74 Old Friends

"What?!"

"Ahh, why are you screaming?" said Steve.

"Because you flew here, like a couple of dumbasses. Did you both forget about radars? Or cameras?" I asked them.

"Hahahaha! Calm down, we're just messing with you. You were right, he totally freaked out." said Steve, talking to Andrew.

"Jesus. I thought you were serious."

"No, we're not idiots. We just wanted to catch up with the genius doctor and see how he's been doing since he got to New York." said Andrew.

"Oh, pretty good so far, I'll admit."

"What that's it? No specifics? Come on dude, give us the juicy stories."

"There's not much to say. I hung out with some new people at a bar, made a friend, hung out with her, and flew to Japan to check up on a client, like I said not much."

"That's what you call not much?! In comparison to you, we've been doing jack." said Andrew.

"Yeah, yeah. Tell us about this girl you've clearly fallen in love with."

"I don't know about falling in love with her, but I do like her."

"So, is she hot?"

"Very."

"Ohh, I'm so jealous of you."

"Don't you have a girlfriend? What are you jealous about?"

"Yeah she's cool and all but I don't think we'll make it past Christmas."

"That sucks."

"It is what it is. So, how'd you meet her?"

"At the bar. She came in to get a drink and I just went up to her and started spitting game."

"Right. So, what really happened?"

"Hey come on, I can spit game. Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Because I've seen you stumble over your words talking to that one pretty barista." said Andrew.

"Okay, fair point, but counterpoint, that was years ago. I have way more game now."

"Fine, fine. So what happened after you spit game?"

"We started talking, but she had to leave so I asked her out the next day and she said yes. So, I took her to the mall and out to eat, and we had a good time. We still talk every day, but I've been a little busy so I haven't been able to ask her out." I said creating a fake story about how I met Ciri.

"Nice. So in terms of looks, what are we talking about?" asked Steve.

"I can't compare to her anyone. She's too beautiful to compare."

"Aww, come on. Just ballpark it."

"As I said, it's hard."

"Who cares about that? Matt, you said you went to Japan?" asked Andrew, fascinated by Japan considering he's half-weeb.

"Yup. Explored Tokyo and everything."

"Uhh, I'm so jealous."

"We can go for a graduation trip."

"Haha, with what money?" asked Andrew.

Even though the medical bills for Aunt Karen had been taken over by my parents, and they were both living in our house, Andrew had gotten a part-time job to help as much as possible. Taking all that into account, they didn't have much money to spare. Although my parents were just saving the money Andrew contributed and adding it to a college fund for him.

"I'll pay for both of your tickets. Consider it my graduation gift." I said.

"No, that's way too much money." said both of them.

"Guys, I'm a genius doctor. I can treat one rich person and get the money required whenever I want." I said which caused the both of them to fall into silence.

"Are you sure?" asked Andrew.

"Of course I'm sure."

"Okay, but I'll pay back every penny." said Andrew.

"Sure, sure. So what's going on with you guys?"

~~

After talking with the boys for an hour or so about their lives and their college choices, I said goodbye to them and hung up.

'Nice to talk to old friends. Glad to see they're doing okay too, but I should plan my day tomorrow so I don't just go with the flow. First, get my account info from Masato and hopefully meet with a law firm to talk about my business. Two, get the info or get the process started on opening up a clinic. I could also just ask Chase to introduce me to Foreman so I can work in the clinic there. It's a free clinic which means the less fortunate go there, so it's the same thing as if I open up one.' I thought before I was interrupted by my phone ringing.

"Barney, what's up?"

"MacLaren's Pub, right now. Suit up."

"Okay." I said before hanging up.

'Eh, all that planning can wait till tomorrow.'

~~

"Morning sunshine." said Lily as I opened my eyes to see her standing above me with Baby Eriksen at her hip.

"Morning to you too. Sorry for crashing here. Barney said it would be okay." I said as I sat up from the couch and turned to the coffee table to see Barney sprawled on it.

"It's fine. But still, it's so sad to see him acting like he's twenty. Oh well, coffee?" she asked as she made her way to the kitchen.

"Please."

"So what happened last night?"

"Barney called me and just said MacLaren's Pub and suit up, and seeing as I was kinda bored I decided to go. After that, we drank and Barney tried to keep up with me but unfortunately for him, he didn't know I'm a tank. So, he ended up rather drunk fast and tried to do plays from something called the Playbook.

Anyways, long story short after a few drinks in his face, we ended up here. It was kinda cool to see how he just picked the lock to the door."

"That's not cool, we just left the door unlocked."

"Oh, slightly less cool."

"So, how have you been since we last met?"

"Good."

"Any interesting doctor stories?"

"Not entirely, but I did go to Japan to check up on an ex-patient of mine whose disease was interesting."

"Japan? I'm assuming this patient of yours is rich?"

"Very. No doctors were able to figure out what was wrong with him, and he had heard of a genius in med school, so he brought me out and I cured him. Suffice to say, I got comped handsomely."

"How handsome?"

"My very own suite at a 7-star hotel."

"Are you serious?" she asked, completely baffled at my revelation.

"As a deep-vein thrombosis."

"Ughh, that sounds amazing."

"It was. Hey, if you're ever in Japan you can use it anytime you like."

"Please, as if we'd ever be able to afford to go to Japan."

"You never know. Life is a fickle bit-" I was about to say before being glared at by Lily and pointing at her baby, "-ter melon. Saved it. Anyway, life is full of unexpected surprises. You might end up marrying a guy in the same dorm hall as you, or you might end up going to Japan. Who knows?"

"I guess. Oh, Barney, you're awake."

"Shh, not too loud, Lil. I have a raging headache." he said rubbing his forehead.

"That's what happens when a mid-30-year-old tries to act like he's 20. Didn't you go over the Murtaugh List already?"

"I renounce that list. "

"Murtaugh List?"

"It's a list of things that Ted wrote down that once you hit 30, you're too old to be doing anymore."

"But we ripped it because being young is a state of mind." said Barney.

"Cool."

"Anyway, you said you were going to show me the picture of the girl yesterday and you never did. Cough it up."

"What girl?" asked Lily.

"The girl that he's fallen in love with that caused him to reject using my plays."

"Ooh, let me see, let me see." she said coming over.

"I haven't fallen in love with her. I just like her."

"Tomato, tomato, let me see."

"Fine, this is her." I said before pulling out my phone and showing her a selfie we took when we went shopping.

"Holy crap she's beautiful." said Lily, a little in awe.

"Dibs." said Barney.

"Barney! You're too old to be doing that. Besides, she likes Matt. Isn't there some Bro Code you can't break or something?"

"Sorry, Matt I saw her first. And dibs."

"You can try all you want Barney, but I'm pretty sure she's caused a guy to become impotent before."

"Huh?" he said.

"I've seen it. Guy came up to her and touched her ass, so she kicked him in the nards hard enough to burst a bubble."

"N-never mind. I'll let you have her, bro to bro." he said while protecting his jewels.

"Thanks, Barney." I said smiling while shaking my head before my phone began to ring.

"Hello. Okay. Okay. I'll be right there. Sorry, guys got to go, but it was nice seeing you both. Call me if you guys want to hang out." I said before leaving back to my hotel as Masato had already had the documents delivered.