NANOWRIMO 2020

11.18 A Reason to Smile

"I love you guys," Yoshi slurred. "The best. Absolute best. For realz."

John, Yiin and Boscou would've laughed it off and made fun of Yoshi for it later, but he was drunk out of his mind and he kept repeating it over and over and over, looking to all the world like he was on the verge of tears as he affirmed his heart's confession.

"We love you too, buddy," Yiin said, patting Yoshi on the back. "Much love. Lots of love for you dude."

John smacked the back of Yiin's head and gave him a don't-be-an-asshole look which Yiin took with a shrug. Boscou tried to hide his snickers from John's glare. "You doing okay Yoshi? Feeling alright?" John gave Yoshi a plastic cup of water and Yoshi took it like a communion, nodding his head and looking up with bleary eyes.

"Thank you John. I love you," Yoshi smiled and slurped at his water. "Pleh," he stuck his tongue out at the three of them. "Is warm wawa." And then proceeded to spill the rest of it down the front of his graphic tee. The chibi Darth Vader on Yoshi's shirt was well hydrated.

"Do you love me too?" Boscou asked innocently, pointing at himself and batting his eyelashes, but Yoshi nodded vigorously.

"Yes, absolutely," Yoshi said, bobbing his head up and down and trying to focus on Boscou's face. "Not as much as Yiin or John but yessss I love you tooooooo."

"Bastard."

"Boscou."

"Yoshi doesn't love you as much as me or John~"

"Fine fine," Boscou scuffed the ground and shrugged. "I always knew that anyways," he said haughtily. "I was never the family favorite, oof."

Yoshi laughed and covered his face with his hand and continued to snort and giggle while Yiin and John exchanged worried glances over their wheezing friend.

"That wasn't a lot of alcohol," Yiin said.

"He's a lightweight," John stroked his three little goatee hairs. "I didn't think he was that much of a lightweight though."

"This is Yoshi we're talking about," Boscou added. "His closest experience to alcohol is the mulled mead from his DND campaigns. So yeah. Lightweight. Go figure."

"Okay. But," Yiin rubbed Yoshi's back as he continued to dry heave into his laughs. "That was only three beers. Four if you count that last one he spilled all over that girl at the bar, which I don't because he took like a sip and splashed it all over her. Which was wild."

"That was sad," John shook his head.

"The closest he's ever been to a woman," Boscou said solemnly.

"ANYWAYS," John continued. "We gotta get him sobered up."

"Pfft, no we don't," Boscou retorted. "We need to get some water in him and give him some good old chiccy nuggies. Nothing beats a night out with chiccy nuggies."

"A Baja Blast maybe," Yiin said. "She looked really cute, even though she had all that beer on her."

"Moist," Boscou said.

"We can take him back to my place, but we need to let his mom know he's with us," John went on.

"I wouldn't like it if some rando at a bar spilled shitty beer on me," Yiin reasoned

"That's because nobody would waste their shity beer to spill on you."

"You want some of this ass, don't you, Boscou boi?"

"Only if you paid me in tacos you slim twink," Boscou laughed.

"And maybe grab some pedialyte and some snacks for when he wakes up," John said.

"Sure thing," Yiin and Boscou echoed.

"Snacks sound good," Boscou groaned. "I want some food and some drinks since we didn't have any back there. Can we grab a 6-pack for the road?"

"You paying?" Yiin teased.

"I love yoooou," Yoshi giggled. "More drinks!"

"No more drinks for you," John said and dragged Yoshi up by the arm. "Let's go dude. Up ya go. Just water."

"Ohh. Water."

"Yes, water," Yiin said. "Sweet delicious water. Cool refreshing juices mmhmm."

"We get the big kid drinks," Boscou said, walking ahead of the trio propping up a staggering Yoshi. "I'll get them this time and some snacks. Doritos? Tacos? Little powdered donuts?"

"Yes yes yes, to all of the above," Yiin chirped from under Yoshi's arm. "Do you need help getting it?"

"Do I look like I need help getting it?" Boscou laughed, flexing his arms and dropping into a surfer pose. Yiin dabbed in response and dropped Yoshi onto John.

"Those twig arms don't stand a chance biatch," Yiin screeched.

"Come my brother, and let your words meet your mettle," Boscou thundered.

John continued to drag an inebriated Yoshi, his eye twitching.

"You're the best John," Yoshi said into his shoulder. "Best guy. Best dude."

John sighed but couldn't help but smile. "Yeah yeah. I know."