Issue #65: Fond Farewell
Part 2 – Party
On the very edge of the city of Mayfield, in a neighborhood called The Hills, on the shores of Lake Standish, there sat a fine old building known as Freeland House.
In its heyday, when Mayfield itself was young, Freeland House was a bed and breakfast of some fame and reputation. In later years, it fell out of favor with the wealthy and discreet thanks to more modern and private inns and resorts springing up in the growing city. It would have decayed to a tumble down wreck if not for a twist of fate and the manipulations of a man who could see possible futures led seven people to its doors seeking sanctuary.
Freeland House had become home, hearth and secret headquarters to The Descendants, Mayfield’s self appointed protectors and the first known superheroic team. Even with the younger generation moving on to college, it remained, always a welcoming place for a restful weekend, or place to escape the temptations of campus life and get some serious studying done.
And on one warm night in early September, it was playing host to its first bon voyage party.
“Never fear, beer is here!” JC declared with his deepest voice as he rolled the cooler out of the house and onto the patio surrounding the pool. He threw open the container and extracted two bottles before taking stock of the contents. “Also some wine coolers, sodas, oh and the hard lemonade Bookman bought.”
“God, he is such a spazz.” Lily Goldenmeyer sniped disgustedly to the person in the lounge chair next to hers without bothering to see who it was. “Total geek.”
Lisa opened one eye to see who was disturbing her sun bathing and immediately quirked an eyebrow. “Why the hell are you here in the first place?”
“Please.” Lily scoffed. “I’ve known Tinkerbell way longer than anyone else here.”
“Wait. What?” Melissa was passing by with a drink when she heard that.
Lily rolled her eyes, incredulous that anyone would question her on this fact. “Hello? Who do you think called her Tinkerbell in the first place.”
“It’s true.” Lisa confirmed reluctantly before closing her eye again. “Lily used to be a very pleasant person to be around. Then the chronic backstabbing syndrome hit and Tink was just the first victim.”
“I’ll have you know,” Lily sniffed, “That we were in Junior Explorers Daycamp together three summers running.”
“None of this actually explains why you’re actually here.” Lisa pointed out, “Seeing as you were nothing but a bitch to her in high school.”
Lily remained unfazed and unapologetic. “It’s not my fault that she never grew out of that science stuff.”
Melissa gave her a dull look. “You do know that we’re celebrating her being so good at science now that she’d going to England to study at one of the world’s top schools with a full scholarship, right?”
“I may have heard something about it from Kareem.” Lily lost interest in the discussion entirely when she spotted the young man in question sitting on the stone railing surrounding the patio, talking with Juniper’s boyfriend, Malcolm, and his own girlfriend, Desiree. An unwholesome expression came to her face.
A less than friendly one crossed Melissa’s when she saw. “Whatever.” the redhead huffed and moved off to find someplace to have her drink in peace.
“He has a girlfriend.” Lisa said quickly trying to cover Melissa’s reaction.
Lily lowered her designer shades to watch Melissa’s retreat over the top of the rims. “Looks like he has two. Hmm. When he finally takes a good, long look at Jo-Jo the shark faced girl, I might have some competition.”
Lisa blanched at the idea of Lily chasing after someone who didn’t deserve to put up with her attitude, but said nothing in hopes of ending the conversation.
***
“So. The one week countdown starts now.” JC ambled up to Warrick who was tending the grill and handed him one of the beer bottles he’d grabbed. “Figured you’d need this.”
Warrick absently set the bottle on the sideboard built into the grill. He was staring longingly over at where Tink, Juniper and Callie were seated, eating and talking.
All three young women didn’t mingle naturally unless someone (read: Cyn for the first two, Lily for the latter) was pushing them to, and had gravitated over to the stairs winding down from the patio to the back lawn with plates and glasses of punch. Heaven knew what those three found in common to talk about, but they were, with some animated hand gestures on Callie and Tink’s parts.
He smiled, secure in the fact that she was having a good time.
“Here’s a stupid question.” JC said, opening his own beer and frowning at the ignored one beside his friend, “Why aren’t you over there with her? I mean I can man the grill or get someone else to. Like I said one week countdown.”
A long sigh came from Warrick. “Because if I did that, I’d even up being the hovering boyfriend, man. If I don’t stop myself now when it’s supposed to be her goodbye to all her friends–”
“And Lily” JC added.
“—And Lily—I’d stick to her like rust on rebar for the entire time from now until she leaves and that’s… unhealthy. Mr. Smythe said so. So did my dad.”
“You talked to them about it?”
“Who haven’t I talked to about it?” Warrick suddenly noticed the burgers were burning and started flipping. “This just came up like -boom-. I thought she was going to be around for another month. I checked online, classes start in October over there, but this special mentoring thing starts three weeks early and—arg!” He rubbed his face with his non-spatula wielding hand, “There goes all the extra special stuff we planned to do. It’s not like she can or should blow off the stuff that she’s doing with her parents and her brothers are coming back to town to see her off…”
He finished with the burgers and went to the cooler to get more grillable food. “Is it wrong to hate an entire country for something this petty?”
