Split

Talking to Strangers

I woke up late for college and missed the first hour, so the morning went by quicker than I thought it would. By half eleven I was running back to the house, eager to find out if Barry had managed to get anyone back yet.
I was disappointed to find Barry sitting watching TV when I got back with no news on the others, and I sat down next to him.

"Kevin wouldn't go out on his own," He said in a rather agitated tone, and I imagined they'd had an argument.

"He wouldn't be alone, you'd be there too."

"Try telling him that... he's being difficult, that's all."

"So what's the plan today?"

"Well... I thought that we could go into town and find someone to talk to, maybe at the park... but Kevin isn't interested."

"He's going to have to be because I'm not taking no for an answer. Give him the light."

"Okay..." Barry closed his eyes and Kevin was soon looking back at me drowzily.

"You know this has to be done if you want to see them again."

"You don't know that it'll even work."

"But don't you think you should at least try?"
He went quiet.
"I know you don't want to do it, I wouldn't either, but if you care about them then you need to make an effort."

He crossed his arms, "I know..."

"We don't have to be out for long, we can go to the park, speak to a few people and then come back. If it doesn't work then at least you tried... right?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay, let's go then."

He trailed a little behind me as we walked from the house, though that may have been because I was walking quite fast-I was anxious to see if we could get this to work.

We sat on a bench as I tried to find someone that looked like an easy target, and by a stroke of luck a man sat on the bench opposite us. I nudged Kevin, snapping him out of whatever daydream he was having, and he looked at me. I tilted my head at the man and Kevin looked warily at the other bench. The man hadn't even looked at us so I pushed Kevin to his feet, getting a startled glance in response. I motioned to the man and Kevin walked timidly over, sitting at the other end of the bench. He sat for a long time and avoided my stare, not wanting to have to talk to the stranger sitting next to him.
When Kevin eventually looked at me, I shot him a look and I saw him sigh. I couldn't hear what he said to the guy, but it seemed to fall flat and the man gave him a single worded response.
Kevin looked at me, ready to call it quits, and I nodded at the guy again, not letting him back out now.
He turned and said something to the man again and he responded a little better, but got up and left shortly after. Kevin looked dejected and quite embarrassed when I went to sit with him.
"Well that was a complete waste of time," He mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"I said it was a nice day today."

"Is that it?"

"No, I said afterwards that we don't usually get this much sun this time of year."

"Kevin, people don't want to talk about the weather..."

"Well what do they want to talk about?"

I shook my head and got up, "come on, let's try something else."

"Great..." he sighed and walked next to me. He suddenly shook his head and I flinched at the movement.
Barry smiled at me and I greeted him, happy that I could maybe have a non-depressing conversation with someone.

"Jade's back. Samuel, too."

"What?" I stopped in my tracks, "how? That went terribly!"

"Don't forget that they form because he's no good at things like this... if it went bad then that shows that he needs our help."

I grinned, that's great! Why did Samuel come back? I thought everyone had different purposes?"

"I don't know, Kevin must have done something else that he'd needed his help with before, maybe it's delayed from a few days ago."

"This is quite exciting," I smiled, "not that I should be enjoying any of this... who's next?"

"I don't know,"

"Hedwig?"

"I thought we agreed that he's going to be the hardest?"

"All the more reason to get him out of the way. We'll think of something."

We walked home together and went over different ways we were going to try and get Hedwig to come back.

Barry gave Kevin the light when we got home, much to Kevin's disapproval, and I suggested that we should try and do something a child would do. He regretted asking 'like what?' because I made him play hide and seek with me.
"Just stand there and count" I sighed.

"One... two..." He uncovered his eyes, "I feel like an idiot..."

"Come on, Hedwig loves hide and seek," I tried to encourage him but he huffed at me.

"Well Hedwig's not here; I'm here..."

"Just do it and stop complaining..."

He put his hand over his eyes and counted while I went and found a place to hide.
However stupid he felt, I was the one standing in a wardrobe...
He found me fairly quickly, looking completely fed up, "can we stop now?"

"Yeah, I don't think this is working..."

"Ya think?" He turned and went back to the living room, "Hedwig formed the day after my twenty-first birthday, I can't really do that again, can I?"

"Why didn't you mention that sooner?"

"I was hoping that your idea would work."

"Well... what did you do on your birthday?"

"I went out to a bar with my friends and had a few drinks, then passed out at his place."

"So you went out drinking?"

"Yeah."

"And that would have been the first time you could legally buy alcohol?"

"Yeah..."

"Maybe you have to do something that states your age, do something that an adult would do... maybe he's not as complicated as Barry thought, maybe he just showed up because that day was the day you'd officially missed out on your childhood?"

He shrugged, "so I just go and buy alcohol?"

"It's worth a try."

"Okay, that sounds painless, you want to come with me?"

"Yeah, sure. The liquor store is just round the corner anyway," I put my shoes on and waited for him on the doorstep, "Stop looking so miserable, you're doing great."

He scoffed as he walked past me leaving me to shut the door behind him.