«Late to the Party»

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"So you were thinking you could get the DVD out of the box and keep it?" Ferrari smirked, "That's what you were too embarrassed to say?"

"It's not like that," Dwayne mumbled, but couldn't meet her gaze, "I was just trying to help a friend. And, well... Maybe the thought crossed my mind, but it wasn't the only reason. I mean, I probably fit the worst of the NEET stereotype, I hadn't had a proper girlfriend since I came to college, but that didn't mean I was going to drop everything just because a beautiful girl said 'jump'. I was happy with my life, you know? There's things more important than naked pictures. Like friends."

"Aww, that's sweet," Destinee grinned, and patted Dwayne on the head like he was a dog or something, "There's not many guys who'd give up a chance of some free dirty videos, especially a girl like that. I bet Martin Cheese wouldn't have the guts to say no."

"Cheese wasn't desperate, though. He thought everybody loved him. Probably still does, now he's a big shot movie producer. Hell, part owner in a publishing company too, that's got to be a big deal. He'd practically be a celebrity with that if it was last century."

"Don't think he could have got through a conversation with Cassie without getting a slap," Dwayne nodded, "Sitting so close, seeming friendly but just a little vulnerable. Sometimes the hormones have a bit of an advantage, and you have to fight to stay in control. Kind of glad he never tried to join the club, or she might have tried talking to him."

Whatever witty comeback Kris was thinking of, it went unsaid as there was a knock from outside. Dwayne was the only one who had a keycard now, so he stood and went over to open the door. Marco sauntered in, bringing all the LUSARS members from their final year together for the first time since graduation.

"Hey guys!" he raised his hands to welcome a high five from Kris and Dwayne, "Guess athletics aren't the only guys meeting up like old times. What have you been–" he stopped suddenly as he noticed the surroundings.

"Yeah, they haven't touched it since we left," Dwayne filled him in, "And my keycard still opens the door. I guess the money wasn't in the budget, and they decided to just leave the scaffolding up or something. We've been catching up on old times, see if we can jog Destinee's memory, and help her remember what happened with the Box and everything."

"That's a pretty good plan. Probably the most important event in our lives to date, working together as a team and all that. So where are we up to?"

"We were just talking about Martin Cheese not groping Cassie under a Christmas tree in the courtyard," Dwayne surmised, just enough of a grin to let his first friend in college know that the statement wasn't intended to be taken at face value.

"Which Cassie, and what's wrong with her? I've never heard of Cheese keeping his hands to himself. Was he ill or something?"

"No," Ferrari fielded the question, "But Cassie was safe, not being groped by Dwayne. Cheese was busy trying to accidentally put his hands on my ass in the elevator."

"What?" Kris spun around, "I knew that Cheese is the worst kind of misanthropic philanderer, but that's low even for him. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I can deal with him," she just shrugged, "Why d'you think I went to the sword cupboard first, before I joined you staring at that giant packing crate?"

"Wait," Marco furrowed his brow, "You mean Cassandra Pipestone? I was kind of wondering what her deal was, and I never thought to ask after... you know."

"I guess we all have little gaps in our memories," Destinee smiled, "Things we weren't there to see, or details that didn't seem important at the time. I was worrying that telling me the story would take a lot of everyone's time, but I guess we might all learn something."

"Yeah, sounds cool," Marco nodded. He looked around the room as he spoke, and opened the only intact drawer in some piece of furniture under the rubble to find a neatly folded towel. He seemed a little surprised to find that one thing still where he had expected, but if the room had remained untouched for more than a decade, then it was probably safe to touch one of his own towels. Marco was the tallest of the club members, but with a scrawny fitness that meant he probably weighed about the same as Destinee. He had more muscles on his arms and chest since the last time they'd met, giving the impression that he had a more physical job, but he'd managed to keep his youthful appearance. He might even have passed for a guy in his twenties, with an orange vest top bearing the college logo and navy sweatpants to cover his running shorts. The towel dealt with most of his sweat, but he still laid it out on a chair before sitting down.

"You didn't need to wait for me," he said, noticing that the monologue hadn't restarted, "You were on the Cheesebag being himself, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure where we were up to. We got sidetracked by the Cheese somehow. Don't know how the topic came up really, probably because he was making a big thing of himself in the hall earlier. We don't care about him, he wasn't even here when we got the Box. If you think about it, the Box is all that really matters, the most important story we could take part in. Everything else is just trivia."

There was a yelp and a dull thud from the corridor. Destinee raised an eyebrow, somewhat amused. Dwayne stood again to open the door and saw the aforementioned Martin Cheese straightening up from a half-crouch outside.

"Listening at keyholes now?" Ferrari glared at him, "Doesn't work so well with the swipe card locks, you might as well just stand comfortably."

"Oh, right, uhh..." Cheese mumbled, then caught himself, "I mean, I was just passing by. Checking out some of my old haunts, the same as you. I heard what you said though, and some of that hurts. How can you say I don't matter, I was the one who told you about the Box in the first place, your friend on the Committee. And I don't see how it's such a big deal anyway. I mean, the Box is like a rite of passage for a lot of students, but you never even finished your months with it. The whole thing got interrupted by the stuff that happened later that week, and I think if you're sharing reminiscences you ought to focus on the stuff that really matters."

"Really matters?" Destinee asked curiously, "What's that?"

"Oh, well maybe you don't know," Cheese paced around the room, nose in the air. He'd come up here hoping to find the girls on their own, so he could subject them to his newfound charisma and magnetism. But being the centre of attention, being able to recount a story he knew better than anyone, was almost as satisfying to his ego. "You were so worried about keeping Mr Hook's Box safe, you were safely out of the way when the real chaos happened. Let me tell you, there were terrorists on campus, anarchists, and marines too, USMC's finest hunting down the bad guys. I reckon most people on campus saw a bit of chaos, but I can tell you the whole story. You guys, you wouldn't believe just how much you missed out on in that year. Let me tell you, your challenges with the Box will seem a walk in the park once you hear about the stuff that was really going down."

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