“I’ve managed to get a pretty good hate on for Japan for getting all the best videogames first, and the cheap domestic robots.” JC offered.
“Seriously?” Warrick smirked.
“Not really. You just looked like you needed someone to say something stupid to make you feel better.” He pointed to the bottle of beer he’d given him. “Now drink your beer. A nice buzz will stop all that thinking you insist on doing.”
Warrick transferred some portabello caps to the grill and picked up the beer. “Not thinking would be nice. Stupid brain: I know I’m freaking out over nothing, but that doesn’t stop the freaking out part.” He raised an eyebrow as he twisted off the cap. “… and Lily? Did we just say that?”
“Don’t look at me, I didn’t invite her.” said JC. “She probably came with Callie.” He took a drink. “So anyway, how come we’re saying goodbye a whole week early? Kind of going to make the fact that she’s still here a little awkward.”
“The usual.” Warrick followed his friend’s lead, but promised himself that one bottle was enough. He wouldn’t be responsible for what could happen when drunkness and metal powers collided. “Scheduling conflicts—Ms. Brant has to go to Chicago for-ahem-business and Cyn and Jun are going with, plus Tink’s parents are having a family dinner for her Friday.”
“You invited?”
“Her dad told me to rent a tux.” said Warrick.
“Nicely done.” They high-fived.
“The other reason it’s so early,” Warrick continued, “Is because Cyn decided she wanted to be in charge and couldn’t control herself.”
“Hey!” A girl had been coming up the stairs on their side and threw a glare at them. She had a coffee complexion and dark eyes with spiky black hair atop her head and a pair of thick rimmed glasses. Neither of them recognized her or her voice, but when she got to the top of the stairs and crossed her arms, her posture and expression gave her away.
Warrick looked around to make sure no one else was listening to whisper. “Cyn? What the hell are you doing?”
“Ollie had to leave early. One day, I’m going to steal his palmtop and block his boss’s number. But anyway, I decided to try out my new form for the Chicago trip on everyone here.”
“Why do you look kinda familiar?” JC asked, slightly concerned that he couldn’t place the face.
She grinned. “You like? I based the new look off Miss Brant’s high school yearbook with some minor touches here and there. I figure it’ll be our cover that we’re mother and daughter.”
“Isn’t Juniper going with you?” Warrick asked.
“Yeah.” Cyn said, either missing or ignoring the implicit question done. Her mercurial attention shifted and her eyes softened. “So how’re you doing with all this? I can’t help noticing you’re here, hiding with the grill, and she’s over there, hiding with the girls.”
“He’s afraid he’ll get creepy about it if he tries to spend too much time with her.” JC volunteered.
Cyn snerked. “Really?”
Warrick’s face heated. “Just me being me. I want things to be perfect for her the next week. Like, every minute we’re together have to be something to tell the grandkids about. And that’s not gonna happen if I’m hovering over her like some… some…”
“Lovesick crazy boyfriend?” JC supplied with a smirk.
“Exactly!” Warrick pointed to him with the spatula, sending particles of hot mushroom spattering across his shirt. “I was this close to begging her to stay last night on patrol…”
JC didn’t seem to care and Cyn, ever the opportunist swiped the back of her hand across his chest, absorbing the food as a light snack. “Look,” She said, cocking a hip against the sideboard, “I know you want everything to go well and you’re all… you… about her leaving, but you better make sure she agrees with you that quality is more important than quantity.”
She closed her eyes, looking wistful. “Ollie and me don’t do big dates at all. We have lunch, play some ball, explore the city. Maybe it’s because I never did the chick flicks and romance movie thing before meeting Jun and Lisa, but I like spending time with him better than spending time with his plans.”
Pushing off the railing, she reached up and slapped him lightly across each cheek. “Think about it, dork boy. And let me take over the grill.”
“Oh no you don’t.” JC said. “I see how you’re looking at those burgers. I’ll take the grill. You can bring out the presents.”
“You suck.” Cyn huffed, tossing a longing look at the grill.
“Not for you, I’m taken.” JC smirked.
Realizing that he wasn’t going to be allowed to go back to the grill no matter who won, Warrick took his leave, beer in hand. He looked back at Tink, seeing that Kay had joined her group while he was talking to Cyn.
Maybe she was right and he should trust his instincts. He really did want nothing more than to spend every possible moment of the next week with her outside of classes. With her departure at hand, he was starting to regret that they hadn’t been like those teen drama couples that spent all their time joined at the hip and kissing at every spare moment.
But they weren’t. He spent time in his forge and hanging out with his other friends, and she spent time in Laurel’s workshop or the junkyard, or an increasing amount of time with the others as well, especially Lisa, Kay and Cyn. And they were happy with that.
Except now that the option for the joined at the hip existence was going off the table for a good, long while, he really wished he’d taken it. Quantity, quality—why couldn’t they be the same?
