Thanks for noticin' me

When the man agreed with Diana’s words, she was surprised. Not guilty as many would think, but surprised. “Yeah, go.” She turned away from him, continuing her search for signal, but she couldn’t forget the nagging thought in the back of her mind about the man. Luckily, he hadn’t gotten back to wherever his tent was when he turned around. Diana walked over to him, and turned his body in the direction of the group of people nearby. “Why don’t you just go and start a conversation with those people? It’s not that hard,” she said with annoyance that she was even talking with this guy, coaching him through (disgusting) social interaction.

After his shocking interaction, Edwin turned fast when this person, who just was very rude to him, began to talk to him. They wanted him to go and talk to other people? Edwin was a very shy man and that did not interest him in the slightest. Maybe he could start up a conversation with the new people about how he just had this very weird, and quite scary “chat”. He turned to start to walk over to the other people, dreading every step. Walking with his back slightly hunched in an uncomfortable matter, he turned back, “I might just go back to my tent.”

This, without a doubt, was officially the worst activity Astra could make Duchess participate in. She would give a limb, probably, to get out of the camping trip, because it was, in a word, horrible. She could feel her skin itching to break out, which would mean more makeup, which was impossible to put on decently in the wilderness, and honestly, Duchess was on the verge of crying the moment she stepped out of the van. Looking for a signal so she could call someone, she’d wandered off into the woods, utterly lost when she finally looked up from her phone. “Oh, no,” she sighed out loud, mostly to herself, as she tried, once again, to find the Wifi signal or a signal in general so she could pull up Google Maps. But none of that was working, so she was forced to talk to someone who seemed to live in the very forest she was wandering through. “Excuse me,” she started, but he’d already helped her out. “Oh! Wonderful, thank you so much.” She didn’t want to just leave, because she was mildly concerned. “Do you… live in these woods?”

Looking down at this person a little confused, Edwin replied. “Oh no, haha, I don’t live here. I’m actually with those people.” He tilted his head and nodded towards the campsite. “I just wanted to get away for a little bit.” Edwin looked over at the rest of the people thinking that he should probably get back soon. Jumping out of the tree, he turned back to her saying, “Here, let’s walk back together. My name is Edwin.” he turned and reached his arm out to shake her hand. 

Smiling a big smile, Carter dragged Edwin toward the arcade faster than his heart could desire. It was great to have his best friend back, and Carter wasn’t about to let any opportunity for fun go to waste. “Perfect!” he said before grabbing the other’s wrist in his hand and taking off running as quick as his feet in his favorite tennis shoes could take him. All he could hear was the first part of Edwin’s statement, before hearing the rest once he slowed down near the entrance to the arcade. “Oh, yes, I definitely remember!” he recalled happily. “It’s definitely not quite as big back home either, but that’s okay! It’s all the memories that matter the most, right?” He was sure that Edwin would probably agree with him. 

He couldn’t remember a time where Edwin had disagreed with him, nor was he able to think of a time where they’d fought with each other in general. Carter took that as a good sign, and believed it meant that they had a strong, stable friendship, which only made him happier to be here with him today. When Edwin spotted the Pac-Man game, Carter’s eyes gleamed. “Holy moley! We haven’t played that game in forever, man! We have to go and play it right now!” Luckily, there wasn’t a line for the game, so he pulled his friend over as fast as he could without running. There were kids around now, so he didn’t want to run one over or something horrendous like that. As he was about to take a turn at the controls though, Carter thought about it a second time and decided to give his friend a chance. Stepping to the side, he motioned toward the control board. “Here,” he said. “You have a chance first, Edwin.”

Walking over to the Pac-Man game, Edwin couldn’t contain his excitement. He got over to the machine and realized that they had forgotten to buy tokens. “Oh shoot, man. I’ll be right back, we forgot the tokens.” Edwin said as he began walking away to go to the token/money exchange machine. He tried to put a bill into the machine but the machine spit his money back out. “What the heck?” Edwin said as he pulled it out and tried putting it back in again. This time the machine took his money but didn’t give him his tokens. “Are you serious?” he whispered as he smacked the side of it in hopes that would actually help get his money or tokens out. “Of course this would happen to me. Um h-hey miss? The machine took my money but didn’t give me any tokens.” Edwin said walking over to the service counter. The lady gave Edwin the amount of tokens that he paid for and then he turned to go back to Carter. He missed playing the game so much that he bought enough tokens for him and Carter to play Pac-Man at least ten times each. As he reached Carter and the game he handed Carter his tokens, “Ten games each. We can always get more later.” He laughed. Edwin stepped up to the game and put two tokens in machine. He gripped onto the control stick and turned to grin at Carter. He turned back to the game screen and said under his breath, “Let’s go!”.

