Chapter 27

[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]

Saturday 23rd January 1999

“I know we’re not old enough to drink or go clubbing yet… but I didn’t think this ‘boys’ night out’ would be a trip to McDonalds.”

I suppose Russell had a right to complain. It’s not like I’d sold it to him as some glamorous or exciting affair, but even then, this was pretty unimpressive. Still, it hadn’t exactly been planned out in advance. And I thought it’d be nice to invite him since we hadn’t hung out in ages.

“And how much longer do we have to wait, anyway?” he added, turning his focus to Bao.

“I’m figuring out what I want, gimme a minute…” Bao replied while his eyes darted back and forth along the various menu panels above the counter. His foot was tapping incessantly all the while.

“Any time today would be nice,” Zahid commented, before stifling a yawn.

“Man, sorry I’m boring you,” the shorter guy grunted.

“Just pick something.”

“I’m trying.”

“Don’t try, just do it.”

“Who are you, McYoda?”

I lost track of the bickering at that point, instead turning to Russell.

“Aren’t you glad I invited you?” I joked, a tad awkwardly.

“I reckon my stomach’s gonna digest itself if we have to wait much longer,” he chuckled lightly.

“Room for one more?”

Now, that wasn’t any of us – it was a distinctive voice with a Bolton accent.

As such, turning around and finding Kayleigh standing behind us wasn’t particularly surprising. Her being there at all kind of was…

“Welcome to the shittest boys’ night out there ever was,” Zahid greeted her with a smirk.

“Not anymore. Now it’s just the shittest night out,” she replied, matching his smirk… is it weird that that looked more fitting on her than a neutral expression?

“So, why are we standing here like lemons?”

“Okay, okay, I’ve made a decision!” Bao all but shouted back at that, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

“Huh. Guess we just needed a girl around,” Russell remarked, before giving Kayleigh a wave. “Hi, I’m Russell.”

“Kayleigh,” she nodded back bluntly. In light of her unapproachable aura, Russell visibly flinched and withdrew. I’m pretty certain I saw an almost predatory look in her eyes at that.

“So, are we ready to order…?” I checked with everyone while fighting off pangs of hunger.

“I’ve been ready for ten minutes, let’s do it already,” Zahid nodded, leading us to the counter.

“It wasn’t that long… was it…?”

Bao looked to me for confirmation; I shrugged with my hands.

I suppose I should explain what our not-all-boys’ night out was about… Dakota, Kendal and Harriet had come to the decision that they needed a girls’ night in, and that left Bao, Zahid and me to figure out what to do with ourselves.

… which is why the best we got was “let’s go to McDonalds and then see what happens”.

How we even made it through one fight with this level of creativity, I don’t know.

Since this was one of those snazzy two-story McDonalds, Bao, Russell and I dashed upstairs to secure ourselves a table while Zahid and Kayleigh waited on our order. Almost like a dog, Bao investigated the entire floor, scanning for the best table

“So, it’s your one-month anniversary with Dakota tomorrow, huh?” Russell asked me as he and I followed Bao around.

“Yeah! Crazy right? Crazy!” I spluttered. I felt awkward discussing this with him, considering I’d not thought to inform him about it until I saw him on the first day back at school. Plus, honestly, my relationship still felt surreal to me, almost dream-like. Discussing it outside of the Painters was like having a private fantasy be spoken of like it was real.

“I still can’t believe you flew to Ireland on Christmas Eve just to confess,” he chuckled. “Like something from a movie.”

“I mean, the others kind of forced me to, but…”

“Even then. You did it.”

He almost looked proud of me… or at least pleased for me.

“So… have you slept with her yet?”

I tensed up at that.

“Define ‘slept with her’…” I obfuscated.

“Don’t play dumb, Alex,” Russell jeered with a layer of implication. Bao sat himself down at a table with a bench affixed to the wall on one side and two chairs on the other. Following his lead, Russell took one of the chairs.

“I mean, we’ve… slept in the same bed, so technically you could say we have…”

I sank into the other chair, opposing Bao, who was giving me an unimpressed – maybe slightly baffled – stare.

