Ring 3.2: Table for Six

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Ring 3.2:

Table for Six

Kevin wasn't happy at first that Liam made him turn back to go out in public, but when they had just sat down at the restaurant he noticed Rolf and a guy he could only assume to be the friend he'd gone to the gym to see walking in. Needless to say, he was now quite grateful. That situation, with Kell here and him "not", would have been difficult for both of them to explain..probably. Liam was good at that sort of thing, usually. Making good on his earlier invitation to Rolf, Liam of course waved him and his friend over. While they were on their way, Kevin saw someone else he recognized coming toward the entrance and saw another person coming who would have made it definitely difficult to explain.

He must have paled, because Liam said, "What's wrong?"

"That's Sam," he whispered, "one of the people Kell m-met last Friday."
"Well don't worry," said Liam quietly, "she don't recognize ya. Just act natural." After that, the two guys had arrived at their table, so there would definitely be no more talking about that subject. He thought he might even be able to ignore her presence, at least until Rolf's friend waved at the guy she was with and the two of them came over.

"'Scuse me," said Cole. "it's just that you look an awful lot like a guy I know, but you're with a girl."
"Whaat, I can't be with a girl?" said Akio. Then, looking at Sam he quickly added, "Not that I'm with-with her, we just played some games and then she suggested we go out to eat. Nothing weird about that."

"Sure," said Rolf. "Have a seat if you're not on a date."

"Well there aren't any chairs left!" said Akio. After a couple of seconds of the other two guys looking at him he said, "Whatever, I'll go get two chairs then."

Sam, meanwhile, was looking intently at the..kinda dark reddish haired..guy? She could swear he looked familiar from somewhere. "U-um..is s-s-something, wrong?" he said, with all the volume of a mouse trying to get food from the same room as a sleeping cat.

"Hmm..I swear I know you from somewhere, but I can't place it. Weird, I'm usually good with faces and names. Speaking of which, I'm sure we haven't met," she said, turning to the tall, thin kind of guy. She knew who Rolf and Cole were, but this guy definitely didn't go to their school.

"Name's Liam, miss. Pleased to meetcha. And, this is m'friend Kevin." Akio brought chairs, and Sam sat down. Then the waiter came, paused briefly to find the table's number of members had tripled, recovered and took drink orders, then went off to find menus and silverware for everyone.

"Hmm...yeah, we've had a couple of classes together, haven't we?" said Sam, looking at Kevin.
"Uh..m-maybe?"
"He's the guy that makes ridiculous grades and doesn't talk," said Akio. Rolf glared at him. "What? I'm trying to be helpful."
"Well, you may not recognize Kevin because he's started looking different lately," said Liam. "Since 'bout last Saturday his hair's been growin' like crazy, and a bunch of other weird junk. He's goin' to see the doctor about it tomorrow, so let's change the subject, huh?"

"You two I don't know," said Liam, looking at Rolf's friend and the guy who was with Sam. "You Rolf's friends?"
"Yep. I'm Akio, and the big guy is Cole." Cole glared at him this time. "What? It's a helpful identifier."

"You know, maybe you could have referred to me as the smart guy, or the nerd, or pretty much anything other than the one thing I'm most sensitive about," he said.

"Hmph. You don't get offended when Rolf says something about it."
"Yes I do, I just know I can't get away with hitting him. And he only says stuff like that because he actually wants me to get better, right?"
".Mmmnah, sometimes I do just say it to tease you."

"Well that ain't bad," said Liam, before Cole could respond. The three guys just looked at him for a second or two.

"Wait, I lost track. What specifically isn't bad?" asked Sam.

"Reminding your friend here he's got a weight problem. Since you were just at the gym, I'm guessin' you're actually doing something about it, right?"
"Well..yeah, but not because of these jokers."
"You sure it's not? Maybe it is and you don't know it. They're your friends, right? So if they're poking ya about something maybe you get to think about it more than ya would otherwise and that motivates ya to do the right thing sooner or later. 'S long as it ain't so far as bullyin', it's good for ya."

"..You have a strange idea of how to help people," said Rolf.
"Well, it works, don't it, Kev?"

"Y-yeah," he said. "I used t-to, stutter a lot more..if you c-c-c-c-can believe that. Or j-just not talk at all. Ever."

Their drinks came, and they ordered their food. "So you guys were playing games, huh?" said Cole, to Akio and Sam, but mostly the former. "What games?"
"Oh, you know, just some fighting games and Sword of Mana a little.."
"You mean at your house?" said Rolf.
"Well, yeah, I mean my dad was home and there's definitely nothing weird about a couple of friends, or acquaintances, or whatever playing games at one of their homes."
"It was my idea anyway. So what kind of games do you like, Kevin?" said Sam, making a deliberate effort to include him.
"U-um...I play a lot b-but I really like rhythm g-games.."

Liam said, "Kev here is a pro at DDR. He's gonna win a competition if he's over his stage fright before the game goes outta style." Sam looked thoughtful at that, but didn't say anything.

"So anyway," said Liam, "by you guys' surprise" (looking at Cole and Rolf) "I take it you two haven't done this before, least that they know of."
"Hm, nope, this is the first time we've really spoken to each other much," said Sam.

"So what inspired ya to do it today, eh?"
"Well," said Akio, thinking quickly, "I dunno. I don't always need a reason to do things. I just decided it would be a good idea to ask her today."

