“Yo!”

“Hello!” I replied, “What’s poppin’?”

“Okay, so something I didn’t tell you about Tyler is that he’s really good at dancing. The guy does the smoothest wave I’ve ever seen and apparently he can also do that head spinning thing too.”

“What do you mean ‘apparently’? You haven’t seen him do it?”

“No, but some of my co-workers have.”

“Wait,” I chuckled, “Dude was break dancing on the clock?”

“It’s actually just called ‘breaking’, but yeah. Sometimes when it’s really slow we’ll have impromptu dance battles. For some reason there are, like, so many good dancers where I work- it’s crazy. I’ve never been lucky enough to see Tyler really bust a move, but he says he can also do flips and stuff like that.”

“You guys have fucking dance battles at work?” I laughed, “Where does this even happen?”

“Usually in the back, but sometimes we’ll just do it in one of the isles.”

“How are the winners chosen?”

“Well, there aren’t really any winners or losers. It’s just for fun.”

I groaned a little dramatically, “Jealous! I’m so Jealous! Where I work, ‘fun’ is on a list of banned words next to ‘happy’ and ‘pay raise’.”

“Oof. That’s a big ‘L’.”

“Dude, tell me about it!”

“Did you have work today?”

“Yep.”

“How did that go?”

I sighed, “Should I get into it?”

“If there’s tea, you have to spill it,” Natalie replied, “I don’t make the rules.”

I chuckled, “Right, of course,” I shifted in my chair, “Today was an Audry day. I told you about her last night, right?”

“I believe your exact words were ‘she’s like a bully from a CW high school drama fused with a sexually frustrated middle-aged wine mom’.”

My face scrunched, “Uh… I'm pretty sure I didn't say that,” I chuckled.

“I may be taking a few liberties, but yeah. You told me about her.”

“A ‘few’ liberties, eh?” I laughed.

“Just a few,” Natalie replied. I could hear the smirk, “But am I wrong? How accurate was I?”

“No comment,” I said, grinning, "Anyway-"

"Knew it," Natalie mumbled with mock smugness.

"I heard that."

"Heard what?" Natalie asked in a comically innocent tone.

"ANYWAY," I repeated, "I had to open with Audry this morning and I nearly blew a gasket. One of my co-workers slipped and Audry was just standing over him and berating him, like, 'That's why you don't run. You wouldn’t fall if you just walked.' I saw him slip. He was walking just SLIGHTLY faster than normal. It was definitely not his fault. The tiles were freshly mopped and there wasn't a wet floor sign. She didn't even ask if he was okay or help him up. She just loomed over him with her hands on her hips. "

Natalie scoffed, "Wow, what a bitch!"

"You're about to hate her even more," I replied, leaning back.

"Oh god, what else did she do?"

“Okay… To keep it brief: A customer was being really rude to one of my coworkers and Audry decided to dogpile her instead of scolding the customer for being an entitled jerk.”

“What the fuck? Why?”

I shrugged, “That’s Audry for you. Maybe she was trying to look good for the customer or something, I dunno. It seems like something she would do.”

“I’m gonna reiterate: What a bitch!”

I sighed, “Yeah… There’s more but, like, I don’t even wanna get into it. It’s just too annoying and I don’t wanna think about work anymore.”

“Yeah that’s totally fair.”

“I’m probably gonna move out soon so I think when I do I’ll just quit. I’ve been working there for way longer than I would like and I’m starting to feel way too stagnant. I need to change things up, you know?”

“Oh yeah, I know how that feels. That was a big reason why I moved out. That, and I couldn’t stand living with my nosey parents anymore.”

“Are you still in contact with your folks?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, we don’t really talk that often, but It’s not like I cut them off. They’re kinda just at the periphery of my life. I think the last time I talked to them was when I went over to their place for dinner a couple weeks ago.”

“How was that?”

“It was fine,” There was a shrug in Natalie’s tone, “We talked about how work is going and stuff like that, but the conversation wasn’t all that deep. I don’t talk to them about The Crew, so most of our conversations are either about work or my art.”

“Oh yeah!” I exclaimed, “I totally forgot that you did art! I think I remember you were also getting into animation back in highschool. You still doing that?”

Natalie chuckled, “Well yeah, you were the one that told me I should try it.”

I tilted my head, “I was?”

“Yeah, you told me my style would be good for animation so I started learning it. I’m actually really glad you told me that to be honest, ‘cuz I love it! Plus I’m really good at it now and I don’t think I would’ve tried it if you hadn’t said something.”

