Chapter 23 Steven’s PoV

  It was so damn stupid. Both of Steven’s female friends had to be stupid! There was no other expnation. He could not even fathom how their retionships could devolve into that-… Whatever it was. Steven did not even know how to bel it.

  Somehow, Mika had managed to talk to her crush. Who happened to be their friend and get her to go on a date. Both of them admitted that they had a great time, and from the descriptions, Steven had to agree with their assessment.

  Mika had even told Silva that she was a lesbian. With how Mika usually acted, there was no way for Silva to make a mistake and misunderstand the meaning of the signals she got sent in her direction.

  So how did they return to being best friends? How did it work?

  “How do women work?” Steven asked Ben, who was currently taking a break from prancing around the new bar he had brought him to.

  “Are you drunk?” Benjamin returned a question. “What is even happening in that head of yours? I know you are not the smartest cookie, but…” He did not finish.

  “Eat a dick.” Steven spat out and took another shot of whatever the brew was. Ben was paying, and Steven would drink anything his friend found suitable for the evening.

  It had been four days now since Mika and Silva had their date. At least both of them did not seem to be hurt by the new revetion. To his relief, Steven did not have to try to mend their friendship. He wouldn’t even know where to start if he had to.

  On the downside - nothing had been resolved. Most of the time, Mika kept looking at Silva with lovestruck eyes and other times… He had to wonder how innocent his friend actually was inside because sometimes Mika’s eyes reminded him of a predator.

  On the upside, both of them did not bme him for choosing a horror movie. However, it seemed Mika could not recall it at all. And Silva did not want to recall it.

  On the downside, at this point, he had no idea how to help them get closer. And he had run out of the booze.

  “Yo, Benjamin, my dude, we are out of the juice.” Steven shook his empty gss.

  “What’s gotten into you? I know you can drink a horse under the table, but at this rate, I am afraid you’ll wake up in a hospital.” Ben eyed Steven with suspicion. Still, he made a sign. After a moment, they got another bottle.

  “It’s all their fault!” Steven let out an agitated shout.

  “Who’s? Women?”

  “Yes! Yes! Where was I?” Steven did a small self-diagnosis before taking another shot. He was still fine.

  The amount Steven had drunk was horrendously rge. He had to go to the toilet and empty his bdder at regur intervals, but the buzz he had gotten out of it was not worth mentioning.

  It would be bad if his judgment became clouded. Without him around, Ben would find trouble, even in a run-down pce like this - especially in a run-down pce like this.

  They were in an old bar which smelled of cigarettes and varnish. Nothing like ‘The Enchantress’, and Steven missed ‘The Enchantress’. At least that pce had its own security.

  The guy Steven knocked out fifteen minutes ago was still lying next to their table. At least this guy's ‘friends’ had been smart enough to not go for more.

  If only they had taken the body along when they ran. The guy was snoring, too - which meant Steven hadn’t hurt him too badly. So all was fine in the world.

  Except it wasn’t!

  “Fuuuuuck!” Steven groaned.

  On the upside, it did not seem that Silva had anything against Mika. It was clear that she was actually enjoying all the pampering Mika was doing to her. So, was there something more to it? Silva had been very quiet about her preferences. Up to this point, she had never mentioned ever liking someone.

  Steven knew that there were people like that. People who did not fall in love. Silva, however, did not seem like one of them. She was too interested in retionships to be someone like that.

  While Steven had met them only twice this week, he knew that Mika and Silva met each other all the time.

  The truth was he felt a little bit left out. Only a little - since he was always invited. Unfortunately, the one who always invited him was Silva. Mika did ask him to join sometimes, but only when Silva made her.

  It was not that he did not want to spend time with them. He also knew why Mika was so stingy with her invites. His best friend had a one-track mind regarding her crush.

  Steven did not mind it. At least Mika had finally found a special someone. Even if he was left by the wayside, he was happy to help her. That’s how great of a friend Steven was. And, at the very least, he had Ben.

