characters:
Raegan Harvey (rae): Age, 30. Gender, non-binary. they/them
Ashton Ortega (ash): Age, 30. Gender, gender-fluid. he/him
George Miller (joji/jo/joj): Age, 30. Gender, male. he/him
Cooper Deem (coop): Age, 27. Gender, female. she/her
Kylie Borden: Age, 30. Gender, female. she/her
My pov (throughout the whole story)
I'd like to tell you a little story from when Ashton, Cooper, and I were teenagers. Ashton and Cooper have been my best friends ever since I can remember.
It was a September evening on a Saturday, and me and Ashton were at Cooper's house until my older brother picked us all up to go to the skating rink that night. My grandma was the only one at my house, and she didn't care where I went, as long as my brother knew where I was because, obviously, he needed to know where I was so he could pick me, Ashton, and Cooper up. My toxic mom was at work, and my dad with anger issues was at a football games probably cursing out the players that are, as he liked to call them, "complete failures". So I ran to Cooper's house. Even though she was only two houses away. I had asthma, so when I got to her house, so when I got to her house, I was out of breath and about to pass out.
But I didn't. Thank god.
Cooper and Ashton were in one of Cooper's relatives' broken down car that doesn't work anymore that was stuck in the driveway for all eternity unless you call a tow truck. But that would be useless. I mean, where the hell would the car go? Ashton was sitting in the drivers seat, Cooper was in the passenger seat, and I got in the back. We couldn't drive anywhere because, numero uno, we weren't sixteen yet, and numero dos, the car can't drive anymore, duh! They were talking about an anime, but I didn't know which one because I didn't really watch much anime at the time. I mean, yeah, I liked it, I liked stuff like Naruto and Demon Slayer and Haikyuu!!!, but I never was that obsessed with it like how the majority of society, or maybe just the majority of my friends even was, so I had no clue about what the fuck kind of anime they were even talking about. They finally shut up for a while, until Ashton was talking about his future plans.
"I want to move to Japan and live in a bus whenever I grow up." Ashton asks us. "Are you two coming with me?"
"Sure." Cooper agrees.
"Why Japan?" I wondered why he would just pick a random place off the top of his head like that. I've never heard him mention moving to Japan in the ten years that I had known him at the time.
"Because," Ashton explained. "I've done some research, and it seems like a great place to live in." Doing research on a totally random place that all of a sudden appeals to Ashton and kinda fits his personality and instantly wanting to move there. Eh, sounds like an Ashton thing.
"Fine, I guess I'll go." I slowly raised my hand.
When we went to the skating rink, I forgot about the whole Japan thing, but we still talked about it once we remembered about it afterwards. At one point, Ashton said he didn't want to live in the bus, but he still wanted to live in Japan.
Well, you're about to see how he changed his mind over the years. And how we meet someone new along the way.
