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When The Bad Kids found themselves facing a mystery, it was usually Riz who jumped at the opportunity to solve it, clue board already set up, red string at the ready.
To Fabian, The Ball was the obvious choice to handle such mysteries - now an officially licensed Private Investigator, he genuinely enjoyed working out the pieces of the puzzle (which Fabian himself simply could not comprehend finding fun ), tying clues together one by one until the full context of the situation could be understood. Riz had even described the feeling as “a group of threads weaving themselves together to make the final tapestry.” Fabian liked that comparison very much.
The Ball’s dedication to cases often caused him to go days without sleeping, which was by no means a healthy habit (and one that Fabian was insistent on fixing by the end of their sophomore year), but also one that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt just how much Riz Gukgak, Private Investigator, loved solving cases.
The Ball solving mysteries was as reliable an idea as Gilear eating expired yogurt. Both undeniable truths, though Gilear’s much more pitiful.
But now, in the middle of their post-spring-break-sleepover at Mordred Manor, The Bad Kids had finally come face to face with a mystery that Riz had no intention of solving for them.
In fact, Fabian thought, Riz himself was the mystery that needed solving.
Everything had been perfectly fine. Smooth sailing, as his Papa would call it.
Five minutes ago, they were spread out across the living room of Mordred Manor, the smell of slightly burnt popcorn lingering in the air (thanks to Kristen).
Adaine and Aelwyn were painting each other’s nails a matching shade of pale blue on the couch. The two had gotten closer over the past few days, and were clearly making up for lost time. Jawbone had taken Aelwyn in without question, and they’d been practically inseparable ever since, aside from the time Fabian had tried to flirt with Aelwyn, and had promptly been smacked upside the head by Adaine’s Mage Hand. He’d left them alone after that, to talk about adopting cats, or whatever it was that sisters talked about.
Fig was trying to play her bass backwards, her main claim that “being ambidextrous was fuckin’ sexy,” but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she just wanted to impress Ayda with her ability to master the tricky task at hand. (In Fabian’s opinion, it seemed like Ayda would have been impressed with her paramour either way, but he knew all to well that once Fig had made up her mind about something, it was too much effort to sway her in any other direction.)
Kristen and Ragh had gotten into a heated argument over if gays or lesbians had better taste in music while sitting on the other end of the couch from the Abernant sisters. They’d determined, last Fabian had been paying attention, that the gays had better bops, while lesbians had better songs to cry to - though it seemed like these days there were some lesbian artists coming out (pun intended) with more bops, giving the gays a run for their money. He decided he’d need to test that theory at a later date, maybe the next time he was on the aux cord rotation in the Hangvan. They’d also planned on revamping Aguefort’s seemingly forgotten Rainbow Alliance once they were back in class again.
Tracker and Ayda had started swapping books about queer feminist theory, or something like that. There were a lot of concepts and authors being tossed around, and while Fig and Kristen couldn’t help but beam proudly from beside their respective girlfriends (which made Fabian want to throw up just a little bit), he honestly wasn’t paying very close attention to what they were debating, because -
Gorgug, Zelda, Riz, and Fabian himself were playing at the ping-pong table Gorgug’s parents had whipped up for them to use. Apparently the Thistlesprings had heard a slumber party was occurring, and insisted that they help add to the fun at Mordred Manor by sending Gorgug over with a ping-pong table they’d built. Gorgug said the girls could keep it at Mordred Manor, and Fabian thought that seemed fair. They were here more often than not, these days.
They were relaxed. They were having fun. They were all alive, safe, and together with friends and family. They deserved a goddamned break after fighting their own literal nightmares. Fabian did not want to think about pirates who threatened to shit in people’s mouths ever again. Or sexy rats.
Thankfully, he was otherwise occupied.
“But why would anyone insist on creating a sport where everything is so small ?” He exclaimed, missing yet another ball shot his way from Gorgug and Zelda’s end of the ping-pong table.
Gorgug shrugged. “Well, it’s more like normal tennis for my parents, I guess.”
“And for me.” Riz added, marking another tally under Gorgug’s name as he kept score.
“Then perhaps we should play normal tennis , to even the playing field, size-wise.”
“But...I’m taller than you?”
Riz nodded, “I don’t think size is the issue.”
“That’s what she said!” Kristen yelled, quickly followed by a “Dude, nice one!” and a high-five from Ragh.
