"Language… I don't think you're allowed to be saying this." Wren said with a bit of a nervous chuckle and the young girl gave him a glare.
"Hmph! Just because you're big and tall doesn't mean you bully the short and less fortunate like me." She said. "I'd have you know I'm like 22. I'm just short and flat… you can say it to my face you know, I'll never be able to get a boyfriend and hey! Give me my picture!"
She snagged it out of his hand and dropped it back on the counter.
"It's very special to me… with all of my friends except one who moved out a long time ago." She smoothed the frame down like he'd roughed it up. "I swear if I see that fucker again, I'll give him a piece of my mind."
She puffed out her cheeks. "Fuck Wren… I wonder if he has a girlfriend right now. Anyway, what do you want to buy?"
Wren blinked.
"I need a phone with the price range somewhere between 800 and 1200 credits." He said and she turned immediately and reached up to one of the shelves, pulling down a box without hesitating.
"Alright, this is the Andrex Pulse 12." She set it on the counter and tapped it twice. "It has a quad camera, 5000mAh battery, Flux OS 14, charges to full in under forty minutes and the screen doesn't crack easy. It's honestly my most preferred one in that range."
"If you like it then I'll take it." Wren said. "With a new pack of AV cables."
"Sure thing. That'll be 2100 credits." She nodded and he paid it in cash. Immediately she started packaging everything into a paper bag with Sparq printed across it in yellow, then she held it and didn't let go when he reached for it.
"Huh. Give them to me." He said.
"ID first." She said with a completely straight face. "It's a new policy in town. I need to see your Identification card before I hand over any purchased goods which is standard procedure."
Wren stared at her. "Since when do you need ID to buy a phone and cables? I've already paid."
"Recently." She said with a smug look on her face.
He exhaled. "Does a student ID work?"
"Sure sure."
He found it in his pocket and slid it across the counter.
Cities like Bostara had double scanning with fingerprint verification built in so the ID was legitimate… his name, his photo, and everything on it was accurate though he had done it a while ago. There was no faking a Bostara ID.
The girl picked it up, she looked at it and then she looked at his face before looking back to the ID again.
The smug expression dissolved completely and was replaced by an expression that went through several stages in about two seconds before landing on stunned.
"No way… Wren?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. What exactly were you supposed to say to someone you hadn't seen in fourteen years? Hi seemed insufficient.
"Yeah it's—"
She was already around the counter with her arms going around his torso and her head reaching somewhere around his chest.
She held on for a second and then stepped back and looked up at him with disbelief on her face.
"No way." She said again. "I missed you, you know that?"
She looked him over properly.
"Hehe~ I always knew you'd turn into a handsome hunk. I basically called it. You could say I'm a fortune teller… but seriously, when did you get back? You could have called."
"I got back this afternoon." Wren said. "And that's literally why I'm here buying a phone."
"Oh." She looked at the bag in her hand. "Right."
She held it out and then immediately pulled it back. "Actually hold on."
She took the ID card and the package both, setting them on the counter behind her.
"There's no ID policy by the way." She said while pulling her tongue out. "I just wanted your name so I could find out where you lived later."
She reached under the counter and grabbed her cap and apron, setting both aside.
Wren could see her nametag properly now for the first time. Dani was written in small block letters on a yellow badge. "Anyway, are you busy right now?"
"Yes, I have to get this back to…"
"Good." She took his hand with both of hers and started moving. "You're coming with me."
"Come where…" He looked back at the shop as she dragged him toward the door. "Who's going to watch the—"
"I'm closing up." She pulled the shutter down with one hand and locked it and turned around to face the street then she looked down the road and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"BAM!"
A girl came running out of the store two doors down almost immediately. She was noticeably younger with glasses and freckles across her nose.
"Bam, I need you to deliver this package to Miss Diana on Wood Lane and I'll pay you fifty credits." Dani held up the Sparq bag.
The girl's eyes went the size of plates.
"Fifty credits?"
"Quickly."
The bag was out of Wren's reach before he could say anything and the girl was already moving down the street at running speed.
"No need to worry about her, she does home deliveries for me all the time." Dani was already pulling him in the opposite direction. "And before you ask, no there are no kidnappers in Harlow like in the city so let's go!"
…
Chloe sat at a table in Merle's Diner with three of her friends, picking at a parfait and not really tasting it.
