(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.
He then walked over to me, and gestured for me to give him the fly away ball, which I did, before he walked back to the opposite side of the pool table.
"Well that game went well." Sam said sarcastically, resting his arms on the pool table.
"Yeah, I can say it did." Sebastian said with a smug, slightly pained grin, with his hand covering the spot that Sam had elbowed him.
I then took my notebook out of my pocket, and wrote "Do these games always turn out... Violent?"
"Nah, don't worry. It's all in good fun. Right, Sebby?" Sam asked, before his friend awkwardly nodded as a response, trying to ignore the use of that nickname, which felt more painful than the elbow to the stomach that he got earlier.
After chatting a bit, and making jokes about who they think would win, Sam and Sebastian went back to playing their game.
That's when I felt my phone going off in my pocket.
I quickly took it out, looked at it, then nearly dropped it when I found out who was texting me.
My face went pale as I looked at the name '🅱️🇷@' that I chose for my brother's caller ID.
I then looked at the text he had sent me.
(Text from bro)
🅱️🇷@: Hey dude. Where u at? Mom's been lookin for you for a few days now.
🅱️🇷@: Got real mad that you just ran away without saying a word.
🅱️🇷@: Are u there?
🅱️🇷@: Speaking of... She said she's gonna call you if you don't tell me why you left, so...
🅱️🇷@: Better think of something fast, idiot!😂
(End text from bro)
As I looked at the text, I quickly wiped the sweat from my hands onto my pants. "Nonononononono. Why now?" I thought, before glancing up, only to see that Sam and Sebastian were no longer paying attention to their game, and looking at me with worried looks on their faces.
"Uh... You good, farmer? Ya look like you're about to hurl." Sam said.
I just tried to force a smile, and nodded, before my phone went off again. I once again checked the caller ID, only for my heart to sink when seeing 'Birth-Giver'.
I just let it ring for a bit, not knowing what to do.
After listening to the annoying ringtone for a while, it went to voicemail... And that's when I remembered that I had forgotten to turn the volume down on my phone.
"Willow Ann! Pick up your phone RIGHT NOW, young lady! You have NO reason to just run away without a word! I'm going to keep calling until you pick up!" My mother said in an angry tone before hanging up.
The misgendering hurt quite a bit, but I just had to remember that I wasn't out to any of my family. They were a big part of the reason I moved to the valley after all.
I let out a shaky breath, and put my phone on mute, before putting it back in my pocket.
"Oooohhh~ Sounds like someone's in trouble. What happened?" Abigail asked, sitting on the couch beside me.
"Wait. You ran away from your family?" Sam asked worriedly, to which I just nodded, before quickly wiping the tears from my eyes.
Every time my phone vibrated in my pocket, I felt a mix of guilt and panic run through my body, knowing what was waiting for me on the other end of the line. But I just sat there, hoping my mother would eventually take the hint, and stop trying to call me.
Eventually, she did.
But my phone went off one last time.
This time, I checked it, and it was a text from mom that simply said "I'll find you."
I froze, dropping my phone onto the floor, and feeling like I just wanted Yoba to smite me down on the spot.
(Seb's POV)
I looked at Sam and Abi, who looked about as concerned as I felt. I then decided to pick up the phone Willow had dropped, and make sure it wasn't broken or scratched. When I looked at it, I noticed a text that shook me to my core. There was nothing written other than a simple, yet oddly terrifying "I'll find you."
In that moment, I learned why they had dropped the phone in the first place, but tried to act like I didn't see anything as I gave Willow back their phone.
"Uh, bro? What were you looking at just now? For a sec, you looked like you just saw a ghost." Sam said.
"Uh, it- It's nothi-" I tried to say, before willow slowly lifted up their phone for Sam to see, without taking their panic filled eyes off of the floor.
"Oh, dang. That's... Threatening." Sam said, looking at the phone. "Ya ever think about contacting the police about that or something?" Abi asked with a shrug.
"And what are they gonna tell them? 'Oh, yeah my mom's looking for me because I ran away from home, but I don't wanna go back'? That's just gonna make the police come looking for them because of the fact that they ran away. And who knows? They might end up putting them in a home because they were in an... Unfavorable... Family situation, or worst case scenario, they make them go back to said family." I said, crossing my arms.
