A Tangible Relationship

“Everything’s going great. Everything’s f ine. It’s the end of the world, but it’s been the end of the world for a while now.”  Brikt said, unenthusiastically.

“What does that even mean?’ Knocks asked.

“You know better than to try to understand me. Education is gone, as is reason, so don’t reason.” Brikt spoke in the same monotone as before.

“How can you simultaneously be so boring and so annoying?”

“I f ind it one of my astonishing talents that has allowed me to survive this long.” Brikt gave the door to Whickk High school a small shove open.

“Why the hell are we here again?” Knocks tried to open the second door, but Brikt insisted on opening and holding it for him.

“I need not remind you, good sir, that we were born to kick ass and take names.” Brikt said.

The lobby of the school was full of people. Rather, it was full of two sides of people. Knock’s Nightwatch were on the left, and Rosegate was on the right.

What a scene.

Knocks woke every morning to the familiar faces of Nightwatch, surrounded by an impregnable fortress. He was the leader of an army of subordinate Floridian teenagers that were devoted to the prosperity of Whickk.

That’s what he called it back at Cricket. “The Dream of Prosperity”. The daily rhetoric kept everyone on pace.

Routine was a big thing for Knocks.

Well, not really routine. It fell more under the category of familiarity. He liked having everything stayed the way he left it, and being able to expect what will go on in his day.

Which is why today, f ifteen miles from his base, he is in a particularly bad mood.

He greeted his people. Faces he recognized, he acknowledged. Nightwatch is intimidating, for good reason and rightly so. They wore a lot of black, so they probably deserved being called “edgy fucks” by Rosegate. Yet, Nightwatch isn’t content to be left with comments like that. “Prissy f lower bitches” is the new title Nightwatch had given to Rosegate. Knocks hoped this teasing all in good fun; they weren’t on even ground with each other, but not yet had there been a major disagreement between the two.

Knocks hoped it would stay that way. He missed things like orange soda, and only Rosegate had that.

Rosegate themselves were not, in fact, “prissy f lower bitches”. He had people scouting their base for weeks in preparation for this deal. He found that although the majority of the organization was female non-combatants, they had a lot going for them. The f ighters they had weren’t terrible, and they had a lot of the community aspects that Nightwatch was lacking in. They had a hospital, a church, a dentist’s     of f ice, a playground, and even a school.

He couldn’t imagine a school existing in a land like this. At Cricket Army Labs they had something to the effect of a battle training room, but that was it.

Schools… hurt for him to think of. Back when the adults were still pulling out of Florida in 2017, the town sent the cops to his high school to arrest all the students and load them into paddy wagons in order to kick them out. Not everyone got through that scrapfest to come here. They locked a lot of kids away.

Including his freshman cousin.

“Where are we to be meeting?” He asked Brikt.

“Why the hell should I know? What am I, Vortex Himself? The Man With All The Answers?” Brikt continued to speak in his usual monotone.

“For a second in command, Brikt, you are not all that fuckin helpful.” Knocks f inished his greetings to his group. He held up his hand.

“I’ll be in my of f ice if you need me.” Every Nightwatch member chuckled. He referred to all of Whickk as his “of f ice”, so really it means he’s going to be somewhere you can easily f ind him if you look hard enough.

Brikt ran up behind him and announced the same thing. “I will also be having meetings today.”

A single person coughed in the foyer.

What a special kind of kid Brikt is.

The deal was supposed to go down in the small courtyard in the center of the building. Nightwatch on one side, Rosegate opposing them. They had a table and chairs to sit down at, and they were there to clear the air. No standoffs of territory, no more refusal to cooperate, no more confusion. If they were lucky, they’ll get some sweet trade deals if they agree to send some protection over there, but there was time to see and talk it out.

Knocks knew what this was really going to devolve into. There’s going to be a good amount of one-uppery, given that both gangs would be watching and listening to the meeting.

Knocks knew little of Rosegate’s leader, Marceline-Sainte-Marie. Scary name, and long too. He guessed it was made-up. His own name was. Knocks had been a stage for him to perform for over two and a half years already. It was basically a synonym of “reckoner”, as he was “the one who knocks”. At the same time, it makes the sound of “Nox” when said, a word for night.

Latin was Knock’s favorite class.

This school, however, was not his favorite place.

They found the door outside. It was wooden, and unlike everything else here, it was badly smashed up. Most of the scenery at the school was intact, plus or minus a couple windows but people will always stop to smash those. This door was completely broken in half, folding on itself.

“Um. Do we open it or-?” Knocks questioned.

“HIEEYAA!” Brikt kicked the door the rest of the way down, loudly splintering it into more pieces.

Everyone in the courtyard looked in their direction. Nightwatch spectated from the windows of the classroom.

“What was that about?” Knocks asked, slightly pissed off.

“You coulda got a splinter.” He said, gesturing to the door, as if it was obvious.

Knocks sighed. “Let us simply do what we came here to do, which doesn’t involve gratuitous property damage. Yet, it is arguably more painful.”

Brikt looked at him. “Tennis?”

“Politics.”

“Yikes. Fare thee well, grand leader.”

Knocks strolled up to the table that was set. It had paper and pencils on it, which he imagined wouldn’t be hard to f ind in a school. He wouldn’t use it under any circumstance, of course.

