad to be seeing that he was willing to talk to Henry, and that was going to be good enough for him to work with. He picked me up, and Henry forced himself out of the chair, which fell to the ground, causing Lars to fake smile, and it was very clear to all of us that this conversation was going to be over, so there was no point in pushing it out any further than we already had been, when all our points up till now had been made. I was not aware of the fact at the time, but this was gong to be how the vast, overwhelming, majority of my talks with Lars would go.

When I was looking like at the office, despite me not remembering it at all, I do recall my brothers telling me that I was just staring intently at the office building for a really long period of time. I was taken in by the whole thing, and I was not realizing it at the time, but I was taken in by the man that I would eventually grow to know as Lars Needlemeyer. Arguably the most important person in my life. Maybe not the best person in my life, but the most important person in my life.

Part 2: August 22, 2037

On my seventeenth birthday, I was given a call from Lars Needlemeyer when I was about ready to head on out. I was ready to hang out with friends, and just enjoy my time when I ended up getting the call. And the worst part was that I knew that there was literally nothing that I could fucking do about it. I answered the phone, feeling like I just needed to hear what he needed to say, and be done with it.

"Hey Ridge, I was wanting to show you what I have been working on this whole time. I hoped that you would be willing to check it out." He said, and I sighed, feeling a bit annoyed that he was even telling me this in the first place. But I figured that I might as well just play along, and see what he wanted to tell me. "I know that we have not been getting along super well lately, and I am kind of willing to take my responsibility for that. But to be honest, I have been feeling like in a way, you have been kind of a bad sport, and you haven't really earned the right to get super angry at me." He said, and I was shaking my head. I was not really wanting to hear him talk like this. Since it was just showing that he had no real understanding of where I had been coming from.

"Look, it's my birthday today. Seventeen years old. I have one more year to go before I have to deal with the bullshit of adulthood. Can you please let me have this year before things start to go to shit?" I asked, and I was hoping that he was going to take this as a sign that I had no real interest in talking to him about any of this for the time being.

"No, I am sorry, but you can't have that. I have some things that I need to fucking show you, and you need fucking take this shit seriously. Besides, my project is going to be moving forward within this next year, and I want you to be one of the first people who learn about the project." He said, sounding like he had hoped that this response would actually really sink in for me. I sighed, feeling like I just needed to pretend like this was still something that I was fine with.

"Lars, why do you have to be a fucking asshole all the time? I mean, I made a simple request, and this happens. Lydia would never have wanted this." I said, feeling like I just needed to be straight up honest with him as I said this. If he was going to get offended by this, then I didn't fucking care. We both were just simply trying to do what was best for Lydia, and what we think she would be wanting us to do here.

"I don't fucking care, frankly, if you think I am being a asshole here or whatever, I want to fucking actually do what is best for my town. You just simply seem to be running off of emotions, and I feel like there is only so much that will do for you." He said, sounding like he had hoped that this response was actually going to sink in through to me.

"Lars, I never said that I wasn't willing to have this discussion. I just feel like it needs to wait for a while, while we sort of figure things out. That was literally all that I was fucking saying." I said, and then I was thinking about what I was even going to say in argument here.

"Okay… How about this… If I come over, for like say half an hour to an hour, hear your plans, and then head off, then will you promise that this will be good enough for you?" I asked, feeling like this was the best thing that I could come up with. It was not a perfect idea, but for the love of god, I just wanted to get this thing over with as fast as possible, so I could enjoy my real birthday.

"I promise that it will not take a ton of your time. Once you see what I wanted to show you, you can head out, and I promise that I will be leaving you alone about it for the rest of the evening." He said, hoping that his response was enough to shut me up, and take it.

"Fine. I will check it out. I hope that this doesn't turn out to be a massive waste of time. And I hope that this isn't going to be about you trying to get me into doing your job. I have no interest in working with you." I said, feeling like the more clear that I made that, the less he was going to press the matter onto me.

I hung up the phone, deep down feeling like this was going to be leading nowhere, and I was more than ready to tell him off, and tell him that I wanted to just get out of this, and never have to worry about the investigation or anything like that again. I was at a point where I didn't even want to be doing it for the Lydia thing anymore. I had lost literally all interest I ever had in working with this case, and I was feeling like I just needed to make that as clear as I could with him.

Once I looked right at Dylan, I was seeing him looking like he was scared of what I was going to do. "Are you going to be meeting up with Lars right now? Are you sure that such a thing is a good idea?" He asked, and I shrugged, since in all honesty, I had no real clue what I had been wanting to do, and the whole thing was just kind of scary for me to imagine.

"It seems like I have no fucking choice. He seems like he is going to force this meeting onto me, one way or another, so I might as well just get this over with, while I still have some fucking authority over the subject." I said, feeling like I just needed to get this going.

"Dylan, I understand if you think that I should not be hanging out with Lars. I completely get it, and I wished that I would stop meeting up with him soon. But I feel like that is all too fucking late for me." I said, feeling like I just needed to be totally honest with him there.

"Look, frankly, I need to make my own choices in life. And my choices are that I need to just stay ahead of the curve when talking to Lars. That is going to be my only chance of ever having a normal life, as much as I hate to admit it." I said, feeling like I just needed to be as honest as I could with this. I didn't enjoy it at all.

"Nobody is saying that you shouldn't. Frankly, you should have been for several years now. You're not a kid anymore. That being said, we are more than allowed to call you out when we feel like you are making dumb ass decisions." He said, sounding a bit annoyed at the fact that it seemed like we were going through this song and dance, once again, and he was sounding like he had never wanted to go through this again.

"Look, will it make you feel better if I straight up just fucking tell you everything that he tells me? You know, seeing what he might be willing to tell me." I said, feeling like I just needed to try and find something to make Dylan feel a smidge better here.

Dylan took a deep breath, and then slowly nodded. "Look, I think it should just go without saying that after Lydia…" He said, and then I slowly nodded. I understood where he was coming from. He was the only other sibling still living with us, and I felt like given the fact that he just spends most of his days working at the car shop, and doing nothing besides working on cars, one would argue he barely even lives here either. There were nights he would just stay at the car shops break room, and sleep there.

"I know. You don't need to remind me. I would rather have you not. I think that Lydia has become a really big issue for everybody here, and I would rather not think of it." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest as I said that to him. He might not have liked the firmness in what I said, but I hardly cared at all.

I then sighed, feeling like I just needed to ask him something that he might be willing to tell me. "How is Devin?" I asked, referring to his two month old son, who was born exactly on his twentieth birthday. Half the reason he was probably going to still be living here for a while, was because there had been a bit of a controversy with the age of the mother when they were together. She slept with Dylan two weeks after her sixteenth birthday, which while the age of consent in Minnesota, some people still find some issues with. But after the event, Devin's parents hardly wanted him around, and only allows him to visit on the weekends, when the car shop is closed. Frankly, in two months, I have only ever met the kid once.

"He's doing okay. I seemed to be starting to earn the parents trust back when I told them that I was going to give them half of my pay check every two weeks. In all honesty, I think in a way, they are as upset with their daughter as they are at me, but refuse to admit it. They have said that they have known that she had feelings for me ever since she was twelve." Dylan said, and I could tell that even if he refused to admit it, that he did regret this whole thing. He regretted getting into this situation where now everybody hated him just because of the woman he had slept with.

"I wish that I could redeem myself in the eyes of the public more than I have. But I guess that just working all day every day is the best thing to do. Anyways, look, I know I am not going to stop you from hanging out with Lars. I don't even know why I bothered trying. Just promise me that you will stay safe with him at least." He said, sounding like he had hoped that I would actually be sincere with my response.

"I promise you will hear how it goes. I promise you that I will not be leaving you hanging any more." I said, feeling like I just needed to tell him this, and I hoped that he was actually going to truly listen to me here. He might not like what I was saying, but for the love of god, he needed to take it in, and not fight with me anymore.

Once I got in my car, I punched the steering wheel. I was annoyed at the fact that Iw as now having to do this in the first place. I then took a deep breath, and reminded myself to remain calm, and stop being so hard on the guy for no reason. He was a good enough guy for what it was. I just felt like he needed to see why I was having such a hard time dealing with all of his shit. He wanted me to stop acting like a kid, and yet he was constantly telling me how I was supposed to live my life, and he was constantly giving me a bunch of advice that never really held up well before when I took it.

I started to drive towards Lars, and I was hoping that I was not going to regret talking to him either. After all, he was one of the few people that I felt like would actually respect me enough to not give me any lies. And at this point, I was feeling like I just needed to give him credit where credit was due. He was actually listening to all the fears that I had. I just hoped that I didn't have to regret where this was going.

