it all means something / it all means nothing

Set right at the end of Vinny’s fight with James and Robin in Chapter 27. Horkie gets mad, for once. Don’t like HxV, don’t read.

Horkie let out a deep sigh as the gentle breeze of midnight carressed him. His shoes were sitting on the dock behind him, his feet idly kicking in the water. Vinny was supposed to have been here by now. Vinny was supposed to have been here hours ago. 

The vulture’s brows furrowed in the anger that had been bottling up steadily. He had this important… news to tell Vinny. Something he’d been waiting to tell him for weeks. The knot in his gut grew tighter and his head hurt. All Horkie saw was red. Red anger. Red embarrassment.

He let out a frustrated kick into the water, disrupting the reflection of the moon above. Angrily Horkie got up, grabbing his shoes, and tossing them across the lakehouse’s lawn. What was he supposed to do with all this energy? He was the nice kid, the quiet kid. He didn’t get like this. Only Vinny could make him like this.

Vinny could make Horkie do anything, really.

Horkie walked off the dock, wet feet patter from aging wood onto a soggy, muddy lawn. His soft face contorted into unease and disgust. Just another part of this terrible evening. Could it get worse?

His thoughts were interrupted as the familiar rusted van’s headlights flooded his sight, the van parking onto the loose gravel driveway. The front door slammed open, and then shut. Some groaning emerged from the driver, until the figure was bathed in the light of the still running van. Vincent Cromston, with blood dripping over his eye, stuck to his feathers. A chipped beak. Torn clothes, a bandaged arm. Horkie’s heart fell immediately.

“Cromston?” he asked, anger melting away into immediate concern.

“Horkie, we gotta get out of here man. Let’s bail.”