"Well, don't they legally live on the farm now?" Sam asked, shrugging.
"Have you seen that old farm house? The cops will take one look at that place, think it's unsafe to live in, and Willow's going back to Zuzu, whether they like it or not." I said, gesturing to the panicking farmer, before an idea came to me.
I let out a sigh, before saying "I... Need to call someone." then taking my phone out of my pocket, and walking out of the saloon.
I knew the person I was planning to call was in the saloon, and I could have just talked to her directly, but I just wasn't in the mood, given the topic of the discussion. So instead, I just decided to send a voicemail.
"Can't believe I'm doing this." I whispered before putting my phone to my ear.
"Hey, mom? I know this is gonna sound stupid, and I know I'm trying to save up my money to move to Zuzu, but... Any chance I could... Pay you to fix something?"
(Willow's POV)
"I wonder what that was about." Sam said, giving a confused look at the exit of the saloon.
"Who knows? No idea who he could be calling since almost everyone we know is in the saloon right now." Abi said with a shrug.
The two of them then began to chat to each other about the situation at hand, while I just sat there with my own thoughts.
"My family's looking for me... There's no way they could find me, right? They didn't know what gramps wrote in that old letter he gave me, so they'd have no idea that I even got the deed to his farm. I should be safe here... Right?" I thought, before I heard someone enter the room. I looked up, and saw Sebastian flop onto the couch that was next to the one Abi and I were sitting on.
"So~ What was that?" Abi asked him. "Nothing, I was just-" He paused, taking a quick glance at me, that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't happen to be looking in his direction, before continuing "Making an important phone call. It's no big deal though."
"Dude. You said it was important. How is it not a big deal?" Sam asked.
"It's nothing. It just has to do with... A job." Seb responded, scratching the back of his neck.
(Seb's POV)
What I said wasn't exactly a lie. The call did have to do with a job. Just not anything to do with my job. But the group didn't need to know that right now.
(Willow's POV)
"So, it's getting late. I should probably head home." I wrote, feeling awkward about... Basically everything that's happened tonight.
"Want this one to walk you home, since... That seems to be a thing that's been happening every time you start heading home after hanging out with us?" Sam asked, gesturing to Sebastian.
"Happy to know I wasn't the only one who's noticed that Seb's basically become the 'designated farmer walker'." Abi said with a smug grin.
"Don't. Call me that. It sounds stupid." Seb said, glaring at Abi.
I just shook my hands in front of me, before writing "He doesn't have to do that! It's fine. I can walk home on my own."
"That doesn't sound like a good idea. From what Seb's told me, every other time you and him went to your place at night, something tried to attack you." Sam said, crossing his arms.
After a bit of silence, I had a feeling I wasn't going home alone.
(A bit later)
The two of us walked down the path in awkward silence, until Seb said "When we get to your farm, just... Run inside as fast as you can, and... If you hear any noises outside your house at any point, don't worry about it."
"First you give me something to worry about, then you tELL ME NOT TO WORRY ABOUT RANDOM NOISES OUTSIDE MY HOUSE?! DURING THE DAY?!" I thought, looking at him as if he had grown a second head.
He then glanced over at me, quietly chuckled, and said "What? You scared?" with a smug grin.
And as if to prove him right, a noise was heard nearby, causing me to jump, and cling to him tightly, causing him to freeze where he was standing.
(Seb's POV)
"What? You scared?" I said smugly, before absentmindedly kicking a small rock, causing it to roll into a bush.
After doing that, Willow jumped, and to my surprise, hugged me like their life depended on it.
I just stood there, frozen because of the sudden physical contact.
"H- Hey, Wisp? You okay?" I asked quietly, not knowing what else I could do.
After hearing my voice, they quickly looked up at me, before letting go of my hoodie, looking at me as if they did something they shouldn't have, then pulling up their own hood, and continuing to walk, shoving their hands into their pockets as they did so.
"What... Was that...?" I whispered to myself before, following along.
As we walked, I noticed the farmer walked with a slight slouch, looking around as if they were preparing for something to jump out at them at any minute.
I let out a quiet sigh, before whispering "Let's just get this over with." before grabbing the farmer's hand, and running towards the farm house.
When we got there, I immediately let go of their hand, and looked back at them.
