“Karan, Grace, Lucy! There you are! You all got drinks already?” Jay asked as Maynard gave the blonde, Grace, a hug. She buried her face in his shoulder for a moment before sitting down next to him and plastering a smile on her face.
“On my second. What were you two talking about?” Karan replied.
“We were talking about this symbol,” Maynard said as he raised his wrist again, “I saw it earlier today and now I’m seeing it here too. Jay thinks it’s because of the Dunning Kruger effect.”
“I can tell you for a fact that it’s not,” Karan replied.
“What? I’m pretty sure that he’s experiencing something like that though!”
“You’re right, Jay,” Karan continued, “He probably is experiencing some kind of phenomena, but it’s not Dunning Kruger. Dunning Kruger is when someone who knows very little about a subject thinks they know all about it.”
“Like Jay with psychology,” Grace said with a laugh.
“Sod off, you,” Jay snapped back.
“The term you’re looking for is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, which is where you learn something new and immediately start noticing it everywhere,” Karan said, cutting Jay off.
“That sounds about right, I had never seen the symbol before today, as far as I know anyway, so perhaps I am just seeing it everywhere because it’s new to me,” said Maynard after taking another chug of his cider.
“Where did you see it first?” Asked Lucy, curiously looking at the identical ink-mark on her own arm.
“Hold on, I’ll show it to you,” he replied as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “You’ll love this, Grace, but I saw it on this super rare item I got in Silent City earlier.” Flicking through his phone quickly, he pulled up a large image of the item in question and focussed on the patterned crest that sat on top of the parchment.
“It looks familiar,” said Jay with a frown, “But I can’t quite place where I’ve seen it before.”
“This was in the game based around uncle Lewis’ story?” Grace said, “I’ve never seen it before… Perhaps it’s from something new?”
“Perhaps. He’s not come over to see my dad since about last year, so your guess is probably better than mine, honestly,” Maynard said, stretching and putting his phone back in his pocket.
“Did you hear about the massive fire outside Edinburgh,” Lucy asked while pushing her curly, brown fringe out of her eyes for the fifth time since she had sat down, “It was wild, over two-hundred people were in the building when it caught alight, but only one guy died”.
“I did hear about that,” said Karan, “I think the papers are calling it the Bankhead miracle”.
“Miracle?” said Jay, “Really?”
“Yeah, seems like the guy who started the fire might have been the only guy caught in it.”
“That’s still a little insensitive, what if it was an electrical fire and the dude was just asleep?”
Karan sighed, “I’m just repeating what I read in the paper. The guy had two nieces and they managed to get out, but he was blocked in by the flame.”
“Dude, why are you reading the paper?” Maynard said before finishing his drink, “You’re eighteen.”
“I’m channeling my inner financial investor”.
“Well I’m channeling my inner drunkard, so I’m gonna get my next drink. What do you want Jay?”
“Just another Carling,” he said as he raised his mostly empty glass. Maynard nodded and made his way through the increasingly dense crowd. As he waited for a spot near the bar to free up, he looked around, spotting faces he recognised but could not put a name to. At one end of the bar he saw a guy with too many nose piercings talking to the owner of the venue, while in the back he saw a pair of girls who kept giving him furtive glances. He was sure that he must have spoken to them at some point, but for whatever reason he could not quite remember it. As he dwelled on this, a space opened up in front of him and he dipped into it before waving over a free bartender to order his and Jay’s next drinks.
Making his way back to the table, Maynard noticed that Jay was absent but Karan quickly pointed him outside. Before he left he took a quick glance at the people now sitting at his table. More of his friend group had arrived, including Grace’s boyfriend. This is not going to be a pretty night, he thought to himself as he walked towards the front doors. There was already an aura of discontent at the table, and he did not want to be part of it. As he reached Jay, the man blew a large ring of smoke and took the pint out of Maynards hands.
“It’s like a goddamn torture chamber in there,” Jay said as he sighed.
“I know!” Maynard replied, “I was there for thirty seconds and I felt Iain and Grace kill everyone’s vibe. How was she when he showed up?”
