Saturday finally came. Niko was actually quite restless these past two days. He kept thinking about how he was going to give his first impression with Jemma's group. "What did I get myself into?"
He had to dress up nicely, but not elegant either. He opened the wardrobe and stared at the clothes inside for some time. He finally settled for the dark green plaid shirt and black chinos from Modo and the black wingtips from Perseus. He went into the bathroom and inspected himself in the mirror. He shaved that morning and the hair had already started to grow back. All in all, he was pleased with how he looked.
He got out of the Alderney City apartment at about 2pm. He could easily make it right in time if there were no bad traffic. But what to expect from Liberty City? "on my way to the community center. talk to you after i'm done." he texted Bernie right before getting inside his car.
~~~
Already onto a bad impression. Niko arrived at the community center about 10 minutes late. He entered the building and walked up to the reception desk. The woman tending at the desk seemed really interested in her computer rather than what was going on in the building.
"Hello there... Is there any group meeting going on right now?" he asked shyly. "A rather small group, at that."
The receptionist stopped her typing yet she did not lift her face away from the screen. "There is one, indeed," she then pointed to one of the doors along the hallway. "right over there, in Hall C."
"Perfect... Thank you!" As he left, the woman went back to her usual typing. "She is nothing like Kate."
Niko walked up to the door. He could hear people talking behind it, but couldn't make up what they were saying. He was both nervous and excited for this. He couldn't stop fiddling his hands around trying to build up some courage. Compared to what other things he had done in the past, this was nothing. Even he found himself irrational in this case.
He took a deep breath and opened the door. Hall C was rather small yet looked just perfect for a meeting like this. Inside he found 4 people sitting and chatting on chairs arranged in a circle, with one additional empty chair. He easily recognized the familiar Jemma among them. He finally went inside as all four turned their heads in his direction.
"H-hello... Sorry if I-I'm late."
Jemma waved politely at him. "Hi, ya not late at all! Ya Niko?" He nodded approvingly. "Oh, sorry we didn't save a chair for ya... Hold on." Jemma rushed to the row of unused chairs next to the wall and moved one within the circle. "Sit."
Niko did as told. Next to him were the already set empty chair and a seemingly Southeast Asian woman. He glanced at everyone sitting in the circle, trying to make himself an idea of who he was going to spend the next hour with. Or maybe more than an hour, actually...
He found the woman next to him touching his shoulder and looking straight at him. "So, new guy, tell us something about yourself!" she spoke up.
Niko took a few seconds to finally say anything. "Uh... my name is Niko Bellic, I'm 30 years old and I decided to give this group a go..."
"Name sounds foreign... and nice Eastern European accent."
"Straight outta Hove Beach!" the third woman, who wore glasses, remarked enthusiastically.
