Remember Her? (an II au)

9- the recruit

Plus, this is all a wild goose chase. The police have been looking for Gregory for MONTHS and still haven't found him. I don't understand why Maria says I need to find him.

I finally climb out of the soda machine and I re-adjust my jacket and hat. I'm surprised it didn't fall off while I was climbing. Joey climbed up just behind me, smirking as he adjusts his bowtie.

"You look old." He laughs.

"That's not even a pun. Also, I'm probably the same age as you." I roll my eyes, stuffing my hands in my pockets and pulling out my phone.

"How old then?" He smirks at me. When I don't answer, he- "Orange you going to say anything?" He slaps his knee afterward, watching as my calm face turns into one of rage.

"SHUT THE F### UP!" I scream at him, watching as he giggles like a five-year-old. "WHAT ARE YOU, FIVE?!"

"Haha! I'll have you know I'm actually 23!" He laughs. "Come on, don't sweet the small stuff!" He slaps his knee.

I sigh deeply, trying to keep my rage inside me. "And I'll... have you know I am 27. Also can you just shut up about puns for once?"

"Aw, come on OJ!" He sighs and then smirks. "Get juiced to it!" He slaps his knee and runs ahead of me, giggling like a child.

"Y- YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" I yell, chasing after him. "GREGORY IS MISSING! HE'S NOT EVEN HERE!"

Joey stops in his tracks. "Cheese Louise!" He slaps his knee. "If you didn't say something, we would have been going in circles! Aw, orange you just the best- ow!" He knee-slaps again and ends up hurting himself in the process.

I slightly laugh to myself. "Let's go this way, Ray said Cobs wanted a war- right? Then let's recruit people. He probably has a lot of mephones, so we need a lot of people."

"Well, OJ. Squeeze the day!" He knee slaps again.

"What is it with all the orange puns?!"

"Well, you're a glass of OJ. And your nickname is OJ-" He pauses. "Or do you like Otto James better?"

"OJ." I grumble. "My parents probably did that on purpose."

"WHAT?! YOU HAVE PARENTS?!" Joey gasps.

"W- yeah? Do you... not?" I ask him. "Did you ever?"

"Of course I did- do. I definitely still do- but I thought you were a main character! Oh Grate!" He slaps his knee. Ugh... and just when I thought the puns stopped...

"Let's hurry. For all we know, Maria and Doctor Charlie could be done helping snap Ray out of it and we still haven't done ANYTHING productive." I shake my head, pulling out my phone and searching up Gregory's name. "I'll first find people with past connections to Gregory, maybe that'll help."

I scroll down on an article about him and when he went missing, eventually coming across something said by a friend of his named Devan. He apparently lives close by, which is very convenient.

"Alright, come on Joey. We're gonna go see Gregory's friend Devan. It's the closest we can get." I begin walking that way and Joey trails behind me. He's... silent.... That's odd.