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Walking through the door, Nevik is back from work, and is wearing his work clothes, which are absolutely covered in pizza dough. God, he looks like shit…
Enna: “God, you look like shit.”
Nevik: “Thank you.” Immediately, Nevik starts to lounge on the couch and laughs to himself at my comment. A few moments after, I see Millie beginning to light up something behind the dining table. She’s been… Acting weird for the past few weeks. She’s been less talkative with everyone, and is smoking more Pomu Leaf… Maybe it’s because of the Pomu Leaf that she’s not being her usual self… Yeah, that makes sense. Pomu said the stuff is addictive, it might be making her more jittery or less prone to talk to us. Just her voice is normally enough to calm me down, or make me happy… But, this isn’t normal for her.
Nevik: “Hey, Enna.”
Enna: “What.”
Nevik: “Just let them be… Millie’s been in a rough patch, lately.”
Enna: “How so? I haven’t noticed anything different about her.”
Nevik: “Nevermind…”
The loud escape of breath from Millie tells me everything I need to know; she’s smoking more of that Pomu Leaf…
Enna: “Jesus christ, Millie. How much Pomu Leaf have you smoked this past week?” To be honest, she’s been smoking so much fucking Pomu Leaf it’s ridiculous. Pomu told me that it’s natural for someone to love the stuff, but… Ah, nevermind. I just want her to stop smoking it so much. Get her back to her normal self. Weirds me out seeing her like this.
Enna: “Millie, give it.”
Millie: “Nooooo!” Immediately, I snatch it from Millie’s hand, and put the Pomu Leaf out.
Millie: “Give it baaaack!” God, what does she like about this stuff? I fucking hate it, personally. Immediately after, she starts to complain more and more… Oh god, she’s not going to let up, is she? I should probably take away all of it, just to get her back to normal…
Enna: “If you don’t stop smoking this stuff so much, I’ll take away the rest of it. It’s not doing you any good, Millie.” Weirdly, I hear a small hissing noise from Nevik, as I just look over to him, confused. He just looks at me with a disapproving look, shaking his head. What did I do? Looking back to Millie… She’s crying? What? Why is she crying? Does the Pomu Leaf make her this emotionally unstable all the time?
Millie: “LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE, ENNA!” Almost immediately, Millie pushes me away, and screams in my face, running out of the room, causing everyone else to look over to me confused or surprised. What just… happened?
Nevik: “Anyways, I’m gonna head upstairs, talk to me if you need anything Enna.” As Nevik walks past, he looks slightly uncomfortable with what just happened. What… Why is everyone walking away? Did I do something!? Oh good, Elira’s waking up to me.
Elira: “Hope you know that you just hurt Millie real bad doing that. Hope you’re real proud of yourself.” Oh… Oh. Wait, what? I… Hurt Millie? No, wait… That’s… Bad. Very bad. I have to fix this… Somehow. Wait, but how…? Fuck… FUCK!
Enna: “Wait, wait, wait, wait… How… How-”
Elira: “She’s hurt; and she needs somebody to help her deal with her problems right now. She’s stressed, Enna. Stressed. Someone needs to go comfort her.” Somebody- No, I need to be that somebody. I hurt her, and that’s- that’s my fault. I need to fix this. I need to fix this. I need to fix this. It hurts me to see her hurt, and it’s my fault for her being hurt. But how do I- How do I fix this? No, I can’t see her right away… Time? Give it time…? What do I-
Nevik: “Hey, Enna.” Immediately, my head snaps over to Nevik, his clothes changed to being more… presentable. He simply gives me a glance over, before growing a concerned face.
Nevik: “Jesus… You look horribly stressed right now. You… Need to talk or somethin’?” Immediately, I loudly exhale, a weird weight off my shoulders. Maybe I do need to talk to somebody, right now…
Enna: “I… Maybe? I’m-”
Nevik: “No no no, I understand. Nobody likes seeing their friends hurting, you’re no different. Just…” He begins to descend the stairs, down to floor level. I immediately just walk over to the couch and just drop on it, slumping into it. Compared to me, he simply softly sits down on the couch right next to me, taking a sip from his drink. However, compared to Millie, he seems so… inelegant in how he drinks. He even lifts his pinky finger when he takes a sip! That’s not normal! He should take after Millie in that regard!
Nevik: “You’re looking at me funny. Thinking about Millie?”
Enna: “Ah- No…?” Immediately, his eyes narrow, judging me…
Nevik: “Not buying it. You’re worried about how you hurt Millie, aren’t you?” How did he- FUCK! Fuck, he really knows what’s on my mind, doesn’t he!?
Enna: “How the fuck do you-”
Nevik: “Everybody else in this house knows that Millie’s your closest friend, and it pains you to see her hurt. But…” Immediately, he grabs the remote on the table, and turns the TV on.
Nevik: “You don’t really understand why it hurts you to see her this way, right?” Wait… I don’t understand why it hurts me to see her hurt…?
Nevik: “You hurt her emotionally by threatening to take away her coping mechanism with her stress. Thus, she screamed at you for trying to make her life more miserable. Understand?”
