Opinionated

The plates ahead of them- of which there were many, though the space between each was immense- had to take off before they could be allowed to move, providing much time to kill even past the line. The strangers hadn’t been talking, even before they stepped on, and they weren’t talking now- leaving the five friends to pass the time themselves without any gossip to eavesdrop on.

“Frankie, do you have a favorite Die Ranger?” Nate struck up a conversation. Soon the two were chatting up a storm about anime while the old friends near the back fence of the ride awkwardly continued their first real talk in years. Katie was just left to listen, feeling left out for one of the first times in her life.

“If I’d… called you, at all… back when we weren’t talking… would you have picked up?”

“…Probably not.” Gen admitted to Tara. He put on a face like he loathed to speak about it, but this was what he had come here for- and part of him needed to talk.

“That’s… what I thought.” They softly snickered. “I mean, I guess it makes it sting a little less to know I didn’t have a chance to begin with.”

“None of it was your fault. We went our separate ways. I won’t… judge you anymore than I already have.”

“Hey, me neither, marketing boy. I’m kinda proud of the places you’ve gone… even if they don’t interest me that much.”

“Thanks… While I won’t lie and say the same, I’d never call you lazy… beating up jerk kids sounds like thankless work.”

“You’re right on that. Don’t suppose you’d ever wanna… team up with me sometime, would you? Ain’t easy, but it is fun, now and then.”

“But you promised me that after this we wouldn’t speak again, right?”

“…Oh.” Tala’s head dropped as a frown took hold of their face. “Yeah.”

“…I’ll think about it.”

Tara blinked in disbelief as their neck shot right back up again to stare at the slate-faced boy, still looking straight ahead as he avoided the slightest bit of eye contact. They could’ve just been seeing things, but… was that a hint of red on his face?

“About… talking to you now and then, not beating up punk. Look, I don’t know about you, but… this whole experience has already shown me how pathetic I was for avoiding you. It was just fear… nothing else. A regret, of sorts. Maybe we can’t be friends again, but… I shouldn’t have let you grow so far apart from me.”

Tara’s whole face was now more red than his could be if you choked the life out of him. They looked like a crying balloon that was about to pop.

“Aw, dude… that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said, even when we were friends…”

As Tala started to put their heart and soul out on the table for their old friend, Frankie and Nate were still yapping about anime as the ride took forever to get going.

“How many of the English dubs have you seen?”

“Of Orchestra? Oh, geez, you’re a bigger fan than me. I only ever saw the most recent two, those old ones are hard to track down. You think they’d stop re-doing it eventually…”

“Yeah, well there’s always more complaints…”

“I don’t envy Miyano, sheesh.” The girl stared at a piece of leftover gum stuck to what would normally be a place for someone to hold onto the ride. “With that and the ending, I don’t think she’ll ever hear the end of it…”

“I… actually I like the ending.”

“Uh, me too? Duh. You’d have to be an idiot not to see its brilliance.” She nearly blew smoke out her nose defending her favorite show. “I mean, what kind of dipshit sees that and doesn’t get it? I swear, some people shouldn’t even be allowed to watch that show.”

The one punk who could understand English alerted all the others, tugging on their shoulders before pointing at the girl with the shittiest takes of all. Meanwhile, Tala placed their original, fleshy fingers on Gen’s suit sleeve as they worked up every ounce of courage in their body to finally tell him.

“Gen- I don’t know how to tell you how long I’ve dealt with this but… but I…”

They felt the déjà vu kicking in. It was just like before- saying the same things, acting the same way… would they wimp out yet again? Their voice went silent.

“What is it, Tara?” Gen finally turned his head down to his friend, at last noticing the emotion in their eyes, so intense that even he could recognize it even if their voice was the same as always to him-

“I… more than you could probably ever feel the same about me, I just-“

<STUPID GIRL! I’M GONNA THROW YOU OFF THIS DAMN RIDE!> The punks rushed Frankie, one grabbing her arms just as the plate took off onto its track and started climbing the starting incline.