"Nah, you always have a reason for what you do, whether or not you know it. If ya can't think of a reason it's because ya don't know yourself well enough yet."
"I'm not so sure I want to know myself too comprehensively," he answered, "since apparently everyone who does finds me annoying."
"Nobody knows you that well," said Rolf.

"Yeah," said Cole, "I think I'd be more terrified to know what goes on in your head sometimes."
"Hey, I have good ideas sometimes," said Akio.

Rolf countered, "Yeah? Like when?"

Akio paused, raising a hand palm-up and giving Rolf an open-mouthed look that said, "Seriously?!" Rolf blinked a couple of times before realizing what the answer to his question would have been, but managed to remain calm after that.

Cole, realizing the conversation needed to be steered somewhere else and soon, said, "Never mind. So what school do you go to, Liam? I mean, I haven't seen you around--"

"Yeah, I live just outta your district. Real shame, too, I coulda helped Kev a lot more if we went to the same spot."

Rolf said, "You sure about that?" Liam looked at him for an explanation, and he continued, "You might not be around forever. If you're really trying to help him be more confident, being around him all the time will just make it all dependent on your presence."
"Huh," said Liam. "Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way. Ya learn somethin' new every day, eh?"

"Kevin.." said Sam, and he managed to turn his head her way after a couple of seconds. She spoke slowly and carefully. "If, it's not too personal, is there some particular reason you know of why you're.."

"N-no, nothing like that," he said. "I've j-just k-k-kind of always been..st-stuttery. I g-guess people ost-ostracizing me about it when I was y-younger d-didn't help, though."

"Mmh. Kids can have so little compassion sometimes," she said. "They learn it from their parents."

"And each other," said Liam.

"And the media," said Cole.

"And teenagers," added Akio. "And with that, the joke's stale."
"I wasn't joking," said Sam, half-glaring at him.

"I know, but once everyone else started adding things to the list it turned into a kind of overly long gag thing...nevermind."

Akio looked at Cole and said, "So are you gonna go on a diet or something soon? You sure ordered the same kind of food as usual this time."

"No.." said Cole. "Even people not blessed with your ridiculous metabolism--and good luck keeping that past twenty-five--can eat normally as long as they exercise."

"Ah, you have that too?" said Liam. "I tell ya, man, it's hard. Lotta people think I'm bulemic or somethin'."

"Oh, I'm sure it's so hard looking like that," said Cole.

"I didn't start it," said Akio.

"'Ey, every problem deserves respect, man. Comparin' one man's woes to another's don't work, because you ain't been through it yourself. You ain't got real empathy if you can't pity the famous at least half as much as you envy 'em."

"You have a lot of weird sayings," said Sam. "Is there a book somewhere?"

"Nah, this is all original. Or piped in from my upbringing, whatever."

The food came, and for the most part the conversation died down while everyone was eating. At least, that is, until Liam said, "By the way, I'm payin' for all this."

"You..are?" said Cole. "Why exactly?"

"Because when I walked in with Kevin I told 'im this was my treat. Besides, I got the means, and this is a meetin' I approve of."

"We can afford to pay for ourselves," said Rolf.

"Yeah, Sam and I agreed to go dutch to prove it's not a date," added Akio.

"Well you can share your zero-dollar price evenly then. I don't think I'm datin' all five of ya." He managed to get everyone to laugh at that, even Kevin.

"But seriously," said Sam, "you're sure you're okay with this?"
"Yeah. Like I said, I got the means."

Once the food was done, and Liam handed the waiter more cash than any of the others at the table would have ever considered keeping in their respective wallets at once, he said, "You guys, we gotta do this again sometime. Maybe one or two of ya at a time, though, your trio dynamic makes it real hard to get a fix on ya individually, ya dig?"

"I don't think I follow," said Cole, and the others nodded (except for Kevin, of course).

Liam shrugged. "Well, eventually one of ya will be busy and the others free anyway. Nice to meet you all, anyhow."

"Likewise," said Akio, getting up. "You're a pretty cool guy."

The other's got up, too, except for Liam and Kevin. "He doesn't afraid of anything?" said Cole, deadpan.

"Nah, I fear things when it's sensible," said Liam. "Anyway, you all stay in touch, hear? Keep Kevin talkin' for me!"

Once they were out the door, and the other four out of sight, he said, "Well, Kev, that went pretty well, didn't it?"

"Y-yeah. But, u-um...when I'm, d-done, what should I..?"

"Yeah, that's a detail we better hammer out, eh? What about a dream?"
"..Th-that would work. S-sometime later..say I had a d-dream about..w-wait a second."

"What?" Liam paused his walk, since Kevin looked particularly concerned.

"Th-those three guys..w-well, Akio and C-cole at least. They act just like..w-which means.."

"What, what? Spit it out, would ya?"
"I'm p-pretty sure those three have at l-least one r-ring like mine b-b-between them," he said, starting to walk forward again. "Th-they're too much like three of the girls I m-met at the arcade last F-Friday for it to b-b-be a coincidence..and besides, I h-haven't seen those th-three since then, an-anywhere."

"Hm. Well, it's all-girls, and those rings are online. Maybe they were just desperate to go the arcade for some reason. But they may not know about magic like I know about it though, so we oughta tread carefully about tellin' 'em anything."
"D-do you think, though, if it's true..."
Liam nodded, already knowing what Kevin was trying to ask about. "Yeah. If we're good enough friends by then, and they go and admit to you or me they have one, there'd be two rings between us. This is way too interesting to pass up in that case. But we'll see, man. We'll see."