[i][b]Thursday, 4:23 PM
Midsummer[/b][/i]

"...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
[i]you[/i], 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."