Enna: “Y-Yes…”
Nevik: “Good! Now… I know you’re stressing out over trying to apologize or something to Millie, but I think you should let her be by herself for a bit.”
Enna: “Huh…?”
Nevik: “She needs to heal by herself, right now. Once she comes back out from her room… That might be the moment to apologize for your actions. For now…” He switches the HDMI to the switch, and turns it on. He grabs a controller and hands it to me.
Nevik: “I’d say you need to relax yourself. Play something, anything. Won’t do you any good to keep stressing over it. When you’re more relaxed, then you can apologize to Millie.” Oh… Okay… I… Guess I’ll do that.
For the next hour or so, I played some monster hunter, and Nevik recommended I play that, simply because the hours will pass without you realizing it. Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t completely focused on it…
Nevik: “Hey, Elira.”
Elira: “Nyeah?”
Nivek: “Fifteen bucks says that Enna realizes they’re in love with Millie, and confesses that later today.”
Elira: “...Sure. I’ll take that bet.”
Later…
Enna: “OH SHIT!” Immediately, I see my character get one-shot by the monster I’m hunting, causing me to get carted.
Enna: “FUCKING BITCH!” FUCK! I GOT CARTED! Oh, that fucking monster’s not gonna know what hit it! Almost immediately, I hear soft laughter coming from another room from me yelling. Fuck!
A little bit later…
Nevik: “Hey, Enna.” Almost instinctively, I shift to turn towards the stairs, which Nevik is coming down again, but this time wearing his shoes, and a blank baseball cap. Is he going out for something?
Enna: “Yeah?” As he walks over to the keys left hanging on hooks near the door, he fetches them, and turns around to me.
Nevik: “I’m heading out for groceries, and I think you should come with me. You can’t stay indoors all day.” Ugh, really? I guess I should get out…
Enna: “Fine…! I’ll get my shoes on, and stuff…” A small smile forms on his face, as he nods to me. He grabs his hoodie from another nearby hook, and swiftly throws it on.
Nevik: “It’s raining, so get a hoodie, Enna.” Oh great, and it’s raining!? Ugh! Loudly, I groan, before angrily grabbing my hoodie off the other side of the couch. Slipping the sleeves of my dark hoodie on, I flip the hood up to cover my hair, and begin to walk for my shoes. Putting those on, I head out the front door to see it pouring outside, the lights already on for the car. As I walk over to the other side of the car, I open the door and sit in, seeing Nevik at the wheel. A few moments after, I close the door, buckling myself in.
Enna: “Where are we stopping by?” With a small click, Nevik turns on the wipers, which clears the front window completely with one swipe.
Nevik: “First, Walmart. Then, we’re heading to the Beagle.” Beagle?
Enna: “Beagle?”
Nevik: “Giant Eagle.”
Enna: “Ah, right.” A few seconds after, Nevik pulls out of the driveway, onto the road. From there, the both of us sit there for a few minutes in silence, while Nevik drives. As we get to an intersection near the city…
Nevik: “I know Millie’s still on your mind, Enna. You’re worried about her, but you don’t know how to help.” What…?
Enna: “What?”
Nevik: “You’ve been… weirdly quiet, ever since Millie yelled at you. Did her screaming at you hurt you that bad?” I-I mean, yeah…? I guess it hurt…? But more importantly…
Enna: “Nevik, what the fuck are you getting at?” Loudly, he inhales and exhales.
Nevik: “You remember what Elira said to you earlier today, right? Millie’s stressed, Enna. Stressed. I know I’m not the best person to tell you this, but…” He pauses for a second, as the light turns green, and turns on the turn signal, taking a right for Walmart, and the turn signal clicks off on its own a few seconds later.
Nevik: “You should absolutely apologize to Millie for what you did today. Buy her something, I don’t know. She considers you her closest friend, and she needs you to realize that you’re hurting her by not realizing what she’s going through.” What she’s going through…? Wait, now that I think about it… She’s been this way since the beginning of this month, way before she started smoking Pomu Leaf so often… Is it something else?
Enna: “Did you fucking do something to her!?”
Nevik: “Hey, I plead the fifth! I ain’t do shit to her! Honestly! Sheesh…” Okay… It’s not him, that’s for sure. Ah, whatever… I need to help her when we get back… By the time that conversation finishes up, I see that we have reached Walmart, and the rain hasn’t let up at all. As we both get out, I notice that he managed to get a parking spot near the front of the entrance to Walmart. Neat.
As we head in, Nevik pulls out his phone and grabs a shopping cart quickly, putting his phone in the strange cup holder attached to the cart, and begins to open his phone, quickly thumbing through apps to open up a specific app, which has a list of items, each categorized into separate sections.
For most of the time there, the both of us were completely silent, while I simply followed him and sometimes helped get stuff from another aisle if he needed it. Then we got near the checkout… Candy bar…
Nevik: “What? You wanna buy something for Millie as an apology?”
Enna: “Ah-” Almost immediately, Nevik snatches a candy bar from the selection that I’m looking at, and immediately puts it in the shopping cart.
