NOVEL SIMPLE Ch. 25: Family
It was an emotional day. Watching windmills out the window in the passenger’s seat of her dad’s rundown jeep, Sabrina tried to keep her composure. In the driver’s seat was Bill Medina. Bill was nothing extraordinary, but he was the best dad Sabrina could ever ask for.
The mixed emotions bubbling through the hormonal young Sabrina were twice as strong in Bill. In him, it was pride and loss, optimism and fear. It was only natural— today he driving his baby girl to college. He had no clue what he’d do with himself without her bright smile giving his home life.
Sabrina would miss her dad, but that was a minor concern to an eighteen-year-old. What she’d really miss would be her friends, she reckoned. The night before she’d had a party. It was only the third time she’d ever been drunk, and her first time getting really drunk.
Her friend Jade was in her friend-group throughout high school. For most of it, however, her best friend was Miranda. Halfway through senior year, Miranda turned on her. Sabrina never realized that Miranda was only keeping around her ‘chubby nerd’ friend to boost her own ego. When Miranda got popular enough, though, she tossed Sabrina aside.
The only person who ditched the group to stand by Sabrina was Jade. Sabrina never understood why until years later, but she appreciated it. From then, and throughout the summer, the two were attached at the hip. Sabrina only wished she had more time with her friend. If only she understood where those feelings came from.
The future looked bright, though. She was going to UC San Diego. She could take surfing as a class. Of course, she’d end up dropping the class quickly when she found out that she despised surfing, but for now, it was something to be excited about.
“I got a call from your mom,” Bill announced. He didn’t want to bring this subject up, but he’d promised.
“What about her?” Sabrina replied coldly.
“I know your mom isn’t the easiest person to get along with. I’m not asking that you try to be closer with her, but I’m suggesting you be… civil.”
“She called me a fat-fucking-dyke,” Sabrina hissed.
Bill looked stunned. “Wow. Okay, forget everything I said. I had no idea she was… that far gone. You don’t owe her anything. I hope you know, you’re not fat, Sabrina. You’re a beautiful, smart, funny, and amazing young woman.”
“Liar,” Sabrina grumbled.
“Truther,” her dad volleyed back. “And the kind of people that you love is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve never been your mom’s biggest fan, but if she said something so disgusting and homophobic, she’s dead to me. I’m sorry I even brought it up. I love you, Sabrina.”
Sabrina kept her lips tight and her head facing the window to avoid showing too much emotion. Softly, she said, “I love you, too, dad.”
Bill had that shale green Jeep Liberty for most of Sabrina’s childhood. That day, though, became the memory both of them most closely associated with it. It was a reminder that the only family she needs are the people who really matter to her.
…
Sabrina shook herself from her daydream. She didn’t understand how a model of her dad’s jeep ended up in the dungeon, but she chose to see it as a gift. She looked up from it to see Jade. Sabrina broke into a smile that was like a spotlight of pure love and adoration.
“Jade?”
“Yeah, Beany?”
“Let’s go out on a date.”
Jade looked around. “Right now?”
“When we get out of here. I wanna take you dress shopping, then to dinner, and then up to vista point to look at the stars.”
Jade grinned like a fool. “And then can we fuck each-other’s brains out?”
“Oh we’ll be fucking each-other’s brains out between and probably during each activity.”
“Good. It’s a date, then,” Jade confirmed happily.
They continued browsing around. They realized some of the clothes were magic armor. Jade was pretty insistent on keeping her basically nude armor, but Sabrina talked her into adding a sheer babydoll over it that was practically invisible. Of course, no cups were mighty enough for what she called her “titanic tittays,” so it only supported the underside while her nipples were out in the open.
Despite giving Jade shit until she picked up more armor, Sabrina stuck with her bodysuit. She did, however, grab some armor for times when she might want modesty, in the form of a leather jacket and jeans. Jade was past the point of being able to even imagine a scenario where she’d want to cover up, so she didn’t bother.
Sabrina got way too excited about finding a bundle of fiber-optic cables with poorly-defined magical properties, and tossed them in her inventory. Jade got similarly excited about a textbook-sized paperback full of the most obscene hentai ever drawn, with seemingly no magic whatsoever.
When they hit the store’s back wall, the took a left. Coming from that direction, they ran into Alice. “Oh hey!” Alice called out. “Find anything good?”
Sabrina shrugged. “A few neat things. Nothing game-changing, though. You?”
“Oh my god, yes,” Alice chirped out rapidly. “First of all, there’s all these D-tens that shoot out water, or fire, or electrical arcs!”
“Oh yeah, we found a few of those,” Jade told her.
Alice then took out a smooth object, roughly the size and shape of a peanut shell. She activated it, making it shine soft light. Then she let go, and it remained in the air, floating aimlessly. “Then there’s these floating lamp things. I found a ton of those. I found a lot of magic vibrators.”
Seeing the raised eyebrows, she pulled a couple out. One was small, and shaped like a pill, made of smooth stone. The other was large and phallic, with a hard inner core and a soft, flesh-like exterior. She handed them over. They each circulated a small amount of mana into one and felt a stronger and more rapid vibration than anything on the market.
Holding the larger one, Jade frantically asked, “you said you found a lot of these?”
Alice giggled, and gave Jade a wink. “I’ll make sure you get your share, don’t you worry.” Jade hopped and danced excitedly in response. Sabrina rolled her eyes, but her smile gave away how adorable she found her idiot girlfriend.
They joined Alice in the direction she was walking. Before long, they met up with Sloan. She seemed to have found a pair of armored athletic shorts to match her mini-hoodie. “Sup,” Sloan greeted nonchalantly. “You guys seen these rocks full of elements?” All three confirmed. “Nice. I found a movie projector that uses the lightning rocks as batteries. I don’t have anything to play on it, though.”
Alice proposed, “we should start bringing in a portable SSD full of movies and shows. In fact, you know what? We should build a whole home server with, like, petabytes of storage and fill it with media.”
Sabrina really hated that she was geeking out about this, but she had a degree in computer science from her first Cognition level. “Wait! We can put together a whole home network with our own offline illegal streaming service! Come to think of it, I bet I can put together some kind of LoRaWAN system in the dungeon so we can still call and text each other if we get separated?”
“Nerds,” Sloan mocked.
“Shut up, Whovian,” Alice shot back.
“Don’t ever say that again! It’s the dumbest fandom name in the world. It makes my skin crawl.”
The bickering went on, and Sabrina felt warm happiness inside. She loved this family of hers. They lingered, although collectively, they’d explored the whole store by now. Only one more was needed for their room exploration quest. Whether that meant doubling back to the slime room or choosing another would need to be discussed. For now though, there was peace and companionship to be enjoyed.