I wondered if Lars really did know what he was doing, or if he was just trying to make it seem like he did, for the sake of sounding like he was on top of the world. In a way, I would not be surprised if he was doing exactly that. Trying to get to me before I could get to him. And if that was the case, then I suppose that I needed to be ready for such a thing.

I was also wondering how much my dad would judge me for my choices if he knew what I was doing. He barely talked with me lately at all, and he was too busy with all his work that I have no idea if he was ever going to be able to talk with me anymore. Or if he ever wanted to talk to me anymore.

Eventually, I reached Lars out in the middle of the empty field that he wanted to meet me at. He shook his head at the fact that this has taken so long for me to get here. As if wondered if I was just trying to annoy him at this point. "You need to get here faster than you have been lately. We both know that we have a job to fucking do, and you are just taking your time actually doing it." He said, sounding a bit annoyed at the fact that he even had to say this in the first place.

"Can we just keep this quick? I have no desire to be meeting you at all today. The fact that this meeting is even happening in the first place is more than you deserve." I said, feeling like I just needed to be utterly straight up with him. "You said you wanted to show me something, and I am giving you the chance to show me. So please, just make it quick at least."

"Fine, you fucking asshole. If this is the game you want to play, then I suppose this is the game we will play." He said, sounding like he had hoped that his response would actually sink in. Lars pulled out something from his briefcase, and then he showed it to me.

When he was showing me the giant paper that showed his plans for a new city, in the sky, I instantly knew what it was. He was trying to make a real life Cloud City, and I was feeling like if he was actually going to do this, the I needed to see how in the world he intended to even make that possible.

"There is no fucking way you are actually going to do that." I said, looking straight at him, feeling like I just needed to get him to stop this right now. He looked right at me, and I was seeing him looking like he was thinking that my lack of genuine excitement was something that he needed to work on here.

"Come on, you don't even want to give it a try? I mean, give it a fucking go…" Lars said, and then I was looking up at the sky, and I was thinking of how fucking impossible it would be to make something like a real life Cloud City. But I was wondering if maybe I was just wrong, and maybe it was possible, and I needed to give him a fucking chance here after all.

"I already got the project approved by Rob Reichenbach. And I think that you know that when I get a project approved, I am going to do every single thing in my power to make sure that it works. You know, Dylan helped me out with the monorails here. You were there nearly every single day when this was happening." Lars said, pointing to the golden monorail tracks several hundred yards above us. The system always looked amazing to me, even all these years later, and even when I knew that I saw it all happen live. There was something just exciting about the fact that I knew exactly how it was made.

But the thing was, he had been working on that for like nearly a decade with Dylan. Dylan had literally just been a fucking child when they started to work on that, and he had been basically devoting his entire life to helping create things. But I slowly nodded, feeling like maybe if anybody knew if it could be done, maybe it would be Dylan after all. He was always the one who was willing to be straight up about what he was thinking about all the projects that Lars had been working on.

"Look, I want to believe that something like this can fucking happen. I really do. I just feel like there is no real chance that this can work out." I said, wanting to just be straight up with him here. He did not need to fucking like it. But I was not going to just not say it to him, straight up, when I knew what had been going down here.

"And besides, I thought that you said that you were planning on stepping back a bit lately. You know, given the fact that you're in your fifties now." I said, feeling like I just needed to remind him of what he had told me. He sighed, feeling like I did have the right to mention that to him. But at the same time, he was feeling like he just needed to make me see that this was not the way to be acting here.

"I did initially plan on that. I wanted to do that, but I feel like I have no choice but to just get back into the job given everything that is happening here. I feel like there is no way that I can rest, given the fact that it feels like everybody is struggling here." As he told me this, I sighed, since I was feeling like I wanted to believe him, but I just needed to be keeping my thoughts to myself.

"Lars, do you think that this is actually going to be helping the town at all? I mean, I can understand it being a cool dream, and you wanting to live up to the dream that people have been making here… But I feel like you need to realize that this isn't really happening." I said, feeling like I just needed to be utterly honest with him here. He looked like he wanted to fight me, but just chose to keep his thoughts to himself. As if he was feeling like I still had every right to have them, regardless of our personal views here.

"I think that it is going to do more good than harm, and I was told by my father when he let me start working down at Labyrinth, that the thing that I need to do is just work on what is best for Wayside." He said, sounding like he had hoped that this response was enough to shut me up.

"But what if you are wrong, and this just hurts everybody else more than it ever fucking needed to? What if you are wrong, and you just end up setting everybody back so fucking much that nothing can be done?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to tell him this, partly to get him to start talking, but partly because in the end of it all, there was a certain degree of truth to this.

"If I am wrong, then I am wrong. But that is a risk that I am willing to fucking take. That is a risk that you should be allowing me to take, if I need to fucking take it. Everybody else is letting me take this, and you are the only one here who seems to be bothered by this all." He said, feeling like he needed to just tell it to me straight. I looked down, since I was feeling like his personal hubris was only going to make matters worse.

"If you are wrong, then it is more than just you being wrong. You are going to condemn this entire town down while in the process of being wrong. That is not going to fucking be worth it. You have got to be fucking kidding me…" I said, feeling like I just needed to leave this alone. Before I could say more to fight him, I decided to just play with this idea, and just pretend like I was not going to be too upset here. I just needed to act like this was something that I could work with, and maybe if I did, then I could be able to get in on the inside, and see what I could be able to do to influence the decisions here.

"Thank you for your consideration." Lars said, and started to leave me alone. Almost because he certainly knew that he was pissing me off too much to actually have my attention here any longer. So with that, I was starting to head on off, but then I ended up getting a call that ended up dropping everything that I was wanting to say to Lars. Everything that I had been hoping that I would one day say to Lars, because I felt like he needed to know that I needed to just put all that aside, while I take this call.

"Hey Ridge…" The guy said, sounding like he had hoped that I would give him my attention. I sighed, sounding a bit annoyed at this, feeling like the best thing that I could do though was just listen to him, and see what had been on his mind. I guess I will give a bit of a brief run down on who this guy was, considering the fact that I haven't explained yet.

His name was Rhett Bean. He was my older brother Josiah's best friend since the ninth grade, when the two started to hang out while Rhett's parents were in a divorce. Todd Sr. feeling bad for Rhett, and knowing that Rhett needed an outlet to take his mind off of things, decided to give Rhett a internship at his detective agency, to give Rhett a chance to contribute to the town.

But then that escalated into a full time job ever since Rhett's mother was murdered in December of 2020. Now, he has been spending most of the last nearly seventeen years both trying to find out the truth of what happened to his mother, and also trying to make his best case to bringing justice to Wayside, and making sure that Wayside could actually have some form of proper resolution…

"What do you fucking want Rhett?" I asked, way more hostile than I meant. On the other hand, I was feeling like he just needed to be straight up honest with me here. If he was going to just make me spend part of my seventeenth birthday with him, then I needed to know what was happening here.

"I wanted to let you know that I made a break through in the case regarding Madeline Rigsby. You know, the one that happened all the way back in August 2021, the first one you ever had any understanding of." He said, and I was looking right at Lars, who had looked like just hearing that sent a ghost down his spine. As if he was aware that this was the worst thing something could have said in this whole thing.

"What the fucking hell? How the hell did that happen?" I asked, almost forgetting all about my birthday in a fucking instant. He needed to tell me exactly what was going on, why it was going on, and what he had been planning on doing about it. And if he was going to brush this off, then I was not going to listen to him here.

"It happened a couple of days ago… I found a necklace a few days ago. You know, in the hall where the Spelling Bee was, and I was looking into it. It had her same DNA all over it. I remember that her parents were saying that she had gone there when she was trying to get money for college." As he said that, he sighed, sounding like he had hoped that we were actually going to fucking listen to him here.

Then I looked right at Lars, and I was seeing Lars looking like he was trying to decide what he had wanted to even say there. I then sighed, and felt like I just needed to take this, and run with it. "You said that you were going to look into this more when you were officially older than she had been when she went missing. Well, you're seventeen now, and that means you officially are older than Rigsby ever had been before she went missing. So now, you need to hold your end of the promise." As Rhett reminded me of this, I was telling myself that I should have been more careful with what I had been saying when I was a teenager.

"Look, it's four in the afternoon. I promised my friends that I was going to hang out with them more. We are going to go out and have some dinner, and maybe play some video games or watch movies. So, what I am telling you right now is that I will work with you until that meet up time is. That is seven in the evening. So you have my undivided attention for three hours, and then after that, we will have to wait until tomorrow. The case has waited sixteen years. It can wait another sixteen hours after seven pm." I said, feeling like I just needed to be blunt with him, and not give him any bullshit here.