Enna: “Wait, you don’t have to-”
Nevik: “Oh, I’ll pay for this one.” Quietly, I grumple, and go quiet. Goddamnit… As everything gets bagged, Nevik pays for everything, and begins to push the cart to the car, and as we walk outside…
Nevik: “Huh. Rain’s kind of let up, a bit.” As we look outside, the rain has softened to most sprinkles, almost to the point that it might stop.
Nevik: “Y’know what? Nah, we’re heading back to the house, I can get everything else tomorrow.” Oh, really? Already? I thought we were- Nevermind. The faster we get back to the house, the better. Quickly, we get all of the bags into the trunk, and close it, and I’m given the cart to put away in the shopping cart corral, while he starts up the car. As I put the cart in the corral, I turn around and walk back to the car. As I try to open the door… It doesn’t budge. It’s locked. Fuck.
Enna: “Oh… For fuck…” A click. Almost immediately, the door unlocks, and I can open it properly. As I open it, all I hear is a laugh from Nevik, as he’s smiling at his small joke.
Nevik: “Alright. Let’s get going now.” I get in the car, and buckle myself in. The moment we get out of the parking lot…
Nevik: “So… You’re going to apologize to Millie, right?”
Enna: “Yeah…” The rain’s beginning to kick up, again… In response, Nevik turns on the wipers again.
Nevik: “Do you know what you’re gonna say to her exactly?”
Enna: “No… Not really…” Loudly, Nevik exhales, and uses the turn signal to make a shift on the road, only before we get abruptly cut off, causing Nevik to slam on the brakes. All I can do is flinch, and look in utter surprise.
Nevik: “FUCK YOU, ASSHAT!” Loudly, Nevik groans, before honking the horn. A moment after, Nevik looks over to me.
Nevik: “Oh shit, sorry… Assholes on the road like that piss me off… Anyways…” As he recomposes himself for a few seconds, he talks to me again.
Nevik: “Think of what you’re gonna say when you apologize to Millie. Be considerate with your words, and try to comfort her the best you can. She’ll appreciate that.” He stops for a moment, to turn on the turn signal, making a left, back the way we originally came from.
Nevik: “Just listen to her, and don’t judge her, that’ll help too.” Okay… I guess that’ll work. Listen to her, don’t judge her… I guess give her the candy bar? That’ll probably… work? Ah, whatever… I just want her to be less hurt. It’s not good for her to be hurt.
By the time we get back, the rain hasn’t let up at all. We quickly got all of the bags out of the car, albeit somewhat wet thanks to the rain. As we got in the last bag, Nevik takes the candy bar out of it, and hands it to me.
Nevik: “Go… Talk with Millie, but be gentle with her.” Slowly, I walk up the stairs, and walk to Millie’s room. Oh god… This is not gonna go well… Slowly, I open the door. Looking in, the lights are on, and Millie is sitting on her bed, looking at the wall. Oh god, she’s not doing well… I want to help her, and this is my one shot to make things better. Don’t fuck up, Enna… Don’t fuck this up.
Enna: “Hey, Millie…?” She slowly turns over to me, as I softly walk over to her.
Millie: “What…?”
Enna: “I… Wanted to give you this…” Slowly and painfully, I gently open her hands, and place the candy bar in them. Good, that’s a start, albeit a small one…
Enna: “Look, I’m-” How… How do I put this…?
Enna: “I’m… Worried about you Millie. This… isn’t like you. I’m worried that something’s happened.”
Millie: “Why would you care?”
Enna: “I do care Millie, it’s just- You know me… I’ve never been good at reading people…”
Enna: “I’m- I’m sorry for earlier… I guess I didn’t realize how much I was hurting you…”
Millie: “You never realized…? Until now…? Hah… Of course you realize now…”
Enna: “Look- I’m- I’m really sorry, Millie… How- How do I make up to you? Anything, anything to make you happy again Millie…” As she turns to face me with her entire body, she sighs.
Millie: “Can you… Be my girlfriend…?” Wait… What. I mean- I would- Oh fuck, I only just realized that about myself! Am I… I’m in love with Millie in that kind of way?! Standing there, mouth slightly open, I feel my cheeks flush.
Enna: “I… Yes?” Slowly, I lean into Millie, and begin to wrap my arms around her, and embrace her. As I do, she wraps her arms around me, and holds me tight, softly giggling… Which causes my heart to skip a beat. Oh my god, I’m- I’m falling in love with her more and more with each second I’m comforting her; I feel like the sun right now.
Millie: “Thank you…” I feel the heat from my cheeks rising more and more. God, I really do love her…
Enna: “I love you, Millie. I really do…” God, that’s corny as fuck… But it’s true what I just said. I really do love her… I just didn’t realize it until just now. I really do love her…
…But elsewhere in the house…
Nevik: “Hey, Elira?”
Elira: “Nyeah?”
Nevik: “I think you owe me fifteen bucks now.”
Elira: “...Shit.” A chuckle rises out from Nevik, as Elira pulls out fifteen dollars from her wallet, and hands it to Nevik.
Nevik: “Kachow! New dice set!” Nevik immediately pumps his fists out in an excited manner.