They looked out of breath, and scared.
"Later, Wisp." I said quietly, before heading up the trail towards my house.
"Wow. That was... Something." I thought, looking back at the farmer, and watching them bolt into the farmhouse.
(The next day)
(Willow's POV)
I slept in my bed, not nearly as soundly as I would have liked to, after an awkward night at the saloon, and... Whatever happened during the walk home. And that was only made worse by the sudden noise outside...
*THUMP...*
*THUMP...*
*THUMP...*
"AH!" I yelped, suddenly feeling panicked. I looked around the room quickly, to try to figure out what the noise was. It wasn't inside...
"If you hear any noises outside your house in the morning, don't worry about it." The words Sebastian had said last night came back to me.
"How did he know this was gonna...?" I thought, before quickly getting out of bed... Too quickly, as I almost caused myself to pass out because of the speed at which I stood up.
I then sat back down for a bit, listening to whatever was banging outside, before eventually getting back up, and speed walking outside.
"Sebastian, I swear to Yoba, if you're doing this as some kind of prank-" my train of thought was forced to a halt as I saw Robin hammering the side of my house.
I just looked at her, feeling confused, before she waved to me.
"Good morning, farmer!" She said cheerfully.
I just stood there like an idiot, before slowly pointing to the house, then at her, not knowing what was going on.
"Oh! Sebby didn't tell you about the-" Robin paused mid sentence, looking like she was thinking about something. "Hm... I guess he wanted to keep it a secret... Heh. Cute." She said with a smile.
"What did 'Sebby' tell you to do to my house?!" I scribbled in my notebook, feeling very confused.
Robin chuckled, before saying "Oh, you'd be pleasantly surprised to know that he paid for an upgrade for your house! He's such a sweet boy, isn't he?"
My heart dropped down to my stomach. "Why did he-... He didn't need to-... What?!" I thought, before bolting up the mountain trail.
(Seb's POV)
I was just laying on my back in bed, texting Sam, when I suddenly heard quick knocking at my door.
"Huh... Come in?" I said, turning to face the door.
As I did, the farmer stomped into the room, took out their little notebook, and wrote "Sebastian ________, What did you do?!" looking like they wanted to cry.
I let out a quiet chuckle, before getting up, grabbing a pen from the table next to my computer, and writing my last name on the line with a smug look on my face, before asking "Whatever could you possibly mean, little farmer?" while sitting back on my bed.
Their cheeks puffed up as they scribbled in their notebook. "Your mom said you paid for an upgrade for my house. WHY?!"
"Well, crap. Mom ratted me out, huh?" I said, rolling my eyes.
The farmer just looked at me with an expression that I couldn't quite read, before scribbling in their notebook. I heard a small rip, and looked at them, noticing that they looked a little surprised, before flipping their notebook over, showing a very scribbled "Why?!" that had a small hole in it.
I just rested my head on my hand, before asking "Can't a dude just do something nice for a friend without it meaning anything?"
They just looked at me for a bit, with a confused look on their face, before writing "Wait. We're friends?"
After blankly looking at them for a bit, I let out a sigh with a quick 'boi' hand gesture, before asking "You're saying we weren't?"
They suddenly looked panicked as they quickly started scribbling "I'm SO sorry! If you considered us to be friends, I had no idea, because I'm awful at actually making/keeping friends."
(Willow's POV)
At that moment, a part of me felt like it wanted to climb up the stairs, only to throw myself back down.
But the thought that I'd be dying in front of someone who said they wanted to be my friend, made me decide against it.
After a short pause I heard Sebastian quietly say "Glad to know I'm not the only one who's almost completely dense when it comes to talking to people, or making friends." with a chuckle.
"What?" I wrote, feeling more awkward by the minute.
"If you hadn't noticed... I don't like talking to people, and will actively try to avoid doing so at any chance I get." He started.
"This dude wants me to leave now, doesn't he?" I thought, before he continued speaking.
"When I was younger, as one would expect, I had no friends, but one day, little mr anime hair tossed himself into my life, and just... Didn't leave. Did I want to be friends with him? At first, not really, but I learned to live with it... And then he dragged Abi into the mix, who also... Didn't wanna be there at first, but learned to deal with it even faster than I did."