"Alright, fair enough. Seven in the evening. Five hours left of the day. Since it's your seventeenth birthday, I will be nice enough, and give you seventeen hours after seven pm. So that means our case continues at noon tomorrow once our three hours are up. See you at Joyful Burger." Rhett said, and hung up the phone. I balled my fist, annoyed at the fact that he was treating me like he was my boss, when we used to work on cases together when I was a really little kid, and that was all in the fucking past here.

"God fucking damn it, people take this shit way too fucking seriously. What the hell do people expect me to do? I am just one fucking man…" I said, sounding very overwhelmed here, and feeling like everything was fucking coming down, and I had no fucking clue where this was going. "God damn it, at least you are having the pretense to pretend like you are just giving me a choice. Which is a million times more than Rhett is fucking doing right now. How in the hell did Josiah even end up being friends with that guy in the fucking first place? That guy is a royal pain in the fucking asshole."

"Fine, you win. If you want to make Cloud City a real thing, then go ahead. I promise you that I will go along with this, even when I think it is a fucking terrible idea. But you made your point, and I feel like that is all that matters here." I said, feeling like I just needed to give him what he wanted to hear.

"Okay, if you don't want to believe in my fathers vision, then go ahead, and not believe my father's vision." Lars said, and then I got in the car as he yelled out to me once again. "And maybe you can continue to pretend like dead girls might still be alive. Do you think that Lydia would be proud of you if she was seeing the way that you are behaving?" She asked, and I was shaking my head.

"Go fuck yourself Lars! She's your fucking daughter after all. How dare you use her as a comparison when trying to make your point." I said, and then I went in my car, and started to drive off. I hated the fact that Lars was talking like this. This was his biological daughter for gods sake, and he wouldn't be willing to have this be the fucking line here. As I was starting to drive off to Rhett, the one thing that I realized was that this town had no heroes. Only people who were just slightly less bad than everybody else. People who were at least pretending like they weren't fucking monsters. And even those weren't good enough anymore.

The entire drive there, I was starting to realize that my older brother, Todd Jr. was right about everything that was going on. He was right when he was telling me that nobody in this town really looked out for each other. I thought that he was just making shit up to make me feel slightly upset here. But now that I was seeing that he was telling the truth, I realized that I needed to listen to him much more than had been.

Eventually, I reached Joyful Burger, and went inside the restaurant. As Rhett and I sat down, and Rhett looked at me, he was looking like he was suddenly regretting bringing me here at all. As if he was starting to realize that maybe this was a terrible idea. "Did something happen to you? You look utterly furious…" He said, sounding like he needed to be straight to the point. I looked at Rhett, and shook my head, feeling like I just needed to tell him what Lars had been planning, to just maybe see if he had a understanding the value of what Lars was doing.

Once inside Joyful Burger, I was seeing Stanley behind the counter. I was always shocked to see him there, since he just never really took me to the type of guy who would just work at a burger joint. He had the fakest smile on of all time, and I could tell that he clearly did not want to really be there at all. But when he was seeing me there, he did seem to be getting a bit more genuine interest, and he did seem to be slightly more excited about this.

"Hey guys, long time no see. Sorry for not talking to you guys more. You know, I just never really felt the need to come back to that house, after everything that happened. It just felt like it was wrong to be coming back there, and getting in the way of everything, when you guys were already doing fine." Stanley said, and I was feeling like him saying this was him trying to act like he hadn't really been bothered by what was happening, but deep down, he really was.

"Well, we would like to see you. You had always been one of the few people who thought that there was something going on with Lydia. You were also the first person who was able to work on clearing Lars's name when people started to check into everything. You know, I was thinking it would be him the whole time, and then you were able to clear his name. Look, I think that the truth is that we need to just work with you here." I said, and I was seeing Stanley looking annoyed at the fact that I was trying to talk to him like this in the first place.

"Stanley, I just feel like you know more about what is going on than I do, and I hate to admit it, but I do need your fucking help on making this work. Can you just give us literally anything that you fucking have?" I asked, and then with that, Stanley looked like he was smiling at this. As if he was thinking about what he was going to do with this statement. It was like he was finding the whole thing way too delicious, and he was wanting to just run with this now, and make fun of me while we were goin to be at it.

"Okay, if you really do want my help, then I suppose that I don't mind giving it. But we are going to do things my fucking way, and you are not going to be taking away from this. I have a lot of things that I am trying to do, and you are going to just have to be along for the ride." He said, sounding like he was a bit more focused on just turn this into something that was purely work based.

"And besides, why haven't you found anything yet? You are the fucking detective here. You were the one that made the fucking promise that you were going to find her... And then guess the fucking what? You have not been able to fucking help out on doing the one thing you were meant to do." As he said this, the anger had started to build up to an extreme extent.

"Because I am stone walled by assholes who are trying to keep things away from me. And until I have all of those taken care of, I am just kind of screwed into oblivion." He said, sounding like he just needed to just defend himself a bit mor.

"I'm also stone walled by people like fucking Lars. But I shouldn't say anything about that because you are working at his million year old burger shop. Also, why the hell did you even get a job here in the first place? This is so not your fucking style..." He said, sounding like he was just kind of annoyed he even had to make his point there.

"So you admit that you are stone walled by people like Lars, and you are admitting that it is a problem, and yet you continue to work with Lars? Do you not see how little any of that makes any sense at all? I think that you need to fucking think about where the logic of this is going before you start to lecture any of us then." Stanley said, and I was feeling like he needed to give Rhett some space here.

"I never said that this was the way that I wanted things to fucking be." Rhett said, and then with that, he looked at Stanley, and then started to feel a bit more bad for the guy. "Sorry, I know that I was being a bit of an asshole. Anyways, look, I was planning on telling Ridge about a break through in one of the cases that I had, and I guess if you want to join along, and hear what I know, then I suppose that you can. But please try and not judge me too much for this stuff. I am simply just doing the best thing that I can fucking do here."

Stanley then finished what he was doing, and when he finished, he looked right at Rhett, feeling like he might as well just ask the question that was on his mind the whole time. "Have you ever found out the truth of who killed your mother? I know that this was the big thing you were on for quite a while. I guess that I am just curious to see how you were able to fucking handle that." Stanley asked, and Rhett shook his head, feeling a bit let down by the fact that this was once again coming up.

"I never found out the truth. But I have grown to accept the fact that I will never get it. I will never get the closure that she deserves, and I feel like even trying to find it now will accomplish nothing. Nothing I have done, in my entire time as a private detective brought me any closer to the one thing that I actually gave a shit about." He said, letting that depressing fact sink in once again.

"Sorry for bringing this up. I just was curious since you seemed like you loved her. Anyways, sorry… Which case where you talking about?" Stanley asked, bringing some food down, and then Rhett took a cigarette out, wondering how much Stanley even knew about this case.

"Ms. Rigsby." Rhett said, and then he remembered the day that her case started up. "I hate the fact that it took me three fucking years to get anywhere with that piece of shit case. Men, the people working in Wayside are fucking assholes. I have no idea how I handle people here all the fucking time. Anyways, I found out the person who had been giving her drugs in the weeks and months leading up to her case." He said, knowing full well this wasn't a ton of evidence, but it was something.

"I am going to be heading to that hotel tonight, and I am going to see if I get him to talk to me at all. He might be willing to eventually break through with me, if he knows that I am going to try and let him walk away. I had to watch him and his activities from my car for like a week, which was rather boring, and annoying. You have no idea how boring people live their lives 99 percent of the town, even when they are criminals. And maybe if he is willing to give me some more information about who was giving him these drugs, then I will be able to work out some kind of deal with the guy." As he said this, he looked right at Stanley.

"Are you still working with your dad? I remember back when you were like twelve or something, and you were having issues with your dad, and you were upset at him not being fully honest with you and what not? Has he turned that around, and started to speak to you more often?" He asked, and I was seeing Stanley looking like he was terrified at this question.

"Not lately, if I am honest. I think we have both gone our own ways too far this time. And after I found out what he did to several other people, I can never be able to fucking forgive him at all. And the stuff he was doing at the Reichenbach casino, was another thing that I have a hard time forgiving." He said, not holding back at all.

"I don't even now why I asked that… I know that you and your father have had a hard time getting along lately, and I suppose that makes sense. I just thought that you might have been willing to forgive him, since he has been working hard lately, and I thought that you could respect that." He said, sounding like he just needed to try and defend Stanley's father just a extra smidge.

"Well, I guess I do know why I ask. I know that you and him were starting to bury the hatchet, and I know that you and him were coming to a sort of understanding with each other. I thought that this was a understanding that would actually work. But I suppose that I was wrong. And I am fucking sorry for that. I thought that things were better now. But I hope that whatever happens then doesn't continue to be a problem now." He said, sounding like he was more so just trying to make Stanley feel better. Before long, Stanley placed the burgers on the table, and then he looked right at us, trying to decide what he was going to say now.

