The Company

Chapter Seven- Hot Chocolate Dance Party Meets Vietnam

I spent a little time, okay, a few hours, in my dorm room watching my now working Wavelength with a cup of hot chocolate in a little mug with a whitetail buck's head painted on it. I'd had a blast dancing to some It's Time-EP and making a fancy swirly design on my whipped cream with a bottle of liquid chocolate. I'd made a little swirly on the whipped cream going all the way up to the top, and let me tell you, it was probably my best one yet. "Look How Far We've Come" had been playing, and even if I'd gotten a lot of the chocolate on the counter.

I had on some reruns of Chowder on, and I was having a good time.

Hey, don't judge me for watching a show that ended when I was one! My brother keeps watching this movie about a fish that came out when he was two, so you have no room to talk! Don't tell me you don't watch old stuff now and again.

'Cuz that would be the biggest lie I've heard in my entire life. I also don't need you judging me.

Anyways, Lionel came back while Schnitzel was in the middle of yelling at Mung for doing something stupid. His face was pale white like he'd seen a ghost, or worse, a teacher had caught him, which got me worried.

"Well?" he asked. "What happened? How did it go?"

"It went good," he said. "It's all fine. But there's something that was promised to me!"

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Really? You still want that coffee?"

"Yeah I still want that coffee!" he exclaimed. "Why wouldn't I?"

I chuckled again before thinking, He's avoiding my question.

"So, what happened?" I asked as I pulled out a Castiel mug. "Like with the whole FAR- I mean FSFSA. You know, I don't like that as much. That doesn't have as good of a ring as FAR, does it?"

Lionel's eyes went to the floor. I could tell he was uncomfortable with speaking about it, but I wanted the information.

"It was what I told you," he quietly said. "Nothing more, nothing less."

He's lying. "Hey, trust me, I bet it was something. Is there...something you aren't telling me?"

His eyes drifted back up to my own coffee brown eyes. "It's nothing. Promise. All I told you was all that happened. Oh yeah, I got you something."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a navy blue band reading "FSFSA WINS" on one side and on the other had the Company's lightbulb symbol with a smiley face with X'ed out eyes, both in white.

"You got me a sweatband?"

"No, it goes on your arm." He tapped his left bicep. "Now it looks like we're actually protesting Vietnam, huh?"

I laughed. "Oh yeah. So which side goes up?"

He pointed at the side with the words. "This one for now. When the other one's up, that means red alert. Just a little thing for the FSFSA. What do you think?"

I put it over my wrist, right behind my watch. "How's it look? Am I ready to officially be a Dove?"

He cocked his head to the side. "Like in Tokyo Ghoul?"

I chuckled. "No. It's another Vietnam reference, genius!"

Lionel looked blank for a second, then smiled again. "Oh, now I get it!"

My turn to joke.

"No way!" I proclaimed, crossing my arms over my chest. "It's ruined now! You didn't get it!"