Fears 3 - Journeys

Chapter 20 - Tree

I woke up to the ear-piercing sound of my alarm. I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up, checking the time on the clock nearby. 7 am. Why the hell would I set my alarm for so early in the morning? I didn't know what I did, but I heavily disagreed with my past self in this case.

Feeling groggy, I put my glasses on and started getting ready. I changed into a fresh set of clothes since I had been wearing my current set for far too long. Being in this hotel was the first time in a while I was able to get adequate sleep and I felt like I was blessed to have been able to get sleep for merely one night. I also had the luxury of an actual bed and bathroom. These things seemed normal before the journey, but now I was treating these necessities as scarce.

After I was done getting ready, I figured that Jinn would need more recovery time, so I didn't bother packing my shit, and I decided to go over to Pen's room since he had texted to meet him there in the morning since he wanted to hang out. Although Pen was a little bitch, we were still best friends. We just had a rather "chaotic" relationship, according to virtually everybody we knew.

I knocked on the door and awaited a response. Pen opened the door wearing a dress shirt.

"Why hello there, Captain Dressy," I teased him.

"Shut up. I had no other shirts, bro." Pen rolled his eyes with a smile. He gave me a high-five, and I walked into his room as if it were my own house.

"You're funny, you know that?" I nudged him with a smile.

"I agree. I am very funny," Pen replied with a smug expression.

"You're funny-looking, that's for sure!" I chuckled.

"I don't think you can talk, dude."

"Hey!"

We exchanged some friendly banter before laughing our asses off. It felt... pretty good to finally talk to Pen privately and spend quality time with him after so long. After all, the dude was my best friend back in High School, so it was common sense that we'd get along rather well even after 20+ years of being separated. He was still the same person, and I liked that.

"Tree, I have something to tell you," Pen's overall expression changed.

"Yeah? What's up?" I asked.

"Grow."

"What does that mean?" I asked, confused as to what he was referring to.

"Grow."

I thought for a moment until I finally figured out what he was talking about. Once he knew that I knew what he was talking about, he started dying laughing, much to my dislike.

"You're really funny, you know that?" I rolled my eyes with a sharp inhale.

Pen continued laughing and we exchanged more banter.

After we were done laughing at each other, Pen decided to explain what had happened last night with him and Lightning. I knew Lightning seemed rather down lately, and I was even more proud of Pen for being mature enough to save Lightning from jumping off the damn balcony.

"I'm pretty dang surprised you had the intuition to save a man's life," I nodded with a sarcastic smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pen asked with a frown.

"You know very well what I mean. You're stupid, but not stupid."

"Hey, I'm just gonna say one thing. Grow," Pen chuckled.

"Enough with the short jokes. I'm the average height!" I folded my arms in disgust. "Besides, you're just saying I'm short because you're 6'3, for fuck's sake!"