Imperfect Life: Arc 8

Chapter 14

The next day, Brandon called Tomas and Emma in the morning. He arranged to meet with them later on in the park so they could talk.

"So I've been thinking," Brandon said once all the pleasantries were over with, "if I could just lure her out somehow and get her to stay put, I really think I can get her to listen."

Tomas rolled his eyes and leaned back against the tree that the three of them were sitting under. "Brandon, it's been weeks. I doubt Crys will suddenly start listening to you this time."

"You're the one who said to give her time!" Brandon snapped back.

"Alright, well I was wrong!" Tomas said back. "At this point she'll probably never come back."

Brandon frowned.

"Did you have a plan?" Emma spoke up.

Tomas sighed. He didn't know why Emma encouraged Brandon so much.

"Tomas, we could at least hear him out." Emma said in reply to Tomas' annoyance.

"Hey, if he has a plan that'll work, then I'm on board with it, but again, I don't think Crys is going to care." Tomas said with a careless shrug.

"What happened to you being her friend too, huh?" Brandon asked, a little rudely.

"She is!" Tomas snapped back rather aggressively. "I care about her, okay, but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep hoping for something that's never going to happen! I know when to let things go!"

Brandon didn't respond. He wanted to, but he didn't have anything to say, so instead he just grunted angrily and looked to the side.

"Could the both of you please settle down?" Emma asked comparatively calmly. "I think we can still help Crys. Maybe if Brandon can actually talk to her one on one, then maybe she will start to reconsider things. If she completely shuts down the idea, however, then it may be time to move on."

Brandon and Tomas thought for a moment, both of them trying to see if Emma's idea would work with their outlook on things.

"Alright, I think that's fair." Brandon said. "If I can't convince her, then I'll try to move on."

"Like I said earlier, if you can come up with a good enough plan, I'll help." Tomas added, much calmer than before.

"So," Emma said, "did you have any ideas?"

"Well, first I need to somehow get her to meet up with me somewhere." Brandon said, unenthusiastically.

"Maybe text her?" Tomas suggested.

"She would most likely delete the message immediately." Emma countered.

"She's usually locked up in her house. I don't know if I could really talk to her from outside or anything." Brandon said.

"Well, let's just say you managed to get a message to her, right? How would you convince her to meet up with you?" Tomas asked.

Brandon pondered for a few moments. There weren't a lot of options. The immediate thought was to dangle his well being over her head, but that was too cruel. It wouldn't be fair to her. Other than that, there really wasn't much that could guarantee Crys showing up. Regardless, Brandon kept thinking. A stray thought entered his mind, a remnant of something he was thinking about earlier in the conversation. If Crys didn't listen to him, if she would just keep believing she was a monster, he probably would give up and move on... and go home. Go home?

"I know what I'd say. I can get her to show up if I somehow got her the message." Brandon said with certainty.

"What?" Tomas asked, curious to know the magic words that would get Crys to care.

"It's... kind of personal." Brandon said. "Something just between me and Crys."

Tomas raised an eyebrow, but didn't question. He just shrugged it off.

"Where would you meet her?" Emma asked.
"I... don't know." Brandon said. He definitely hadn't thought that far ahead, being so preoccupied with how to even get Crys there in the first place.

"It would have to be somewhere where the two of you could be alone." Emma continued.

"What if she runs?" Tomas asked.

"Make it be somewhere where it would be hard to do so." Emma added on.

"Well, there's not many places I can think of. I mean, there's the forest, like by the cliff, but that's too easy for her to run. The top of the tower is an option, but she's still able to climb back down somewhat easily, and I mean, I don't think she'll want to climb all the way up anyways. The only other place I can think of is the stadium. The roof is probably the best option. It's out of the way, no people, that kind of thing. She can still get away pretty easily, but... it's the best thing I can think of." Brandon speculated.

"We can worry about the details later." Tomas said. "Long story short, somehow you get your message to her, she meets you somewhere, and you convince her that she's not a monster. Right?"

"Pretty much." Brandon replied.

Tomas nodded to himself.

"I'm just trying to think of how it'll all work..." Brandon mumbled.

"I do not have any ideas, at the moment." Emma said. "I can keep thinking, though."

"Same goes for me." Tomas tacked on.

"Well... alright then." Brandon said, wishing there was some more detail put into the plan. He really had hoped to have everything together so he could help Crys sooner, but that obviously didn't happen.

Tomas got up and brushed off some of the dirt from his pants. "Well, I'm going to head out, if that's okay. I need to go get some practice in for a game I've got later this week."

"Alright." Brandon said, getting up as well.

"I suppose I will head back home as well, then." Emma said, also getting up.

The three friends all bid each other goodbye, then went their separate ways.

"At least," Brandon thought, "the plan is getting somewhere."