Lakeside Cougars - The Complete Trilogy, page 17
He found some fist sized rocks and used them to hold the tarp down in place. Once that was done, he started walking around the small field of space beside the cafe and gathered up the dead tree limbs. While he worked, walking back and forth, he saw Colleen and Edith watching him, both now standing just beyond the open door.
Colleen looked very amused and Edith was blushing again. He had no idea what they were saying, but they were definitely talking about something. Colleen would occasionally say something to Edith and she would shake her head or roll her eyes, looking annoyed. Although as he caught more glimpses of her, he had the distinct impression that she was merely feigning irritation.
In the end, it took about fifteen minutes to get all the limbs gathered up on the tarp.
“Done,” he said as he walked back over.
“You worked up a little sweat,” Colleen said quietly.
“It is hot out here,” he replied.
“It’s not a bad thing. There’s something quite nice about seeing an...energetic young man doing some outdoor labor. Isn’t there, Edith?”
She sighed softly. “Yes, well, thank you. I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he replied, following them back inside. “If you’ve got other things that need doing, my schedule isn’t exactly full.”
“You’re going to regret saying that,” Colleen said with a laugh as Edith locked the back door and then shooed them out of the kitchen. “Although perhaps it might not be the worst thing if you went to Edith’s house and helped her perform some...hard labor.”
“Colleen, oh my God,” Edith groaned. “Stop being weird.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m just trying to help. You have all that crap in your basement that you’ve been saying you need someone young and strong to help you move, is all.”
“Oh bullshit, you know exactly what I’m talking about! Can we just go to the mall?” she asked. “It’s been a long few days.”
“Yes, Edith,” Colleen replied, her expression softening, the teasing note leaving her voice, “we can do that.”
“Thank you. And Atticus, thank you, legitimately. And I won’t refuse your offer of help. I’ll let you know, if you’re serious about it.”
“My offer is completely authentic,” he replied.
Edith laughed softly. “I can see why Colleen connected with you so well, you both talk like writers.”
“It is hard to find someone with a good vocabulary who can articulate themselves effectively around here,” Colleen said.
“Yes, we’re all dumb hicks around here,” Edith muttered.
“That isn’t what I said,” Colleen replied.
They walked back outside and she locked up, then they headed back to the car.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
The atmosphere in the car was decidedly calmer as they drove out of Lakeside.
Colleen hit the highway and aimed them towards the mall. Atticus was pretty curious. He’d never actually been out there before, although he’d wanted to go the last vacation out here when Kate had told him.
Shit. Kate.
He’d actually forgotten about her over the weekend. Although he’d forgotten about damn near everything in his life during this particular weekend. Colleen was kind of eclipsing everything with her amazing body and winning smile and fantastic sex.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out, wondering if this was Kate. But no, not Kate. It was his mother.
Something came up. We need another hundred.
“Fuck off,” he muttered, putting the phone away.
“Something wrong?” Colleen asked.
He sighed. “It’s just…” For a moment he was uncertain of whether or not to get into it.
There were still too many people who had an automatically poor reaction to shit-talking your parents. Too many ‘but they’re family’ motherfuckers still out there.
Abruptly, he decided fuck it.
“It’s my mom. My parents have decided they’re going to suck up as much of my newfound money as they can. And just so you have a clear picture...actually, fuck it, here,” he said, pulling his phone back out and opening up the text chain. “Give this a read. Tell me what you think.”
“All right…” Edith murmured, accepting the phone hesitantly.
“I take it you don’t have a healthy relationship with your parents? Or just your mother?” Colleen asked.
“No, not really. And it’s both of them.” He paused. “Is this going to be a thing? Like I hate my mother and now I’m nailing a woman old enough to be my mother and somehow this adds up to some really weird, fucked up psychology thing?”
“Well...I don’t know. I don’t really want to psychoanalyze you,” Colleen murmured. “I suppose, more to the point, I don’t want you to feel like I’m passing some kind of judgment on you. If you dislike your parents, I imagine you have a good reason. So far, you have been very reasonable.”
“Okay, this is...ugh,” Edith said, passing the phone back to him. “Yes, I see what you mean. I...can sympathize very much. I also had a deeply unhealthy relationship with my mother...nothing was ever fucking good enough for her. Very cliché.”
“Nothing’s cliché when it’s happening to you,” Atticus murmured.
“That...is a very good point,” she replied.
“I think you’re beginning to see why he makes me so wet,” Colleen murmured.
Edith heaved a sigh. “Colleen.”
“I’m just saying. Anyway, I’m sorry Atticus, about your mom. Money can certainly complicate things. It definitely ruined a few of my relationships. Because it became all those relationships were about any longer. If I look back on it now, though, I must admit that the friends who turned on me weren’t great friends to begin with. It didn’t taint the relationship so much as expose its true nature. It’s kind of a natural consequence of continued existence, money just speeds up the process considerably.”
“That makes sense,” he replied. “What do you think I should do?”
“What do you want to do?” Colleen asked. He chuckled. “Sorry, I know: question with a question, annoying, but these are difficult questions.”
