The spot

We're sitting in the car, driving to somewhere. I have no clue, I don't know where anything really is. Man, I hope there's a McDonald's nearby...

We pull up to someone's house and stop. A boy our age comes out and gets in. He's wearing a hoodie with some random anime pins, a pair of headphones around his neck, and a backpack that looks like it's got a laptop in it. I would call him a weeb, but he's vibing like an otaku.

"Grace," Laureen introduces us. "this is Alex. Alex, this is Grace. Try not to go on a rant on how one of your favorite animes ended."

He sighs a sigh that sounds a little frustrated, but overall used to it. "Fine. But is she into anime?"

"Ask her yourself."

"Well are you?"

"I've only seen one anime, and I'm not really into it."

"Yeah, not a lot of people are. But which anime was it?" his eager voice pipes.

"Danganronpa, but I heard there's also a game to it."

"It is a game, but there's an anime for the first game. It's actually one of my favorite animes."

"How many animes have you seen?"

"Oh boy," Alexis moans. "don't ask him that. He'll talk forever on explaining each one."

"Fine," Alex sneers. "I'll just give her a rough estimate."

"And that number would be..?" I ask.

"Uhhmm..." he ponders. "I'd have to say about...four hundred twenty."

"That's a lot. How do you find all that time?"

"You weren't told? I'm homeschooled."

"Ah, that makes sense."

"Guys," Laureen ends the conversation. "we're here."

We step out and we're somewhere kind of far. It's definitely outside the city limits, but probably not by far. We must be somewhere in the mountains.

"This way," Mark gets my attention. "hurry up."

We walk a bit and come to a cleared area and a small cave that show no creatures. But it does show a pile of wood. There's a small pile of burnt wood surrounded by rocks. There are a few small trees a little off in the distance.

"This is our little hangout place." Laureen tells me. "It's not really private, sometimes we'll throw parties and quite a few people show up. They're usually hosted by all of us, but Alexis usually is the main act."

"That's cool," I respond kind of uneasy. "do you guys charge people? Make a profit or whatever?"

"Yeah," Alexis walks up to me. "a lot people show up. Why not make some extra dough. You want in?"

"Me?" I say shocked. "There's no way I could. Besides, I just met you guys. We don't really know each other..."

"That could be fixed." Alexis teases. "But seriously, we think you'd fit in with us. You know, join us."

"Alexis," Laureen stops her. "stop making it seem like a cult. And Grace, we really think you'd be a great friend."

I feel a little lighter after hearing that. But still, something just seems off. Something isn't sitting right. Then I see something I can't unsee, something that'll stick in my mind until I say something. But do I really want to possibly lose my friends? What I see is what's making me feel so uneasy. In the corner of the pule of wood in that small little cave are beer bottles. Empty beer bottles.