“I mean, like, not to point it out, but you were the one who volunteered to play us both at the same time?” Zelda added quietly, leaving Fabian sputtering in an attempt to find a response.
“I - I’ve played against - this is outrageous -”
“Just admit you’re bad at ping-pong, Fabian!” Adaine remarked from the couch with a smirk.
“I absolutely will not - it’s ping-pong , Adaine - I couldn’t possibly be bad at ping-pong, I’ve just had poor luck, and it’s all too small .”
“We can go play something else outside.”
“Yeah, Fabian - I’m sure Jawbone’s got a basketball or something lying around.” Riz suggested.
A glint of something mischievous flickered in Fabian’s eyes.
“A basket... ball ?”
This, looking back, was the moment where it all went wrong.
It happened in a matter of seconds - Fabian was grinning from ear to ear, and the realization hit Riz a second too late. Echoes of The Ball reverberated off the walls as the others pieced together what tom-foolery was about to happen, cheering Fabian on. His hands were reaching for Riz, to pick him up by the back of the neck like he’d done so many times before, like Ragh had done on that first day of freshman year.
The second Fabian’s hands gripped Riz’s neck, the unexpected happened.
Riz screamed.
Riz screamed, and not just a playful yell, he screamed just like he was right back in the Forest of the Nightmare King all over again, just like he was facing down Baron, facing Kalvaxus, facing Kalina - he screamed and thrashed in Fabian’s grip, tail whipping around, fangs out, ears flattened.
“STOP - STOP, LET ME GO, LET ME GO, LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME -”
And he did - Fabian dropped whatever hold he had on Riz as if he’d been burnt. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, but he’d never ever seen Riz look genuinely afraid of him, and that - that broke Fabian’s heart. The smaller boy fell to the floor as Fabian took a few steps back, hands raised in the air, the rest of the group standing up with concern as Riz fell.
All other activities and conversations had come to an abrupt halt. All eyes were on Riz.
The tips of Riz’s ears had turned turquoise. He’s embarrassed , Fabian thought. He’d seen the color before, when Riz had stumbled into an awkward conversation, or whenever Sklonda chatted just a bit too long with The Bad Kids, saying things about how Riz had asked her to the prom, or other embarrassing things moms tended to say. He was embarrassed, and he was on high alert.
Before Fabian could offer any words of encouragement or comfort, Riz scrambled to stand up, brushing off his pants as he stood.
“The Ball?” The words felt hesitant as they left Fabian’s mouth. Like he was walking on eggshells, or talking to a scared kid who could bolt at any second.
His yellow eyes darted around the room, clocking each and every one of his friends staring back at him. Cassandra , what Fabian wouldn’t give to keep that frightened look from ever crossing The Ball’s face again. Riz opened his mouth, closed it, and then took a deep shuddery breath. Fabian had never seen The Ball cry before, but as Riz’s eyes grew watery, he wished he could do anything, say anything to make it all better.
Fabian reached out, and tentatively took a step forward. “It’s okay -”
And before Fabian could even finish his sentence, Riz ran from Mordred Manor as fast as his legs would take him, leaving a mystery in his wake.
The silence Riz left behind was deafening.
“I’ll go.” Adaine muttered, before disappearing with a quick pop, following after Riz. Good , Fabian thought, she’d be able to talk him down better than any of us could .
“What the fuck happened?” Kristen asked quietly, looking where Riz had just been standing seconds ago, the playful expression she usually carried gone from her features.
Fabian played it all back in his mind, and still couldn’t find the answer. He’d done this a million times before, and so had Ragh, and so had Gorgug, and hell, even Fig and Kristen had joined in on occasion. Riz had always rolled his eyes, or playfully whacked Fabian’s arm, but he was certain The Ball would have trusted him enough to tell him if the joke wasn’t funny anymore. The Ball would’ve trusted any of them enough to tell them to knock it off.
But this - this was different than a joke going stale, this was fear.
Was Riz afraid of him?
Fabian couldn’t stomach the thought. They weren’t just friends. They were Best Friends . They had necklaces . It had always been the two of them, when it came down to it. Fabian and The Ball. Riz and Fabian. Riz always had Fabian’s back, no matter the situation, and even though Fabian liked to act as if he’d never stoop so low as to save the others, he had not wasted a single second before throwing his battle sheet out over the ledge to catch Riz, and he’d save Riz again in a heartbeat if he were ever in danger.
