"Well… I don't know," Tyler said, sinking down into his chair. "That's not really self love, is it? It's just… not being yourself."
"But if that person who you can love does become you, then don't you love yourself?" David asked. Tyler didn't have much of a response.
To which, Emily tried to break up the fight once more, going for a compromise.
"Okay, how about we both agree that the other side can be true? Some people might find it better to love their true selves, others might find it better to invent someone new who they can love, okay? There's no point in us fighting. And David, please don't hate Arthur, he's a nice person," she said.
"Hmph. What does it matter?"
The waitress came back with food, and they all began to eat.
…
5 minutes had passed.
"Actually, honestly, you're right, Emily. I should probably apologize," David said. "What I said was kinda… it wasn't right."
"See? Honestly, you might have had a point. But it's nice that even though we disagreed, we could still eat together, and chill," Tyler said, taking a bite of his burger.
"Yeah. We might've both been pretty hangry, for realsies. I feel like it'd be really sad if us, as grown adults, couldn't handle a disagreement."
"For real. It'd be even more sad if you couldn't apologize."
"I know, right? Sometimes, you need some chicken to calm you down. Ah, even though I talked bad behind his back, I will apologize. Even if I'm not entirely wrong, from what I can tell, it wasn't right. You think I should invite him to my dorm to play videogames?"
"Do whatever you think is right, man. Ultimately, if you're the one who did the bad thing, and he doesn't know, it's up to you to make it up to him in the way you feel is best. Thanks for apologizing, and my bad too bro, I did get pretty heated there," Tyler said with a small frown, which turned to a smile after taking another bite.
"My bad too, man. I'll do better in the future," David declared. "And isn't that all we need to ask of people? That even if they make mistakes, they do better in the future?"
"Maybe so, maybe so."
Emily smiled, feeling a great rush of excitement that everyone was getting along again.
…
They went back to campus, and though neither Arthur or Sally were present, they did save some leftovers for them, as they had both coincidentally requested. Tyler dropped some french fries off to Arthur, who thanked him and continued to work on his paper.
Arthur wracked his brain, continuing to write before deciding that then would be a good time to take a break. He got up from his chair, turned off his computer and went to the couch to watch TV with Tyler.
Then, he received a text. He checked his phone, seeing it was from David.
"Hey Arthur, wanna come to my dorm? I wanna talk to you"
"Oh, sure, I'll come as soon as I can. I'm on a break from working on my paper, so is it alright if I head down now?"
"Yes"
Arthur got up, going to David's dorm. He entered, seeing that it was entirely decorated with fantasy story stuff. He had replicas of swords and axes, figures of dragons, and all sorts of other cool stuff.
Arthur was quite amazed by the room, and David was sitting on the couch in front of the TV, setting up a dual screen TV. The chosen game was one where players would fight in medieval styled combat, with a variety of weapons.
Arthur sat down, taking a handful of fries out and ate them, before hopping on.
"Hey man, can I be honest with you for a second?" David asked. "Huh? Uh, yeah, sure, what is it?" Arthur said nervously. Every intense moment was either exam related or dragon related, neither of which were things he liked, nor wanted to bleed into his friendships.
"When I went out to eat with the others just now, I had some bad things to say about you," he said.
"...Huh?"
Arthur's heart sank. Of course if it were other people, a stranger, who said bad things about him, Arthur wouldn't have minded it as much. Being a person of weak heart, he would feel a bit sad, but it was nothing new.
But when one of his friends, the firsts he'd ever had, admitted that they'd gone behind his back and said bad things about him, it was akin to gently reaching inside of someone, and clawing at their heart directly.
Arthur was too stunned to speak. Of course, he'd gotten the impression that David wasn't his biggest fan, but he'd never expected David to actively dislike him.
"Oh…" Arthur muttered. He wondered what else there was to say, when David spoke up. "And I'm sorry. Truth be told, I said bad things about you because you reminded me of myself. I'm not the most mature person, but I'm an adult now; talking bad about people behind their backs isn't something that I should be doing. I apologize, I really do."
"Huh? No, no, i-it's okay! I'm telling you, it's okay, really! I mean, I'm naturally a bit sad, but y'know, I'm glad you could apologize, thank you," Arthur said, giving that typical weird smile.
"No, it's not okay, not right now. Which is why I want to make it up to you. I want to be closer to you, I want to enjoy your presence, and I want you to enjoy mine without worry of hidden hatred. Let's become even greater friends, right?"
"Mhm! Yeah, uh… let's be even greater friends," Arthur stammered, keeping up that smile.
The two began to play the game. The weapon that David chose was a cutlass, and Arthur a spear. He'd given Arthur his alt account, which was still a pretty high level, though when they did 1v1s, Arthur got his butt whooped horribly, again and again.
"Dang, you're going really rough on me," he said. David laughed, saying "yeah, I guess so. But I'm trying to get you to learn the mechanics of the game. See? If you press X while swinging your sword at the right time, you do a downward slam. But if you press X and then B, you do a downward slam which hooks and attacks from beneath, at the cost of less damage and reduced speed."
