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The last few years have been brutal for Avery.
So much so, he took a gap year from College, from studying Chemistry (which is his favorite, though he still has no clue how he managed to get into college with his terrible grades), just to reconnect with his own being.
He started hating New Years. He started to ghost his family, his friends, couldn't even leave his home, until he was forced into therapy. He couldn't exactly blame his parents, he knew they only wanted the best for him..
Still though. How was he ever meant to explain to a therapist, or anyone really, that he had to watch helplessly as a man, a stranger, in a video game sacrificed himself for him and humanity as a whole because some stupid King in Yellow was trapped inside of the video game itself?!
Anyone would think he was crazy. It was hard opening up about something that most, if not all, people would think he was crazy for?
After all that effort, he managed to go back to College and regain his previous socialism back. Which is why he was here now, on his most hated day (which is New Years Eve), with a few friends and classmates to celebrate the new year. It was an hour away from 2029.
Avery felt a bit.. lighter. Perhaps it was the drinks in his system. Perhaps it was the endless chatter around him. He felt freer. Which shocked even himself, considering the day that it was.
His eyes scanned the bar, drunkards, old men trying to watch a previous game like it was still live, an overworked bartender, a group of people just a table away...
And in the midst of that group, a male, around his age, darker skin, a small—yet prominent—stubble just on his jawline and a bit near his mouth, reading a book.
Avery had to squint to read the cover out of curiosity. Who would read a book in a time like this? When people are screaming and yelling, celebrating the upcoming year and laughing. How could you focus on a book in a setting like this?
He had to tilt his head just a bit to the side to properly read it, "The King in Yellow" by Robert W. Chambers.
Avery paused at that.
No, not paused, froze.
He sat upright, his spine almost breaking just fron how straight he was sitting.
What the hell? It was just a book. Why did he have to react that way? He knew The King in Yellow was a book, hell, he's already read it and have it on his bookshelf in his dorm. So why did he have to react so strangely after seeing somebody else reading it too? The book was popular anyway!
He didn't know either, and let his shoulders relax against their will. It was just a coincidence. He was on high guard, especially on New Years Eve. He won't just approach a man, a stranger, and ask about the book. That'll be weird and creepy and—
Avery's legs moved against his brain's better judgement, and he sat down with a drink in his hand when the other male's friends left for the bathroom to do god knows what.
The guy looked up from his book and froze. Their eyes met for 2 painfully long and silent seconds before Avery broke the silence.
"Ahah, yo, bro, nice book you're readin'!" Avery said with a friendly, but seemingly tense smile. His palms were sweaty. He didn't know how to name the magnifying feeling he was experiencing currently.
God, Avery could feel the heart go straight down his ass when he heard the other male's voice.
"Uh, right.. can I help you?" The male said, just as tense as the other beside him. He had to close the book and place it on the table to give Avery his attention. A subtle move, but a meaningful nonetheless.
"Your name—" Avery blurted out but cut himself off. That was rude. He should rephrase it. "I'd like to know your name. You seem cool! I read that book too so you know—"
"It's Derek. And yours?" The man, now identified as Derek, cut Avery off mid rant, with a somewhat deadpan voice—hiding the tension underneath it all.
"Uh, uhm, Avery!" Avery immediately responded back. Just a coincidence. Just a coincidence—was all that he repeated in the back of his head. "What's your major, uh, Derek, right?"
The book, the name, the mannerisms. Just. A. Coincidence.
Derek raised one eyebrow. He just said his name. Why was Avery acting like he already forgot it? "Mathematics..." He paused and then added, "You're incredibly tense. Are you positive you only came to my side just to make a friend?"
"Yes! Yes! Uh! Don't worry about it. Math! That's lovely. I'm too much of a dumbass for that." Avery rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't realize he was speaking too quickly. He was... well, shitting bricks. Hypothetically speaking.
"I'm sure you're not—" Derek started before he heard Avery's friends calling for him. "You should go. Don't keep your friends hanging there."
"RIGHT RIGHT! Goodbye, Der—Derek!" Avery jumped up fron his seat and almost robotically made his way back to his table.
This cannot be just fate playing a cruel joke on him. Derek had to go through so much just to never run into Avery again. Yes, he temporarily lost his memories after the whole ordeal. The DMS kept him locked up in a lab for a year and a half before letting him out due to memory loss and finding no sign of King in Yellow in his brain or body.
But it was all a lie. He regained memory a month in, he kept KiY dormant for as long as possible, just so he could be kicked out due to having no use for the US government. His mind may not be pure, but he was intelligent, he knew what to do and used it against them.
Now.. now he didn't know what to do. All the things that could've gone on this Eve, and he still didn't expect to run into Avery—his darling Avery—the friend he never had the chance to call a friend to his face.
He did so much, yet he knew in the back of his mind that it was all pointless. All roads led back to Avery, he knew that, he should've expected it. He didn't.
Derek didn't even realize it was just a minute away from the New Year until he heard shouting. He was too busy staring at Avery, who he knew felt the eyes on him, and completely zoned out.
His friends pulled him out of his seat 20 seconds before the new year stroke, his book left forgotten temporarily as he was led outside to wait for the fireworks.
Most bar goers went outside, so the streets were practically crowded.
3..
2..
1.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The crowd of people on the street yelled out.
Derek couldn't. He couldn't move. Avery showed up beside him and gave him a hug. He found out. He figured it out.
Derek was frozen for a solid second or so, only when the first firework went off, was when he returned the hug. Slow at first, his arms hesitant to move. Touched softly, like he was touching incredibly fragile glass.
Only when Avery squeezed him, was when he gripped onto the back of his jacket and hugged back properly. Hard. Bone crushing.
"Happy New Year, Derek.." Avery mumbled against the other's shoulder, tears threatening to spill. The hug was crushing, he reciprocated the feeling.
Neither of them expected the reunion, especially when one thought his friend was dead, while the other thought he was better off without him. But Avery didn't leave Derek's side for the rest of the night—which meant their friends also got acquainted. Neither of them cared, the people faded into the background.
They didn't need another life to meet and become friends (perhaps more), they only needed a chance encounter, a proper meet cute, to restart from scratch and put aside their past.
They were given the chance to become friends, against all odds of the universe, and neither of them were going to let that chance go.
Not now, not ever.