"So what were you and Lars meeting about anyways?" Rhett asked, and I was feeling like I might as well just tell him what I saw. After all, I was feeling like the more that I thought about it, the more that I was realizing that this was nowhere near as bad as I thought that it was going to be. I had way over thought it, and now I was making the situation twenty times worse than I had ever needed to be.

"Well, he was showing me off this project that he had been working on. He is trying to recreate something from one of the Star Wars movies. You know the area that Han and Leia go to at the end of Empire Strikes Back? That fucking place." I said, shrugging, feeling no real need to elaborate any further on that. The look on both their faces clearly showed that they had no idea how this would work.

"Tried to tell him that it was absolutely unrealistic for something like this to happen, and that he was way over doing it if he even thought that there was a chance that this could work. But he was refusing to listen to me." I said, and then with that, Rhett was then slowly pulling out a folder. I was hoping that this was related to the Rigsby case, because that was something that I wanted to discuss way more than I had ever wanted to fucking discuss anything related to Cloud City.

"Why would Lars even want to build such a place in the first place? I mean, that would cost billions of dollars, and part of me feels like it wouldn't even be all that successful. Personally, I think that Lars is off his rocker when he makes that idea in the first place." Stanley said, sounding like he just needed to find his best way of describing what he felt. I slowly nodded, since I did agree with him. But I was aware that what was done was done, and that nothing I could or would say would make much of a difference.

"Well, he is mayor, and is on his second term, so I suppose that maybe he has just grown a bit over confident in his whole thing." I said, and I supposed that this was something that I did need to give Lars. He was really holding his word when he was said that he was going to do his best to restore peace and prosperity to the Republic, and he was one of the few people who I noticed was actually following through with these plans. So in a way, I did have more respect for him there.

"Well, you were wanting to look at the files, and you seemed interested in this case for once, so I might as well just tell you what is going on here." Rhett said, sounding like he was just trying to move this along as fast as possible. I then slowly nodded, feeling like I might as well just read these, since he was right when he said that I was more interested in that than I was interested in the town.

"The other leads in the case are that one guy who was working at the warehouse that Lars used to run several years ago. Connor Dalton or something like that. I don't remember much about him, but I do remember that people figured out that he might have been involved in this." Rhett said, and then I was vaguely remembering that guy, and I was seeing Rhett sounding like he was kind of sad.

"A real shame to see somebody a few years younger than me go down the wrong path. I mean, he's not a kid at all. He's fucking twenty nine. But still. I wished that he had never gone down this path." Rhett finished, and I sometimes forgot that he was already thirty two. I also forgot that as of two years ago, I actually was now closer to his age than to the age of the people who were born today.

"What made you start to think that Connor was involved in the case with Rigsby?" I asked, and then Rhett sighed, feeling like he needed to back up a bit here. Deep down inside, he knew that this guy was right in wondering where the hell the stories were even connecting in the first place.

"Well, more so involved with the guy who I am talking to soon. The one at the motel. He has been training Connor to get into the job for many years, and once he turned nineteen years old, he got his first contract. Point is, for sis fucking years until then, this man had been training Connor that this was acceptable. And nobody came to Connor about this case because well, for one thing, for many years, nobody realized that he was a name on the list. And for another thing, I thoroughly refused to accept the idea that a thirteen year old, at the time, would have been involved. I thought that he would have been too young, too naïve, to be involved in this whole thing. I thought that he was smart enough to not get involved in this shit. But I was fucking wrong, and I feel like a fucking idiot for ever thinking that this could easily be resolved." Rhett said, sounding like he was ashamed for ever thinking that some people in the town, the younger ones at least, were good people.

"Look, I am going to talk to the guy who I feel like was giving Mrs. Rigsby drugs, or that being the official story, and then I will talk to Connor, and I will see if he is willing to be man enough with me, and talk to me about what is happening. That man has everything that I fucking need, and I just fucking know it, and he is just simply not giving it to us right now." He said, sounding like he just needed to really buy into what he was saying. I could tell that even he was not sounding too sure of what he was saying right now.

"Okay, if you feel like you need to do that, then go ahead, and do what you need to do. I just have a bad feeling that you aren't going to get anything that you fucking want." I said, and I was feeling like I just needed to be straight up with him here. If he didn't like it, then I was not going to fucking care. He needed to see that this was going to potentially go down hill very fast.

Rhett sighed, and then he rubbed his eyes. "You told me when Russell and Randy were born that you felt like I was not going to be ready to be a father. You're right. I was not. I never wanted, even at the time. I was faking it when I said that I was. I wanted to pretend like I was, because I didn't want to feel like complete and utter shit. But they're thirteen years old already. I have to do what I can here. My father, Ross, is only finally now starting to be honest with me when I talk with him, and every time I speak with him, he seems like he is finally giving me some fucking closure here." He said, sounding like he was finally admitting that his father was doing the right thing for once. He then sighed, seeming like he was glad that his father had been giving him this much to begin with. Almost like he was scared that his father was not giving him any peace and comfort.

"I said that in the heat of the moment. That was thirteen years ago." I said, feeling the need to defend myself, given the fact that I was saying something that in hindsight, I did kind of regret. But at the same time, the words were made, and now I could not take them back, no matter how much I wanted to, or how much I felt like I needed to take them back.

"Doesn't change the fact that you still fucking said it. And that is something that you need to fucking accept before you try to get too defensive." He said, and then with that, I shook my head, feeling like there was nothing else to fucking to go with it.

"Look, I will do whatever I can to make up the fact that I said that. I promise you that I will not say anything like that again." I said, and I was not sure if that was something that he was willing to believe or not. He looked at me, and had a fake smile on his face, as if he was wanting to believe what I said, but deep down, did not but a single word that had escaped my mouth.

"Tomorrow, meet me at the motel that I will send you by text. When we're there, we can fucking talk more about what is happening." Rhett said, and then he was looking at the time, as if he was shocked to be seeing how fast the time fucking past. I was looking up, and I was already seeing that it was six thirty. Which was only a half hour before I had agreed to meet up with my friends.

"I will see you tomorrow. Hopefully when this happens, the two of us can stop fucking pestering each other, and making this a hundred times worse than it needs to be. You know, I am sorry for the things that I fucking said. They were totally fucking uncool, and I feel like I should have never said the things that I did. But I did end up fucking saying the, and getting angry at me is not going to be making things any fucking different because you are trying to get angry at me." I said, and I was seeing rom the way that Rhett looked at me, that he was at least pretending to accept my apology, for the fact that neither of us were really wanting to deal with this in the first place.

"Thanks Ridge. I know apologies are not the forte of the team here at all. But for the fucking love of god, I do respect the fact that this is something that you are trying better on. Anyways, thanks for talking to me, and I suppose that we can fucking talk for a while. And I hope that when we meet up at this motel, we can finally put a suspect behind bars." Rhett said, and it was sounding like we were finally putting things behind us. But then as it was starting to seem better, that was when he threw in the sting that I should have fucking expected.

"Until then, go ahead and enjoy your fucking time with your friends. Might be your last chance to actually do something fucking fun. And when that happens, I feel like I can't really blame you if you want out of this thing." He said, and then I was smiling, feeling like I just needed to take this. He was a really accommodating bastard, but I was willing to give credit for the fact that he was at least pretending like he had been this whole fucking time.

"The whole bill is on me this time. Go ahead and give yourself a second burger if you want, here is the money for it. This will be my birthday present for you. But next time, remember to cover your half again." Rhett said, and then he was leaving me alone, and I was looking right at Stanley, and I was seeing him looking like he was just trying to decide what he was feeling here. As if he was finding the relationship that we were both having with each other to be utterly toxic, and not doing anybody any fucking favors at all.

"Damn, that guy seems like a total asshole. No wonder why you have a hard time with the guy. But I think the best thig to do with somebody like him, is you just try and deal with him, and let him have what he wants because you just simply can't change his mind." Stanley said, and he was sounding like he was saying this from personal experience, and he was feeling like he needed to warn me on those things.

"Is that like your dad?" I asked, smiling at this question, since I was already feeling like he was going to say something along the lines of confirming that this was the case. I then rubbed my eyes, knowing I was right.

I was then taking out a cigarette, thinking of the fact that there was a good chance that this whole Cloud City project might actually be working after all. I just did not want to fucking admit it. I was thinking that I was actually almost kind of getting more into this idea the longer that I thought of it. I was also getting into the idea of figuring out wat was going on with the Rigsby case. She would have been thirty six years old if she was still alive this year. And I was feeling like the fact that she was only three years older than I was right now when she went missing, was another reason why I wanted to get into this.

