Rune of Oldfyre

Chapter Twenty-Five: Life of the party

We were getting ready for the dance when May wrapped something around my neck and tied it.

"What is this?" I asked, looking at it with curiosity.

"It's called a bow tie." She said. Adjusting it to fit.

"Do you get one?" I inquired.

"Why not?"

"I just don't." She said.

"Why do I get one?"

"Because, bow ties are cool." She informed me.

"Then, why don't you get one?"

"We wouldn't want to over saturate the place with cool would we?" She put forward.

"No, I guess not."

Outside the cobblestone street was still wet. It had been raining the whole week, but luckily calmed down this evening. All that remained from the showers was the wet stone, cool air, and of course lovely petrichor. Molly, our ever loving mount, stood waiting for his riders to embark. He donned a fez, given to him by the lovely Lady Smiles, held on by string. I let  May on, and got on myself.

Molly, having been deprived of the running due to the rain, immediately broke into his hyper-sprint, I hardly had time to secure myself. The fez flew back and smacked me in the face. Minus a few minor slips in mud along the way, we got to the party without issue. Music could be heard playing from within the spire hall. May told me a bardic group called The Silent Notes were playing tonight.

The hall was full of people. Both student and teacher alike. Towards the center was a massive table stocked with foods. Large cooked birds, fish, and farm animals. A table dedicated to elaborate displays of vegetable craftsmanship, like a fountain made of turnips. Oh and the desserts, cakes, pies, pastries, things that I couldn't dream of pronouncing the name of. I kind of regretted eating before hand.

"Professor Minchin, this is Ardunt." May introduced me to a wild haired teacher who was barefoot.

"Nice to meet you." He said to me, shaking my hand.

"Professor Minchin teaches third year Natural Philosophy." May said to me.

"What's that then?" I asked.

"Non Magical explanations and reasoning behind the natural world." Minchin explained.

"You mean science." I said.

"Yes, but a bunch of mages wouldn't have taken a class labeled Science 101. You have to add flare in this school." He said.

"Good point." I agreed.

We mingled around the room. Talking with the teachers. Conversing with random students. I noticed her getting nervous, something she didn't do often.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, pulling her to the side.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She lied.

"You're not fine." I insisted, "Your smile, it's different."

"What do you mean."

"Your smile, believe me, I know what it looks like. The 'smile' your wearing now, not the real one. Something's wrong." I said. "When something's wrong with you, something's wrong with me. Okay? I don't like seeing you unhappy. Just tell me what's wrong?"

"I'm just worried." She said.

"About..?"

"My friends, I'm afraid they won't like you." She said.

Had I not met her friends yet? That can't be.

"Why would they not like me?"

"I don't know."

"Do they know about me?"

"They know about someone. They don't know that it's you."

"Why wou-," I stopped, "Is it because I own the shop?"

"A little, maybe."

"Why would they not like me because of the shop?"

"I don't know, it's just one of those random fears you get when introducing your boyfriend to your friends." She said.

"Oh, I get it now. You think they'll think you're sleeping with me to get free stuff." I realized.

"No, no it's not that." She lied.

"Look," I began, "if they think that, then they do don't know you enough to be considered a friend. Now, point me to your friends."

"Okay," she said reluctantly, "they're this way." She pulled me through a crowd. We walked into a side room that looked to be a class. She stopped me a few feet from a circle of people. She walked over to them and said a few things to them. I did notice many of them as having been customers at my shop, just a regular group of college girls and boys. She motioned for me to join the group. "Guys this is Ardy." They greeted me back. I said hi, and it was only a bit awkward. It wasn't bad, after a while I loosened up and just conversed with them.

About halfway through one of the girl's stories about her rich uncle's yacht mansion, I heard something that I will never forget. "Looks like May is the month of savings." I turned to find a small group of guys snickering by the door.

I politely asked the girl if she could pause her 'totally' interesting story for just a few moments. I then walked up to the guys.

"Excuse me," I began, "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. Did I hear something about May being the month of savings."

"Yeah. What of it?" One of them said.

"Well, I was just wondering what you were referring to." I told him. If he answered correctly, he might just leave the party conscious and with dry pants. "Were you referring to the actual month of May and how its the month people sell things at discount prices? Or, were you commenting on something else?"

"You see that girl over there?" He said, pointing at May who was now holding her hand in front of her face, blocking it from our view. "Her name is May."

"I'm very well acquainted with that fact." I said.

"And, I think she's fucking you," he pointed at my forehead, "to get free stuff from your store."

"That was, really, the wrong thing to say." I said to him. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"What are you going to do?" He put his hands up as if surrendering, "going to hike the prices up on me?" The others laughed.

I was getting mad. As you've seen, I seldom get truly angry, but now I've found someone to get angry over. I have finally found a joie de vivre, and these giant assholes were trying to shit on it.

"For a starters, yeah. Good idea." I said. "Then, in about five seconds time, you will feel a slight tingle and piss running down your leg. Things will go black and in the morning you will most likely find drawings of dicks on your face."

"What? Dude, what do you th-" he fell to the ground piss down his trouser leg.

As convulsed on the ground, I looked up at the rest of his party hold up my hand of static arks. "Anyone else want to make a comment about a certain month." They quickly filed out of the room without dragging their friend with them.

I walked back to the group of May's friends. I put my hand around her and looked back at the boring yacht girl, "Sorry about that. What were you saying again?"