The Days You'd Wished Had Never Changed

There were a lot of things that Mike enjoyed doing in his free time. So many things, in fact, that he wouldn't have time to do all of them all across the span of a week, even if he limited his time to ten minutes per activity.

To give each hobby an equal amount of time between them, he would give each two days where he'd dedicate all his time off college to focus on them full force.

So, to the chagrin of his friends and family, they were always unable to see him as he'd ignore their calls and dodge hangouts all for the sake of keeping his schedule intact.

His refusal to change or deviate from his comprehensive schedule brought his parents to tears, as they hardly ever got to see their darling son. Similarly, his 'wonderful' and 'caring' friends were constantly heartbroken at the fact that their best friend was hardly ever around and would ghost them for weeks at a time.

This is the story that Max Donovan would go around telling people on online forums and his hardly viewed social media pages to piss off his one of two best and only friends to get him to give him the attention he craved from him.

Max knew that Mike spent a lot of his time doomscrolling on social media, so whenever he was at his wit's end due to not being able to get him to respond to a message or answer his calls, he would post something that made Mike look bad.

Mike would eventually see it after spending his seemingly endless free time scrolling, and get so mad that he would call Max, only to yell at him to take down the post, as it made him look bad, and if his followers saw it, then he would beat his ass.

Mike was a fairly popular artist on social media, mainly known for his satirical drawings and animations of popular internet dramas, so his image was something that he deeply cared about, as the revenue from his posts was his second source of income.

He'd gotten the idea to do art three years beforehand after Max and Alice convinced him that his art was good enough to do numbers online. At first, just like any other creator, his content went under the radar and didn't get much interaction aside from his two buddies.

However, after making a three-minute animation mocking a famous influencer who'd been caught committing a crime by a streamer live on the internet, Mike's YouTube channel and social media pages all blew up practically overnight.

At the time, Mike didn't have any care for his social media pages, so he hadn't even noticed the traction his post had received from the wider internet until Max incessantly called him when he'd noticed it.

Ever since then, he'd spent most of his time on the internet, constantly looking for the next drama or internet situation to latch onto and parody in order to keep the lights on.

So when Max started vague posting about him one night, he'd been infuriated and confused by his decision, which led him to call Max to see what had been the reason for the post. Mike's worry turned into anger when the first thing he heard was "Oh shit, that actually worked", alongside a giggle in the background.

"Max, why the fuck did you post that shit!"

"Cause you weren't responding to any of our messages! Remember? We had a hangout today! And you completely ghosted us!"

"Oh...shit..."

Mike, for reasons unknown to Max and Alice, had a tendency to completely alienate himself from them, leading to days, if not weeks, where they would not hear a peep from him, which would worry them to no end.

Sometimes they'd wonder if he'd grown tired of them or maybe he'd croaked and was slumped on his chair waiting for some unfortunate soul to come across his lifeless cadaver.

This was never the case, however, as Max would almost always eventually turn to going online and dropping an incendiary post on his dead page, which would sometimes be piled on by Alice, who would do the same in order to have a better chance of having Mike read it just in case he'd missed it.

To get Mike to show up for their current hangout, though, Max and Alice had not needed to resort to such cheap and childish tactics, as he had made sure to keep constant communication with the two throughout the week.

However, to the trio's dismay, Alice's two brothers and grandfather would end up getting food poisoning the previous night from some bad chicken and fish Alice had attempted to make for them in celebration of her eldest brother Adrian's promotion at work.

So now, as he stood below the blazing summer sun, Mike was regretting worrying so much the whole week about keeping up communication, as he would have likely gotten away with skipping the hangout due to Alice staying home to take care of her mess.

It wasn't like he did it on purpose anyway, and the duo knew that, so he wouldn't have gotten chastised by the two as they'd never done so before.

He contemplated going home before Max showed up as he chewed on his freshly opened pack of two-dollar gum he'd gotten on his way there. Without Alice being there to take Max's attention away from him, he would be forced to face Max's unrelenting and at times perplexing conversations head-on for the next four hours straight.

I'm too deep into this, he thought to himself as he sat down on a nearby bench, which allowed him to finally rest from the excruciatingly hot rays that had been tormenting him as he waited.

"Yo man! I didn't mean to keep you waiting so long! Mr. B held me up for the last hour or so, my bad. Never knew that assembling a cabinet would take so long. Never done it until now, you know!

"Yeah. I could guess. You look like the last guy who'd bother putting that much effort into anything."

"Bro... That's so mean..."