Part 3: August 23, 2037

The next day, I was meeting up with Rhett at exactly noon. I was already regretting what was happening. I was already feeling like whatever Rhett wanted to show me was going to be a fucking mistake, and I was feeling like he just needed to keep his shit to himself before he ended up saying anything that would make me want to punch him in the fucking face.

"So you were wanting to go to the fucking motel?" I asked, ready to just get this over with. He slowly nodded, as if glad to hear that the two of us were on the same footing here. As we were in his car, Rhett was taking a cigarette out while the driving started.

"Ridge, I need you to understand that this is a very serious matter. I understand that you are upset, and I understand that you want to know all the answers here. But it is not going to be as easy as this." Rhett started, and honestly after a point in time, I did not want to fucking hear it anymore. He was pissing me off here. So I was ready to just basically tell him that I did not want to hear it anymore.

"Look, you are already dead set on what you need to do. I am not upset at you for doing what you want. But for the fucking love of god, just stop lecturing me on everything here. I am already having to deal with enough as it is. And you probably know that I won't be able to help you out much after the school year starts." I said, feeling like I needed to remind him of what was going to realistically be going down.

As we were driving along for another minute or two, I was seeing Rhett looking like he was trying to decide what he had wanted to say. Then he sighed, as if feeling like he just needed to keep his opinions to himself, and not press things any harder than it had already been. "Ridge, I need you here. I will work on my cases as much as possible, but if the time comes where I need your help, then you need to put your ego aside, and actually help me out." He said, sounding a bit annoyed at the fact that he even needed to explain this to begin with.

"No, you are just not wanting to work harder on this than you already have been. We both know that is the true answer here." I said, feeling like I just needed to cut the crap here. If he did not like hearing me be straight up with him, then he was going to have to put it aside, and deal with this.

"Ridge, when you were just a kid, you were the one who wanted to work on these cases with me the most. Why in the world has that started to change so much? Why are you suddenly acting like what I am doing here is so bad?" He asked, and then I was shrugging. Probably because I realized that getting involved in this was not going to be the best course of action like at all.

"That was before I realized what was going on. That was before I realized that doing this might have literally gotten me killed dozens, and dozens of times." I said, and I was seeing him looking a bit exhausted at what I had told him. Almost as if he was feeling like he just could not be sure how he was going to convince me that this was not going to be the way that it was anymore.

"I told you dozens of times that I would put my life on the line before I would even so much as put you on the line. I have no idea why I need to keep discussing this over and over again. This whole thing is fucking exhausting. I feel like nothing I say to anybody here is being listened to at all." He said, sounding like he was just beyond sick and tired of having this discussion in the first place.

"That is because you have given me no reason to fucking listen to you so far. You have constantly made me feel like you are just saying shit that will make me feel better." I said, and then Rhett looked like he was sort of understanding where the logic of that was coming from. Sounded like he did not really enjoy this too much. But then he sighed, as if he was sort of understanding where I had been coming from this whole time, and wished that I had never said something like this to begin with.

"I suppose that does make some sense. Not that I have to fucking like it, but I sort of understand where you are coming from." He said, sounding like he had wished that this could be good enough to make me shut up for the time being. I shrugged, feeling like I just needed to let him have what he wanted. After all, if he was going to be bitter about me here, then I could just deal with this later.

We eventually reached the motel, where we went to the room this man had been staying at for many weeks already. I knocked on the door, and I was seeing Rhett looking like he was a bit scared that this was going to attract attention from people around us, who had not seen guys like us, and would probably be thinking that we were just making things twenty times worse for all of us at this point.

Before Rhett would tell me how to not do my job or anything like that, the motel door answered, and there were two guys there. One of them was reasonably skinny even for Wayside standards where people really did often times weight less than 140 pounds even when a man, and the other one was rather overweight, even by the standards of the rest of the country that wasn't Wayside.

"Why are you guys here?" The skinny guy asked, sounding like he was really annoyed at us just being there to begin with. Like not exactly angry per se, but finding our time here to be a bit of an annoyance, and probably was already thinking of telling us how we needed to get the hell out of here before things were made any worse.

"We were hoping that you would be able to help us the with Madelyn Rigsby case." Rhett asked, and both guys had looked rather horrified at the fact that we were suddenly here in the first place. All their happiness, and willingness to talk to us, went down the window.

"Look, with all due respect… That was many, many years ago. You need to find somebody else who will be able to help you. We have a job that we need to do, and not enough time to do it." He said, and then with that, Rhett smiled, as if feeling like he could run with this, and he was hoping that this guy wouldn't dance around it.

"Well, I am sure that the people at your job will not mind you being ten to twenty minutes late for a conversation that is vitally important. I am sure that when they realize that I am just simply trying to gauge things out, in a matter that will help me make a case, they will understand. If I am wrong, then I am sorry. I will personally see to it that you will not get fired for this." Rhett said, and then pushed past them and sat down in the couch.

Both men looked right at me, and they both had this sort of 'might as well come in' look on their faces too as they were feeling like they needed to just let me go through. I smiled, and thanked them for their courtesy, and then I stood up, looking at the blank television that had a decent set up for something that was just a hotel room.

I had wondered if these assholes had genuinely stayed at this place for like sixteen plus years, and if that was the case, I did find myself wildly curious how much the bill to do this was. "Okay guys, what the fucking hell are you trying to accomplish here? If you guys want to get in our business about this nearly two decades later, then can you at least be quick about it?" The fatter guy asked, and then Rhett took a deep breath, not even trying to hide how annoyed that he had been at this whole thing.

"Well, then tell me, smartasses, how many times did Mrs. Rigsby come and get drugs from you guys? I mean, according to you guys, it's not that big of a deal that this whole thing happened. You know, just a twenty year old woman isn't here anymore because of this." Rhett said, and then the skinnier guy, who looked more and more sickly the more that I looked at him, sighed and moved himself forward.

"But her case didn't even fucking happen due to the drugs. She just went fucking missing, and has been gone as a result of this. But if you must know the truth, three times. Once like three days before she went missing in August 2021. Once about three weeks earlier, and once in mid May. In that two and a half months between, I had completely forgotten about her. She didn't have the money to pay for it one time, so I decided to set up an arrangement one of these times, to make her pay. We fucked, and I considered that payment enough." He said, taking out a cigarette, and then lit it up.

The cigarette was strange to me because despite the fact that he has been living in this room for at least ever since I was only a nine month baby, it looked spotless. As if he had made sure to put in the effort to clean it out every day, so the cigarette genuinely seemed extremely out of character, and I was wondering why he would even bother.

"Look, I'm going to be honest, I just want to know where you got the supplies from, and I promise that I will not charge you with anything. You seem like a okay enough guy, for a drug dealer that is, and I don't think you killed Rigsby or anything like that.

"If I told you who gave me the drugs to sell, I will be a dead man within 48 hours. The drug world does not like snitches at all." He said, and then Rhett looked like he didn't really want to admit it, but deep down inside, he was genuinely willing to take the risk, and see if this would work.

"If you tell me who did this, then I will be able to give you protection, and I will be willing to give you some money to get out of state. And if need be, I will bring him in prison. Because let me be frank with you, I think you were caught in a bad situation. I think the man who gave you the drugs is probably the man who sold Mrs. Rigsby off into that business. I feel like you might not realize it, but these things are truly connected. And I am making it my job to fight this off." He said, and then the guy looked at Rhett, as if trying to decide if he even fucking cared anymore. He sighed, feeling like he just needed to try and give him something to work with. Since deep down inside, he did understand why this guy was so fucking scared, and he was feeling like he needed to find some way to make this worth it to him.

"I will work on getting a deal for you with the police. I think that is the best thing that I can really do for you. If you can get a fucking deal, and just leave Wayside forever, I promise you that nothing will make this situation any worse than it already is. I respect the fact that you are scared, and I want to try and make things better for you." Rhett said, and then I was seeing him looking like he was disgusted with himself on having to constantly try and make deals with people, that in his mind, really did not fucking deserve it. And people who in his mind, were just going to fucking abuse these rights, and that would make things twenty times worse.

"Okay, fine. You fucking win. I suppose that I might as well tell you. Not like much of this life is really worth fighting or anyways, if I might be perfectly honest." He said, sounding horrified at the fact that he was even admitting this in the first place. Rhett looked down, feeling very sad at the fact that this guy admitted this out loud.