If Riz was afraid of him - if Riz was afraid of him, maybe Fabian was turning out to be more like his father than he thought.
“I don’t know.”
And that was the truth of it all - Fabian didn’t know what the answer was. Riz was the one who always solved the case. Riz was the one who always saved the day. Riz was the one with the answers. Riz collected clues and always wrapped the mystery up with a bow. How were they supposed to figure this out without him?
A lightbulb lit up in his mind.
Well , Fabian thought, it’s worth a shot. He cleared his throat, and decided there was no better way to figure out What Made Riz So Frightened Of Fabian, than by solving it just like Riz would.
“We’re making a clue board.”
When Riz had screamed, Adaine’s anxiety kicked right back into high gear. At first, she’d thought that something had gotten into the house and attacked Riz, that they weren’t safe, they’d never be safe, not even here at Mordred Manor, that their spring break nightmares hadn’t yet ended, that they’d never end, that they’d carry those nightmares with them for the rest of their lives.
It was a slight relief (emphasis on slight) to see that he’d screamed only due to something Fabian had done.
But that also made it all the more worrisome. What had Fabian done to cause such strife?
Adaine appeared outside moments after Riz had started running, and yet he was nowhere to be found.
Cassandra , rogues would be the death of her.
“Riz?” She called out, doing her best to follow any footsteps he’d possibly left behind. “Riz, it’s just me, okay? I won’t make you talk about anything you don’t want to, I swear on Boggy, but just - where are you?”
The silence that answered her wasn’t at all what she was hoping for.
Adaine sighed, and thought through her options.
Option 1: She could potentially find him by detecting his thoughts, but in some way, didn’t that cross a line? What if he didn’t want his thoughts to be detected? Wasn’t that why he’d left? Wouldn’t she be a bad friend for invading his privacy like that?
Option 2: Just keep looking for Riz, and let him tell her what’s wrong himself. Which, although a solid option, would Riz even want to talk about it? What if he kept bottling it up forever and ever? And who’s to say if she could even find him? He was good at keeping himself hidden when he didn’t want to be found (damn rogues).
Option 3: Call Mrs. Gukgak. She would know what to do, how to handle this, right? But Riz’s mom always seemed so stressed with work and classes - would this just be adding unnecessary anxieties onto her plate? And plus, he might be embarrassed, or even angry that someone had called his mom on him.
Adaine wasn’t sure what to do. It was dark out, her best friend had gone running to who knows where, and nobody even knew why.
She took a breath.
What would Riz do?
If it were Riz running after any of them…he’d consider crossing a line just to keep them safe. If Adaine had run off and didn’t want to talk about anything, he’d still do everything in his power to make sure she was alright.
“I’m sorry.” Adaine whispered, before closing her eyes and listening with her mind.
In the past, when detecting thoughts, Adaine had heard stream of consciousness phrases, bits and pieces of thoughts floating through their heads, as if the person were speaking them aloud. It was usually easy to sort out the phrases, jot things down, or at least find some sort of through line to it all.
Riz’s thoughts came to her jumbled, chaotic - part words, part images, part sounds, part feelings -
“Riz, turn around -”
Something crunching.
Kalina’s face.
Trouble breathing.
“Why do your friends keep you around, Riz Gukgak?”
A mirror shattering.
“The Ball!”
A red hand reaching.
Less air.
Being dragged across the floor.
“Jesus, you’re jumpy.”
Possessed Fig.
A pure white hand reaching.
Falling off the edge of the staircase.
Less air.
“The years will go by -”
A black tabaxi hand reaching.
Scraping against palimpsest walls, hands bloody.
Lungs constricting.
“And everyone -”
Fabian.
Fig.
Kristen.
Gorgug.
Adaine.
Penny.
“Will find someone -”
Aelwyn.
Ayda.
Tracker.
Zelda.
Zayn.
The Seven Maidens.
“That matters more to them -”
All three hands reaching, gripping, choking.
A pixelated Penny.
Baron’s true form.
Kalina smiling.
Fabian drowning.
Saint Applebees’ skeleton.
My fault my fault my fault -
Pok uttering the words “no regrets.”
Less air.
A pit fiend raising Riz up into the sky, overlooking the staircase mid-battle.
“Than you.”
A windpipe crunching.
No air.
A body slamming into the staircase, again and again.
