badassprodigy | A warehouse called George

It had been almost a week since Barry had attempted to call Roxie. Which had resulted in unpleasantness.

So he made sure Sara wasn't around for this phone call by text first. Immediately afterward Barry's phone was ringing.

"Hi Roxie. How's my favorite Sasquatch?"

The surly grin she had on her face was pretty much all he needed to see. "Gee Barry, I don't know. How should I react to a friend who I haven't talked to in five years saying he'd call me tomorrow and then call me a week later?"

Barry winced. "Sorry. I got fucking distracted. There's-"

"-Strange shit going on at the island that you can't figure out because it's some magic bullshit," Roxie finished for him. "I don't know why you decided to stay there."

"You fucking know why."

Roxie paused and nodded. "Yeah. I know but that was a long time ago. Maybe things would be different?"

Barry shook his head. "I'm better off here. Besides I have plans."

Roxie let out a long sigh. "Okay then Barry. How about you tell me what's been going on since you left and what exactly these plans are and I'll catch you up with our world.

And they talked. For a long time. Longer than Jeremy because... well Jeremy had a short attention span. Plus Roxie was supremely intelligent for a Sasquatch and she and Barry connected at a different level. She could tell when Barry was hiding something and Barry didn't mind her calling him out on his bullshit.

"So let me get this straight: You now have a gasoline pump outside the warehouse because you didn't want an elephant looking at sex toys."

"Only in Fandom," Barry joked.

Sara shook her head. "All right. All right. Listen... there's one thing I haven't told you yet. Mostly because I wasn't sure how you'd react."

Barry raised an eyebrow at that. "What?"

"Sara is engaged."

Barry sat there for a moment. "Oh."

And then a moment later. "Well. Good for her!"

"Really?" Roxie asked dubiously. "That's it? You two did a will-they-or-won't-they thing for almost seven years before you set out to Fandom. I would have thought there would be more."

"Yeah. And for me it's been ten years since I last saw her. And clearly she wants nothing to do with me."

Roxie shook her head again. "Seriously, Barry. You two need to find some closure on this."

Barry groaned. "Ten fucking years Roxie. And she's getting married. We've both moved on."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it. You may not have been dating but you were friends first. And when she found out about you she was pissed."

"Right. And we haven't fucking talked since. I'm pretty sure she hates my guts so why the fuck whould I want to open that can of worms?"

"Because as pissed as she was at you? She kept your secret."

Barry didn't say anything for a while. "Yeah. Okay. I'll think about it."

"Love ya, Bar. Call me soon."

"Right."

Barry sat there for a few minutes thinking about what Roxie had said.

"Fuck that shit."

And in his typical behavior went back to his experiments to distract him from any thoughts about home.

[Establishy. NFI as I'm going to be busy doing other nerdy stuff tonight]