“I get it. Part of me wants to tell them to just fuck off, but...I don’t know. You hear so many stories of people who wish they’d spent more time with their parents or hadn’t given up on them,” he replied.
Edith sighed heavily. “Atticus...as a woman who has a lot of bad experience with a shitty family, let me tell you that this is not what’s happening. I mean, for some of them, sure, they fucked up and they pissed away their relationship with their parents. But for people who have shitty parents? Like you? You won’t be regretting it fifty years from now. You won’t be missing what you had, you’ll be mourning what you could have had. The parents who never were. The ones who listened and cared and loved you.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” he replied after considering it. “Still though, it feels like a huge decision. And I’m supposed to be on vacation.”
“It’s worth thinking about,” Colleen said, a little awkwardly.
Atticus wondered if he had struck a nerve with Edith accidentally, as she’d gone quiet and somewhat sullen, staring out the window now.
He realized that he still didn’t know much of anything about the woman.
For a time, they simply drove along the highway in silence.
Eventually, Edith seemed to come back to herself and make an attempt at resurrecting the conversation. “So, Atticus. You make video games?”
“That is correct,” he replied.
“That seems exceedingly difficult. Colleen said you do it by yourself, but...is that right? All of it?”
“Yeah. Colleen asked the same thing. But my games are probably not what you’re thinking. They’re significantly less complex than the bigger games. Honestly, I should probably actually farm out some of the stuff now that I’ve got money. I know for a fact my music is painfully basic.”
“No!” Colleen said suddenly. “Cold Reset has great music! Basic doesn’t mean bad. The music you made is both haunting and lonely, and it so effectively captures the mood and also gives the game its own atmosphere. It’s basic but unique. Do you offer it for sale? The soundtrack?”
“I don’t, but I’ve toyed around with the idea. I figured there wasn’t much point,” he replied.
“You should absolutely do it. I bet people would buy it, but more significantly, they would appreciate it...sorry, I’m butting in. Keep going.”
“How many games have you made?” Edith asked.
“Seven. They’re all horror games.”
“That’s...not what I expected. Interesting. Can you tell me about them? I must admit, I don’t really play anything beyond basic stuff on my phone or laptop, but I am interested in hearing about this.”
“All right. The first three were a trilogy called Isolated and the sequels were just numbered. It was basically point and click, uh...which means you have a series of individual images that represent locations in the game world, you travel between them, you’re working towards a goal and you have to figure out what you need pick up and use where in order to get your goal. In Isolated, you were trapped on a spaceship with a monster, then the sequel was an outpost on an asteroid, and finally a space station.”
“All the same monster?” Edith asked.
“Well not quite...I guess the answer I want to give is: you’ll have to play to find out,” he replied.
“That’s fair, I guess. Okay, what about the others?”
“The fourth one was an, uh, ill-conceived attempt at a first person survival-horror experience. Something that’s a bit more traditional. It’s called Shots Fired. Basically, you’re a cop responding to a call and you get trapped in an isolated warehouse with experiments gone wrong, like monsters created by the military that got out. Fifth one is called Fallen. That one...annoyed some people.”
“I imagine that’s a consequence of creation, at least based on what Colleen tells me,” Edith replied.
“Yep,” Colleen muttered.
“More that it caused controversy. Some mild controversy, but I knew it going in. It’s called Fallen. This one was also first person, but you had to figure out ways to avoid the creatures. It’s basically an apocalypse scenario where Heaven becomes corrupted and all the angels fall to Earth, and become Fallen Angels, and start feasting on humanity.”
“That...sounds like a potentially very cool premise,” Colleen said.
“I can see why that caused some controversy. And yes, that’s quite interesting. I’d read that if it was a novel,” Edith said.
“If I could write books, I’d definitely adapt it. Sixth one was just called Escape. It’s a side-scroller and it’s basically my attempt to do a better job with the story I tried to tell in Isolation. You’re a miner in a deep space mining colony and you have to escape after accidentally awakening a monster. And then my most recent one is Cold Reset and the reason I’m out here celebrating. It’s post-apocalyptic, you wake up from cryo sleep to a ruined Earth, you have to traverse the wastelands gathering resources, build up your home, rescue survivors. It’s a top-down perspective. That’s the big one.”
“Colleen mentioned you put romance into it?”
“Yes. There are characters you can find in the wasteland or wake up from cryo sleep to help you, and you can form relationships with some of them. That was, apparently, the key. People went fucking nuts for it,” he replied.
“I’d say that’s kind of weird, but I guess it’s pretty in keeping with...most media,” Edith said. “I suppose a romance subplot is in damn near every movie I’ve seen.”
“Romance sells,” Colleen agreed.
“So...what comes next? Now that you’ve hit it big?” Edith asked. “Or is that a taboo question?”
“It really depends on the person you’re asking,” Colleen said.
