“The Rebirth of River and Lyric” (54.9) (Oka)

"I never thought I'd see the day," Kalei said as our group stared into my shopping bag.

"Right? I didn't think I'd even get one, but..." I said. "It was on sale, and Berin is spoiling me tonight. Which is really embarrassing, but..."

"Nah, enjoy it dude," Kalei said. "He's spoiling all of us tonight. Maybe it's a last gasp of the rich life before the Kilander profits run out, I dunno."

"The important thing is that you now own an eGame 2.5 DX Edition," Lillia said.

Yes, I, Oka Ohri, who had the scarcest idea what a video game even was about a year ago, was now the owner of a game console and two whole games. I got the portable version, which Kalei said would hook up with the others so we could all play my new favorite game, Farlet Kart, together. Now everyone in our immediate circle had a gaming console, which was a strange thought. Zeta never really used the one Kalei gave her, but I hoped that maybe we could find something nice and relaxing to play together, so the other one I got featured two cats that had to explore mazes.

I handed my new game off to Berin, and our group went to our last locale of the night, a laser based entertainment establishment called the Rhombus of Fun. I got to let loose there, enjoying my first games of laser tag, laser bowling, laser mini golf, the works. Well, we skipped laser mat ball as we were all pretty tired of mat ball. While we were waiting for our dinner order, I noticed Kalei sneaking away, heading outside. I excused myself and went after her to make sure she was alright.

I found her outside sitting on a bench, staring off into space. I was immediately concerned, especially when Kalei immediately said, "It's nothing," without so much as turning her head to me.

"Are you sure?" I asked, sitting by her.

"You're gonna think it's so stupid," Kalei said. "Or you're gonna try and do a heartfelt chat."

"I probably won't think it's stupid," I said. "And maybe it's time we have a heart to heart?"

"I figured you'd probably get me with one tonight," Kalei said. "I probably do need it."

“You may try to escape the heartfelt chat, but Oka Ohri won’t rest until hearts are…felt," I said. "So what's up?"

"This is so dumb, I'm starting with that," Kalei said. "But the mascot chick on all the posters in there looks just like Nikki and it's messing me up."

There was indeed a redhead girl with long hair plastered over all the posters inside the Rhombus of Fun. The sheer amount of this one model was kind of distracting even just for me, and probably much worse for Kalei.

"I'm sorry, that's rough," I said.

"It shouldn't be, though," Kalei said. "It's been months since I found out."

"Sure, but Nikki's new girlfriend isn't making it easy," I said. Kalei had been crushing on Nikki for a while, then she found out that Nikki neglected to tell her that she was already dating someone until they were supposed to hang out, breaking Kalei's heart. Making matters worse, Nikki's girlfriend was strange and rude and was butting heads with Kalei a lot at school.

"Yeah, but even if she wasn't," Kalei started. “When I see them together, it hurts. I thought I’d be over it, but I’m not. Isn't that sad?"

"It's not at all," I said.

"Well it feels sad," Kalei said. "It makes me feel pathetic. But if it was just that, I could deal with it, but it's not just that."

She clasped her hands together, rocking a bit before finally saying it.

"Risa asked me out."

"Oh," I said, my eyes wide. "Wow."

"Yeah," Kalei said.

"How do you feel about that?" I said. I felt bad at how immediately I hoped that she said no. Risa didn't seem to be the worst, but she and Kalei did have some rough history.

"I don't know," Kalei said. "I don't feel super great about it. I wished she'd try to just get us back to normal before she jumped to this."

"That would have been a better path for sure," I said. "That you feel bad about it is probably a good sign of what your answer should be, I think."

"But like," Kalei said. "Everything feels bad right now. Maybe I'd feel better if I had a girlfriend? But I also just...ugh, it does feel bad when I think about saying yes. But..." She bit her lip. "Can I rant for a bit?"

"Rant away, my friend." I said.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Kalei said. "Or what I want. I mean, I want to play beam chasers, but that's not a long term goal, is it? That's just playing beam chasers. I'm a mess. Every day I put a strong face on, but it's just an act, dude. I'm so stressed out in class, I'm sick of Wildfire Hearts, I'm sick of Ovie, 09 too. Sorry, I know she's your cousin. I want them all out of my life."

I didn't interject, not only was I not really in the mood to defend 09, I also knew Kalei needed to get this out.

"And freaking Nikki. It still hurts. It hurts every day, and I just want it to be over. But now her girlfriend has a problem with me? What the hell is that about? What did I do? And then there's Risa. I just want her to be like how she used to be, but she's not. She wants to go out with me now? I want a girlfriend so bad, but she hurt me, and we haven't even dealt with it, so how can we date? And I wanted to do that video project, but we haven't done anything on it lately, it's not your fault, or anyone's, but why haven't we done anything? I'm a mess and it isn't getting any better, it's getting worse and worse and I don't know how to keep my head up, how to keep going on. I'm just. I don't know what to do."

She sniffed, covering her face as tears started streaking down. "I told you it was dumb."

"It's not dumb at all," I said. I had to choose my words carefully, but I had been prepping for a bit on what I'd say if Kalei wanted to talk about what was going on. "Times aren't the best right now. I know that's real rich coming from me, because I don't have the same kind of drama and...yeah, I'm dating Zeta, so feel free to take all this with grains of salt."

I braced for some textbook Kalei jabs back, but she remained silent, waiting for me to continue.