Good Times With Friends (END)

Lucille and Regina waved farewell to Frank as they departed the midnight Taco Bell. They then arrived at the station just in time for the last train. A few fellow drinkers had the same idea as them, and slumped in their seats as the train rolled along. The thing about junkies and homeless and trains, Lucille realized, is that train rides were normally uneventful. She didn’t usually see any junkies on there, maybe once in a hundred train rides. People had the tendency to remember the bad over the good, so every bad train ride stuck out like a sore thumb - but in reality, they were just a small minority.

Most rides were like this - quiet and peaceful, nobody making a sound, just everybody sitting in their seats at the end of a long day. Lucille and Regina were no different, relaxing in their seats in a manner reminiscent of the end of a particular slice of life staple - the episode where the group of girls travel to the beach, then return home as the sun sets. The hyperactive ones fall asleep on the tsundere, who gives her sleeping friends a small smile of appreciation. Neither Lucille or Regina were close to falling asleep, but Lucille could see the resemblance.

Maybe the point about loving Japan and anime wasn’t about trying to escape into a fantasy world. Maybe the point was using them as inspiration to have those kinds of moments in the real world. Feeling content, Lucille watched the sea of lights through the train window as it passed over the bay. The train jolted along, and maybe the train and lights would’ve looked cooler and cleaner in Japan, but they certainly looked nice here as well. And plus, Lucille was here, and so was Regina, and so was everybody she knew, and lots of people she didn’t know that nevertheless passed alongside her silently like ships in the night.

She wouldn’t escape anymore. She would use those far-off lands and the idealistic moments of elsewhere as inspiration for her own life. And, at the end of the day, most of life was like this train ride - nothing bad was actually happening at the moment. It was a neutral train ride in a neutral life, but all things considered, neutral events come with little happy moments, like those lights outside the train or just sitting next to her friend. If life was composed of neutral times with happy and sad moments dispersed along the way, Lucille supposed she would very much like a neutral life. The point was to open her eyes and look at it, warts and all - otherwise, she'd never see the little things.

The train arrived at the station near their suburb; then they were in Regina’s car, exiting the garage, heading out onto the street and then onto the highway. White streetlights shone overhead, casting their glow down below as the two headed home. Those lights joined the reds and greens of the car’s dashboard in illuminating Lucille’s face. Homes and suburban streets lined the side of the highway; Lucille smiled as the car passed by them.

“So, at the end of the day,” Regina said, keeping a loose grip on the steering wheel as she steadily drove, “Were you satisfied with We Have Japan at Home?”

Lucille chuckled. “If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that we have home at home. We’ll visit Japan one day, mark my words, but in the meantime, I’d like to explore what’s around me first.”

“Same here.” A few cars sped by them, but Regina kept to her own pace. Other people were in a hurry to get nowhere, but the duo would get home when they got there. “Still think studying Japan is a waste?”

“It’s all about how you approach it. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to wish I could’ve gone to a high school in Japan, but I’m not going to let that imaginary life overshadow the life I’m actually living. And you know what? I don’t think it’s all that bad to have a dreamworld. We’re only human, after all. But I forgot that it wasn’t real. The trip today really opened my eyes.”

A plane passed overhead, blue blinking lights shining down upon the car until it disappeared into the horizon. Lucille smiled as it flew off. “Go to high school, go to college, get a job. I feel like my whole life has been scripted. But it’s time I grow up and do what I want for once. As long as I take care not to fall into the dreamworld, I’m going to keep studying Japan. I was convinced everything I did had to make myself more productive or more marketable for a job, but why? Why can’t I just do something I love? I know Japan is just another country - but c’mon, it’s a fucking sick country. I’m going to study it for myself, just because I enjoy it, not because I want to apply it towards a job.”

“Maybe you oughta write about that,” Regina proposed. “The feelings today could be the basis of a book or something.”

“Well, they say to write what you know, and I guess I know a lot more after today.”

The car arrived at the exit; Regina slowly pulled it off the main road. The lights of suburbia weren’t as strong as the city, but the yellows and oranges and whites blanketed the car nonetheless. To think, just a few miles away, the nightlife in the city was still in full-swing, yet the duo passed by sleepy neighborhoods here.

“What about you?” Lucille asked. “What did you think of today?”

“I’m gonna go out more,” Regina declared. “Even if it’s just stepping outside my house more often. I want to see the world myself rather than through a television screen. And I like being able to think clearly. I’ll try to do that more often, too.”

“We’ll have to find that statue,” Lucille proposed.

Regina kept her eyes on the road, but she nodded all the same. “I’d like that. If it gives us a reason to go back to the city. There’s a lot wrong with it, but it’s still there for us to see all the same.”

Lucille placed her hands on her head and let out a content sigh. “I’m game. Let’s go out there and do it.”

Relaxed laughs escaped the girls as they came to a stop at a quiet intersection. A lone car drove past them, but beyond that, the world seemed completely quiet. Usually, the duo would have music or the radio playing, but tonight, they kept it off. Lucille’s heart beat steadily in her chest, her body felt the soft cushion of the car seat, and without all that background noise, both real and imagined, she had never before felt so connected to the life in front of her.

In that moment, the life she lived was undeniably hers, and undeniably real.

…

In high school, Regina would’ve driven them both to the industrial lot at this time of night, but they were older now. Both of them needed more sleep than they ever could’ve imagined, and it was already 1 AM. The car pulled into Lucille’s driveway; the porch light remained on, a beacon kept lit by her parents to illuminate Lucille’s way home.

The two sat in silence for a moment. If only that car ride home could’ve gone on forever. But things end. People move on. The world keeps spinning.

“High school was fun,” Regina finally said. “But I think I’m ready for the next phase of life. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…I’m really looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning.”

“You and me both,” Lucille agreed. The end of their journey brought one last realization to Lucille. “This whole time, I’ve been thinking there’s been this hole in my heart. Like something’s missing. And I’ve been looking for that one magical solution to fix it. I thought it might be living in Japan, working for myself, or writing, but now that I’ve thought about it…there isn’t just one solution. It’s a culmination of things. It’s loving Japan, it’s having fun with my hobbies, and it’s being with my best friend.”

Lucille made a circular motion with her hands. “When it all comes together, that’s how the hole gets filled. Life’s a great big circle, from sunrise to sundown and then some, and I’m glad that when the wheel turned to today, I got to spend it with you.”

Regina gave her one last calming pat on the shoulder for tonight. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m glad I got to spend today with you, too.” She then twiddled her thumbs awkwardly. “Though, I’m gonna be honest…I didn’t know the hole was a metaphor until right now in this very moment. I thought you had a literal hole in your heart and you were going crazy because you were going to die soon or something.”

When Lucille frowned, Regina tilted her head, brought her knuckles to her temple, and stuck her tongue out. Lucille had seen countless anime girls do the same thing after making a joke or pretending to be dumb.

“Just kidding,” Regina admitted. She quickly returned to her usual form. “There you go. There’s your final reference to Japan for the evening.”

Lucille just shook her head. She unbuckled, opened the passenger door, and slipped outside. Right before she closed the door, she peered back inside and couldn’t help but smile. She brought a palm to her lips and blew a kiss.

“Goodnight, everybody.”

THE END.

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SURRENDER, SURRENDER, BUT DON’T GIVE YOURSELF AWAY.