it's the time you semi-like what's in my hate. after your recent encounter with Kevin, you started to notice that your shoes stink you want to believe that it's just a coincidence, but you 100% know. it's because you went into that filthy restroom. nobody likes public restrooms. it does something to you either. it breaks your spirit or ruins your clothes. in your case, it ruined your shoes and you really like those shoes. they've been with you for a hot minute. they're not exactly anything great for the right home about. they're just normal sneakers but the design really drives home who you are as a person black on white. nothing better. the simpler design, the less it hurts to look at and the more you can enjoy the intricacy of the two combined colors. not that it always has to be black and white. it's just too many colors on a shoe. makes it less interesting and more. a statement of look at me. look at me and you don't like that while trying to pick out shoes. you meet a pushy store clerk not pushing the sense of buy more shoes by more shoes but pushy in the sense that she seems to be very obsessed with wanting to get your shoe measurement. you already know it. you haven't really grown much since after college and You're pretty sure she's aware of this as well. so the only thing you can come up with is that she's probably trying to use this to embarrass you about your foot size. you really do hate clerks. they're nice but not in the puppy type of noise but more of the. I'm nice in a resentful way you because you are here and therefore I can't slack off and not do my job. you know this because you too do this as a person in the workforce work sucks not wanting to deal with the store clerk. you decide to let her measure your feet and if she makes in your remarks you can probably use it to get free shoes. she does measure it and she casually uses passive aggressiveness as she points out that your feet are a little too big but she doesn't flat out. call them big. she of course makes her a market. how amazing your foot size is. which of course anyone with half a passive aggressive brain knows means wow. look how huge your feet are you then aggressively? imagine your head. you kicking her in the face over and over again with said huge feet. you then feel bad because you called your feet big. not wanting to be here anymore. you choose a box of shoes that are the same brand as the ones you had. these ones have a different design and are more loafers than sneakers which means they'll cost more. but at the same time you need new shoes and you need to throw out the old ones cuz they stink too much. it's starting to bug you every time when you leave them laying around at the house. have to purchase in the shoes. you leave in pursuit of going home but before you do in the corner of your eye, you notice them. that's right. your future friend and it looks like they're not alone. there was some guy who is this guy. your curiosity is obviously going to be peaked wanting to know more to know more about them is your bread and butter. and of course your love to do so is the grill that makes it toast. we start pursuing them secretly using the crowd as cover because if they spot you, that's it. you'll instantly be marked a creep and you'll never be able to live it as you follow the two you notice there go into an auto parts shop. you make a note of it thinking maybe they're into cars. obviously you're going inside would put you at a disadvantage so you instead hang out at the magazine stand of the window of the drugstore across the street keeping an eye on their exit first rule of following people as your father said being a former police officer never get too close. only go in when you know there's something worth hearing and right now you don't know there's something worth hearing. so instead you keep your distance spotting a magazine of that model you like you decide to read through it. but you remember that you stopped treating that model because her figure makes you self-conscious of your own. last time you did this you ended up cutting up all the magazines in the house that you have of her and then burning them. your mom then whacked you upside the head for almost starting a house fire ah yes, high school years is both them coming out. doesn't look like they bought anything. you quickly buy the magazine of your favorite model. you plan to destroy it later to blow off some steam and then you pick up the pace after them. it appears that their next stop on this mysterious trip is a car's sales lot. perhaps your future friend is in the market for a new car. you try to keep note of this in case you might be able to persuade them into going on a trip with you to look for it. since it's a car lot, it'll be a lot easier to maneuver you enter along with them. of course you still have to keep your distance mirrors and all walking around. you pretend to buy a car while keeping a subtle distance from them and at first it's working. you get to see them talking to a dealer about something but you're not sure what it is before you know it. you subtly try to get closer to hear in, but another dealer swoops in thinking you're ready for a sale. then of course being annoying and pushy and you can't stand it before you know it, they and their companion have started to leave the lot but the dealers being too pushy. so as a desperate measure, you do agree to purchase a minor vehicle. congratulations! you've given into peer pressure and probably are future victim of door to door salesman, but you own a wide van which you'll probably have to keep a secret. otherwise, you're family members might try to abuse that privilege after signing the deal and arranging for it to be delivered to your complexes parking lot, you quickly run out leaving your driver's license behind oh well, you can just order a new one. you