Steph: What is your position on camping?

Alex: … why?

Steph: Is it something you would consider trying?

Alex: Is there a gun to my head in this scenario?

Steph: Jeez, okay, never mind.

Alex: Where is this coming from? You don’t camp either.

Steph: I’m trying to come up with fun stuff for us to do around here. Not that I don’t love your company as it is, but I thought it might be nice to get into an activity together.

Alex: Ok, I am all for that. But does it have to involve sleeping outside in the woods?

Steph: Just the two of us, under the stars, with nobody else around for miles…

Alex: … when you put it like that, it does sound less terrible.

Steph: I was just listening to Duckie talk about it, and I realized that it could be fun. And it doesn’t seem overly complicated; we load up backpacks, hike for an hour or two, spend a night in the mountains, and come back down the next day.

Alex: Is this something you seriously want to try?

Steph: Kind of. Like I said, I’ve never done it before. Ryan talks about the views up in the mountains all the time, and I’m sure he has some stuff we can borrow.

Alex: … okay. I’ll ask him.

Steph: You’re up for it?

Alex: I guess. At least for a trial run.

Charlotte: Ethan’s coming back this Friday.

Alex: Awesome! When does his school start?

Charlotte: The next week. He’s excited, and was asking if another LARP might be another possibility.

Alex: Steph says not anytime soon, she was planning that last one for a while. But she says if he’s interested, we could do some D&D.

Charlotte: That’s Dungeons and Dragons, right?

Alex: Yea. She’s apparently been working on some campaigns.  And said we could keep our characters.

Charlotte: I don’t suppose there’s room for a third?

Alex: You want to play?

Charlotte: Honestly, not really. It’s never been my thing. But I know Ethan would be into it, and I want to spend time with him too.

Alex: She says definitely.

Alex: And recommends that you be a druid.

Charlotte: What’s a druid?

Alex: “A mage that wields the power of nature.”

Alex: “Like making people feel better with plants.”

Charlotte: … your girlfriend’s a dork.

Steph: Sooooooo…. how was it?

Jessie: The date?

Steph: No, your drive to work this morning.

Steph: YES THE DATE

Jessie: It was nice. He’s really sweet.

Jessie: And he’s not that awkward once he loosens up.

Steph: So you guys are going out again?

Jessie: We’re going to go see Blinded By The Light tomorrow.

Steph: Ooh, the Bruce Springsteen movie?

Jessie: I don’t think he’s actually in it, but yes.

Steph: You’ll have to tell me how it is. Alex and I want to go see it too.

Steph: Also, it’s been unanimously agreed upon by the others that you need to come to the Black Lantern with us this Thursday.

Jessie: Why Thursday?

Steph: It’s Ladies Night. Every other week we all get drunk for half the price.

Jessie: Wait, are you guys inviting me into your clique?

Steph: Pretty much, yea.

Steph: Unless you’d rather just hang out with the other guys from SubTerra.

Jessie: So it’s between the four of you and a bunch of roughnecks who will only invite me out to drunkenly hit on me.

Steph: I know it’s a tough choice. I’ll let you think about it.

Jessie: What time on Thursday?

Steph: Six.

Jessie: See you all there.

Riley: I found out what Mac is doing.

Alex: What?

Riley: He’s working at the auto garage.

Alex: I didn’t know he could work on cars.

Riley: His dad taught him a few things. I guess it was enough to get a job as a mechanic.

Alex: How’d you find out?

Riley: Nana mentioned it to me. She just had her oil changed, and saw him there.

Alex: Ah.

Alex: You okay?

Riley: I’m happy he’s not unemployed.

Alex: … is that it?

Riley: I do feel a little bad for him, honestly.

Riley: I mean, I get why SubTerra wouldn’t hire him. But I can imagine that he feels like everyone’s blaming him for what happened, and we’re all forgetting how much pressure Diane could put on people.

Alex: I get it. He’s not one of the people I blame for getting Gabe killed.

Alex: Though I am mad that he let himself get bullied into lying about not taking the phone call. Even if he did cop to it in the end.

Riley: That, I think, pissed me off more than anything else. Especially to lie about it at the wake.

Alex: You’re not sorry enough to run back into his arms, right?

Riley: No. That door is firmly closed.

Alex: You gonna try and get back into the dating pool, like Ryan?

Riley: Maybe. You know another guy you can bully into drinks with me?

Alex: How about we just make you an online dating profile?

Riley: I tried that for three days.

Alex: … dick pics?

Riley: So fucking many.

Pike: Hey. I just want to give you a heads up; SubTerra has gotten approval to start blasting at the mine again.

Steph: Ah. Great.

Pike: It doesn’t sound like it’ll be as frequent as Typhon did, though.

Steph: Really?

Pike: No. Ted said that he didn’t want to do too much, they have a safer technique that keeps uranium dust out of the air that they’re going to use more often.

Steph: Then why are they blasting at all?

Pike: This next one he said was to open a new branch of their main mine. And there’s another one scheduled in a couple of weeks to break ground on their second site.

Pike: They also submitted a proposal to the city for sealing the other mine.

Steph: When is that one?

Pike: Not for a while. Ted’s bringing in a bigger crew for that, on account of the complexity.

Pike: Obviously we’re going to be posting signs again, but I figured you’d want to know for Alex.

Steph: Yea, I definitely appreciate it. Thanks man.

Pike: No problem.

Alex: Steph wants to go camping.

Ryan: Really? She’s never mentioned it before.

Alex: She wants to try something new. How hard is it?

Ryan: We talking a quick overnight trip into the mountains?

Alex: Yea, just to see if we hate it.

Ryan: That’s easy enough. Couple of backpacks, sleeping bags, one of you carries the tent, the other carries the food. I can show you guys some good spots on a map.

Alex: Do we need to worry about your wolves eating us?

Ryan: I’d worry way more about the bears, myself.

Alex: … there are bears up here?

Ryan: A few black bears, yea.

Alex: Do we need a gun? Because I don’t want to carry a gun.

Ryan: No. I’ll let you guys borrow some bear spray.

Alex: They make bear spray?

Ryan: They do. Super-easy to use. I’ve got a couple of canisters, they’re standard issue for park rangers.

Alex: Huh. I didn’t know that was a thing.

Ryan: Yea, the state doesn’t like us killing bears if we don’t have to.

Alex: So we just spray our clothes and the bears stay away? That’s pretty cool.

Ryan: Oh boy.

Alex: What?

Ryan: I want you to know that nothing would make my day more than the sight of you applying bear spray to Steph like it’s insect repellent. And it physically pains me to correct you, but this stuff can be a little dangerous to people.

Ryan: So, let me be crystal clear; the bear spray does not go on you. The bear spray goes on the bear.

Alex: Ah ha.

Ryan: It’s basically industrial-strength pepper spray. The canister’s got a range of forty feet, and it can eat through a Styrofoam cup.

Alex: Man, in terms of fuck-ups, that would’ve been WAY up there.

Ryan: Yea, you would’ve been drinking Kiwi Schnapps until the bottle was empty.

Alex: I think I’d rather face the angry bear.