***
“Hey Callie,” Kay came to the top of the stairs where Tink, Juniper and Callie were sitting. She was dripping wet from being in the pool, her hair, shock white that day, clung wetly to her head as she glanced back. “I know she’s your friend and all, but inviting Lily really wasn’t a good idea. Desiree is going to toss her ass right in the pool if she keeps staring at Kareem like that.”
Callie sighed and picked a bell pepper off the kebab on her plate. “I tried to hide the party from her, I swear. But lately, whenever Kareem’s involved, she gets pushy—more than usual.”
“Where did that come from all of a sudden anyway?” Tink asked. “Kareem’s the same guy he was in high school; why didn’t she act like this toward him then?”
Just the memory of the things Lily said to her about the day she set her sites on the handsome Iranian made Callie blush. “She saw him working out in the gym at the apartments. You know how he always wears long sleeved shirts and baggy pants? Well he wasn’t then.”
“That’s hilariously shallow.” said Kay, glancing sidelong at Kareem and trying to see if she could get an idea of what Lily was on about through his elbow length, black shirt.
“It could be a good thing though.” Juniper piped up. One hard lemonade and she was already looking more serene than was natural even for her. “Maybe Lily will be nicer now because we’re his friends and you can’t be mean to someone’s friends if you like them.”
The others stopped and looked at her for a moment. Callie grabbed the cup of punch from her hand and sniffed it before handing it back.
“What?” Juniper asked with perfect innocence.
“Lily’s even kind of mean to me and I’m her friend.” Callie pointed out, then sighed. “Of course now it’s more in the overbearing soccer mom way. She’s taken the manager thing way too seriously. It was just two TV spots and a photo shoot and now she’s got me taking head shots and audition reels. She even told me she was thinking of hiring some criminals for me to bust.”
“Is… Lily unclear that as a part time superhero you’re not supposed to be on the supply side of crime?” Tink asked.
Callie shrugged. “I think she’s getting desperate. She’s been on a bender trying to find a way to call the Descendants and browbeat them into accepting me on their team, but they don’t exactly have a big, public headquarters.”
“It’d be kind of nice having you on the team.” Juniper said dreamily, then had a spark of lucidity and added: ”I… bet the Descendants would say.”
Callie broke off a piece of hot dog and contemplated eating it. “I doubt it. After the beer commercials and the Yates Athletic thing Lily’s working on, I’m probably too commercial to be a real superhero. Plus, besides stalling Inexorable, I haven’t done much that’s all that super. I mostly run down thieves and carjackers.” She fidgeted a bit and ate the piece of hotdog.
“And… I’m kind of scared to go up against a real super-villain”
“It is pretty scary.” Juniper said. “… I’d imagine. Some of them are really dangerous.” She smiled and patted Callie’s arm. “But Inexorable is probably the scariest next to Morganna… and Mad-Mad Madigan… and Warpstar. All the magical people are really pretty scary, actually.”
“Magic?” Callie asked.
“She’s so drunk she’s imagining things.” Kay laughed nervously.
“I am so drunk!” Juniper protested, noticed there was something wrong with that statement, then veered off on another tangent. “Oh! And that time the little scorpions were turning into big ones! I wasn’t there for that, but my mom—“
“And I think it’s time to cut Jun off.” Warrick reached past Kay and Tink to grab the cup from her hand before dropping down to sit on the stairs, his free arm snaking around Tink’s waist. Since he was sitting on a higher stair, they managed to be of a height for the moment.
“Miss me?” He asked Tink and leaned in to give her a quick peck on the lips.
Tink flowed into his embrace and put down her plate so she could wrap both arms around him in a welcoming hug. “Definitely. So glad someone took grill duty from you. It’s my going away party, didn’t anyone think I’d like to spend it with my boyfriend?” She kissed him soundly before the irony could hit him.
“The punch isn’t even alcoholic!” Callie protested Juniper’s tipsiness.
Kay giggled nervously. “In my defense, I only gave her one hard lemonade earlier to loosen her up. I didn’t expect her to be such a lightweight.”
Warrick stifled a laugh. “You didn’t take that hard lemonade from JC’s cooler, did you?”
“Should I be worried that I did?”
“You know how cheap JC is. He swiped that stuff from a frat party across campus.” Warrick shook his head at Juniper. “God knows how many proof it is.” What he couldn’t add, because Callie was there, was that alcohol might work differently on her because of her powers.
Kay sighed. “I’ll take her inside then before she says something else embarrassing.” She stopped down and pulled Juniper’s arm across her shoulder. “Come on, Jun. Let’s go.”
Juniper pouted and tried to balance her plate as Kay pulled her up. “But I wanted to hear if Callie got to join the Descendants.”
She’d timed it just as Warrick was taking a pull of his beer and he ended up snorting far too much of it up into his nose. Sputtering and coughing, he looked around confused, then remembered himself and tried to look curious. “Wait. What?”
About Vaal
Landon Porter is the author of
The Descendants and
Rune Breaker. Follow him on Twitter
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