quickly run off in one direction to see if you can catch up to them. at first. you think you lost them, but as you give up, you notice them coming out again. this time at a repair shop in the clues are starting to make a little bit more sense to you. perhaps one of them has a broken car and they're trying to get a repaired. unfortunately for you you can't use this to get closer to them. if that's the case. you don't know people in the mechanic business. well, you know one person in the mechanic business but she is a total wipe and every time when you end up hanging out with her you somehow end up with less money and very intoxicated and all of those piranhas you still don't know what they came from, speaking of which you need to buy fish food and you never actually confirmed. if piranhas are something you can legally own thinking through all this use quietly, try to follow them one more time this time. it's a junkyard having just bought brand new shoes and old shoes that you plan to throw away. when you got home, you came up with a new strategy. the perfect strategy a quote" coincidence that you hope makes sense in someone's brain, but it probably won't. you walk in with confidence to the junkyard knowing full well that it stinks beyond compare and that your new shoes that you paid more money than you could pay for at least 17 magazines in a bunch of ice cream. they were expensive shoes. you would do anything to further your relationship with your friend so you walk in looking around for them. they're talking to the guy in charge of the junkyard and scrapping things. you of course walk up to you with confidence. when the junkyard guy looks at you, he asks what he can do for you seeing his. the other two's conversation has already ended. you hold out the bag of used shoes and explain that in a very much made up story you heard someone say that they take shoes and would pay cash for it. it's a very desperate situation and it doesn't make you look good, but it's a story. a story that can get you in the junkyard guy looks at you with a confused face that also spells. what a gullible moron you then explains to you that they have no reason to pay for nor a reason to collect shoes and that if you want to cash for you to probably try a recycling center you then looking embarrassed decide to make a retreat because you just realized that perhaps this is not the way you want to further your bond with them. you try to run away as quickly as possible before they have a chance to notice who you are, but it's too late. the damage has been done. they grab your arm before you have a chance to run away and decide to give a friendly little greeting now. how are you considering that it's been hot minutes since you two have talked? your schedules haven't been able to align much, especially considering the fact that all the other bartenders at your pub keep calling off of work for the dumbest of reasons and as you've confirmed through the front desk clerk, their schedule is just as pack with meetings so don't always have a chance to get off on time not sure what to say and judging from this very embarrassing situation that could easily spell out to anyone who puts enough clues together as you stalking them. you decide to quickly brush off the greeting with your own greeting and then ask them if next week is good for the movie they of course having not been able to think about it, especially right now as they explain that their friends car is without an engine and they're trying to figure out a way to resolve the issue. you of course chuckling and grasping at anything to get out of the situation. you can accidentally state that your friend Mackenzie just so happened to major in being a mechanic and currently works at an auto shop on the other side of town. you wouldn't mind texting her to take a look at his car in exchange. they would all have to go out for drinks panicking. you just realized exactly what you did both belated at the idea if they say yes and scared at the idea of being rejected and even more fearful that mackenzie's unpredictable nature you want to cancel, but they were hopeful seeing as their friend might have a resolution to their problem. agree thus you cannot back out. now you have to get Mackenzie on board. but the thing is you haven't talked to Mackenzie for 2 months not since the piranhas again mental note you need to buy piranha food for them you're running out now that you have the peer pressure of expectance that your friend, could you fix the problem you pull out your phone slowly unlocking it, then pull up McKenzie's number you then slowly type out to Mackenzie. hey Ben, a while I know this is sudden but someone I know wants you to look at their car. since this is a favor. I'll be happy to buy drinks for all of us. you then hit send and just as you do, you start to run the calculations of someone responding to another person's text. usually speaking whenever you text any of the people in your social group, they usually take 3 days to respond. so you're thinking the ads are pretty good, but just as you remember that Mackenzie is The only one who will respond instantly you get a phone call answering it is her and she is ready to party. apparently she has had one heck of a week and was looking for an excuse to goof off you. of course, now socially obligated to continue. must say yes, knowing full well of the consequences and everything that this entails rewards and I'll be damned you know one thing is clear. if you don't do this you probably won't have a good impression on them and you want to get impression on them. you want it way more badly than you fear. whatever Mackenzie can do hanging up. you tell them and their friend that this afternoon she will be free to do drinks afterwards. tomorrow she should be able to look at his car and thus your night has been set