[OUTDATED] A Day at the Arcade, A Week of War

(Jessie) Chapter 6: Mother Issues

      I already knew it was bad the second they stepped in. After a whole event just walking in through the front door with Bibi (it included a whole lot of "just trust me"s and "it didn't involve any boys"s). We sat and I started to ramble through the day. Then the black hole appeared, things started floating, Bibi left so suddenly I didn't have enough time to decide whether to leave with her and I couldn't even catch what actually happened. When everything finally settled, Bibi was long gone, and it was just me and my mom. She looked around, saw that I was only one there, and blankly said this.

       "Jessie Junker... I swear to god. You better have an explanation so clear I can see my own reflection in it"

        Long story short, I was highly motivated. We spent the next hour with me explaining while my mom had a mix of worry and control written on her face. It could have about fifteen minutes, but my mom insisted to ask a question about every minute, and with every question she asked she brought up a whole other conversation on it's own, where she proceeded to ask more questions.

        I was finally getting to the part where we spilt up when I heard a knock on the door.

        "Must be them" I walked over to the door and gasped.

        Tara and Max appeared at the doorstep with about a thousand different injuries. They were soaked with blood and their clothing was ruined. Both were limping with cuts, bruises, scratches, bullet wounds, and rips. Rico must've been the messed up pile of oil and limbs they dragged behind them in a wagon, now deactivated. I didn't know why Rico was with them, but I'd have to ask questions later.

         "Oh my god! You guys! What happened! W- with Rico? Or- or with you? And Bi- Bibi..." that's when I noticed there were only two of them.

         "Guys..." I said "where's Bibi?". They didn't answer. Max suddenly started shaking. I thought she was trembling in fear, or she could have been laughing and said "you should have seen the look on your face!". Then she would tell me that Bibi was a little late and everything was fine. Optimistic, but anything but the truth would be too.

           Then I saw her eyes gleam. She was crying. This absolutely shocked me, I never heard Max cry, ever! Even when she's in her worse. But now, she seemed so shattered. I guess I just never saw her worse then. She let out sobs, her eyes were filled with tears behind a cracked helmet. Tara suddenly found her moccasins very interesting. Her expression matched the soldiers in war, you know, the guys who came to your door, carrying the message that...someone close to you... died. Then it hit me, Bibi was gone.

           My eyes widened and I took a mental step back. My arms fell to my sides.

          "Oh... well come in first." I muttered in a daze. "We'll have to talk about it later". I knew that something like that shouldn't (couldn't) be put to "later" but there were other problems that we had to deal with, even if I didn't want to deal with them.

         They walked in and I pulled up two chairs. We sat in the living room, the only place not crowded with blueprints or spare parts. Despite the calm look of the room, an automated fireplace with a couch facing a small tv, the atmosphere felt heavy. Pam turned the TV off as we set up a sitting area, since it'd be hard to concentrate when you got "Top Ten Plays of the Day" playing in the background. I got Scrappy and Nani to wait in my room while my mom lugged her healing turret out. We sat in a square with the turret in the middle. We told Nani to take care of Scrappy as they waited in my room while we talked. I put Rico on the dinner table to fix later, or wait for him to respawn since he might've been beyond repair already. It looked a bit weird with him staring at us, but that was the least of our concerns.