“Bad, but you know Grace. She put on a brave face and didn’t let it get to her, but then captain t*** had to mention how awkward things were going to be once people left for uni.”
“That makes me want to punch him,” Maynard replied with his mouth slightly ajar in shock, “Does the dude not know what tact is?”
“Apparently not,” Jay continued, before gulping down a large mouthful of beer, “Perhaps tonight was a bad idea…”
“Don’t be like that,” Maynard said, “I doubt it will be all bad, there’s just gonna be some bumps is all.”
“You’re right.” Taking another drink, Jay said, “If you had the ability to stop this kind of thing, would you?”
“What?”
“Sorry, it’s a little bit left field, but if you had some kind of magic power that could make everyone here get along, would you use it?”
Maynard frowned, “Interesting question. Would it be just for tonight, or permanently?”
“Just for tonight, I guess,” Jay replied.
“Oh, then absolutely not.”
“Why? Jay asked, dropping the cigarette butt on the ground and stamping it out.
“Two reasons, I guess. First, the problem is still a thing, right? Everyone is just magically getting along for the night. The problem will still be there tomorrow when we wake up, only it will exist for a day longer. Sometimes it’s better to just tear the bandage off. Sure, people will be less happy in the short term, but things will be better in the long.”
Jay nodded, “What’s the second reason?”
“If I have the ability to make people chill out and be happy with that kind of vibe, why aren’t I just training to become a hostage negotiator? It’d be a much better use of my powers.”
Jay chuckled to Maynard’s response and looked away from his drink, “Thanks,” he said.
“What’s the point of dwelling over stuff like this? It’s not like we can actually wish Grace and Iain get on better. Let’s just chill out, drink, and be as merry as possible considering the circumstances.”
“Remind me when we finish here, I have something I want to show you,” Jay said.
Maynard was about to respond when a shriek cut through the dull pulse of music like a knife, “You bastard!” The two friends turned towards the door, and saw Grace storming outside, tears streaming down her face with Iain following after her.
“Gracie, I…” Iain began, but he was immediately cut off by her shriek in response.
“Stay away from me! I hate you Iain!” She stood in the middle of the road like a tormented banshee, her long blonde hair flickering in the wind as her mascara stained face was flush with rage, anguish and betrayal.
“Grace, please…” he continued pathetically.
“You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants for one goddamn month, or even have the strength of character to just end things could you?” As Grace screamed, another blonde girl walked out of the bar and hid behind Iain, watching the young woman cry her heart out. It was one of those girls he saw looking at him in the bar, and he finally put a name to her face. Noelle, a friend of Amy’s and the girl who had bullied Grace for years. Iain took another step towards Grace, but she pointed at him and screamed, “Don’t you f****** move! Stay away from me!”
Maynard glanced at Jay and sighed, “Perhaps I would use that super power given the chance. I’ll try and calm Grace down. You get Noelle and captain bellend out of here. They’re just making things worse.”
With a nod, the two friends split up. Jay made his way towards Iain, and Maynard walked into the road. In the background he could hear Jay tearing out Iain, but he was not focussed on that now. He was zeroed in on his crying friend. She failed to see him walk over to her, so when he wrapped his arms around her, she flinched, but she soon relaxed as he began speaking, “You alright Grace?” he asked, more in an effort to start conversation than actually gauge how she was feeling.
“He hurt me,” she said through sobs, “He really hurt me, Mayn.”
“I know, Grace. How about we get out of the road and you can talk to me about it all night?”
“Why her though?” she asked, venom in her voice. “He knew how much she hurt me. He knew she hadn’t got better. Why did he pick her over me?”
“Some people are just stupid, Grace, let’s just get…” Maynard could hear people shouting. He looked up, around and spotted a car careening towards them both. In a fraction of a moment, he swore, pushed Grace away from the car and felt the bonnet collide with his thigh. He could hear the bone snap as he felt his body crumple along with the front of the car. His head smacked against the windscreen and instantly everything went black.