Unsurprisingly to Mike, Max was wearing his usual attire of a blue hoodie that was most likely over a plain white T-shirt and some black sweatpants.

Nothing new to see here, he thought, until he looked down and saw his new pair of shoes. He had worn the same red and blue shoes for the last three years of his life, so Mike was surprised to see that he'd finally decided to switch them out for some all-white shoes.

The previous ones constantly looked like they were on the brink of coming undone, as they were each missing one lace, and whenever they walked, Mike could hear the bottom sole of his right shoe slam onto his shoe as it returned to its place as his leg rose off the floor.

Mike wasn't quite sure how that was even possible, but he figured he wouldn't question it as he didn't want to embarrass his friend. He wasn't quite sure of his buddy's living situation, but he figured it wasn't all that great if he was so unwilling to change any part of his outfit in the last two years.

"Hey-man, you got a foot fetish or something? Why are you shooting lasers at my feet? You see through clothes or something–"

"Wha-I'm not looking at your fucking feet, man. I-I just noticed that you got new shoes."

"Whoa, didn't know you'd suddenly became a sneakerhead."

"A-what?"

"...Nevermind."

"No, what did you mean by that?!" an irritated Mike asked as he stood up and stared daggers at Max.

"You wouldn't get it..." he responded while waving the conversation away with his hands.

"Oh, since you're frothing at the mouth over my stylish kicks, let me return the favor! I like your new shirt. Deep purple button-up, huh?"

"Nice~~" As the words came out of Max's mouth, Mike stared, completely baffled by the one-sided conversation he was witnessing.

"Reminds me of your outfit in our senior year! Have you been trying to impress some ladies recently? Huh?" Max seductively expressed himself as he enthusiastically raised two thumbs up and contorted his body to hit an extravagant pose, mimicking a runway model he'd seen on television.

"Or maybe–" Max winked as he gazed upon the perplexed and very noticeably annoyed Mike.

An awkward silence ensued for approximately ten seconds as the trees swayed to and fro alongside the bustling gust of wind that would come and go.

"I'm going to block you on social media."

"BRO, NO WAIT, I'M KIDDING, PLEASE, I'M SORRY!" Max begged on his hands and knees as tears began forming and subsequently dropping hard on the floor with increasing velocity.

"I do mess with the outfit though! It fits you!" Max exclaimed as his tears completely dried up and his facial and vocal expressions shifted from agonized to cheerful in the matter of a second.

"Whatever man, get your skinny ass over here. Sun's trying to scorch the Earth today, and I don't wanna deal with you dying on my day off," Mike demanded as he signaled for Max to sit next to him.

The scrawny boy had been on his knees off to the side, far from any shade from the nearby trees, and was mere moments away from receiving burns that would likely haunt him for the rest of the week.

"Aww! That's so kind of you to say! I just couldn't ask for a more considerate guy if I wanted to!" Max exclaimed as he got up from his previous position and cheerfully galloped his way to where his 'bestest friend' was seated.

"You're embarrassing," Mike said as he agonizingly covered his face with both hands.

"And you're my friend to the end!" Max gleefully said in a high-pitched voice with a big grin on his face.

"Anyway!" Again, Max's tone and expression quickly altered, something he would often do to the distress of his overly serious and overwhelmed pal, who could often not handle the inhumanly fast personality switches that Max would undergo.

"Lord... Why wasn't Alice able to come today..." Mike pleaded to the sky, even when he was completely sure no one was there to hear him.

"Sucks that Alice wasn't able to come, I mean, you tried so hard to keep up contact this time, and for that to happen last minute is a real shame."

"Yeah, I guess so..." Mike responded as he raised his arms over his head to stretch them in hopes of relieving himself from his muscle pains.

"But yeah! Since we're already here, let's make the most of it, no?"

"Sure, what'd you have in mind?" Mike asked as he threw the gum he'd been quietly chewing away inside the large grey trash can to his right.

"You already forgot what we were going to do today? Max, puzzled by his bad memory, worriedly asked.

"Don't piss me off, just tell me."

"Haha! Don't worry, I'm not gonna make fun of you...at least not today. You worked so hard, so you deserve no less than royal appreciation!"

"Dude, what are you even saying. I don't even think that made sen–"

"Alright! Let's get a move on!" Max exclaimed as he began leading the way towards their first stop of the day.

We were gonna watch Bad Boys, but since Alice's out, we can save that for another time. Maybe next week, I'm not super sure."

"Oh... yeah, that's probably for the best."

