Orion had completed his midterm. His grade wasn’t posted yet, and that fact made him nervous. It could be that it had only been two days and the professor hadn’t had time yet, or Orion’s test was the worst one the professor had ever seen and decided to trash it rather than mar the university website with such a low score. Orion knew it made sense that the former was more likely the explanation but a tiny, annoying, fretting voice inside him kept claiming the latter was possible.

Ever since Cain had brought him Tranquilicis, Orion had taken a pill whenever he felt anxiety coming on. It really did wonders for his nerves. He decided to take a pill instead of worrying about his grade and that tiny part of him that kept worrying so much. He pushed the pill bottle back into the drawer of his nightstand and was about to go downstairs before pausing in the hallway. He called, “Hey Cypress?”

“What?”

Cypress had been held up in his room as of late with his door closed. He seemed a lot more grumpy too. Orion wanted nothing more than to cheer the guy up. Cypress enjoyed watching soccer and Orion knew there was a game coming on soon.

“Want to watch the soccer match? The Quincy Revolvers are playing Memosa Bay Bombardiers tonight.”

“I’m trying to get started on a paper, but maybe I’ll come down later.”

No wonder Cypress was in a bad mood. He hated doing college papers. Orion briefly thought of Inviting Cain over to watch the game since Cain also liked soccer but decided not to bother him. He didn’t want to come off as too needy and end up pushing Cain away again. Cain would come around when he felt like it, that was as good as it was going to get for now.

Orion perched himself on the couch and used the remote to switch the television on and change it to the sports channel. He wasn't that big of a fan but could probably benefit from learning more about the sport and become more knowledgable so that he'd know what his friends were talking about when they started conversations about it. The pre-game commentary was almost finished.

The Tranquilicis taking effect and it was really nice not having to worry so much; that near-constant ball of anxiety stuck in his chest had unraveled significantly and the voice of worry was less than a whisper in his mind. His stomach grumbled and he realized he should probably make himself some dinner while there were still commercials.

Orion hopped up, went into the kitchen, and opened the fridge to scope out the food options. A rank odor suddenly filled his nostrils and he recoiled. It was clear the milk had expired. He stopped breathing momentarily and snatched the milk off the fridge shelf, pushing it into the trash bin.

That made it worse. The smell, once contained in the cold air of the fridge was now spreading quickly around the rooms on the first floor. He gathered the trash bag up quickly, intending to toss it out front in the garbage by the street when he was stopped abruptly.

A large black and white figure with fake, beady eyes was looking right at him and was right in his way. He hadn’t even heard them enter.

They pointed to his shirt, indicating he had something on it. He hoped he didn’t accidentally spill any of that rotten milk on himself. When he glanced down, he was relieved to find nothing amiss but was promptly flicked in the nose.

It stung, surprisingly, and he dropped the trash bag to cover the inevitable sneeze while shouting in protest. The Cow Mascot started howling with laughter at Orion’s gullibility. He’d never had that move pulled on him before.

The trash spilled on the floor, milk chunks splashed upward, and the smell became worse. Orion sneezed twice, loudly.


When he opened his eyes, Cypress was next to him. He must have heard the commotion and had come downstairs to investigate. Cypress was taking in the scene and concluding that the bothersome cow mascot was in their house again. Orion never saw such a glare of pure hate on his best friend's face.

The mascot had wandered into the living room and was watching the start of the soccer match. It seemed like everyone was into the sport except Orion. The cow mascot, or whoever was under that costume, was exceptionally rude and crude. Orion and Cypress’s house had been targeted a few times over their university years; the evil mascot was always doing annoying moves like belching in their faces or setting off their fire alarm, and Cypress’s loathing toward the thing only grew deeper and deeper with every visit.

“Hey!” Cypress barked with his fists clenched; his sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms, revealing some impressive muscle.


The Cow Mascot turned to acknowledge Cypress but was met with a fist in the snout. The Mascot stumbled to the side.


The costume must have cushioned the blow, but Cypress was relentless and brought up his knee into their gut. They made an ’oof’ sound and staggered backward trying to maintain balance. It seemed to be difficult in such a bulky costume.


Before they could make a movement to leave or even defend themselves, Cypress aimed another punch, which nearly spun the head of the costume in a full circle.


Orion watched, in shock as his friend raged on the rival mascot. He’d never seen Cypress so angry before, he’d never seen Cypress fight anyone before. Sure the cow mascot was a pain, but was the cow mascot really bad enough to warrant such a reaction?


Cypress brought his barrage of assaults on the mascot to the finale by headbutting the thing hard enough that it fell backward and sent the modular coffee table parts sprawling across the living room. Orion gave a shout of surprise and stepped backward from the clatter. Before Cypress could pull the mascot up to do it all over again, they picked themselves up and fled right out the front door.


“Don’t ever come back here or you're dead!” Cypress bellowed, his voice carrying out into the night while standing stiffly with his arms crossed. Hopefully, the threat caught the cow’s ears and proved to keep them away forevermore.

Orion started picking up the coffee table pieces and putting them back together. He looked up and saw Cypress surveying the damage from the living room entryway.

“Are you okay?” Orion inquired.

Cypress’s lingering frown lifted to surprise, and he wiped a piece of hair out of his eye, “Why are you asking me that? You’re the one that got your nose bonked.”

Orion set the coffee table parts back into place and thought. Cypress had always been the most easy-going guy he knew. This side of Cypress was so well hidden that he hadn’t even thought it existed. Unless it was only a side of his best friend that had developed in recent college years. Finally, he quietly mumbled, “It’s just…I’ve never seen you so angry before.”


“Well, you already know I hate that flipping cow mascot, and what do you expect me to do when it comes in and starts picking on you? Stand for it?”

“I guess not,” Orion agreed and stood. He held his breath and gathered up the trash that had spilled, back into the bag, “It sucks it had to come in when I was trying to get this funky milk out of the house.”

He looked to Cypress and saw he was wearing a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, my bad. I forgot to throw it out when it expired," Cypress held out his hand, “Let me take it out then.”

Orion gladly let him take the bag. Cypress grinned, “Then we can sit down and watch what’s left of the game.”

Orion returned the grin and nodded, which sounded like a good resolution to the eventful evening. Though he was still hungry, maybe a bowl of ramen would suffice? It was a pretty quick meal.

Cypress’s grin soon faltered as they heard a quick repetitive knocking from the front door. Could the mascot be back so soon after such a beatdown? Cypress would be happy to oblige if the mascot was looking for a re-match.

Cypress pulled open the front door ready to eviscerate the mascot but stopped short of hurling the garbage bag at the figure standing there as his anger melted into surprise and then confusion. He could feel Orion peek over his shoulder with the same sense of bewilderment.


His cousin was on the doorstep along with a duffel bag and two moving boxes.

Nick immediately clasped his hands together in a desperate gesture of plea, “Can I stay with you guys? I just kind of moved out of my fraternity and have nowhere else to go.”




***Author's Note***
The game files and back up files for my current characters/hood are in a dire situation dealing with a dying/dead hard drive so I will continue to post the chapters I have (6 more) but this story might be in for a long hiatus afterward until I can figure out what to do to get my game/files running again. So to prolong time between now and running out of chapters I am only going to update on Sundays - this should give me at least a month to figure out what to do to get my files situated. If all else fails I will continue the story in text-only form and provide a link, but that's only if nothing can be done to retrieve them.