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“Look, dude, I know you don’t like branching out and meeting people, but I need you to trust me, okay?” Ren looked over at his younger brother, who kept a very bland expression. He just looked out to the road ahead. “Come on, Doc, get out. We’ll go in, get us a treat, get some gas, and head on.”
Yeah, Ren had told Cleo he’d be over at her place in like, no time at all, but he hadn’t accounted for low fuel and a grumpy Doccy. He couldn’t just leave him home! Well, he could. Doc came home from school all the time, sitting around doing just about nothing until Ren came home from theater. But on a Saturday? No. He wouldn’t let him sit around all by his lonesome.
He needed friends.
And Ren knew Bdubs would need friends as well, what with it being a week away from both Cleo and Etho graduating (meaning the kid would lose everyone he was close to, aside from Scar, but annoying little siblings didn’t really count). So today was a perfect day as ever to take Doc over to meet Bdubs, which before this, he’d never conceded to.
Granted, it was taking a bit of bribery, but with having a job over the weekend, spending a bit wouldn’t leave him broke.
“You found anything?” Ren asked, wandering back to the section of chips and candy, Mountain Dew in hand.
Doc handed over a pack of Combos and a Hershey bar.
“Want anything to drink?”
“I’m good.” He quietly followed Ren up to the front, standing almost within his shadow. Quickly, transactions were made, followed up by the car being filled with gas, and they were on their way.
“Before we get there, I should warn you, bro. Gets loud. Bdubs and Scar are loud. But like, in a good, funny way. And they’re really friendly.”
Doc nodded as he ate his snacks.
“Wouldn’t judge or anything.” He glanced over. Doc closed in on himself a little, hiding any patches of fur underneath his hoodie. Being part-creeper had never boded well with him. Dramatic pasts be forgotten, talking about what he was was a common occurrence with new people, always difficult.
But Ren knew Bdubs and he knew that Bdubs would find Doc cool. Part-creature or not. That was just Bdubs, always excited for new friends and open to all sorts of people.
“Yeah, I know.”
Ren had been encouraging him about it all day, but sometimes one extra reminder never hurt. “I need you to loosen up, though. Won’t be able to make new friends if you’re too nervous about it. And if anything happens — which it won’t — I’ll hightail you right outta there.”
Doc nodded.
“Good. Now that we’re on the same page, I’ll shut up about it. How’s that?” Ren slid in a cd — an album the two of them both loved — and turned up the sound system. A JONO original, titled under the name “GoatTapes” which Doc was absolutely obsessed with.
It put Doc in a much better mood, which set up for this whole “meet new friends” experiment. Having him all grumpy to begin with would be no good, as he’d already be checked out to begin with.
After about a seven minute drive, they made it to the neighborhood in question.
“This is it?”
“Yep.” Ren pulled up to the house with kids running around outside. There were a few others. Scott was over with his brother, Martyn (one of Ren’s favorites from their time in acting together, the kid was just too cute). Grian, Martyn’s cousin, along with his younger brothers were there as well. Those three were playing with Scar.
Bdubs wasn’t out there, though.
“That’s… a lot of people.”
“Yeah, I didn’t know Cleo was babysitting the whole town today. Bdubs isn’t even out there, actually. You might get along with Martyn though. He’s cool.” Ren pointed over to him.
“Do you think there are more people inside?”
“If there is, then those people are going to be perfectly lovely. I promise. I think Cleo just wanted to have a small party before heading off.”
Ren got out first, taking Doc by the hand. Even as old as he was, Doc still was incredibly backward about these sorts of things, which was concerning. Nobody stared, contrary to Doc’s worries.
“Who’re you?” Grian asked, the first to walk up to the two.
Ren nudged him a little.
“Doc.”
Grian smiled, despite Doc’s very cold greeting. “Nice to meet you.” He took Doc’s hand. “Name’s Grian. And those are my brothers playing with Scar over there. Joel’s the cool one and Timmy’s our tiny shadow.”
He nodded, staying quiet. He awkwardly followed Ren inside, to where there were more people. A lot of them were older, by three to five years. Ren pointed him over to the couch, where the only younger person was, who he assumed to be Bdubs, along with two older kids.
“Hey Bdubs!” Ren called over, and when Bdubs looked up, gave enough confirmation to Doc on who he was. “What’s up, dude?”
He basically jumped onto the couch, to which he got a frustrated look from Bdubs. “Don’t jump on the furniture. Cleo had to promise nothing would happen bad to the place so mom and dad would leave during the party. Don’t ruin the fun.”
Doc, sensing the social cue of don’t mess with this kid (who did look pretty small and incapable of “punishing” anyone for their actions), sat down carefully next to Ren.
“Oh, hi. You’re Ren’s brother?” Bdubs asked Doc.
He nodded, staying quiet.
“Cleo said Ren was trying to get you to come. You like Mario Kart?” Bdubs handed him a switch controller.
Doc didn’t really have a choice on the matter, and there wasn’t much else for him to do. He wouldn’t knock video games. “Sure.”
“Ok! Let me get Impulse and Tango to play!” Bdubs ran off for a second, before dragging them along. They were in the middle of snacking and hanging out with the bigger kids. “Okay. Now we have four people. I’d get Etho, but he’d absolutely destroy us. And then like, brag about it for hours.”
“That’s true,” one of the two Bdubs brought over said. “Name’s Tango, by the way.” He grinned at Doc, almost competitively. “This is Impulse. He’s like, master at getting fourth place.”
Impulse scowled at this. “It’s not fair that you, Zedaph, and Etho always team up on me. At least I’m not Skizz.”
“Nobody’s Skizz,” Tango answered. “Even Bdubs can beat him.”
Bdubs beamed at this. “Of course I can! I am the Mario Kart extraordinaire! Do you want us to take it easy on you?” He looked back over at Doc, who remained silent on them the entire time.
“I’m not scared,” he said coolly. He could smack talk, even around strangers. “If you want to play easy, so you can defend your losing, you can.”
“Oh, it is on.” Bdubs said, facial expressions matching every ounce of competitiveness he was trying to well up. It was very funny.
In just a couple minutes, they all had their characters and vehicles chosen, and were busy fighting over which course should be played. “NES Rainbow Road. See what this guy’s made of,” Tango said at last, which everyone agreed with.
It turned out that Bdubs was even funnier when winning or losing, always boasting of his greatness or ferally yelling at everyone on the couch. There may have been some foul play too, with kicking and shoving during matches, and throwing of excessive blue turtles (as if one could control what power-ups they did have, but Doc did control when he used them for maximum annoyance).
He’d hardly been over thirty minutes and Doc realized that Ren was right. Coming over here was well worth it, and Bdubs made a worthy opponent to all Doc’s competitive games.