“I’m thinking about doing kind of a hybrid model game. A combination of the base-building and top-down map navigating aspect, and side-scrolling. Whatever I do, I want it to be a dark fantasy game. Like a zombie apocalypse in a medieval setting. I keep getting images of a dead forest at night in the rain and a lonely encampment and encroaching skeleton warriors...I’m still piecing it together. I just finished the previous game less than a week ago.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t quite realize it was that recent. But the dark fantasy one sounds interesting.”
“That’s what I’m hoping. It’s really strong in my head, but it’s still forming. At some point, when I’m not so, uh…” he glanced at Colleen, “...busy, I’m going to sit down for about three hours and create the skeletal blueprint of what I want the game to be.”
“Sorry to keep you busy,” Colleen murmured demurely.
“No you aren’t,” he replied immediately.
She laughed. “You’re right, I’m not. Neither are you.”
“Nope.” Edith sighed. “Sorry,” he murmured. “I’m kind of just...really into your best friend.”
“I mean I understand why,” Edith replied.
He expected the conversation to keep going, but it didn’t.
They were silent for the rest of the drive out to the mall, all three of them lost in their own thoughts. Before too long, they came off the highway, drove down one long street, and then pulled into a vast, mostly-empty parking lot.
“You know I keep hearing malls are dying,” Atticus said as the three of them got out and headed for the immense, sprawling structure.
“Oh they are,” Colleen replied. “Half the shops in this place are dead and gutted. It looks low tide right now but I’d say this is the standard. Or close to, anyway, based on the times I’ve come out here.”
“Yeah, to buy your weed,” Edith muttered.
“Once,” Colleen said. “Literally once. And I haven’t even had any yet! Just because you are a health freak doesn’t mean I have to be.”
“I’ve...relaxed.”
“Oh clearly. You are the picture of relaxation. Honestly, you should try it with me.”
“It makes me paranoid,” she muttered.
“You did it once, twenty five years ago, with your dipshit of a boyfriend who was convinced you were cheating on him anytime you went for a fucking walk. You’ll be in much better company this time, Edith,” Colleen replied.
“If she doesn’t want to, she doesn’t have to,” Atticus said.
Colleen paused, then sighed. “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be pushy, I just–” They stopped before collection of glass doors and Colleen turned fully to face her friend. “Edith...I watched you sacrifice and suffer when we were younger. I listened to you keep doing it after we grew apart. I’ve come back and I find you still doing the same thing...and for what? What are you gaining by doing this? It would be different if you liked it, but you hate it! I’m not saying you have to just give it all up and trash your life, but...what the fuck is the point of making it to ninety eight if you’re fucking miserable the whole time?”
A long moment of dead silence went by. Both women were staring at each other, neither moving. Atticus stood a few steps back, looking at both of them, waiting for the next thing to happen.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Colleen said suddenly. “That was rude. I just want you to be happy, Edith.”
“Don’t apologize,” Edith replied quietly. “That was-you’re right. I sacrificed for my whole life and what do I have to show for it? I did everything to stay fit and pretty, and in the end it wasn’t even enough.”
“That isn’t what I meant, Edith,” Colleen said softly.
She sighed, suddenly looking tired. “I know. That isn’t...I know, Colleen. I’m just angry.” She looked suddenly at Atticus. “Shit. This has to be awkward. I’m sorry, we’re trying to have a nice afternoon out and I’m fucking it up.”
“You aren’t fucking it up,” Colleen said. “If anything I am.”
Atticus decided to at least try to step up to the situation. “It was an emotional moment, and your relationship seems kind of primed for that. You’ve been apart from each other for half your lives, I imagine it’s going to take some time to get settled again and there’s going to be conflict. I’m okay with that. I don’t feel like the day is ruined. Why don’t we go inside and split up for a bit? I want to visit a bookstore and Colleen you said you had somewhere you wanted to go in here? You two could have a bit of time together and then we could meet back at the food court?”
“I...right, yes,” Colleen said. “I’m okay with that.”
“Sure,” Edith agreed, looking a little lost.
Colleen gave him a vaguely worried look as they headed inside and split up, but he just smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up. It felt like a really weak attempt at reassurance, but it at least worked. She just nodded, smiled back, and headed off with Edith.
Atticus fell into thought as he tracked down the bookstore.
The more time he spent with Colleen, the more obvious it was that she and Edith had issues. Both with each other and individually. He didn’t hold that against them and, if anything, he was struggling with trying to ignore them.
He didn’t want to ignore them. He wanted to help.
Was it any of his business though?
That was the part he was struggling with. He felt a connection to Colleen, and she clearly did with him. But he wasn’t sure if that meant he had a right to interfere, even if it seemed like she was inviting him in.
This relationship, inasmuch as it was a relationship, wasn’t going to last more than two weeks.
Right?
Was there even a question that it wouldn’t end as soon as his time in Lakeside was up?
Well, the fact that he was even thinking to ask meant that perhaps there was. But what, would he just move here to Lakeside? Live with and date Colleen?
He couldn’t do that, it was an insane idea.
...although was it?
Atticus put the thought out of his mind as he found the bookstore and wandered inside. He supposed he’d just help as he could, like he had been doing, as it seemed like the right thing to do. For now, though, he had something he needed to find.
