Lacuna(1)

September 21st, 2019

18 years old 09/21/19

We were stuck in a random town, Nash now without a hat. Nash put his trust into two random boys thinking it would go well. One boy—the one who took the hat— looked suspiciously familiar, blonde hair plopped on top of his head, blue eyes sparkling as he looked up at Nash. The boy that had stood next to him was more of a Xander lookalike. Curly black hair going in every direction lay on his head.

Because of this oh-so-traumatic event, Nash forced us to all sit and get something to eat, bringing it over to a nearby park. Children's park, might I add.

"Do you think you're gonna live?" Xander teased, hanging upside down on a set of monkey bars not too far from our table.

"Each hat he loses, is ten years off his life," Jameson joked while stuffing more food down his throat, earning a warning glare from Nash, which wasn't as intimidating without the hat.

"You two are so immature," I commented, glaring at Jameson and Xander myself.

"Finally, someone who will stand up for me," Nash sighed.

"I'm not standing up for you, I'm making a comment about their ongoing behavior," I stated, my tone cold.

"Ok, screw you too." Nash threw his hands in the air while I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Once Jameson had finished stuffing his food into his mouth, he ran off to join Xander, creating a competition to see who could stay upside down the longest. Dangerous. But, when did that ever stop us?

"Gray, can you keep time?" Jameson called from the bars. Pulling out my phone, I opened the clock app and set up the stopwatch.

"3, 2, 1, go!"

Now we waited. It wasn't long until Jameson's entire face was red, his arms now extended under his head.

Because the game wasn't interesting enough for them, they created tactics to try and knock each other down, kicking each other's legs and pulling on shirts. To try and get an advantage, Jameson fully took off his shirt, scooting over on the bar so that Xander couldn't kick him.

"Who do you think will fall first?" Nash leaned over to me, asking me this mid-chew. Gross. Also, how much food had we ordered?

"Neither," I replied flatly, my eyes meeting Nash's.

"You're no fun anymore." Nash shook his head in disappointment, leaning back to his original spot.

I looked back over to see Xander was now in an identical position to Jameson, his arms extended under him.

Not too long after Jameson had fallen flat on his face, a car pulled into the parking lot, two familiar boys jumping out of the car now dressed differently. As they approached I could make out new flannel shirts, tucked into jeans that were paired with brown cowboy boots. The blonde one from before was wearing a cowboy hat, presumably Nash's. As they had gotten even closer, I could make out the stuffed horse head on the end of a stick as they galloped in our direction. This heavily reminded me of a missed nine-one-one punishment.

"Hello, gentlemen," the blonde one had suddenly adapted a country accent, the other boy riding up closely beside him. "I'm James, nice to meet 'cha." He held out a hand for us to shake, Jameson and Xander now joining us at the table again.

"What's the occasion?" Nash asked, eyeing the familiar hat that sat on James' head.

"I feel we should be asking that question," the boy beside James spoke. "I'm Joshua." He also held out his hand, mimicking James' greeting.

"Well, we'd been passin' through here tryin' a make our merry way to New York when these two rude boys stole my hat," Nash explained, his eyes still on the hat.

"Did they steal it? Or had you givin' it to 'em?" James asked, hooking his thumb through one of the belt loops on his jeans.

"I may have asked him to hold onto it, but I hadn't told him to keep it," Nash confirmed.

"Mhm," James hummed, turning around to look at the car he had come from, two teenage girls had their faces stuck out the window watching, one recording the encounter.

"I believe it's only right if this innocent man gets his hat back. Don't you think, partner?" Joshua asked.

"Never call me that again."

"Okay."

"But, yes, I agree, Joshua." He lifted the hat from his head, handing it over to Nash who hesitantly took it. "And remember, our sincere apology for any trouble those boys may have caused," he tsked, "boys these days."

"Exactly," Nash agreed, placing the hat on his head, his full country self back.

"Pleasure doing business with you," James said, holding out his hand for one last shake. As they turned around, the girls in the car suddenly started playing very loud cinematic music as the boys rode off in the sunset on their toy horse, throwing them in the back of the car as quickly as they could.

"That was... fun," Jameson commented.

"Quite the actors," I remarked, going straight back to the food that I somehow still hadn't finished.