  “Speaking of which… BEN!” Steven started to look for his friend. “The fuck are you? Where the- Fuck!” His attempt to stand up was not entirely successful. He still had to use a hand to keep himself straight. So, on the second thought, maybe he should stop drinking. There was only that much his body could take.

  Steven scanned the room and saw his friend next to a dirty slot machine. He was currently annoying a girl.

  Of course, the girl had a guy with her. Steven had seen the dude go to the toilet. But Ben had not. Probably. Maybe he had. Ben could be very attentive - if he cared, though… That was an entirely different matter.

  A short walk ter, Steven was sure he had enough for drinks tonight. Walking was too taxing, and at some point, the girl’s boyfriend returned and was not taking Ben’s presence well. Knowing his friend, Ben did not know where to draw the line and inevitably said something stupid.

  “Just another night out with Ben,” Steven said to no one and joined the fray.

  It took only a short while to sort out the problem. It was clear that Ben was at fault here, so Steven had been gentle and diffused the situation carefully - with the tried and tested method of knocking the boyfriend down.

  The guy did not deserve to spend the rest of the night out cold. But this event once again showed why he hated pces like these. It always came down to a fistfight.

  The only thing going for this pce was there were no dealers there. Steven supposed it was beneath them to try and sell their junk here. But, of course, there was nothing beneath them. Half an hour ter, Steven noticed one of their kind lurking in a corner.

  At this point, Steven had sobered up somewhat, while Ben had continued drinking and was in a much worse condition. It was already set in stone that Ben would be skipping school tomorrow. Or today. It was practically a morning anyway.

  Steven sometimes envied his free-spirited friend, but their situations were vastly different, and it was not like Ben did not have his own problems. In a way, they were even worse than Steven’s.

  “It’s time to go, buddy.” Steven nudged Ben, who was nodding off in his own droll. The sleeping beauty had already paid for all the damage they had done to the pce, with a hefty bonus thrown in.

  It indicated that Ben wanted to come again. While Steven did not share the sentiment, at least this pce had drinks with enough strength to impact even his superhuman endurance. It counted for something, right?

  Steven exited the bar with Ben thrown over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. The pce was imaginatively called ‘Bar.’ For a moment, he considered if he should get Ben’s car and drive him home or call a taxi.

  The end decision was to walk. Steven was still fuzzy himself. And it would be better if Ben came to conciseness before he arrived at the friend’s pce.

  Steven sent a message to one of Benjamin’s caretakers to inform them where the car was left and started to walk. He would still have to call a taxi at some point, as Ben’s house was too far to just walk, but for now, he took a breath of the cold air, enjoying the shivers it brought.

  After a short while of marching, Ben woke up. He did not appreciate Steven’s handling of him, but after a short argument, they resumed walking.

  Only now, each on their own legs. Ben, in his inebriation, kept compining about everything that happened to be in front of him. If there was nothing in front of him, he compined about everything else happening in his life.

  “So, I said, Pop’s, you like, should, like, do stuff, you know what I mean?”

  “Sure, and what happened next?” Steven encouraged Ben. At least Ben did not speak about finding a new pce to continue the night.

  “And then, you know my mom was… She was, like, no way…” Ben droned on and on. Most of what he said was incomprehensible. The rest Steven had already heard before.

  There was a problem, though.

  At some point, people started following them. Steven did not know who they were, but for him to notice it so te meant they were good. It also meant that they did not pn to rob them. Their likely target was Ben.

  It was not for the first time. And it won’t be the st time for Steven to encounter guys like these. He had dealt with situations like these several times already.

  It was part of the reason Benjamin’s father let his son out with him. The ability to keep his son safe. Usually, there was only one group that made the attempt, but after Steven had let these men trail after them for a short while, he noticed there were actually two groups of people aiming after them.

  “This is a first.” Steven could not help but remark. He didn’t look forward to this development.

  Enkiari