As they walked in tandem on the sidewalk of their city's park, which they'd found themselves doing countless times, they eventually reached the most popular arcade in the area.

"Alright, you know the deal! Three hours only! No more, no less! Mike quietly stated as he looked Max dead in the eyes.

"Yeah, sure. I know..." Max sarcastically stated as he rolled his eyes at the nagging man beside him.

"Now stop looking at me funny before I lean in fo–"

Mike slapped Max before he finished his sentence, before running over towards the first cabinet of the day.

"Hey! You– You didn't even let me count down! Hey! Hey!" Max yelled out as he followed suit, eventually finding himself at the next cabinet over to Mike's.

"Three!"

"Wait, hold on, let me get my wallet out!"

"Two!"

"Fuck sakes, why did they make the floor concrete!" Max mumbled as he fumbled around on the floor, attempting to pick up his fallen item.

"Damn, Mike, I said wait up, you ass, one of my tokens fell!"

"Not my problem! One!" Mike giggled and grinned as he gazed upon the anxious and pressured Max crawling around on the floor.

"Okay, there!" he yelled out as he got up and prepared to play after he had finally found his token under the next machine over.

Mike let out a small laugh, which he quickly snuffed out as he prepared to challenge his friend-turned-foe once more.

"Game start!" the two yelled out in unison as they inserted their tokens into each machine's respective slots.

After yelling out their previously agreed-upon starting word, they began playing cabinet after cabinet, destroying record after record placed by the few players before them who'd often hardly beaten their previously set scores.

The two had come in that day with the mindset of not just competing but together conquering every single high score possible. As they played on, they would eventually line the cabinets with the names 'Mike' and 'Max' across every screen in the building, or at least as many as their wallets allowed, with the placement of first always being held by the former to the latter's dismay.

Despite their agreement, they would go on to spend the next four hours relentlessly attempting to one-up each other's top scores across numerous cabinets. They'd, like always, completely blitzed past their agreed-upon time of calling it quits for the sake of continuing the fight.

"Man! Wha–that's some bullshit. How did you even do that?" Max desperately asked after having witnessed Mike yet again surpass his seemingly impossible-to-beat top score.

"Guess you just can't keep up now, can't you? Where'd all the confidence go, huh?"

"Man, I'm just having an off day!"

"Oh, is that so? Oh! Right, it's cause your one-up-gal isn't here?" Mike smugly taunted.

"Wha–What are you even saying! Shut up!" Max embarrassedly replied as he swatted at him.

"Best of luck beating my scores! I doubt even she could pull off moves like mine."

"When did you even learn to play that well? Aren't you busy with work all the time?"

"I could ask the same of you. You're always busting your balls trying to get good grades, so where did you get the time to practice so often?"

"I'm just a natural born talent!" Max boldly proclaimed as he posed in a ridiculous manner, which, to Mike's dismay, caught the eye of multiple people in the vicinity.

"Whatever man, just come on, you're making us look like loonies," Mike sighed as he began making his way towards the exit.

"So what? Being confident and passionate is a bad thing to you or what? Or are you trying to say there's something wrong with me? Huh?" Max loudly exclaimed as they made their way outside.

As it was the beginning of April, the wind had begun picking up a lot more than previously, something which both of them enjoyed as they found solace within the cold.

The sound of cars constantly passing by was something they could do without, though, as it was often very obnoxious to their delicate ears, especially Max's.

Hurricane wasn't exactly known for bad or aggressive driving, but their luck was bad enough to experience firsthand many instances of road rage while on their walks.

"Do...do you even hear yourself?"

"Yeah, of course I do! I like the sound of my own voice very much! Something wrong with that?"

"Usually not, but considering your only two friends are a ghost junkie and a delinquent, yeah, I'd say there is more than likely a high chance it's a sign on top of others all pointing to something being very wrong with you."

"Oh...uh...but-I mean, that's all the proof you go-" before Max could continue, Mike interrupted, which brought him to a halt verbally and physically.

"Do I also have to remind you of the numerous other 'strange' things about you?" Mike mockingly asked as he began leaning against the bland building's wall, a few feet away from the double door entrance.

"I'll give you twenty bucks if you can name more than five!" Max confidently proposed as he struck another pose from some cartoon he'd recently finished watching, whose name Mike had no care to recall.

"Max. You believe in a conspiracy about how the year 2000 is related to the rapture in the Christian Bible and are terrified that you're going to be left here all alone with demons."

"I... Uh..." the now puzzled Max could not find a retort to his simple but effective argument.