There was a short pause, as Sebastian thought of how to properly word the thing he was trying to say.
"I don't know a better way to tell you that for some reason, Sam just kinda... 'Adopts' introverts... When he feels like no one else wants to be friends with them. He did that to me, then Abi, and now you. He's the type of guy who wants to try to be friends with anyone, so once he's in your life, it's gonna be hard, if not impossible, to get him out."
There was another pause.
"So, when Sam... Quite literally... Dragged you into our little group, we just kinda assumed 'Oh, Sam found another buddy. Great.' and just left it at that. Weird way to make friends, I know, but... That's just kinda how we do it here." He said, scratching the back of his head.
"Wow, that is... Kinda weird." I thought, looking at the floor, before writing "So Sam just shoved me into your group without actually talking about it? Asking if you guys actually even wanted anything to do with me?"
"Basically, yeah." Seb responded with a shrug.
"And you just went with it?" I wrote, feeling very... Very confused.
"I mean, hey, you don't talk so, there's less of a chance you'd talk my ear off to the point where I'd wanna suffocate myself with a pillow... There's that."
"Wow. Awesome. Gotta love selective mutism." I wrote, trying to make it seem as sarcastic as I could on paper.
"Oh yeah, forgot the 'selective' part of that. So, you can talk, just... Not all the time?" Sebastian asked.
I shrugged, before writing "If I'm alone, I can talk just fine, or if I'm with someone I know I can trust... As long as they don't force me to talk."
Seb just paused for a moment, before saying "So if you trusted me enough, then you'd start talking my ear off. Got it." to which I facepalmed, and wrote "I only talk a lot about things if it's something I really enjoy, like a video game, or a movie or something, and even then, if I feel like I'm talking too much, I'll immediately shut up, thinking I'm being annoying, causing me to also think that the person I'm talking to hates me."
The boy just looked at me for a bit, blinked a few times, then quietly muttered "Well, that's a big mood."
Luckily, I was able to hold in my laughter.
He then decided to change the subject before it got too personal.
"So... Ya said ya like video games?" He asked with a blank expression.
A small smile appeared on my face before I did a little nod.
My first thought was that he might actually be trying to gain my trust in the only way he knew how, while another part of me thought that he was most likely just trying to start a conversation that wasn't awkward.
"Okay. What games are you into?" He asked.
I just looked around the room for a bit, trying to think, when a particular poster on his wall caught my eye. I walked over to it, and pointed at it, because it seemed easier than wasting paper to write what I wanted to say.
"Oh. Harvest moon?" He said, tilting his head. "Sometimes I forget that I still have that poster." He then got up from where he was sitting to get a better look at the poster, before saying "Heh. So you're a farmer who likes playing farming games, huh?"
I just scratched the back of my neck, nodded, and wrote "I guess the grind never stops, even when I'm gaming... Funny enough, I get more work done in the games than I do IRL, so... I guess that says a lot about me, doesn't it?"
The boy just smiled, and said "Life is a lot easier in games than it is in the real world. Especially life sim games, like Harvest moon, animal crossing... The Sims. In those kinds of games, you can basically get anything you'd want. A nice house, a good paying job... Friends that actually care about you and don't bug you 24/7..." He paused for a bit, before continuing. "I can see why you like those kinds of games."
I quietly chuckled, before writing "Do you play animal crossing? Or... Have you before?"
Sebastian just crossed his arms, and said "Pfft. No. Of course not."
But after a bit of awkward silence, he leaned over to me and whispered "When I was a kid, I did play it a little... I had a fully upgraded house full of froggie chairs. Don't tell anyone."
It was very difficult to hold back my laughter after hearing that, but I tried my best, before writing "Awww! That's really cute... In a... Weird sorta way."
"I was a weird child. Don't judge me." Sebastian said, keeping his arms crossed as his face turned red.
"I'm not judging you. I just think it's funny to have a house full of froggie chairs. Maybe that's why there weren't any in 'New Horizons' for a while. You bought them all out." I wrote with a smile.
"I guess that could explain it." Seb said with a chuckle.
"Well, I have farm work to do that isn't in a video game, so I better get going." I wrote, waving to my friend before heading towards the door. "Okay, see ya later." He said, sitting in front of his computer, most likely getting ready to do some work himself.