"My dealer is Blandino. At least, that is the code name that he uses. I don't know his real name." He said, and then with that, I was seeing him looking like he regretted the fact that he had just admitted this out loud at all. Almost like he was scared that by opening this can of worms in the first place, he was only setting things up to be getting much worse. Rhett then looked down, and he was seeming like this answer was not really what he wanted to hear. Almost like he knew that this could be going very down hill.

Why are you working with Blandino right now? You must surely know that he has no honor or business, he is just somebody that does things for his own mutial benefit. Nothing else matters to him besides just getting results." He said, sounding like he just needed to call this gut out. Then he nodded, feeling like now that he got this answer, he might as well just roll with this.

"Thank you for telling me. Now that gives me more to work with, and more intel that I will need on trying to bring Blandino down. I have been working on getting enough information about him to bring him down. So trust me when I say that this is the best case you got." He said, and then he was looking at me, wondering why I was just basically off in space right now, since I was not really paying any lick of attention at all to what they were talking about anymore. I wasn't exactly uninterested per se, but I was indeed not as interested in this subject as people like Rhett probably wanted me to be. I was just more focused on other things.

"I was just thinking about the stuff that Lars was telling me earlier. Sorry for not really paying any attention right now. I just feel sort of lost here." I said, and then with that, the guy looked like he was shocked to hear that I was hanging out with Lars.

"I hope that you know this, but Lars is one of the best men this town has ever known. He is a true man of god and of his word. When he tells you something, he will follow through those promises. You made the right choice by working with him." He said, sounding like he was just glad to be seeing that somebody was working with him, and this was clearly just giving him some hope. I smiled, since I was feeling like I didn't need to tell him anything.

"Do you actually think you can fucking hold your promise to be making my life better and easier here?" He asked, sounding like he just needed to see what we were going to do. "I mean, Blandino is a fucking monster, and I feel like you do not really know what he is like until you fucking meet him."

"I know what these type of people are. They are good. But I am also good at what I do. I have been doing this for over half of my life. I am good at this, and I feel like people who know me for a while, will know that I will not give up the fight for as long as I fucking live. Just give me a fucking shot, and you will see me work wonders here." He said, and I was seeing him sounding like he was needing to just give himself credit, in order to pull this whole thing off. The other guy looked like he was genuinely not sure what to believe now.

"I guess that I do sort of believe you. You always seem like you understand what is happening here. Fine, go ahead and do this. If I fucking die though, I hope that you know that you have nobody to fucking blame but yourself. You know, for giving me false hope, and for making me think that this could work out." He said, sounding like he just needed to be straight up here.

"What about that guy over there? Do you vouch that he is somebody who will actually fucking help you out here?" He asked, sounding like he just needed to be honest with me. He felt like I had not been doing anything here, and in a way, he was finding himself a bit annoyed at this entire situation.

"Yeah, I will vouch for this guy. In fact, I would argue that he is more responsible than I am a lot of the fucking time. Or at least more responsible then I was at his age. He needs a chance to prove himself, and you will see that he is good at what he fucking does." He said, feeling like he needed to give me as much vouching as he can here. Once he did this, I was smiling really hard. I was so happy to hear him actually give me this comment, that it made me feel like I was on the right track here.

Then with that, Rhett then thought of who he was going to talk to about this. "I know a man. This guy taught me everything that I fucking know, and he is a great friend and mentor. I will see what I can do to get him talk to me. I feel like he is the best bet that we have here." He said, and then I was well aware that he was talking about my geriatric ass father.

I sighed, feeling like if he was actually taking the time to vouch for my father in this situation, and if he was feeling like my dad was the one person who could make this work, then I supposed that I needed to give this a chance. Then with that, the fatter guy took out a cigarette, feeling like he needed to try and tell the skinnier guy that this was the best choice of options here.

"My dad is good at this. He's old, but he is arguably the best at this." I said, feeling like I needed to do a combination of stroking my fathers ego to not get him to hate my guts, and also being a bit honest with him. I knew that my father was a great man, and I needed to get these guys that my father was not somebody who would turn this down at all.

"My dad has been working at saving Wayside ever since he was thirteen years old. First as a independent agent, and then as a fucking mayor, and then as a private detective." When I finished, that was when the guy looked like he was finally piecing together that my dad was the guy who had been mayor for eighteen years.

"Great, that guy is still having his claws all over everybody here. I suppose that this doesn't shock me too much. What I hope that you can tell me is why do you feel like you have to make him sound like he controls you?" He asked, and then I smiled, feeling like I just needed to give him a response that made him see I was in charge.

"He's not in charge of me. I am just smart enough to see the writing on the wall." I said, and then I was starting to walk off. I then looked at Rhett. "Make sure that you actually do your job well. We got a long way to go here, and I feel like we are both going to be extremely busy here." I said, feeling like I just needed to sort of get the subject rolling again. Rhett rolled his eyes, and nodded in agreement, sounding like he was accepting the fact that this was the case, despite not living it. Once I was outside, I felt like I had finally made a choice that I would hate, but a choice that I felt like at this point in time, I had no choice on, and I was biting my tongue the entire time I thought about it. And I was feeling like if Rhett knew, he would hate me for making this choice as well.

When I had gone my separate ways from Rhett at the hotel, I was then calling up Lars. I hated the fact that I was finding myself thinking that this was a good idea. But I was feeling like I genuinely had no fucking choice on the subject this time. I needed to just finally bite the bullet, and do things his way, regardless if I fucking liked it or not.

When Lars answered the phone, I was feeling like I just needed to let him have his moment before I told him what was going on. "Look, I know that we still do not agree at all on everything that is happening here. But the truth of the fucking matter is that I think that you might actually have a good point about the Cloud City thing. I think that maybe we need to fucking work on that, and expand Wayside out way more. I don't know, I just feel like there is something telling me that this needs to be done." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest with him. I did not enjoy this at all, but I was feeling like I had no choice but to give him this one.

"Oh wow. I didn't expect you to be coming around to this so fast. I thought I was going to have to spend the next week and a half convincing you. Especially since I know that you don't really respect me at all, and you have taken in no fucking effort into hiding it at all." He said, sounding like he was actually kind of saddened at the fact that he was having to explain this in the first place.

"Okay, cool. I get it. You don't fucking trust me or anything. The feeling is fucking mutual. Can we fucking please get on with this, and stop spending so much time on this? Look, I wonder what you need with me in order to make this project work." I said, and I was feeling like the faster that we stopped being assholes to each other, the faster that this could go. I was hearing Lars pausing for a moment, as if taking a moment to consider what I had been asking, and what he wanted to tell me.

"Well, the first thing that I need you to actually do is when we meet up, you actually stop being a fucking asshole for once, and you fucking listen to me about the project. Actually give me a fucking chance to do this, and you will see what is actually going on. I already got the funding from Rob when I talked with him about this a few days ago, which means that he officially supports this going down." He said, and then with that, I was hearing Lars then take a deep breath.

"Wait, how in the world are you going to get all that shit up in the sky to begin with? I'm sorry. That is the main thing that I still need help with understanding. I mean, I suppose that I can see that you will be able to fucking do this, but I am just fucking lost on the how of it." I said, and I was just more sounding defeated than I was sounding angry at the whole thing.

"How about I take you to meet Rob Reichenbach tomorrow, and we can talk there. Maybe he will be able to show you the plans. I mean, we have been working on the Neo Wayside plan for over fifty years now. This is something that should not be too fucking shocking here." Lars said, and I was already not wanting to spend three days in a row talking with a guy who I barely could stand, and a guy who I felt like genuinely fucking hated me, despite me not being sure if I could pin point it right.

"Fine. Tomorrow. I will see what that one eye asshole thinks, and he better have a fucking good case for how this fucking can work. I have no intention of taking this shit anymore, and it stopped being funny after a while." I said, and I was hoping that Lars would agree with this shit. But before I was giving up, there was something else that I needed to talk to him about.

"Do you know anything about the Madeline Rigsby case?" I asked, feeling like I might as well play with fire a bit here. If he was honest with me, I could roll with this shit, and this would be super easy.

"Try and talk to me about things that I actually fucking want to talk to you about. There is no way in hell that I will ever fucking fucking talk to you about Mrs. Rigsby." He said, sounding genuinely pissed off at the fact that he was even having to say this to me. Then before he even had a chance to say anything else, he hung up the phone, and I was taking a moment to consider where this was going. I felt like in a way, given what he was always acting like, and the way that I had always pressed things with the guy, that I did kind of deserve it. That didn't mean that I fucking had to like it at all, and in fact, I was finding the whole thing to be utterly annoying, and ridiculous. But I was feeling like there wasn't any need to press the matter any further. I then took out a cigarette, just feeling defeated at life.