“Technically you have or you haven’t,” Russell reasoned fairly.

“Then no… not yet…” I spoke in such a way that I hoped would bring this particular topic to a close.

“What the hell’s stopping you?” I was asked like I was crazy. The topic marches on…

“We’re not ready yet. It’s not like I don’t want to do it-”

“You should’ve seen him looking at her in a bikini last week,” Bao interrupted me, leaning forward with a playful grin. “He was like something out of Looney Tunes.”

“Hang on, when did you even look at me looking at her? You were too busy looking at Harriet!” I snapped in exasperation.

“And then I stopped looking at Harriet and you were still looking at Dakota,” he informed me with an expression that more or less spelt out “checkmate”.

My mouth flapped open and closed like a fish. Thankfully, Zahid placed the tray with our order down on the table at that point, which appeared to kill the conversation better than I ever could’ve hoped to.

“Grub’s up,” he informed us as if we hadn’t figured it out; he shuffled onto the bench, sliding next to Bao and allowing for Kayleigh to follow him. She seemed unimpressed at having to sit opposite Russell, but then I imagine she’d look the same if it were Bao or me too.

“So, who got Alex embarrassed this time?” Zahid asked while grabbing his food from the tray.

“Whah?” I remarked ever-so-eloquently. Was I flustered that frequently…?

“We tag-teamed him,” Bao declared. “We were talking about-”

I tried to kick his leg under the table, but only managed to hit the table leg instead, causing me to yelp out in pain. At least it stopped Bao from diving back into the topic of my as-yet-non-existent sex life…

“You okay…?” he asked me instead, confused as much as concerned.

“I’ll be fine…” I replied through gritted teeth, while giving him my best “please shut up now” eyes. He seemed to wig on, giving me a more earnest smile and a nod.

“Anyway, enough about Alex and Dakota doing it…” he began. My head collapsed into my hands and I groaned loudly.

Conversation carried on, and fast food was consumed. For all the complaining that this was a terrible way to spend (or start) a night out, it was hardly bad. Unassuming, I suppose.

“Hey, Zahid…” Russell spoke up just as Zahid took another bite of his burger. “Is that halal? Or, like…”

My taller friend glowered for a moment as he chewed his mouthful. Once he swallowed, he shrugged lightly.

“Beats me. I’m not a good Muslim.”

And then he took another bite, a little more aggressively.

“Doesn’t that get you in trouble or something, though?” Russell asked on.

“Mhm,” Zahid responded before swallowing again. This time, he put the burger down, and exhaled shakily.

I knew that kind of exhalation. Suddenly, I was on-edge.

“So, you don’t care?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Zahid roared, more abruptly than I expected. All at once, his axe was in his hand, Russell leapt back in surprise and toppled off of his chair, and, slamming in, the entire floor of the building transformed instantaneously into an empty, metal version of itself. Red emergency lights flashed and a siren wailed.

Kayleigh, stunned with her eyes wide, darted away from Zahid. I moved back myself, summoning my sword and holding it up defensively. All the while, Bao was stuck in a corner right next to Zahid: he sprung up onto the now-empty table, narrowly avoiding a swing from Zahid’s axe, and landed next to me.

“What the hell is happening?!” Russell cried out, backing as far away as possible. On his part, Zahid made no immediate attempts to follow Russell, instead hacking at the table with his axe. Like the rest of the room, the table was now made of metal, and without having fully suited-up, he was relying only on the weapon’s blade to do the job. After several resounding blows, he stopped, his eyes meeting Russell’s.

“What?! The f-f-fuck you looking at?!” he snapped, before holding his axe in front of himself and blasting on his regalia. Bao and I did the same immediately; I can only assume he was thinking along the same lines as me… that however dangerous Zahid was at that moment with a normal axe, he was much worse with the power of Lokonessence behind him.

“Zahid, stop!” I urged him. I didn’t hope for much success, and got what I expected when he turned his attention to me.

“Oh fuck off y-you pathetic shit!”

He slashed out at me, and I blocked the crest of red with a similar arc of blue.

“I’ll see to Russell,” Bao told me while leaving my peripheral vision.