Rosegate had been here an hour before, as part of the deal, to secure the area and prep for the meeting. Rosegate had more stake in this than Nightwatch. Knocks had information citing that Rosegate had been assaulted by Frags for weeks now, and there were losing supplies with how ineffectively they are handling it. Not a good impression for Marceline-Sainte-Marie.

Knocks reached the table and sat down. He gazed over at the huddle of rosegate over on the other side of the courtyard. He drummed his f ingers on the table playfully, but not patiently.

“Yo!” Knocks hollered.

Seventeen girls faced his direction, all looking equally irritated.

“I came here to talk about boring shit, so you don’t need to worry about disappointing me.” Knocks said. “But I would love it If we could get this started, I’m not eager to waste Nightwatch’s time.”

“Be patient, she’s on her way!” Some girl screamed back.

Knocks rolled his eyes. This might have been a mistake. He didn’t miss orange soda that much, did he?

The southern doors of the courtyard opened up and Rosegate parted to make way for a single f igure.

Miranda.

Knocks stood up and kicked his chair back.

“No FUCKING way.” Knocks widened his eyes.

Miranda caught his gaze and froze. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

Knocks watched his ex-girlfriend walk her way up to him with a conf idence he wouldn’t think capable in this situation.

Knocks couldn’t think. He lost it all when she stepped through that door. His sense of familiarity, however faint it was in this alien school, shattered with her appearance. He was already unsure of what to expect when he came here, but that feeling grew exponentially with every step she took.

Miranda had changed her appearance since three years ago. Weird red highlights streamed through her dark hair. Pinkish red seemed to be her new palette for clothing, as she had both her shirt and jacket of the same hue. Despite the conditions they lived in, she seemed well groomed, something Nightwatch couldn’t claim with conviction.

She was impossible. She couldn’t be here.

And yet here she certainly was.

She stood in front of him, across the table. It was such a short distance to have between him and someone he had forgotten when all the parents left.

He held her peaceful gaze.

“Hi Ezekiel.” She said.

That did it.

Knocks f lipped the table in front of him in a spectacular manner.

Miranda stepped back. Rosegate rushed forward, but Miranda cast her hand out to them, ordering for them to halt.

“It’s been a while. Why don’t you calm down so we can talk and catch up.” She said, sounding condescending, but Knocks knew that she meant well. He knew the tone; he recognized it from two and a half years ago.

“How? How did this happen? How did you get here, Miranda?” Knocks demanded.

“Honestly, Zeke, you think you’re the only one who knows how to survive, f ight, and lead?” Miranda almost smiled. Very almost. “You have to give me some credit.”

“Fuck this. Fuck you, Miranda! This is ridiculous. I’m supposed to make a fucking trade deal with you. You… you’re the one who shattered us, you told everyone we were together!” Knocks was sweating more than usual, entirely of fault to how stressed he was with this confrontation.

“Ezekiel, that was so long ago in a world that no longer exists or has any meaning. Us kids were f inally given the wheel to drive this ship. We can’t throw that away for anything we thought in the past.” Rosegate hung onto every word of what she said. Nightwatch watched every expression Knocks made in response.

“It wasn’t just thoughts! It’s what you did, what you told everyone. I never wanted anyone to know that I was madly in love with you and stayed up for hours at night thinking about you and called you every day to tell you I adored you and...” He trailed off, looking at the crowd of open mouths.

“Cherry, they already knew. We are all okay with it. The only person who doesn’t seem to like that fact is you.” Miranda stepped up to him and took his hand. “We have a chance to do something great for the kids here. Everyone is scared and far away from their parents. They need someone to tell them it’s okay. That’s us.”

Knocks’s eyes softened.

Then he remembered where he was.

It wasn’t convincing enough for him. This was too unfamiliar.

“No. This was a mistake. I can’t believe you’ve tricked me into coming here without even trying to tell me where you were... and who you were!” Knocks turned his back on her and began walking towards Brikt. Towards safety, familiarity. Brikt smiled at him, and held his hand out like “Was this really going to work in the f irst place?”

He walked in silence towards the doors, away from the reality he should live.

“Uncle Zack!”

But then fate twisted his hand.

Knocks spun around. It was his cousin. Breaking through the crowd of Rosegate, Danny smiled at a shocked Miranda and ran to him.

How many more surprises was he going to endure today?

He scooped up his young cousin into a hug when they reached him.

“Uncle Zack! You’re the big knock-a-lock?” Danny said.

“I am! And you’re not in jail! How’d you get around to hangin’ with the f*in’ Flowers?” Knocks said.

“Your girlfriend got me out! She bam-boo-lamed the whole lock box!” Danny said.

“She did. I bet she did.” He held their hand as they stood at his side.

He gazed over to Miranda. She almost looked startled.

“You rescued them?” He asked.

She nodded. “I had to. I love that kid. I know you do too.”

“Thanks Aunt Marcy!”

Miranda held out her hand. Danny reached out but Ezekiel slapped their hand away and grasped it himself. He held it for a moment before pulling her into a hug.

Brikt clapped and cheered at the doorway. A quiet rumble of approval came from this. Danny collapsed onto them, crushing them tighter together.

“It’s been pain, torture.” He said. His eyes began to leak tears, an unfamiliar feeling to have when for so long he tried his hardest to appear unbreakable to his gang.

“Well, we can make it better.”  She spoke into his ear. He felt her own tears run onto his collar, making him feel better as well. “A Tangible Relationship.”

Ezekiel enjoyed that thought.