The diner was split down the middle today… their side was quiet and comfortable with the college students on the other side doing what college students did in a diner at this hour which was mostly talking too loud and taking up more table space than necessary.
"So your stepbrother came today right?" One of her friends leaned in. "What's he like? Tall? Hot? City guys are different from the guys here, you know."
Chloe thought about the brief look she'd gotten at his face through the front door before she walked off. He was handsome but she wouldn't admit it.
"Average." She said. "He's just tall and average."
"That works." Another friend said. "I hope he's older and good at—"
"Why are we even talking about him?" Chloe cut across it. "He's staying at our house for free and he hasn't even been in town for a full day yet. It's not…"
The diner door opened with a jingle and every head in the place turned toward it.
Dani came in first, already scanning the room, and behind her was a blond haired man who had to drop his chin slightly to clear the frame and the table of college students went quiet first.
"Yo guys!" Dani pulled him across the diner toward her group. "Guess who I found?"
The brown haired guy at the table looked at Dani, then at Wren before glancing at Dani.
"You picked a hot guy off the street and brought him here as your boyfriend?" He looked at Wren directly. "How much did she pay you? And what's with that jawline, are you a model or something?"
There were four people at the table. Wren scanned them and three of them clicked into place from somewhere in his memory.
The brown haired guy doing the talking… that was Zach and the boy used to prank him every single summer without exception.
The dark skinned guy beside him adjusting his glasses with one finger… that was Toby who once spent an entire afternoon calculating the optimal weight distribution for a snowman and had recruited Wren as the test subject and then the last girl… Priya.
She'd been cute as a kid but now, she was a grown woman now with black hair that fell past her shoulders with thin gold pieces woven through it and right now she was looking at the table.
The fifth person at the table was someone he didn't know.
"Nah fucker, it's Wren!" Dani raised his hand up like a referee calling a winner and all four of them stared. "Wren, why aren't you speaking?"
[Right Host. Why exactly aren't you speaking?]
'I don't know what to say.' He thought.
[Tsk tsk tsk. There is a woman in a committed relationship sitting at this table. You better get your act together very quickly.]
Before he could respond to either of them Zach stood up and threw a punch at his shoulder. It landed and Zach immediately pulled his fist back and shook it out with a grimace.
"The hell is your arm made of?" He muttered then he looked up. "If Dani says you're Wren then you definitely are. Welcome back, man. It's been fourteen years huh?"
Toby adjusted his glasses once more.
"I see. The 0.02% probability of you returning to Harlow has come to pass."
"Fourteen years and you're still doing percentages." Wren took an empty seat. "I genuinely thought you'd have grown out of it."
"There is nothing to grow out of… Percentages are the single most efficient way to communicate probability and if you actually understood the elegance of what a well placed statistic can do for a conversation then you would never—"
"Nobody wants to hear that at the table." Dani dropped into her seat and Toby closed his mouth, He did not look like he agreed but he closed it either way.
"Priya." Dani pointed across the table. "Wren's back after fourteen years and you have nothing to say?"
Priya looked up from the table slowly. Her eyes met his for a second and she looked back down.
"Hi." She said quietly.
Wren opened his mouth but she shook her head once and said nothing else. Her ears had gone slightly red.
"Haven't seen her flustered like that in a while." Dani said and the others nodded like this was data they were recording.
Priya's face went further red.
"Anyway, before I forget…" Dani gestured at the fifth person. "Deedee, introduce yourself."
"Don't call me that." The chubby guy frowned at her and then turned to Wren with a smile and an extended hand. "I'm Derek, A final year at the college and also Priya's boyfriend."
Wren took his hand and glanced at Priya who had found something very interesting to look at on the surface of the table.
"That's great. Hope you're treating her well." Wren said.
"Of course." Derek sat back. "She's my princess. We're going to get married soon."
Wren, Zach, Toby and Dani all reacted at the same time with a visible cringe that passed through the table like a wave.
'That's what they all say.' Wren thought. What was the actual statistical probability of college couples making it to marriage?
[Host. I see we have a target… This Priya girl. HEHEHEHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Time to work your magic.]
'You know you don't actually speak out loud, right? I've mentioned this before.' Wren thought back. 'Also who types hahahaha in the year 26? Have some class.'
[Hmph. I want what's best for you and you're sitting here bullying me. Tsk tsk, Host. This is exactly why you have no women.]