Darkness.
Adaine couldn’t help the sob that escaped her throat as the spell fizzled out, Riz finally out of her range, as she fell to her knees.
Oh, Cassandra .
How could Riz even function with all of this swimming through his head? How long had he been pushing it aside for? How long had they all failed to notice he was hurting? How long had he been pretending everything was fine?
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry -” Repeated, over and over like a prayer, begging for forgiveness. Everything she’d seen flickered back through her mind against her will - Kalina, Baron, the pit fiend - and Adaine just cried harder. “Riz, Riz I’m sorry, where are you - I’m sorry -”
A pair of arms pulled Adaine up into a hug.
“Hey, hey, hey kiddo,” Jawbone said, sounding like comfort and feeling like safety. “I heard someone screaming and Aelwyn said you’d headed outside to look for -“
“Riz - it’s, it’s - he’s -“
“Is he safe?”
“I don’t know, he ran outside -“
“We’ll find him. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, I promise, but he’s - Jawbone, it’s awful, and we didn’t even notice it!”
“You’re gonna have to elaborate a little more on that, kiddo.”
“He - he died , Jawbone, in the battle -“
“So did you, Adaine.”
Adaine shook her head.
“I didn’t - not like this, not this violent and brutal, he - is he going to be okay?”
The Elven Oracle knew the answers to some things, but more than anything she wished she had the answer to that question.
“I’ll do my best to make sure he’s okay.” Jawbone sniffed the air, trying to pick up any hints on where Riz was headed. “Why don’t you head inside, Adaine? Your friends are - well I don’t exactly know what the hell they’re doing, but it involves a lot of red string and pushpins.”
By the time Adaine returned, Fabian knew the following things about the Riz Situation:
- Riz had screamed when Fabian had touched him.
- Riz had not screamed when Fabian had high-fived him earlier that night, so it was something about this instance specifically.
- Riz had not screamed any of the times they’d used him as The Ball before.
- Riz seemed genuinely afraid. Like, Forest of the Nightmare King afraid. Like, full mental breakdown afraid.
- Riz had a tendency not to tell them things if they weren’t relevant to whatever case he was working on.
- Fabian was bad at ping-pong (irrelevant, but Kristen had put it on the board).
- Playing the bass backwards was fuckin’ sexy (irrelevant, but Fig had added it shortly after Kristen had added hers).
There was red string…everywhere. It didn’t quite make sense, not in the way it did when Riz set it up, but it seemed to decorate the few clues they had stuck to the cork board nicely.
Fabian had no clue how The Ball did this all the time. It was exhausting to hit a dead end, and even worse, it was disheartening.
When Adaine returned through the front door, they were expecting a second set of footsteps to accompany her. But Adaine returned alone.
“Where’s The Ball?” Fabian asked, a surge of panic rushing through his veins, already making his way to the door to go and find him.
“Jawbone is looking for him.”
“You didn’t talk to him?” Gorgug said, a furrow to his brow.
“No, I don’t know where he went.”
“Why are you crying?” Ayda asked from beside Fig.
Adaine’s lip trembled as she took the pen from Zelda’s hand, and wrote two new words on a sticky note and added it to the board.
Riz died.
Oh.
Oh.
Fabian let out a breath. He hadn’t forgotten the image of The Ball being slammed into the staircase, the rest of them too far away to help as he died in mere seconds. How could he forget something like that? It was one of his worst nightmares, seeing his Best Friend’s body crumpled and limp on the stairs. And yet, he hadn’t even begun to comprehend that Riz had truly experienced that, first hand.
Witnessing death was one thing, but actually dying?
“Fuck.” Fig muttered. “I thought - the first thing he did was make a joke afterwards. He seemed okay, you know? And he’s always saying he’s okay.”
“Oh man.” Gorgug exhaled. “Dying sucks. Big time.” Zelda held his hand a little tighter at that.
“Why didn’t he say anything? He knows he can talk to all of us, right?”
But even as Kristen said it, it became increasingly obvious that maybe Riz…didn’t know he could talk to them about it.
“He didn’t want to worry us.” Adaine said softly. “He never does.”
“But why -“ Fabian started, still focused in on the fact that Riz had been afraid of him . “Why was he scared of me? I don’t even look like the pit fiend, I’m his Best Friend!”
Adaine thought about it, the sounds and images and words and feelings flooding through her head again.
