“Thank you again for letting me stay over!” Hunter said. “And I’m really sorry if I got weird at all last night.”

“Nah, you were fine,” Lilah said. “I’m sure Jess would say the same, if she wasn’t already at work. If you’re ever in the area you should visit again!”

“Um, yeah!” Hunter said. “Definitely.”

As they walked to their cars, Mel said, “We should definitely hang out again!”

“For sure!” Hunter said. “I, uh, had a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, you’re cool,” Mel said. “Maybe I won’t cancel you on Twitter.”

Hunter laughed. “Oh, are you the one who’s in charge of that?”

“Oh, yeah, didn’t I mention? I’m the CEO of Antifa.”

“Wow! It’s an honor to meet you, madame CEO.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Mel paused for a moment. “Oh, by the way, if we did hang out, what would you want to do? Ideally something involving less driving.”

Hunter thought for a moment. “Maybe we could go to the mall or something? I should probably work on getting more clothes to stream in. Gotta give the people what they want.”

“Sounds fun! I would absolutely go pick out cute clothes for you. I’m literally already excited for it.”

“Heh, that’s… I’m glad you’re excited? I’m not really sure why you’re so excited, but I’m glad you are.”

“I–I just think you don’t recognize your own cuteness, I guess, and I think the clothes you usually wear don’t help. Like, with the baggy shirts and hoodies and shorts, the big sneakers, the glasses, and the hair over your face, it’s hard for anyone to even actually see what you look like.”

“Okay, but if I have… idk, padding or makeup or whatever, that’s obviously not what I actually look like. Or, like, camera trickery. I’m sure you can make my face look better from some weird angle or by putting a filter on it or something.

Mel sighed. “To be honest I’ve had similar conversations with people way too many times before. I guess I’ll just ask you to think about if you knew someone, and later found out that, like, they had been wearing colored contacts the whole time you knew them. If that’s what they look like for ninety-nine percent of their interaction with other people, isn’t that kind of what they really are like? I mean, everyone shows different sides of themselves to different people, and that doesn’t necessarily mean any of those are a lie.”

“I guess I see what you’re saying, but I feel like there’s still, y’know, an objective underlying reality. I–oh, wait, is that my car? Okay, yeah, it definitely is.”

As they approached Hunter’s pre-owned sedan, he clicked the key fob to unlock it. “Well, maybe we can talk more on Discord later? I should probably get home and check if my mom needs to do anything. I think the lawn needs to be mowed.”

“Wow, classic suburbia!” Mel said. “I remember that. But also, I’ve been living in apartments without yards for, like, a decade. Well, have fun with your, uh, edging.”

“I actually don’t have an edger,” Hunter said. “Well, we had one but it kind of stopped working. I guess we should probably get another one at some point.”

Mel made a strangled sound. “You sweet summer child,” she muttered.