Before he could respond to that Dani had already raised her hand toward the counter.
"Since we're celebrating Wren coming back, he's sponsoring drinks! Merle, we want alcohol!"
"I'm not sponsoring anything." Wren said immediately.
"Everything's on me." Derek said and reached over to pat the table like he was buying the whole building.
Toby patted him on the back and Zach looked deeply relieved.
"Well then, if you say so. I'll order like the short queen I am."
Merle came over with menus and Wren scanned his for his usual before exhaling quietly... Coastline Lager was on the list thankfully.
"I'll have—"
"Merle!" Dani's hand shot up before he finished. "Two big bottles of Ironside Bourbon please!"
The whole table looked at her.
"What?" She looked back at all of them. "It's not my fault I like something that makes my throat bubble."
"I'll have a Coastline Lager." Wren said. "One bottle."
Dani turned to him. "That's all?"
"I either hate or I'm allergic to most of what's on this list." He said and she squinted at him for a second then let it go.
The orders went in and conversation moved the way it did when people who knew each other hadn't been in the same room for a long time. They told him more about the town and he told them about some places he had been to in the city.
"Tell us about the city itself." Zach leaned forward. "What's Bostara actually like compared to here?"
"You're asking the wrong person… I wasn't exactly someone who moved around a lot." Wren said. "But I can tell you it's incredible if you have credits. If you don't, you'll find peace staying home."
"Expected." Toby said. "And with your current build I would estimate you spent the majority of your time in a gym. In fact statistically speaking, the ratio of muscle mass to frame suggests a consistent training regimen of no less than—"
"I can't help but say it too." Dani cut across Toby without blinking. "You're really hot Wren. Would you mind fertilizing me and making me a mommy?"
Wren raised an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't do that with a kid, sorr… OW!"
Her knuckle connected with his arm and he rubbed it.
"Call me a kid one more time and I'll pull your hair out until you're completely bald!" She gritted her teeth and the whole table lost it, including Merle who had arrived with a tray of drinks and one of her staff.
"Enjoy, all of you." Merle set everything down and Wren poured himself a cup of the Coastline Lager, watched it come out gold and cold before drinking it in one go.
"Ah." He set the cup down and poured another.
That was exactly what the day had been missing… The Summit Bar and Grill the night before hadn't stocked it and he'd been making do with whatever was available.
Dani on his side picked up her Ironside Bourbon bottle directly, skipped the glass entirely and took a long pull. She set it down and let out a slow breath.
"Ohhh." She said. "That's even better than usual."
After that, she burped with a completely unashamed look on her face and the sound reached Chloe's group on their side of the diner.
Wren looked at her sideways.
"Have you considered that the reason you're short might be because you drink like this?" He asked.
"Good try but it's genetic." She said. "You should see my mom drink sometime, she makes me look like—"
Her phone vibrated against the table. She picked it up, looked at the number and answered it, putting it to her ear.
"Yo. Who's speaking?... Ah I see."
Her eyes slid to Wren across the table and the corner of her mouth moved. He had a bad feeling immediately.
She put it on speaker and set the phone on the table and the diner went quiet.
"I want to speak with Wren." Leah's voice came through clearly. "Is he there?"
[It seems you've been found out, Host!]
'It hasn't even been a full day.' He thought… It had been several hours, not even a full rotation of the clock and she'd already tracked him down. How did she even get Dani's number?
"Wren is here." Dani said, watching his face carefully. "Are you his girlfriend?"
"We are not dating." Both of them said it at exactly the same time and then Leah's voice went up slightly in pitch.
"So he is there… I can hear him."
"Yes, he just got here and we're his childhood friends. We're drinking right now so—"
"Hold on."
A brief pause.
"You guys are drinking? Well don't let him have Blackwell Whiskey, Harrow Gin, Castello Red or Sierra Blanco Tequila. He hates all of those and he's allergic to Crestmore Pale Ale, Veldt Cider and Maren Rum… keep those away from him completely. If they have Coastline Lager that's fine, that's what he drinks."
Dani blinked and looked at Wren.
"You're absolutely certain you two aren't dating?" She said while raising an eyebrow. "Why does she know every single one of your allergies and your entire drink preferences? And what's wrong with you that you hate Castello Red?"
"She used to make me test drinks with her in college but was a long time ago." He took the phone from Dani with a sigh. "Leah… How the hell did you find me?"