Chapter Text
Dess Holiday. She’s about 1.5 years older than her best friend Asriel, and thus started college a year before him. Her mother got her into a nice college, too. The music course is alright, but she could’ve gone somewhere cheaper for that. She’d broken up with Azzy recently too (on good terms, at least), so it’s been kinda lonely. One guy catches her eye though. Not any of her classmates, but a guy she sees at lunch.
A dark-skinned human, which she didn’t know exists since she had only ever seen Kris (who was yellow). He had blonde (or is it yellow?) dyed dreads, some of which covered part of his face, and the rest was tied up. That particular day, he was just wearing a red flannel, some black trousers, and some brown, maybe black boots.
Surprisingly, he approached her first.
"’Sup."
"Uh, hi?" Dess looks away nervously. "Who are you?"
"Fries."
"December Holiday. Just call me Dess."
From there, they’d gotten along well. Fries took an archaeology course because he ‘liked digging’, and always seemed so nonchalant. Sometimes Dess was even convince he was zoned out. He had a name (Dess knew it) but everyone opted to call him Fries, since every human around here seemed to have an object-based nickname. It’s like how everyone called her Dess instead of December.
Dess had a slight crush on him, but he was the one to ask her out.
"Yo, Dess, you wanna go on a date sometime? No pressure."
"S-Sure, dude!"
And after that, they’d started, well, dating! Dess showed him some cool bands (he’d seemed to have gotten into The Blood Crushers pretty quickly), and they’d occasionally start digging in random places, usually finding worms or buried junk. Fries also carried a shovel or two everywhere he went, apparently. God knows how he kept them out of sight.
Then, one season, for the break, Dess went home. She got along with everyone well-ish, as usual. Fries didn’t come along, surprisingly to Dess’s request. He kinda wanted to meet her family. But about halfway through, a news story came out.
18 YEAR OLD HOMETOWN RESIDENT DECEMBER HOLIDAY DECLARED MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD
…the report had said. Fries was pretty shaken, obviously. He did find some other friends through it, though.
Two science majors, Golf Ball and Tennis Ball. The most normal people he’s met, sans Dess and his current bestie.
TB’s boyfriend, Nickel. He still has no idea how they got together.
Two hooligans, Firey and Gelatin. They’re alright.
Rocky. He didn’t like Rocky that much.
And Needle, his bestie.
All of them, again, sans Needle, formed some kind of no-name gang, though everyone knew Nickel was just there by proxy of him dating TB.
Fries passed his course, pretty well too. Got a good-enough-paying job in archaeology to keep himself afloat. It’s one of the best jobs he could’ve asked for, getting to tell people to ‘get digging’ and being paid for it. He never showed it, though.
–––
Nearly One Year Later
If you told Fries that one week separated now from the same break where Dess went missing, he’d probably just say something like ‘really? okay’. But he just can’t believe it.
He has a fortnight off the job before the break starts, too. Just in time for the weekend. Partially to mourn, but also because he has off-days to use up.
He’s kept in contact with her sister, Noelle, though they don’t text too often. She probably still has him saved as ‘dess’s college bf’ or something like that.
He’s also heard that over in Hometown, that one year felt like several. With the change to accommodate it too; Dess’s ex went to college, said ex’s parents divorced, some bully girl moved in, all the works.
So, getting home from work for the last time for two weeks, he lays on bed, and checks his phone.
2 unread messages
Oh, he has some texts.
.
Unknown Number: [set of coordinates]
Unknown Number: next thursday night, 10:00pm
.
He got an invite from a stranger. Well, he doesn’t wanna go alone.
.
fries: fine but only if i can bring my bestie
Unknown Number: k
.
Okay, cool. Needle’s coming along. And if she isn’t, he’ll make her.
–––
Thursday Afternoon
"So THAT’S why you’re dragging me to a shelter in the middle of a LANDLOCKED TOWN?"
"Yeah."
Fries tried to make small talk with Needle to ease the multi-hour drive, but clearly it wasn’t working.
"I swear, Fries, why couldn’t you have just went alone?"
"Too dangerous."
"So you went and brought ONE PERSON?"
"Yeah."
…
A couple more hours passed, before they reached a place nearby where they could safely (and without any fees) park, just around the bus stop Dess ended her journey at that fateful break.
"We’re here." Fries turns off the car and unclicks his seatbelt. "C’mon, Needy."
SLAP!
"Don’t call me Needy! But okay." Needle reluctantly goes along, since Fries really wants to meet up with a stranger apparently.
The two walk down the hiking trail to the town, ripe for 8:45 PM.
"Supposed to meet the stranger at 10, so we got an hour to kill. Wanna do anything?"
"Ooh! Let’s go explore!" Needle responds to Fries’ proposition.
"Sure. We can do that."
Fries sets an alarm on his phone for 9:50 PM, and the two start to wander around the town.