And I took a step forward, closer to Zahid.

“You can’t do this.”

“FUCK OFF!” he snarled back, and then lunged for me like a rugby player, axe ready to strike. I resisted every instinct to avoid his attack, and raised my sword to meet his axe. Even then, I’m a twig compared to him, and I toppled backwards from the force of his lunge.

“If I wanna s-s-smash his fucking face in, I’ll d-do it! GOT IT?!”

Roared right in my face, drops of spit and all. Then he clambered off of me, clearly about to make a beeline for Russell.

“Alex-!” Bao shouted out from somewhere else in the room, only half-audible past the wailing of the siren, as if to confirm my suspicion.

I did the first thing I could think of, which was to grab Zahid’s leg as he moved away. Suddenly it felt like I was scrapping with Lucy or something (not that we do that these days, more like when we were younger). For a brief moment, I saw Kayleigh, watching on with an expression I can only describe as disconcerted. Then Zahid collapsed to the ground, his momentum scuppered by my hold on his leg, and I swung myself around to pin him down.

“Get off!” my incensed friend shouted at me, writhing about to try and throw me off. I completely neglected to hold his right arm down; he managed to swing back and strike my hip with his axe.

My costume apparently blocked the blade from digging into me, but I still felt the force of his swing and, if not for it being lessened by the angle, it would’ve thrown me off of him.

I briefly raised my sword-holding hand off of his back, and waved the weapon like a wand, securing Zahid’s arm to the floor with blue bonds.

“Just… don’t do anything for one minute! Let this pass!” I urged, knowing full well that the last thing I wanted to do was tell him to calm down. At the least, that always makes me feel worse when people say it to me…

“I’m not letting it p-pass! Fucking get o-o-off of me!”

His axe disappeared from his right hand, and emerged in his left. I couldn’t react before he’d sliced clean through the constructs holding his right arm in place.

“Alex, there’s no way out of here!” Bao called across to me. “Do you think there’s a monster somewhere? Or is this some kind of Lokon safety buffer to stop Zahid smashing up McDonalds?”

“Good shout with the second one!” I replied loudly.

“So we can’t get out until he calms down!”

“Got any ide-?”

I’d like to say it was my concentration moving to Bao, and not solely the fact that I’m pretty weak, but Zahid managed to fling me off of himself before I could finish my question. I collided into the metal table, hitting my back against it and getting winded. While I tried to recover, Zahid quickly got to his feet, swapping his axe back to his right hand and rounding on Bao and Russell, who had migrated to a corner of the room.

Bao raised his tonfa blades defensively while Russell stayed behind him, seemingly squeezed as far into the corner as possible.

Suddenly, a glowing yellow chain-link fence manifested from Bao’s weapons, cutting off his and Russell’s corner from the rest of the room.

“D-D-Don’t you fucking do this, Bao!” Zahid shouted; he started attacking the fence, over and over, yelling out in frustration and exertion as he did.

“It’s okay, Zahid,” I barely heard Bao say beyond the incessant alarm call.

“It’s n-not!”

“What upset you?”

“SHUT UP!” Zahid bellowed, growing increasingly aggressive in his blows. Bao kept his weapons up all the while, maintaining the fencing.

By this point, I was upright once more, and able to make a slow approach with my sword at the ready. It seemed wrong to just sneak up on Zahid, so I had to get his attention while not looking too confrontational.

“Zahid…”

Evidently, that was all I needed to say, as he turned around sharply.

“You were the one w-who fucking invited him!”

“Yeah. I’m sorry this happened,” I apologised earnestly.

“Shut it!” he demanded, before turning back to Bao’s fencing.

“You know this isn’t right…” I urged him. “I get that you’re angry but-”

He turned sharply, screaming out, and charged for me with his axe ready to strike. Startled, I only barely managed to block with my sword – this time, blue and red swirled around in the aftermath.

For the next few moments, we went full Star Wars with him taking swings at me, and me trying desperately to block the rather small length of his axe blade. Thank goodness I’d borrowed that sword-fighting book all those months ago, or else my fortunes here would’ve been at zero.

