Thursday, 4:23 PM
Midsummer

"...sooooo, you still beatin' yourself up over Caroline?"

"What? Why are you bringing her up? I told you, I couldn't care less about her anymore."

The two teenage boys sat on opposite sides of a bench-table in the middle of a park, both glaring at their phones whilst
attempting to conversate to break the awkward silence. The freckled boy with red hair, Aiden, temporarily looked away
from his to focus his complete attention onto the brown haired boy, Mason, who didn't bat an eye. He was too busy looking
through Snapchat to really care. Aiden shrugged nonchalantly, cracking his neck as he glanced around at the other people in
the park--kids playing in the distance, a couple stray dogs here and there, married people walking. It was rather quiet today.
Maybe a little too quiet for Aiden.

"I don't know, man. You've been acting weird since you guys split up," he casually addressed Mason, who finally put his phone
down only to flash his friend a disgruntled glare.

"Nah, I've always been like this. Caroline just made me uppity all the time, and you got used to it. Now she's gone, and I'm
off her little spell," he replied with a monotonous boom to his voice.

Aiden rolled his eyes a bit at Mason's words, however, and sighed, "Gone? You say that as if she was ever here to begin with.
Honestly, that's what you get for messing around with e-girls. Why don't you date locally? It's easier."

"You're blind, dude. All the girls at our school are whores. Even the ones in the other schools close by. I'd rather die alone
than touch a girl in this entire state," Mason managed to chuckle a bit at himself. He reached for his phone as it vibrated,
quickly unlocking it to answer a text from one of his Internet friends. That's what he was known for in these parts, that one
Internet kid. At least they didn't call him "E-Boy.."

As he played on his phone, Aiden became rather offended, and slammed his hand on the table, but it did not faze Mason.
"Wait just a minute, Raiya's not a whore. She never brings guys home. Hell, I bring more girls home than she does guys," he
attempted to back his sister up, but his gaze was quickly met by Mason's, which was quite the opposite: almost threatening.

"Shut your damn mouth, you really think your sister's not a whore? She's probably one of the biggest tramps in the whole
valley. Just because she doesn't bring guys home doesn't mean she's not a virgin, you know. If I were her, I wouldn't bring
guys home either. Your dad is fucking scary," Mason laughed at himself. "Seriously though, Raiya's gone through almost
every guy in town that's either graduated already or a year older than her. You're pretty blind if you haven't
noticed it yet."

Mason seemed to have hit a nerve, indicated by Aiden's extremely offended glint in his eyes. He pursed his lips, but said
nothing. It was hard to tell whether or not he was about to agree with him. For now, he'd stay silent. He glanced down at his
iPhone 6, gold in color with a slightly cracked screen. "I got work in 30 minutes. Should probably go home and get ready.
You need a ride home?" Aiden offered, pulling himself up from his seat while grabbing hold of his lanyard, sets of keys
dangling from the bottom, making a nice jingling noise which was music to both his and Mason's ears.

Mason casually browsed through whatever his mind compelled him to on his phone, gently shooing away Aiden with a wave of
his free hand. "Nah, I'm good. I texted Shiloh about twenty minutes ago, and she should be on her way. I ain't about to switch
locations last minute."

The name Mason mentioned, Shiloh, made Aiden snicker. "Ahhh, I mean, okay. Still can't believe you're friends with her.
She's so... edgy. And weird. I mean, you're weird too, but a different kind. You don't really seem like the type to hang out with
whatever her kind is," he commented.

"Yeah, well, I think she's pretty cool. You should hang out with us sometime."

"Well, never said she wasn't cool... I guess she's interesting, but whatever," Aiden quickly wrapped up the conversation, beginning
to make his trek towards his car a small distance away. "Later."

After Aiden was out of earshot, Mason was quickly accompanied by a tall, strange figure, her signature skeletal animal face
never failing to catch Mason by surprise. Shivaki slouched beside him with her hands in her pockets, saying nothing as she
nosily observed him browse through his phone. He glared up at her, intrigued but at the same time, a bit discomforted by her
unsightly appearance. "Jesus Christ, you're hideous!"

Normally, you'd expect someone to become deeply offended by an introduction such as Mason's. But Shivaki? Why, she
wasn't fazed in even the slightest way possible. She merely shrugged, turning her long face towards his very human visage.
And she completely disregarded his insult, "Why do you always make me go away when other humans are around? Did
you forget that they can't see me unless they touch the note?" Her question held a somewhat curious tone to it, despite
simultaneously sounding uninterested and even a bit tired.

"Nah," Mason begun to explain, "I just don't want you to comment on stuff they say. Knowing my dumbass, I'll reply to
you, and then everyone will think I'm crazy. Besides... you kinda freak me out when you're this close... maybe scoot back a
little?" Much like he did to Aiden early, Mason shooed Shivaki away a bit, who did as he requested.. but exactly how he
requested. Only moving about an inch or two away.

He rolled his eyes and cackled quietly, playing on his phone again to pass the time. "Damn, you Shinigami are so weird.
It's already been a year and I'm still not used to you."

"Kai... whatcha doin'?"

"Looking under this woman's skirt, of course. And lemme tell you, if I were human..."

Shiloh couldn't stop the snort of laughter from escaping her darkened lips, having to pause a moment to compose herself.

