No Need for Excess

Satisfied with the studying that I’ve accomplished, I decided that it was finally time to leave the library. All that was left for today was to return home and follow my evening routine.
Upon stepping out the library, the first thing I was met with was the evening air. It still retained some of the warmth from today’s sunshine filled day, but it had a coolness to it that can only be present in these evening conditions. It was refreshing when compared to the conditioned air of the library.
Another thing that I was greeted by was a group of students in red suits, similar to those I saw a few days ago. This group was standing on the path out of the library and into the main building of the university. They were blocking my path home.
Assessing the way he walked, the leader of the group made his way up to me as he called me out.
    “How are you, Mr Smyth? Can we have a moment of time?”
    “Of course.”
Once the man arrived at my position, he straightened his back and continued speaking.
    “You see, we were recently made aware that you are quite the accomplished person.”
That I am.
    “Therefore, we want to hire you.”
…
Excuse me?

    “As someone who’s an expert in law, you could prove to be very helpful with our oil companies. There are a lot of regulations to try and dodge, you see.”
    “I see. Thank you for your offer, but must I decline.”
I attempted to walk past him, which I did successfully, but getting past the group behind him bore no fruit. They all began shooting offers at me.

    “We’ll pay you handsomely, you know.”
    “Waaaay more than what that Brillion would throw at you.”
    “We even have much more influence over the Brillion family. There is no reason to reject us!”
They’re all under the misunderstanding that I work for George. They must have concluded that since George is usually around me. However-
    “I don’t work for Brillion.”
This response was met with a light shock from the crowd.
    “For sure you don’t.”
    “Yeah, lair.”
    “That’s what a lackey would say.”
The leader of the group rejoined his crowd and spoke to me one more time.
    “Last chance Smyth. This is a chance of a lifetime you’re turning down.”

I don’t need these people’s money. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here for results only.

    “Thank you for your offer, but I reject it.”
I repeated myself and walked off. No one pursued me further.
    “Seriously? Are we not going after him?”
    “I mean, we were instructed to not do that.”
    “We missed our shot! We'll be killed!”
Various voices rang out from the crowd as I continued to walk the brick paved path leading to my home.
Only to be stopped by George, who appeared out of the shadow of a nearby tree.
…What?
    “Studying even now, are we? I bet you didn’t even have proper food yet.”
He bombarded me with his words immediately, giving me very little time to process a reply back. I went with whatever came first to mind.
    “Did you know? The tutors here are really generous.”
    “Oh! I bet you freeloaded off Evans again.”
    “Yeah. He’s too generous for his own good.”
    “I see, I see. So what you need right now is some proper food.”
He nodded in satisfaction from reaching the obvious conclusion. He continued.
    “I’ll take you out for a proper meal, on the house of course. Do you want to come?”
Considering how late it is, I should stick to my schedule and go home.

Another issue also comes up. That group and their incorrect view that I am working under George. In our year of interaction, he never mentioned anything about wanting to hire me. This means that it’s only a perception everyone has since he hangs out with me a lot, or he is genuinely trying to slowly get me.

    “You took too long to decide! You’re coming with us now!”
    “Wait, us?”
Giving me no time to process anything, he grabbed my hand and began dragging me away from my path home.
I could have resisted, but this time I chose not to.

…
He took me to a relatively fancy but still commoner accessible restaurant that operated a few minutes away from our camps. The operator at the door paid no mind to the bizarre scene of George still dragging me by the arm through the front doors.

The interior of this place primarily consisted of dark oak wood walls with birch accents. You could describe it similarly to the interior of a log cabin, but oversized as to accommodate a large amount of customers.

Alice Bedwyn could already be seen sitting at a table with seats for four. She spotted us and patted the seat beside her. George pushed me into her direction, which should mean that I should sit beside her.
Just what is their plan?
    “So, George, what do you want to order?”
George was the first one to ask me. Alice sat there silently. For now.
The menu that was already present at our table presented us with a selected range of burgers, wraps, fries and deserts. Very standard selection for a typical burger place, which this was, just with a focus on the better off. The high prices reminded you in case you forgot. Considering that George is so kindly paying on my behalf…
    “I’ll choose the most expensive burger.”
    “Excellent! We can order later if you want anything else. Alice, what about you?”
Now that I think about it, George isn’t all that hostile to Alice anymore. Just what happened between the two?
    “I’ll have the… pancakes.”
    “Straight to deserts, aye?”
    “You know what? You’re right. You’re paying for me too, right?”
    “Yes… I am.”
George hesitated slightly.
    “Right then. For the first meal-’
    “First meal-”
He repeated those words with dread.
    “I’ll have the same as John, along with the chicken wrap and loaded fries. Also I would like to get a lemon soda with that too.
    “Certainly! Anything else?”
A new voice joined the three of us, that being the waitress that appeared out of nowhere. Apparently she already took all of our orders down. Just who is this scary person?
    “I will be having what John is having.”
    “Who is this John you speak off?”
The waitress gave a stare of utter confusion at George, which did take him back for a second before she broke the air.
    “Of course I know who John is! I got his order after all. If that’s all then I’ll be off! Thank you for ordering!”

She disappeared from our sight nearly instantly. Apparently she teleported to the kitchen to hand our orders to the chief in those few seconds. Keep in mind that the kitchen is a good distance away, so this waitress broke the speed of sound while getting to that kitchen. Or so it seemed.
    “Impressive.”
Alice said what we were trying to think..
Now that everything has calmed down, I ask the question out loud.
    “Why am I here?”
    “To experience friendship?”
George shot back a reply without thinking about it.
    “What are you on about?”
    “We are friends, right?”
Am I even friends with George? Come to think of it, I don’t remember if we ever went out like this. This feeling of sitting in a restaurant with friends is pretty foreign to me.
     “Alice over there also wanted to get to know you better.”
Alice stood up and slammed the table in response to this provocation.
    “What?! That’s absurd. I only came here because George was concerned for you.”
George copied her movements and began to shout too.
    “You weren’t supposed to say that either!”
Seriously. What happened between these two? They’re acting normally to each other. After their bit ended, George turned to me and tried to answer in earnest.

    “We just wanted to come out here. We took your along. That’s all.”
But there has to be some other motive. What am I not seeing here?
Alice seems to be acting normally, for the most part, and so is George. Is it really just an outing with friends?

…
I can’t think about this too much.
If I enjoy this now, that’ll affect my performance later on.
This moment is not relevant to my goal.
I can’t be feeling this right now.

The elites have their eyes on me now. I need to keep putting on a show for them. Not that I’ll accept their offers anyway. But the show must go on. It cannot be interrupted by moments like these.

I’ll just tune the rest of this outing out.