A smile drew across my face and my heart swelled, “Really?”

“Yeah! I've even started doing some commissioned work. It's not super lucrative, mind you, but I don't really do it for the money anyway."

"Wow! That's awesome!" I exclaimed, "Can I see some of your animations?"

"Yeah, gimme a sec," Natalie replied, "By the way, how're your brother and sister?"

"They're both good. My brother's off at college and my sister moved out of state for work so now it's just lil ol' me and the 'rents."

"How long ago was this?"

I had to think about it for a moment. I didn't talk to them that often. Not because our relationship was strained in any way, but because my brother was like me in that he was mostly introverted-keeping to himself unless the situation required him to socialize or communicate with others. My sister was also like me in that she was the type of person who always kept herself busy with one thing or another. It didn't help that she also lived hundreds of miles away.

"So my brother left about a year and a half ago and my sister moved… I think three-ish years ago."

"Oh, okay. So it's been a while, then."

"I guess," I shrugged, "Honestly, it hasn't felt like that long. Time feels, like, really… I dunno… Compressed  nowadays? Does that make sense? Like, it feels like a lot is happening and the weeks feel like days," I paused, "I dunno… I feel like I sound stupid right now."

"No, no! Not at all! I know exactly what you mean! I used to feel that way when I was living with my parents. Like, my sense of time felt really weird and things felt like they were happening but it didn't feel like anything was changing and all the days were blending together. It wasn't 'till I moved in with The Crew that things started feeling different. Life wasn't going by so fast anymore. I started slowing down and living in the moment. Plus I was way happier. I think that's part of it, 'cuz before that I was just kinda apathetic. My emotions were muted and gray. Now there's a lot more color and my emotions are more vibrant."

There it was again. That familiar twinge.

"Found it! This is my most recent animation. I think it's my favorite too. Then again, my latest stuff is always my favorite. Her name is Anther and she's a kickboxer who uses nature magic to augment her fighting style."

A video appeared in the messages.

"Cool! Lemme watch it," I said.

I clicked the fullscreen button and pressed play.

The caramel-skinned character wore a baggy, light gray hoodie and white shorts. Her hands were buried in the hoodie's pockets and her dark green eyes were half-closed. Her mouth was a single dot, from which a stalk of asparagus stuck out. She strode casually towards the camera, a set of forest-green cat ears that matched the color of her short hair sat atop her head and bounced slightly with each step she took. A forest-green cat tail swung lazily from side to side as bright green leaves and white flowers circled around her. White sneakers with lime green highlights helped convey an athletic appearance befitting of her background.

Natalie's art style could best be described as "Studio Trigger-esque". Their character design usually had sharp, aggressive angles that made the characters look energetic, even when in a static pose or gait as nonchalant as Anther's.

"Holy shit! You improved so much! I mean, your art was amazing back in highschool, but this is something else! This is some shit I would expect to see in, like, BlazBlue or Guilty Gear! Like… I don't know… I'm fucking speechless!"

"Oh my god, stop!" Natalie exclaimed, "You're making me blush! You better knock that off right now before my ego gets too big for my petite little five-foot baby body to handle."

My jaw dropped, then I grimaced, "Dude! Ugh! I just might if you phase it like that! What the fuck!" 

Natalie erupted into laughter and I joined in.

"That was so outta pocket!" I exclaimed, "I need you to never say that shit ever again-to anybody!"

Natalie blew a raspberry, "No promises!"

"If I could reach through the internet…" I said in mock dissappointment.

Another raspberry.

"I'm gonna start calling you 'Jupiter' if you keep doing that," I threatened.

Natalie chuckled, "What? Why 'Jupiter'? That's actually a cool name!"

"The Gas Giant!" I proclaimed in dramatic fashion.

Natalie laughed, "You sounded like one of those generic hero characters!" They mimicked my tone, "'Don't worry ma'am! I'll save you from that dastardly villain keeping you hostage!'"

"No no no-You know what it sounds like?" I suggested, "It sounds like one of those guys in an infomercial!" I intoned again, "Do you have stinky, smelly, dirty socks? Then you need the…" I struggled, "Sock… Sucker…?" I finished, dramatic tone and all confidence gone.

Natalie cackled, "Sock Sucker? Really? That's the best you could come up with? That's foul!"

I laughed, "Oh, says the one who was talking about their 'petite little baby body'! What the hell does that even mean?"

Natalie snorted, "Touché, Sock Sucker salesman, touché."