I didn’t have to keep it up for too long, as the chain-link fence snuck up on Zahid and ensnared him from behind, trapping him in a columnar cage.

“What f-fucking now?!” he hollered, not even able to turn to face Bao and Russell with his new prison being so narrow.

“Nice work, lads,” Kayleigh spoke now – she walked up next to me, and stood facing Zahid. “Now lemme see if I can talk any sense into him.”

“Can it!” was his completely unsurprising response. She scoffed it off.

“How about, stop throwing a tantrum and grow a pair?” she told him harshly.

“The f-f-fuck do you know?” he snapped back, scowling at her.

“You’re lucky I’ve taken a shine to you and I don’t mind me men dangerous. Most girls would’ve run a mile seeing you like this.”

She was utterly unflinching. I’m not sure whether it was a front or if she simply wasn’t intimidated by him at this point.

“And I don’t just mean you screaming and shouting and smashing shit up. I don’t get what’s going on in your head, but it’s one hell of an overreaction to what what’s-his-face said.”

“Just shut up!” Zahid insisted, sounding a little more upset this time.

“So, sort your shit out,” she concluded. “The rest of us are gonna wait for you to calm the fuck down, and then we’re all gonna finish our food and get on with this boring evening.”

With that, she turned away from him, and beckoned for me to follow her. With no better plan in mind, I did so, returning to the damaged table with her.

“No! Don’t t-treat me like a fucking k-kid!” Zahid called after us.

Uneasily, Bao and Russell left their corner and walked past the imprisoned Zahid.

“Look… I’m sorry…” Russell told him. “I was just curious… I didn’t mean to press your buttons or whatever…”

“Fuck you!” my bound friend snapped back, writhing against the fencing.

“So,” Kayleigh turned to me, “you lot are the Painters, then?”

“What gave it away?” I jested lightly, while trying to compose myself. I double-tapped my sword’s emblem port to discard my Painter clothing.

“That’s pretty awesome,” she remarked. Not one for following up a jokey question, then…

“Are we just waiting for him to calm down, then?” Bao asked as he and Russell joined us; he no longer had his weapons raised, presumably as he didn’t need to sustain the fence the way he did when Zahid was attacking it.

“Yep,” Kayleigh responded plainly, before digging a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her pocket.

After a few minutes, the safety buffer room faded back to reality, with the table as it had been and our food all still present. Bao dispersed his Painter gear, and we both swiftly teleported out weapons away. Kayleigh quickly stomped her cigarette out while keeping an eye on our calmed friend. Likewise powering down and sending away his axe, Zahid then slowly returned to us, and to his seat on the bench, Kayleigh moving out of the way for him.

“You feeling okay now?” Bao asked before eating a few fries.

“Mhm…” Zahid muttered. “I’m sorry… I’m really sorry…”

Like the last time, he sounded so guilty and ashamed.

“Look, I shouldn’t have pried…” Russell spoke up, but Zahid shook his head lightly.

“Still. I shouldn’t… act like that. Something just snaps and… I explode…”

“Dude.”

Bao put a hand on Zahid’s shoulder.

“You scare the crap out of us when you go like that. You need to try and… control it, or vent in a safe way or something. I dunno, I’m not good at this. I’ll ask Harriet, she usually knows what to do. Anyway, I’m getting side-tracked… You scare us, but we forgive you. Cos 99% of the time, you’re a great friend. Even when you’re moaning,” he concluded with a smile.

“Thanks man…” Zahid replied… and I’m absolutely certain that his eyes were watering. That’s something I never would’ve expected to see.

…

In the end, we didn’t do much else that evening. Once we finished our McDonalds, we took to wandering around town for a bit before giving up on trying to find anything to do. It was getting late, after all, and we were all too young for most of the remaining open places. Russell and Kayleigh both went off home themselves while Bao, Zahid and I made the journey back to Dakota’s house.

Lucy opened the door to us. In her underwear.

“Oh, hey Alex! Hey Zahid! Hey Bao! Come in quick, you’re letting the cold in!”

… I still don’t know precisely why she was there or why she was half-naked. My best guess on both is that she’s Lucy.