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The entrance to the bodega opens with a quiet ding and Mega Football Baby and Bell Beefer walk inside. Glancing at the new display of Canned Lazer Chips, the latter says a simple, "sup, Rad."
Rad looks over at the two as he grabs a can with his finger beam. "Hey," he says, turning his attention back to the display as he moves the can into its proper place. He reaches down to pick up another one, this one slightly larger than the others with a giant "DOUBLE-SIZED CHIPS" label sloppily plastered over it. "What's up?"
"We're here to show you a new game we just made up!"
Rad blinks and slowly looks up from the display with a raised eyebrow, the can held loosely in his grip. Mega Football Baby steps forward and continues where Bell Beefer left off. "It's where we look at your liked posts and decide if they're cool -"
"- or lammmeee!" Bell Beefer puts a thumbs down in the air and finishes Mega Football Baby's sentence.
"Oh." Rad's expression forms into a frown and he looks at the display as he sets the double-sized chips can on the top. "I dunno if 'm up for that right now."
"Aw, what? That's lame!" Bell Beefer crosses his arms and huffs out a breath, looking at the floor. "I thought you were cooler than that."
"Yeah!" Mega Football Baby crosses his arms as well and squints. "Unless you're just too chicckkkken!"
Rad groans quietly in annoyance and facepalms, shaking his head. The other two's conversation continues on, subtly nagging and making guilt-trippy comments ("c'mon dude, I thought we were friends" and other similar statements and phrases) in an attempt to get him to play. Their words jumble together into a blur and mess of noises and sounds, and his ears ring as it gets louder and louder and louder and -
"Fine! Take it!" He grabs his phone out from his pocket and tosses it at the two, huffing under his breath and crossing his arms as he looks to the side. Mega Football Baby catches the phone with ease and glances at Rad with a slightly offended look before turning on the phone and pulling up Rad's social media. "Sheesh, dude," he mumbles.
Uncrossing his arms, Rad winces and looks down at the floor before giving a weak sigh and looking back up at them. "Sorry, guys," he says, his voice quiet and his tone laced with sadness and regret. "Things have just... really sucked lately."
"Whatever. It's cool." Mega Football Baby gives a shrug and pulls up the liked posts page, squinting at the first one on the list. It's a clip of a person attempting to do an everyday task and failing miserably, somehow ending up faceplanted onto the floor by the end of it. The two give a thumbs up and simultaneously shout out, "cool!"
Rad takes a shaky deep breath and brings his attention towards the display once again. "Sure." A stray can rolls across the floor and he picks it up with his finger beam before dropping it into his hand. "Everything I like is cool, though."
Bell Beefer snorts, which is followed by a "we'll see about that!" from Mega Football Baby as he scrolls down to the next post: a photo that Rad posted of himself next to his van. The two go silent for a moment and the blue alien looks over his shoulder and in their direction. "Uhh… you guys okay?" An expression of mild panic crosses his face, but it quickly shifts into a confused frown once they both start howling with laughter.
"Cool!" Their laughter continues, and Bell Beefer claps. "Way to go, Radicles! You liked your own post!"
Rad gives a small, anxious, and confused smile, followed by a quiet chuckle of the same demeanor. "Haha, is that like… a thing people do now?" He places the can into its proper place on the display with his finger beam.
"Yeah, dude!" Mega Football Baby practically bounces with excitement as he speaks. "It's, like, super-duper ultra cool!"
"If you know you're cool enough to like your own post, you know you've got it. No lame person likes their own post, man! Not liking your post is for weenies."
"Oh, yeah," Rad responds. "I totally knew that." He picks up the now-empty supply box of Canned Lazer Chips off the floor and tosses it behind him. It bounces and lands into a nearby pile of garbage; empty cans, bags, and packages stack on top of each other, collecting dust, dirt, and the occasional food crumb or grease stain. His full gaze and attention turns toward Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby upon completion of the display and tossing of the box.
"Time for the final photo of judgment," Mega Football Baby declares with a grin. Rad takes a step back and sighs as the former quickly scrolls through and past the list of likes. Blurs of videos and pictures of cats, yoga poses, and various other posts fill the screen, moving too fast to be seen or even glimpsed upon. Forty-three seconds of scrolling later and he moves his hand away from the screen, allowing it to come to a stop. It lands on a post from KO: a picture of him standing in the bodega and holding a mop with Rad and Enid just barely visible in the background. Below the image reads the caption "I love my job!" with a large wall of heart and happy emojis following the text.