Arthur practiced the move. Initially, he failed the timing, only doing a downward swing of his sword which hit the head of the dummy. However, on his second try, Arthur successfully hooked it around.
"Oop! I did it, sweet," Arthur said. "Mhm. Do you usually play videogames?" David asked him. "Uhh, not really. I mean, I play them sometimes, but I wouldn't consider myself good at them."
"Y'know the easiest way to get good at a video game?"
"Huh? How?"
"Well, other than not sucking at video games, if you learn the mechanics of that game in particular, you have an advantage. It sounds really obvious, but it's the truth. If you can understand what the meta is, how to create better builds, and the combat system itself, you should be set."
"What? Um, sure, yeah."
'—Learn the meta, how to create better builds, and the combat system… alrighty, I guess?'
The two played together for a few hours, before Arthur had to go back to work on his paper. He waved David goodbye, and went back. During his playthrough, he'd gotten a good glimpse into the mechanics, though he wasn't anywhere near as good as David, who no-lifed that game a lot.
He'd learned how to parry, how to block, how to bypass block, and multiple other skills for that game.
When Arthur went back to his dorm, he went back to work on the paper.
…
After several more hours of work, Arthur decided to stop for the day. Sally texted him, wanting to watch the show, and Arthur obliged, heading to her dorm and watching the same show with her.
After that, Arthur left, wanting to go eat dinner. He went back to his dorm, boiled some water, and made himself a cup of ramen.
Once dinner was done, he went down to check his mail, simply not wanting to neglect it for too long. He brought the mail upstairs, sorting through it, when he once again found a letter, a letter from someone who sent him a lot of mail.
Yet, Arthur would usually throw out any letters he received from this person, not wanting him in his life. But this time, things were a bit different.
'Dad…'
Arthur opened the letter, reading the note from his father, who he'd not seen since a young age, not since his mother left his dad.
"Dear Arthur,
It's been a long time, I know. And honestly, I'm pretty sure you aren't even reading these. Or if you are, you just throw them away, or decide not to contact me despite them. That's fine. As long as you're still alive and kicking, that's good enough for me, even if it does pain my heart to know I won't be able to speak with you again. This week, work wasn't too bad. It was actually pretty nice, if I'm being honest. Still working hard as ever, and even if it's tough, it's nothing your old man can't handle! How was your week? I truly hope it went well. I want you to know that I still love you, and always will. Here's my number, if you want to contact me: XXX-XXX-XXXX
With much love, Dad."
As Arthur read the note, his heart felt empty. This was done on purpose, as without that, he might have cried; something he was sick of doing. He stared at the paper blankly, reading each line again and again.
Back then, his dad was awful. Oftentimes for no reason, he'd hit both his wife and his son. Sometimes it would have the reason being that neither cleaned enough for him, or that work that day was awful.
Despite his mother being a dragon, she took it, not fighting back. She was akin to a very, very durable punching bag. That fact alone sometimes shielded his fists from meeting Arthur, but there were times where she alone could not serve the purpose he gave her.
And when his mom left, taking Arthur with her, she told him stories that inspired an even greater mistrust into Arthur, and a deep resentment in his heart towards his father.
However, currently, his relationship with his mom's side of the family wasn't good, and neither was his relationship with his own mother. Arthur groaned, like a teenage girl who just got broken up with, as he sat down on his bed.
"What's going on bro?" Tyler asked him.
"Nothin, it's just… mmghh, this sucks. Okay, can I get your opinion on something, Tyler?"
"Oh yeah, for sure. So, what is it?" Tyler said, sitting facing towards Arthur and ready to hear pretty much anything.
"I… my dad, who I've not seen for years, is reaching out to me. Usually I'd throw away the mail, but this time, I've decided to finally peek inside, and… I don't know, I kind of do want to see him again, at least to see… I don't know, I'm sorry," Arthur said, his voice turning slightly darker with each word.
"Huh… Well, if it's what you want, do it man. It's your dad dude, you make the choice," Tyler told him plainly.
"Yeah… alright, I guess so," Arthur said, sighing before putting in the information on his phone. He began to write out the text to the number.
'What do I even say? "Hey dad, I know I've been throwing away your letters for years, but since mom's being a bitch right now, I guess I'll come talk to you." No, obviously…'
'I'll keep it simple. Formal, like a business email or something.'
Arthur began to write his text. He had to rewrite it again and again, but eventually, he got it down.
"Hey, this is Arthur. My week wasn't too good. However, I would be open to meeting up with you. I have work all weekdays but Wednesday. Let me know when you're open, we can set up a meeting sometime, then."
Arthur's finger hovered over the send button. He debated whether or not to send the message, before groaning and sending it. Immediately, he put his phone away, putting it on the charger and deciding to go to bed, leaving it to the future him.
And that was that.