And then - a realization.
“His neck.” Adaine revealed, heart sinking. “That’s how the pit fiend -”
A windpipe crunching.
No air.
A body slamming into the staircase, again and again.
The room seemed to understand the unspoken conclusion Adaine had come to all at the same time.
“Fuck.” Fabian said. “This is the worst.”
“Should we call his mom?” Gorgug asked, looking around the room to see what the others thought. “She’d want to know, wouldn’t she?”
Although The Bad Kids had saved the world not once, but twice already - some things were bigger than them. Sometimes, they needed some extra help.
“Yeah.” Kristen decided. “Adaine, come help me call?”
Jawbone had been having a nice night in, reading a copy of Come As You Are with a night-time chamomile tea on the bedside table beside him, listening out for any commotion from the kids. He was grateful to have them home again, after everything they’d been through - spring break had the tendency to really wear out adventuring parties, but those kids had come back beaten, burnt out, and exhausted, but victorious. Of course he was proud (how could he not be?) - it’s not very often that adventuring parties still in high school were the ones saving all of Solace, instead of putting out little fires here and there, but these kids had done it for the second time in as many years.
Now, of course he would’ve preferred not seeing his Adaine getting killed over a shaky livestream from Riz’s tie, and he knows Sklonda would’ve preferred if the whole event hadn’t been livestreamed at all, but they couldn’t go back and change all of that.
Chronomancy was Arthur’s deal, not theirs.
Still, the scream caught him off guard on this otherwise pretty calm evening, and it got him moving fast. He’d asked the kids what had happened, and the second he realized he had multiple kids outside of the house, he was out and running after them too.
Adaine seemed devastated, when he found her out back. She’d seen too much. He wished he could take that pain away from her, whatever had caused it, but he supposed he’d have to settle for making sure she’d processed it in a healthy way.
With Adaine back inside, Jawbone focused on finding Riz. The kid was stealthy, nobody would argue with that, but thankfully his sense of smell was heightened enough to give him an advantage that none of Riz’s friends really had.
He turned the corner, leaving the backyard of Mordred Manor, and stepped into the outskirts of Cravencroft Cemetery.
“Riz? Kiddo? I’m not gonna make you talk about anything, but I need to know where you are, bud. Gotta make sure you’re safe, or your mom will have my head on a stick.”
He was joking, of course, but he had a feeling Sklonda would genuinely have his head on a stick if he let anything more happen to Riz tonight, under his watch.
His ears twitched as he heard a soft sob from behind a headstone.
“Riz?”
He walked through the cemetery, following his ears until he found Riz, curled up in a ball behind his father’s grave. Jawbone knew Riz was smaller than the rest of his friends, but he had never seen Riz look quite this small before.
“Please don’t touch me.” Riz said, and Jawbone knelt down beside him, leaving enough room to respect that boundary.
“Not gonna touch you. Thanks for letting me know.” Jawbone replied, voice even, steady. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Phew, that’s good to hear. Now the harder question, are you alright?”
“No, no, no it’s - I’m - I’m fine -”
“Kiddo, you screamed, sprinted out of the house, and now you’re crying in a cemetery. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that maybe things aren’t fine right now, and I’m also gonna say that that’s okay .”
Riz wiped his eyes, sitting up, but not meeting Jawbone’s gaze. Jawbone considered this to be great progress.
“Just got scared.” Riz admitted, looking down at the dirt, fingers plucking grass out of the earth. “I didn’t - I should probably go apologize -”
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for.” Jawbone said gently. “Take all the shoulds, woulds, and coulds out of it for a second, and catch your breath.”
The two of them sit in silence for a while, the only sounds between them the steady inhales and exhales that become more even over time.
Riz should’ve known it would be Jawbone, who finally broke through to him.
The high school counselor had been trying to talk to him for ages now - and usually, Riz was able to wave him off, insisting that he was perfectly fine, that Jawbone had his hands full enough with other members of The Bad Kids, not to mention the other kids at Aguefort. He always got through the hard times. He was able to do it himself. He always had, and he always would.
But Jawbone’s current concern reminded Riz that his every move, his every word, was being perceived and mentally noted in this moment, which - which he didn’t hate, right now. Normally, he hated it. He usually hated having all eyes on him, concerned eyes on him. He never wanted to be someone that people worried about. He didn’t want to put that burden on anyone, especially his friends, or his mom.