Mega Football Baby's grin falls upon seeing the post and it quickly forms into a cringe alongside Bell Beefer's. They both put their thumbs down and into the air as they shout out, "laaammmmeeee!"
Rad sucks in a breath and immediately recoils, his expression becoming laced with sadness, hurt, and anger. A sudden sharp feeling surges through his chest and he clenches his shirt as he takes a step back, body trembling. "How could you say that —" His voice breaks and a sob builds in the back of his throat that comes out as a quiet whimper.
Mega Football Baby flinches back at the sudden reaction, his tone defensive as he asks, "what's your deal today, dude?"
"Yeah! All we did was say that was lame. You don't need to get all upset about it."
Rad's chest becomes heavy as anger and grief bubbles to the surface, his expression mirroring that as tears prick the corners of his eyes. "Because he's my friend!" He comes off a lot more aggressive than intended and he takes a step back, his breathing becoming heavy and ragged.
Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby go silent and exchange a glance before looking back at Rad. "I thought we were your friends," the former says with a raised eyebrow and confused tone.
"Yeah!" Mega Football Baby nods in agreement with Bell Beefer. "We're your coolest friends!"
"KO is chill and all but he's, like, a four on a coolness scale of one to us."
"Haha, yeah! Fighting robots? Super cool! POW Cards, cleaning, and enjoying your job? Laammmeeee!"
Rad's already angry and grief-stricken expression twists into one of rage and a shadow falls over his gaze as he looks down at the floor. The same sudden, sharp feeling from before rushes through his chest, and he sucks in a sudden breath. Immense amounts of anger bubble to the surface and he clenches his fists as the tears spill out and down his cheeks.
"Get out." His voice is stern. Any grain of patience he has for the two goes away in an instant as he stands there, shaking with rage and grief, unable to believe they have the audacity to —
"What?"
"Get. Out."
"Dude —"
Rad snaps his gaze towards Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby, glaring daggers through his tears. His breathing remains heavy and ragged and he clenches his teeth as he makes a noise somewhat reminiscent of a strained whine and buries his face into his hands.
"What the heck? All we did wa—"
"He's DEAD!"
Mega Football Baby and Bell Beefer freeze in their tracks, and Rad pulls his hands away from his face, sniffling as he speaks through his quiet sobs. "The little dude is dead and all you can do is call him lame."
A long moment of silence between the three follows as Rad rubs the tears away from his eyes with a shaky deep breath, his glare at Bell Beefer and Mega Football Baby turning into nothing more than a sad gaze as he stares through them. His heavy and ragged breathing becomes light and shaky, and he runs a hand through his hair as he stands up straight and takes another deep breath.
Mega Football Baby huffs quietly and crosses his arms, looking down. "Well, it's not like we knew that," he mumbles, kicking at the floor below him. Bell Beefer watches him and copies his arm cross, frowning. "Yeah, how were we supposed to know?"
Rad crosses his arms as well, sniffling again. "Maybe if you weren't jerks," he mumbles under his breath as he looks to the side, "you would've known that."
There's another moment of silence. The door dings as it slides open and Crinkly Wrinkly steps inside with a "heya kiddos" before he wanders off to the other side of the store. Rad groans quietly under his breath and Mega Football Baby exchanges another glance with Bell Beefer before looking at Rad again.
"Wanna come to mega football practice with us?"
Rad's expression forms into a full-fledged frown and he slowly turns his head to look at the two, silent.
"It's way cooler than being sad, dude."
Eye twitching, he grabs his phone back from Mega Football Baby with his finger beam and stuffs it into his pocket. "Get out," he says, again, his voice quiet and strained. "Now."
"But —"
"Now. "
"Geez! Okay, fine!" Mega Football Baby turns around with a pout and heads towards the door, Bell Beefer following from behind. Rad's gaze follows their movements, and he lets out an exhausted sigh of relief as the door closes behind them. "Those guys don't know the first thing about being cool," he mumbles sadly to himself. "KO is a lot cooler than they'll ever be. He's the coolest little dude I've ever met…"
He turns his gaze to the completed display of Canned Lazer Chips in its full glory and takes a deep breath as he looks at the floor again, smiling sadly; a thought lingers in the back of his mind telling him that, right now, KO was happy.