“I’m good!” Carter replied. The fact that he was getting to talk face-to-face with Edwin again now made him really excited; it meant so much more to him than the monthly video chat or phone call. Not that those were meaningless or not worthwhile, Carter was just the kind of person who really craved human contact or even just physical social interaction with the person.

Edwin’s words only made Carter even happier. “I’m glad to be able to see you too, dude!” He patted his hand down on Edwin’s (much more muscular) shoulder, a joyful smile on his face. “And I’m glad that the drive wasn’t too bad either. I’m sure the traffic would have been much worse if you were to have come later in the day, ya know? Traffic here is pretty bad in general, which is mostly why I don’t drive around here. Well, plus, I just don’t like driving as a whole, but you already know that,” he said, laughing. Carter had just finished rambling as they got into the bowling alley, and immediately Edwin asked him what he wanted to do. If anything, he should be asking Edwin that same question, but he didn’t want to put the pressure of choosing an activity on his friend because he knew that Edwin didn’t like being put on the spot. “Let’s check out the arcade first! I’m sure that they have some great games,” he suggested.

Edwin knew that Carter would be able to figure something out that he wanted to do. He hoped that Carter wouldn’t ask him what he wanted to do. To beat him to the chase, he asked him first. “The arcade sounds good! I’m curious to see if they have similar games to the arcade we use to go to when we were younger, you remember that Carter? I haven’t been there in forever. It isn’t nearly this big nor was there a bowling alley attached but this arcade still reminds me of those days.” Edwin got a little homesick thinking of home and simpler days when him and Carter were younger. He turned around and saw the most basic arcade game in history but also his favorite. “Hey, man, look! It’s Pac-man!” 

When Edwin finally started walking up toward him, Carter smiled enthusiastically at his friend. “Edwin, hey! What’s up?! How’s your day been going?! It’s so good to see you!” He jogged over to Edwin, and when he reached him, he turned around so that they could walk toward the main entrance together. “I’m so glad that you got here safely! How was the drive? I honestly can’t believe that we’re both at Astra now together. It’s so great, right?” Edwin and Carter had grown up together in San Diego, and that was about 8 hours from Sacramento, and the mention of home almost made Carter homesick. At least now he had Edwin here with him and, better yet, they were roommates now too! Carter couldn’t wait to introduce Edwin to Mitch; he hoped they would all become the best of friends because then they could all be the 3 musketeers! Because he got caught up in his thoughts, Carter didn’t realize how much faster he was walking compared to Edwin, so he slowed down a bit to return back to the other man.

Edwin walked closer to Carter and responded, “Oh you know, I’m good, same old same old. How are you, man?”. Edwin began walking along side Carter “The drive was long but O.K., I’m just glad that I am able to see you. Having you here and as my roommate makes moving here and joining Astra that much easier.” Edwin began thinking that he made a mistake coming here. He had always been a homebody and wished that he could go home. He began worrying about if he would ever make friends or what he would do while he was here. As Carter and him walked into the bowling alley, he forgot about his worries and became relaxed. Edwin turned to Carter and asked “Alright Carter, what would you like to do first?”.

“Your name is lovely, Edwin.” she complimented brightly, shaking his hand with enthusiasm “Oh, yeah, me too, I never really had friends before this so it’s all super new to me. If you ever need anything I’m right here. I’m super fun, if I do say so myself.”

“Thank you-” Edwin said surprised. She was so nice to him and he was not expecting to make a friend so fast. “Thank you for being so kind and yes! Let’s hang out.” Edwin was a little nervous to hang out with someone but the whole reason he came to astra was to get out of his comfort zone, and what better way than to make friends. 

“Oh no bub, I’m sorry! Dancing isn’t for everyone, to be honest.” she only had to think for a few seconds, knowing her answer without much second thought “Gosh, no, I’m a very bad dancer. Doesn’t make it any less fun though, you know?” Rachel shrugged, smiling over at the stranger “I’m Rachel, by the way.”

Edwin turned back, a little surprised, did he just make a friend? “Hi, I’m Edwin.” He reached out to shake her hand. “I’m pretty new here so it’s nice to meet new people.” he said nervously, hoping that she would want to hang out again. 

✨ mitch: HAPPY EASTER!!!!!! ✨🐰🥚🐤🌱✨

✨ mitch: it's such a gr8 time!!! everyone's so happy, the weather is getting better with spring, flowers are blossoming!!! i think i even saw a rabbit running around!!!

✨ mitch: or maybe it was a little dog with bunny ears on.... ANYWAY!!

✨ mitch: are you enjoying easter?? i hope so, otherwise i have plenty of chocolate to cheer u up!!!

Edwin: Happy Easter!

Edwin: I mean, I do enjoy some parts about this time but I doubt that everyone is happy-

Edwin: That would be pretty cute if it was a dog with bunny ears.