My Friend Over the Phone

Chapter 11 - A Nice Picnic, With a Side of Regret and Mistakes

  A loud noise woke Blue out of his slumber.

    He fell asleep writing under his bed again, and Stretch was likely attempting to make breakfast downstairs. He scribbled down the previously unfinished sentence and put it back in the arms of the dolls beside him, and crawled out from under his bed.

    He unlocked his door and treaded downstairs, wearing a carefully crafted expression of worry. 

    "Brother? Are you okay in there?" He called as he made his way downstairs.

    "Yes Blue, I'm fine," Stretch said. "I just dropped the pan," he said, chuckling.

    Blue felt his cheekbones cramping as he changed his frown to a bright smile. "Oh, haha! Well, that's alright! You just sit down on the couch, and I'll make you breakfast!"

    "Ah, thanks bro, you're awesome," his brother drawled, slithering past Blue and into the living room.

    Blue sighed as he saw his brother pick up a half-empty glass bottle on the nightstand, deciding not to comment on it. When he first found empty bottles of all kinds of alcohol around the house, Stretch told him that it was simply different brands of honey, because how would he possibly know what alcohol is, right?

    He picked up the dented pan from where it laid on the floor. He looked up, noticing a dent in the backsplash overlooking the stove. He knew his brother didn't simply "drop the pan." He supposed he should be happy that pan wasn't directed at his skull instead.

    As Error would say, there's only so much bullshit one person can handle, human or monster, and Blue was finally reaching his limit. He knew that his glitchy friend would shake his skull if he were watching, pissed that Blue was always letting everyone walk all over him and treating him like an idiot. He hated it too.

    He made the eggs sunny side up, Stretch's favourite, and put them on two plates. He wished he could say he was surprised when he left the kitchen and Stretch was nowhere to be seen, and the front door was cracked open. He threw the eggs into the garbage and closed the door. He wasn't hungry. He waited about five minutes before getting out a sticky note and writing on it the excuse he always uses when he was going on a night out with Error: going on patrol with Ink and Dream, and we will all be super busy so don't try to contact any of us. Error said he had 'something special' planned for him, and who could say no to that?

    Blue teleported to Outertale at Error's favourite cliff, where he said to meet him. Sure enough, there he was, laying a blanket down on the star-dusted cliff.

    "Hi Error!" He greeted, smile genuine.

     The glitchy skeleton's head perked up at the sound of his best friend's voice. "Blue! I was getting worried you wouldn't make it!"

    The soldier laughed, "sorry, I overslept. But I wouldn't miss an outing with you for the world."

    He and Error sat down on the blanket made from Error's strings. They glowed softly along with the stars above.

    "So, what's the 'something special' you have planned for me?" Blue asked.

    The destroyer grinned. "You know Nightmare, right?" Blue nodded. "I met him the other day, and we made a truce! I've been hanging out with them a bit, and I thought we could all have a picnic here in Outertale!"

    He stopped smiling when he saw Blue falter. "What's wrong?"

    "Won't they hate me?" Blue asked. "Because I'm supposed to be their enemy?"

    "I told them I was bringing a friend, and I asked them what they thought of you a while back, and they all seem to think you're pretty cool off the battlefield, which you certainly are," he said, giving the other a noogie.