"Now that I think about it. You and Alice aren't all that different, are you? Both so desperate for something more, to find something more. Be it the supernatural or conspiracies, something, anything beyond your boring everyday lives."

"Hey! Firstly, I don't ghost hunt! That's Alice!"

"And second... Ouch, man... What's gotten you so riled up today..." Max asked as he struck another pose, which could only be described as a man horridly attempting to look like an abused puppy with the big eyes and all.

"...Sorry."

"Nah, man, don't sweat it!" Max's tone had completely changed as he quickly stuck his tongue out, tilted his head, and winked.

"Honestly, I'm not in much of a position to talk..." Mike's tone had completely shifted as well, to one Max wasn't very familiar with hearing from his closest friend.

"You and she aren't the only ones who are out there desperately chasing after ghosts," Mike, seemingly accidentally, whispered as he took out his flip phone to check the time.

"Huh?" Unfortunately for Mike, nothing had ever gotten past his rabbit-like ears.

Mike quickly caught on to this and began trying to change the subject by quickly saying, "Is your hearing just as bad as Alice's?"

He knew bringing her up had often worked to deter uncomfortable conversations from occurring or continuing, so he resorted to that strategy once again.

"Shut up! What did you say? Say it again!" Max excitedly demanded, as he wished to have Mike double down on what he knew he'd just said.

"Nothing. Forget it."

"Sigh!" Max said out loud as his tone and posture deflated.

"Hey, I'm gonna head home; I, uh...got to look for more openings around here to get a job. I got some stuff I wanna buy, and I don't exactly have a lot of money lying around, so-"

"Wha...what do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

"No. I mean... You work at Freddy's, don't you? Or did that temper finally get you fired?"

Mike immediately knew he'd screwed up.

"Shit-"

"Dude! Did... Did you actually get fired?! Hahahaha!"

Mike had no response locked in for this situation. He couldn't let it go on. He couldn't. If he did. If he did, he would go, wouldn't he? He couldn't let that happen, but he didn't know what to say.

"See! You ARE just like us! Welcome to the world of the unemployed!" Max ecstatically yelled out as he grabbed onto Mike's side and moved his hand in front of him to mimic the way parents in kids' movies would sometimes introduce the protagonist to their new home.

"I'm leaving," Mike said as he broke free from his embarrassing display, which was receiving odd glares from passersby.

"Oh no, dude, come on!" Max made sure to make his disappointment in the rejection of his club invite very audibly and physically articulated.

"Oh, wait, actually...That means that the security gig's open now, ri-"

"No-no, it's not. They shut down every location two years ago, remember?" Mike stuttered as he very obviously tried to scoot the conversation away.

Max raised his eyebrow as he analyzed the very noticeable shift in tone that Mike had undergone since the topic of Freddy's was brought up.

"They just needed me to look after the robots in case they would reopen, but the company... They, uh, declared bankruptcy or something, and so I got fired." Mike had composed himself by the time he finished his sentence and was prepared to dispel any further inquiries brought on by the topic.

"Well, that was a fast response." Max sighed as he prepared to give up on the conversation; after all, if it made Mike so uncomfortable, he probably recently had some sort of bad experience that he didn't want to make Mike relive.

Or maybe it's a stream of bad memories all piling up at once, he thought.

"I just don't want you to waste your time looking for something that isn't there."

"So...go. I'm leaving, so...see you whenever," Mike waved as he began walking away in the opposite direction from where Max was.

Since when have you begun being conscious of wasting someone else's time? Max joked to himself as he waved back and turned around to make his way back home.

You only do that when you're-

Then it clicked.

"Oh... I see..."

Before he could finish his thought, the sounds of a familiar tune began emitting from the flip phone in his pocket.

In confusion over who would be calling, he took a while to take it out of its resting place, flip it open, and gaze upon the name of the caller.

'Alice Clark'

The wind howled as it picked up its space. It lasted no longer than five seconds, dragging litter off the ground and forcing it onto the roads before fading away, leaving remnants of its passing on the blazing concrete floors, awaiting its eventual return to lift it off once more.

Today's going to end up being a wonderful day, Max thought as he excitedly pressed the worn-out button with the faded image of a phone on it.

Before hearing any voice come from the other side of the line, he made sure to swiftly answer the call in the same way he had done hundreds of times before.

"Heyo! Your time and patience are much appreciated! This is Max Donovan at your service! To what do I owe the pleasure of your call, Ms. Alice Clark?"