But Jawbone was sitting next to him, respecting his boundaries, helping him breathe, and Jawbone’s presence was so disarming, so calm -
“I think my brain might be broken.” Riz whispered. “I haven’t been sleeping much, since spring break. I just - I can’t. I keep seeing -”
Jawbone knew just what he meant, without even having to say it.
“You’re not broken. And I’m sorry, that you’ve been going through all this alone.”
“I haven’t - it’s not like the other Bad Kids haven’t been around, you know? They help, just by like, by being there. But it’s not their fault that I’m like this.”
“I know it’s not their fault, Riz. Nobody’s saying it is, promise. And for the record, it’s not your fault either.”
“But -”
“What happened to you was traumatic , kiddo. It’s gonna take time to get better, and even then, it might still sneak up on you sometimes. But it is not your fault, and you are not broken, and it’s really important that you hear me when I say that, alright?”
Riz finally looked up at Jawbone, eyes big, questioning, as if he were trying to determine if everything Jawbone said was really true.
“Can you call my mom? I think - I think I want to go home.”
The What Made Riz So Frightened Of Fabian board was mostly a success. Once Adaine had shed some light on the situation, they all got to work, thinking of things that might make Riz’s life a little bit easier.
- Nobody touch Riz near his neck.
- Ask for consent before touching him at all, or ask Riz how he’s feeling about touch on any given day.
- Warn Riz about any melee combat exercises that might be happening in class (and help talk to teachers about it).
- Keep an eye out for any other triggers.
- Be a good listener.
- Know when to call Jawbone and/or Sklonda.
- Make sure Riz knows how much we love him, and that he can always talk to us.
That last point, Fabian insisted on adding, and nobody could argue with him, even if they wanted to. Nobody did.
When Jawbone finally returned with Riz by his side, Fabian couldn’t help but freeze in his spot. What if his presence was too much for The Ball right now? Was he still scared? Did he want privacy, or to pretend like none of this ever happened, or -
“You made a clue board?” Riz asked, from much closer than he’d been when Fabian had started worrying about what to do or say.
“Oh. Um. Yes. We made a clue board.” He found himself replying awkwardly, feeling like maybe making a clue board about his friend was overstepping, and only just realizing it now.
“Can I look at it?”
Fabian was about to reply about how the clue board might not be up to Riz’s standards, or how it was silly, or apologize about how it was inappropriate of them to make, when Fig chimed in.
“Sure. Here, start in this corner, I think it makes most sense from here, and then if you go clockwise.”
All of them watched as Riz looked over their board, eyes lingering on all of the main points, and then the solutions they’d come up with.
And then, to everyone’s relief, Riz smiled.
“This should say that Fabian is awful at ping-pong. Bad isn’t a good enough descriptor.”
He was joking. Riz, after having a totally, completely vulnerable moment in front of all of them, was making a joke.
“Well, you heard what the expert said!” Kristen exclaimed, crossing out “bad” and writing in “awful” without hesitating.
“The Ball! How could you betray me like this!”
By the time Sklonda rushed in the door, worried about her son after receiving one concerned crystal call from Kristen and Adaine, and another, more helpful, reassuring, and well explained crystal call from Jawbone, the living room of Mordred Manor was covered in red string, every piece of furniture deeply tangled, random post it note clues on every possible surface within reach.
And there, in the center of it all, were eleven kids, all passed out from the exhaustion of a clue board war, scattered across the living room. Kristen and Tracker had fallen asleep on one end of the couch, while Ayda took up the other end, Fig sitting on the floor, head rested on her lap. Ragh had managed to fall asleep leaning against the wall, which couldn’t have possibly been comfortable, but he seemed to be relaxed. Aelwyn and Adaine had fallen asleep at the table in the corner, Gorgug underneath the ping pong table, still wrapped in red string, Zelda beside him.
And atop the ping pong table, on opposite sides of the net, bearing post it notes that read “best” and “friends,” respectively, were Fabian and Riz, fast asleep.
“I can’t believe he’s actually sleeping.” Sklonda said, taking in the scene.
“The speed these kids went from full-on office supply fight to being knocked out was pretty impressive.”
“And Riz? He’s okay?”
Jawbone looked across the room, at this group of kids who’d seen horrors beyond belief, and still managed to have fun like the teenagers they were.
“I’ve got a feeling he will be.”