The Etiquette of Smoking

Fatality

"Have you ever smoked pot?" Joji asked walking slowly beside me. We had been swapping personal information back and forth for the last hour and mostly walking around the arcade mindlessly until one of us saw a game we wanted to play and dragged the other with us. We'd ran into Max and Ian once already as they were laughing and climbing over each other to sit on a tiny mechanical car that rumbled and moved back and forth. We'd also caught sight of Chad and Niki separately, with Chad happily gorging himself on greasy pizza from the food court, and Niki with an army of plushies around her feet as she plastered her face to the glass of the claw machine. We'd just finished playing a game of frogger on one of the older machines and were looking around for our next source of entertainment.

"Once... kinda. My friend made these special brownies and brought them to school in 10th grade and... yeah we got suspended." I giggled at the memory of my Spanish teacher wondering what was wrong with me as I started at the wall for a solid hour. Joji snorted in amusement at my answer.

"You?" I asked, turning a corner to the right and watching his feet immediately follow my change in course and turn the corner as well. My eyes moved up to his face where he'd raised a single thick brow at me.

"Of course not, I'm a good boy." His reply forced a laugh out of me. I didn't believe him but I nodded anyway, looking away and thinking of another question but he beat me to the punch, which was unfortunate because I was considering teasing him about his t-shirt.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Joji's question threw me off, not only at the silly way he said it but also because... I didn't know the answer. My feet stopped moving of their own accord as I considered his question.

"Too personal?" He inquired, possibly noticing the look on my face. I looked up into his deep brown eyes.

"No, not at all... I just don't know." I smiled apologetically, continuing our walk. "I want to go back to college someday, I just don't really know what to do after that." I explained as I watched a group of children sprint past us at full speed.

"That's normal, not everyone knows what they want to do." Joji said slowly, keeping stride with me. "College is a great start." His encouraging words made me want to smile but I repressed the urge. It sounded like he genuinely cared, but I knew he was only being polite.

"Yeah." I agreed. I had unintentionally led us right into a bank of photo booths and came face to face with a large, white, rectangular box. Its entrance covered only by a tiny red curtain. I looked to my left where Joji was lingering. "Let's take a picture."

"Why?" He questioned but I had already pushed past the curtain and took a seat on the right side of the tiny booth. I touched the screen in front of me, choosing the option for a simple 5 picture strip with no effects or borders. When he finally decided to join me, he sat on the tiny bench and I swiped my card.

"Because it's fun. Smile for me." I instructed, pressing the ready button on the touch screen and sat back to pose. I held my smile for the photo, waiting for the flash. On the screen, our photo was previewed briefly, showing Joji staring straight ahead with a blank expression while I smiled like a dummy.

"Dude, what is that?" I frowned at him and another flash caught that moment as the second picture. I looked at the preview of that one on the screen, noting the frown on my side profile and Joji's questioning face looking back at me. He laughed at the photo, his eyes crinkling and his mouth slightly open, exposing his top row of teeth. That was the third photo that the booth took as another flash of light captured the moment. Him laughing at me while I looked at him in amusement.

"Please cooperate with me!" I pleaded with a laugh as I lightly punched him in the arm. He grinned at me, whining a soft 'ow' and holding the arm I'd just hit. A flash captured us there as the fourth photo.