"Oh, you are so lucky that no one can see you right now." She admitted, giving an older woman a charming smile whilst motioning to her phone with a 'What can you do' expression. After the woman turned away in a huff, the fake smile Shiloh wore transformed into a scowl.

That was the 5th dirty look she'd been given in the past hour and it wasn't because of her talking animatedly into her phone.

"If you want, I can take care of her for you." The Shinigami, that had at some point appeared beside her, drawled with his hands buried in his pockets as he eyed the judgemental woman. He then seemed to peer down at her with his empty sockets, almost seeming to grin despite the seemingly impossible feat. "Or, better yet, why don't you do it?"

Shiloh resisted the urge to glare up at the tall figure beside her, instead clutching her phone tighter to her ear and glaring somewhere off into the distance.

"Don't even go there, Kai."

He seemed to snigger, fully expecting the answer. Skipping ahead whilst whistling innocently, he carelessly waved a hand through a passerby. "You know I kid, dear."

Shiloh mockingly mouthed along with the increasingly familiar words before her phone vibrated.

Choosing to ignore the hyperactive creature ahead, she moved the phone from her ear to look at it with a small measure of curiosity.



Grimacing at the spelling while also inwardly grinning at the needy text from her best friend, she didn't hesitate to quickly type a reply on the heavily cracked screen.



Hitting 'send', Shiloh glanced up from her phone to see Kai incessantly poking someone using a payphone. Giggling, Shiloh picked up her speed, transforming her walk into a skip. She got a few stares but had grown used to it at this point, instead choosing to tug down her skirt and go on her way.

Stopping beside a snickering Kai, she glanced up at him. "I think we should continue on, yeah? We can play with them some other time."

Then the odd pair were off, Kai pouting the whole time. But, it didn't take long for him to open his... mouth?

"Wasn't the whole point of you pretending to speak into your phone to AVOID looking crazy?"

Humming lightly, Shiloh didn't look up at him as they stopped at a street corner with a couple of other people. "They look at me like I'm crazy regardless. Might as well avoid the hassle." She admitted, giving a small shrug as she stared up at the light, waiting for it to turn green.

Kai gave a small shrug. "Fair enough."

Right as the little man turned green signaling everyone to walk, her phone vibrated once more. As she walked, she stared down at the text.





Pleased with her retort, she hit 'Send'.

"So... where are we going again?"

"Well, I am going to the park to visit my bestest friend Mason. You? Well, I don't know what you're doing. But, you aren't staying with me when we get there."

She could feel his gaze burn into the side of her head and glanced up at him, seeing him staring at her in what could only be described as betrayal.

"B-but we're supposed to besties!" He whined making Shiloh grin. Something about hearing a 7 foot tall horrifying skeletal monster whine like a child just never gets old.

"I mean, come on! It's you and me against the gross humans! Besides, what does he have that I don't?"

Shiloh didn't say anything for a moment, taking the time to look around before glancing up at Kai once more. She then gave him a cheeky grin.

"A dick."

His scandalized expression made her cackle like a mad woman, causing quite a few to flat out stare. Once she calmed down, she glanced over at the two older woman sitting on a bench at the bus stop, both staring at her with judgemental and horrified expressions.

Unable to help herself, she leaned a bit closer as if telling a secret. "Sorry for the commotion, ladies. It's just... the invincible skeleton beside me is making a hilarious expression right now. Why? Because I said that he had no dick. Long story, really. Sorry for being a bother!"

Satisfied, she then skipped away, leaving the two women staring at her with expressions of disbelief.

"I am soooooo getting you back for that." Kai grumbled, arms crossed as he walked beside her.

"Aww, did I hurt the big scary skeleton's feelings?" Shiloh asked in a 'baby voice', cooing at the taller skeleton with mirth clear in her eyes.

"Just you wait, Shiloh. Just you wait. Because I'll have you know that I am quite the attractive Shinigami. Heck, I'm sure regular human women would be drooling over me if only they could see me. You don't even KNOW how lucky you are to be able to bare witness to my magnificent..."

At some point, Shiloh began tuning him out as he launched into another of his 'Holier than thou' speeches. He does it often enough for her to know the signs.

And it was due to her looking at her surroundings that she realized the familiarity. And if I'm right... She took a sharp right and was greeted by the sight of the park Mason told her to meet him at.

Grinning at her actually not getting lost for once, she glanced up at the still rambling Shinigami.

"Kai... we're here."

This seemed to stop him mid-word as he looked down at her with another pout. "I really can't come?"

"Sorry, posh spice. Like I said, I've got a 'date'." She said with a teasing voice, giving a wink to the skeleton before she skipped her way towards the park.

"Be safe! And use protection!" Kai called after her, the suddenness of it making her laugh to herself.

Entering the park, she looked around with a contemplative expression. She looked for a familiar messy head of hair and... there he was. Sitting on a bench table dead center in the middle of the park. Features upturning into a smirk, she quietly approached the figure.

Despite her typically loud and confident personality, she is actually very good with anything stealth-related. It's all in control of your body, after all.

Silently approaching behind the distracted teen, she stopped a little bit behind him. Then, suddenly, she brought her hand in front of his face so that she covered his eyes.

"Guess who!"