Escaping to the valley

(Chapter 4: Chilling with friends, and annoying calls from family)

(The next day)

Once again, I find myself in town. This time, in the Stardrop Saloon, on a Friday night. I figured now would be as good a time as any to meet a few more of the locals. And that I did.

As I walked into the saloon, I met Gus, the owner of the place. He asked me if I wanted anything to eat or drink, but I kindly shook my head. I didn't really have a lot of money on me at the moment, so I figured I should save it for something else.

Soon after that, I met Pam, who looked like she had one too many drinks. Though drunk, she seemed pretty nice. "Unlike some people." I thought, eyeing Shane from across the bar.

After chatting it up with the local drunks, I eventually ran into Willy.

He said he was eventually gonna send me a letter, but thought that now was as good a time as any to tell me about his job, which had something to do with fishing.

He then went on, telling me about how he wanted to keep the art of fishing alive... Then... Randomly handing me an old fishing rod. "Ooooooookay?" I thought, before nodding to the old man, and deciding to go somewhere else.

Just as I was trying to reintroduce myself to Jodi (who I met briefly while Sam was dragging me through his house) I heard someone calling to me. "Hey, farmer! Over here!"

I looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Sam waving at me from what looked to be a game room of some kind.

"Oh. Didn't know this place had that." I thought, before waving goodbye to Jodi, and walking over to the room where the blonde man was waving at me.

As I entered the room, I noticed that Seb and Abigail also happened to be there. Abigail was playing Journey of the Prairie King, while Sebastian was standing next to the pool table, acting like he didn't see me come in. Understandable after what happened last night.

I then waved to Sam, Attempted to wave to Abi, who was too busy playing to notice, and showed a peace sign to Seb to show that we're still cool, all things considered, to which he simply nodded.

"Hey, farmer, wanna see me kick this dude's but in a game of pool?" Sam asked excitedly. I then heard a quiet snort from the other side of the room.

I looked over there, only to see Seb covering his mouth to hide the small smile on his face.

"Really, fam?" Sam asked his friend. "You're laughing. I say that I can win a game of pool once in my life, and you're laughing."

At this point, I assumed there was not gonna be any butt kicking from Sam any time soon.

I then gave Sam a pat on the shoulder before going to sit on the couch, and wait to see just how badly Sam was gonna get his but kicked.

After a bit of time, and a lot of colored balls going back and forth, I got my answer.

Sam was... Really bad at pool. It was almost sad to watch.

I looked beside where I was sitting, only to see a ball that had missed the pockets all together, and somehow ended up between the cushions on the couch.

I picked it up, looked at it for a bit, then looked at Sam, very confused.

I then looked over at Sebastian, gesturing at Sam, while still holding the ball. "Wrong pocket, bud." Sebastian said, shaking slightly because of how hard he was trying not to laugh at Sam's failure.

I assumed he was gonna try to keep that laugh in until he was blue in the face...

That is, until Sam calmly walked over to him, paused for a bit, and elbowed him in the stomach. Not hard enough to badly injure him, just hard enough to knock some of the wind out of him.