Part 4: August 29, 2020

Todd told me the story that the first time that I had gone out of the house for any extended period of time, was one week to the day after I had been born. He was taking me to Carl's 21st birthday party, who was one of his friends who he hung out the most with at the time, and he was with Dan as well. He had brought Bebe there as well, as a way to introduce them to his friends, and help them get to know who the woman he was dating had been. Once all five of us were at the party, Dan already had the barbecue grill going, and I was seeing him looking like he was genuinely happy to be seeing us there. In fact, I was seeing him looking like he had wished that we had been there sooner, if the way that Todd told me I looked was to believed at all.

"Hey guys, are you the girl that Todd has been dating?" He asked, looking at Bebe, examining her a bit, and he was having a snide grin on his face. He was then looking at me, and he was looking utterly shocked that he had seen me here. "Is that your youngest one? Damn, I was half way wondering if you were ever going to introduce me to him." He said, and then with that, he took a deep breath, feeling ready to go here.

"Yeah, Ridge. Only seven days old. Probably still way too young to be going out already, but honestly, I don't really fucking care. I just wanted to try something fucking fun, and I was feeling like he deserved to see what my friends were like." Todd said, and then he handed me over to Carl, who had looked utterly horrified at the fact that this was even happening in the first place.

"Dang, do your parents know anything about you bringing your one week old brother over here?" Carl asked, feeling like he might as well just play along with this subject. He sounded like deep down inside though, he was a bit scared. Probably wondering what the hell we were even fucking doing in the first place.

"My parents are never at this house anyways. Might as well do something cool with my siblings here. Do you seriously think that I would do anything that would put Ridge in danger?" Todd asked, and I was aware, how many years later, this sounded a bit silly, as many, many years later, that whole thing would be fucking bullshit. But at the same time, I was appreciating the fact that he was at least trying to make something like this work.

"Fair enough. Sorry for asking. I just felt like I needed to see where this was going. All in all though, I am actually very fucking happy for you. You know, dating a girl who I know you liked for years, even if you tried to hide it, is really cool. And honestly, I feel like it will be so much fun to just loosen up a night." He said, pointing to the Coors Beer, which he was ready to have.

"Are you going to have all that alone?" Todd asked, and then with that, Carl looked like he was horrified at the idea of doing something like this. Almost like he had felt like Todd was purposely throwing in the worst kind of question possible, given how he had bene lately.

"No fucking way can I fucking make that fucking work. Who cares if you guys aren't twenty one. You guys are only like a year off anyways. Nobody is going to fucking notice." He said, and then he was feeling like he needed to just be honest about the fact that I was going to be making no difference in this whole thing at all.

Todd then slowly nodded, as if feeling like deep down inside, he did know that this was true. "He's only a few days old. There is no way in hell he will even remember any of this. Come on, ease up, and let's just have a good fucking time." He said, and then with that, Todd agreed, and then Bebe was agreeing as well. Dan agreed, and it became a full on plan for this to happen.

With that, Todd sat down on a chair, and he was given me, and then he was also given a can of Coors. Todd opened one up, and then laughed. "You can be a real ass at times. That is what I love about you though." He said, aware of the fact that it sounded like a bit of a oxymoron to say such a thing. Then with that, Carl looked like he was proud of the fact that Todd reacted this way. Todd ended up drinking nearly half the can, as a way to just get Carl off his back, and partially because he did actually enjoy it, and he was wanting to have enough to just get wasted that night.

"So Bebe, how long have you been seeing Todd? Has he been treating you well so far?" Dan asked, and I was seeing her looking a bit confused as to why he was taking such a sudden interest in her. But then she put on a smile, and decided to go along with this. "I mean, I knew from the minute that you worked on that project with him where you guys were doing that art mural, that you guys were totally meant to be."

"Well, I came and delivered pizza to him like right after Ridge was born. And we just started to talk things out, and I think we ended up patching things up. I told him how much I cared for him, and how much I wanted to make things work out between us. I think that he had ended up seeing how much I really meant this, and decided to just go along with this." Bebe said, and then with that, both Carl and Dan seemed to accept this.

"How is your family doing? I remember you mentioning that you had a younger brother, and a older brother. Do you think that you would be willing to elaborate on that a bit further?" Carl asked, feeling like he was just going to do his best to really get to know Bebe, and he was going to make sure that she knew that despite everything going on here, she really was valued.

"My family is doing pretty well. They all seem to be getting along rather well, and I know that they are really happy to be seeing me having a man that I am happy with again. They were worried that I was never going to find that happiness for a while. So yeah, I think that is something I can be proud of." She said, and then with that, I was seeing Bebe looking like she was trying to decide if she was really buying this or not. I could tell that despite how she was acting, she was still not buying it here.

"What were their names again?" Dan asked, and then Todd was just patting me on the back, as a way to soothe me, and make sure that nothing happened to me. I was finding myself feeling a bit tired, but I was still trying to be involved in this discussion, and I had no desire to not be following along any more.

"The older one is Ronald, and the younger one is Robbie. I barley talk with Ronald much anymore, since he just sort of is trying to ghost the family here. As for Robbie, I have been trying my fucking ass off on trying to get him to open up here, but I feel like he just sort of has no interest in talking to me. I think he has sort of decided that he just doesn't really care about anybody but himself." She said, sounding like she was genuinely saddened by this fact. But then with that, she decided to just not say much.

"What grade is he in?" Carl asked, sounding genuinely saddened at this statement. Almost like he was sort of losing all his attitude, and he was sort of seeing that Bebe was going to be struggling with this as well, and he sort of seemed like he was deciding to just do what he thought was going to be best for her.

"He turned eight in January. So third grade." She said, and then Todd Jr. perked up, suddenly seeming much more interested in this subject than before. As if he was feeling like he might as well just tell them this next bit.

"That's the same grade as Jack. But Jack is about two and a half months older. I wonder why they never really hung out before then. Unless if they have, and Jack doesn't tell me these things." He said, sounding like he was kind of wondering why Jack would be hiding this. But he decided to just stop saying more. After all, he decided that it was not that important.

"Well, I think he did say that he did try to get into sports one time, but that some members of the team were really putting him off, and that they made him feel like he wasn't good enough for that. I think this whole thing really bothered him much more than he wants to admit. You know, Robbie really is a very smart and good kid. But he is still just that. A kid, at the end of the day." She said, sounding like she was already letting this sink in.

"Maybe he just needs somebody with him, and make him feel a bit better about what he is doing. I suppose that if you know somebody who might do that, this could be something to look out for." Carl said, sounding like he was genuinely willing to make the offer, but was scared that Bebe would tell him to fuck off.

"Anyways, sorry for asking about your brother. I know that realistically, it's not that big of a deal. I suppose that I was just interested in getting to know what you knew." He said, sounding like he had hoped that the honesty would get Bebe to not be too angry at him. The look that Bebe gave him showed that she was still not one hundred percent sure what she was feeling. But that at the same time, she did not want to hate this guy, and that she knew he didn't really mean anything wrong by what he said, and she decided that the best thing to do was just let it go.

"Do you have any siblings?" Bebe asked, as she finally relented, and pulled out a Coors, as if deciding that she had nothing to lose. But she was clearly looking like she was not very sure how to feel about this, and she was looking like she was kind of scared of what it would be like if she ended up getting caught drinking three years underage.

"I personally don't. Kind of a nice thing, if I am honest. I never really wanted to have any. You know, taking all the time away from me. I know it sounds selfish, but I just need to be honest." He said, sounding like he had already kind of lost any interest in this discussion.

"Have you ever thought of what it would be like if you did have one? You know, Todd has several, and I am sure that the thought crossed your mind once or twice." Bebe said, and she was sounding like she was genuinely curious here, and not even trying to start anything. He looked at her, as if finding her responses kind of annoying, and wishing that she would just stop before we kept talking about things too much.

"Yeah, sure, I suppose that it has. But at the same time, the whole thing has never really appealed to me. I just always felt like there was no need to push for something that I was not really all that into anyways. If I was fine without having one, then I had no reason to start to see that differently." He said, as if hoping that this response would be enough to make us leave the subject alone. Which I suppose did make some fucking sense, even if I did not like to fucking admit it at the time,

"Anyways, the truth of the matter is that I always felt like even if I did want to have another one, my family never wanted that. They always seemed content with just one, and I only even heard them mentioning the idea of having another one like once ever." Carl finished, and then he pulled out a second can of Coors, after he had the first one settle in for a minute or two.

"Sorry. Okay. You made your point. No more kids. Got it. I guess that I was just curious is all. I genuinely did not mean to be offending you at all when I asked this." Bebe said, and then with that, Dan looked like he was just desperate to end this discussion, and move onto something else.

"Did you guys hear the shotgun technique?" He asked, and then Todd smiled, because clearly he had, but he was not sure if the others had, and he was wanting to see if they were going to fucking try it. Bebe shook her head, and Carl gave a shrug as to show that he really didn't give a singular shit what was happening. Dan then took out a pocket knife, deciding that he was going to show anyways, and then he cut it open and then started to drink out of the can that way.

To me, I remember Todd saying that I was looking like this was the coolest thing in the entire world. When Dan was finished drinking the Coors, then he was looking at the others. "So you cut the can open, and then you drink it out from the bottom. People talk about this technique all the time in my family."

"Okay, do you want to try it yourselves?" He asked, and then Todd Jr. placed me down on the chair, and grabbed a can, seeing if this could be something that he would master right away. When he cut the can open, he saw how close it was to cutting his hand open, and I was seeing him looking like he was actually kind of scared of that for a second. Then he continued by drinking it, and like Dan, he had just gone through it really quickly. I don't know what I was thinking at seven days old, but I could not be surprised if I was already finding myself wanting to have some for myself. If I was already wanting to get into the drinking scene just for this.

"I guess if anybody is wanting to try it, I might as well fucking try it to." Bebe said, and then grabbed a can, and started to just get right into it. She was becoming a bit of a pro after just a moment, and within ninety seconds, she had already drank the whole can. I had wondered if she had done this before, and was only pretending like she didn't, just for the sake of fitting into the social group more.

Given the fact that three of the four had already done this, Carl was looking like he was sort of cornered on this, and decided that he might as well just try this out, and see what he could do. Unlike the other three though, and unlike what almost happened with Todd, Carl did actually get himself a bit of a cut on the knife. He let out a bit of a wince of pain, and then he was taking a deep breath as he continued to drink from the can, as the blood was dropping on the floor, and he was showing himself pretending like it didn't bother him at all.

"Damn, that fucking hurt. What the hell is wrong with you." He said, sounding like he was now no longer seeing the appeal to this at all. But he was looking like he was just trying to not let it bother him too much. He was wanting to just be in the fun, and he was not wanting this to be taken away.

"It was a cool idea. I didn't realize you would cut your fucking hand." Dan said, sounding like he was mainly just trying to save face. With that, he put on a totally fake smile, as if feeling like he needed to just pretend like this didn't really bother him too much here.

"Anyways, it's not that big of a deal. My parents are considering having me work down at the mall, and taking over their GameStop. They said they were fine with me living the loafing life style until I'm twenty one, but that I needed to do some real work after that." As Carl said that, he was then thinking about things a bit longer.

"I wonder if they are trying to pull a Larry Needlemeyer on me. You know, having a bit of a tough life until he was twenty one, but then he stepped up and became a fucking great ass man. I feel like they are trying to fucking replicate this." Carl said, sounding like he was sort of coming around to this, and realizing that things were not going to be too hard here.

I was only seven days old when I heard about Larry Needlemeyer the first time. Only seven days old when I learned about Lydia's grandfather, and since Lydia was adopted into my own family, in a way Larry was sort of my own grandpa by adoption. I knew in a literal sense, that was not true, but you get what I mean.

"The last person I want to fucking talk about is Larry Needlemyer, if I am honest with you. I think that guy has so many fucking gadgets wrong with him that I can't fucking explain it." Bebe said, sounding like she was already beyond hearing about him. Which was strange to me, because I did not know at all what the fucking issue was. But I was aware that in her eyes, this man was a fucking problem, and she did not fucking respect him at all.

"Sorry for bringing him up. I was just making the point that my parents might be setting me down that path." Carl said, and the blood had virtually stopped coming down, and he had already finished up the can, and threw it down on the ground, just simply not giving a single shit what was happening anymore.

"No, it's okay. I over reacted. I just simply heard his name, and got pissed. You are a nice enough person, and I just was way over heated in the moment." Bebe said, feeling like she just needed to tell him something in order to make the situation less awful than it really was.

"Anyways, you know, I am just simply trying to make sure that Robbie Dan does not fall under this image that Larry has in the town. You know, and I get that Lars is your sisters biological dad… Don't deny it Todd, everybody knows she looks just like the guy minus the hair color, but Larry gives me the bad vibes." She said, and then with that, Carl was desperate to change the subject.

"Want another beer?" He asked, and then he threw it right at Todd Jr., who grabbed the can right away, and started to drink it. Then with that, I could tell that despite the fact that Bebe knew what he was doing from a mile away, she decided that she was going to have one as well. Feeling like there was no need to fucking argue the obvious hint that Carl was giving that this discussion elated to Larry and everybody else was fucking over now.

"Have you ever drank underage before?" Dan asked, seeing Bebe looking like she was not nearly as uncomfortable as he was expecting her to. He expected her to be acting all freaky, and acting like she was doing something utterly horrible. But she was looking like she had been fine.

"A few times…" She said, and she was looking like she was hoping that this needed to end there. "But that is the most you will be getting out of me here. People tell me that I should be going around talking about those things to people that I don't really know. You know, to not make things worse. Sorry." Bebe said, taking out a cigarette, and looking like she was unashamed of the fact that she was doing this, even though she was doing this in front of a seven day old baby. But to be honest, with how things in the family were, I would not judge her looking back at it all, because this was how things were, and I feel like this was a first hint to how things were going to be when I grew up, and when I would be going down my own path with smoking way too fucking much, and what not.

Before we had a moment to think about things at all, this was when Todd got up, and had a smirk on his face. Before she even had a moment to process this, he pushed Bebe into the swimming pool, where she looked right up at him in annoyance, and it was very clear from the look on her face that she no longer felt like she was drunk or anything anymore. "You fucking asshole! Why did you think that this was a good idea?" She asked, sounding like she was ready to call him out. But then she took a deep breath, feeling like she just needed to take this peacefully without making any real issues here.

"Because it's fun!" Todd said, and he jumped right into the pool as well. He was leaving me on the chair, which in hindsight was something that might have gotten me killed. But in all honesty, I was too excited to see this, and Todd described me as just staying there, and watching without a single thought to anything else. Once he was in the pool, he splashed at Bebe, who then splashed back at him. Partially in annoyance, but also mostly because she had accepted the fact that this was how things were, so she would just play along.

After a moment, Carl sighed, and felt like since this was where events were going, he would join as well. So he jumped right in, and created a splash so large that it ended up getting on the pavement as well, and then both Todd and Bebe looked like they were genuinely impressed with what he did. As if they were not expecting him to actually create a splash as large as this.

With three of them now doing this, I was seeing that Dan decided that he would join along, and just have some of the fun as well, because at this rate, he might as fucking well. Once he jumped right in afterwards, he was then looking towards me, as if only now realizing how it was a terrible idea for all of them to be doing this when a literal one week old baby was there, and needed constant attending to.

"We should do this more often!" Carl said, flinging his arms up in the air, as if glad to finally be having a chance to show a bit more of his personality. He then looked at us, as if wanting to decide where he was going to go with this right now.

"Well, maybe next time don't fucking do it without giving me a heads up. That was fucking ridiculous." She said, feeling like she just needed to be straight to the point about the main thing that bothered her about this whole thing. As she said that, Todd Jr. sighed, and shrugged, as if feeling like maybe she had a fucking point there after all, even if he did not really want to admit it.

"But it was fun, and you fucking know it. No need to put on a super straight attitude and act like you aren't secretly enjoying yourself here." Todd told her, hoping that she was willing to be a bit more open about this whole thing.

"Okay, sure, it was fun. Not that I want to admit it." She said, sounding like she was a bit upset at the fact that she had to admit this. Almost as if she was basically opening them up to allowing them to do this again, now that she had admitted that she did kind of enjoy this. But then with that, she decided that being too upset about this might not be worth it.

"You should bring your brother here. He would love something like this." Carl said, sounding super confident in himself, and Todd was already looking like this was going to be a terrible idea. But he was keeping to himself, as to not make things any harder on anybody.

"Maybe I will." Bebe said, splashing more water at Carl, as if feeling a bit annoyed at the fact that Carl was just basically egging the whole thing on, and I was seeing that she had been rather annoyed at this. She then turned to Todd, and I Was seeing that she was dropping the whole act very quickly, and I was seeing her looking like she was no longer feeling the need to be super defensive here. "Todd, you always find a way to make me smile, even when you can get on my nerves here." She said, feeling like she needed to drop the act for once, and Todd loved this.

As they started to play around in the pool for a while, I could see that all four of them were looking like they were having the best moments in their entire life. If I was older than I had been, and actually understood what was happening, I could have been so fucking happy for them all. They just basically pissed the entire night away and laughing it all off, and having in general what was for some of them one of their last moments where they were able to actually feel like fucking kids, and not adults who were forced to start acting like it way too early.