Jessica
When Jessica got back from work that day, she found Ava balanced on her tiptoes on a bar stool in the middle of the living room. Jessica was silent as Ava worked, so she wouldn't startle her.
"How was your day, honey?" Ava called over her shoulder as she pinned down the final part of the second banner. The noise of Jessica unlocking the door must've alerted Ava to her presence.
"That weird guy was back, and told me all about his brother's vasectomy. How was yours?"
Ava laughed as she descended back to solid ground and turned to face Jessica. "How'd you guys get on the topic of vasectomies?"
"I don't even know, but I really wish you'd been there. It was bizarre."
"You asked for the afternoon shift," Ava reminded her as she came closer and kissed Jessica hello. "And my day was good. I even did the grocery shopping. You can thank me later."
Jessica smiled and leaned back in for another peck before she looked up at Ava's banners.
Congratulations! You Just Moved In!
Congratulations! You Realized He Already Moved in Months Ago!
The latter had two extending papers of varying colors glued onto the right to fit all the words, but the last three were still squeezed tightly together.
"You think the boys will appreciate it?" Ava asked.
"Carter will. Zyan? Probably not so much."
Ava nodded to herself. "Great."
An hour later, they were all gathered in the living room. Where Ava and Jessica had bought alcohol for themselves, Carter and Zyan provided the food. They'd started out standing and talking, but within five minutes, they ended up on the couch, watching some movie Jessica had found while channel surfing.
She was already pleasantly buzzed and feeling content with Ava tugged against her side and Carter pressed against her other. The warmth they provided was nice, especially to her fuzzy mind.
"I hate these sorts of movies." Zyan's voice quiet enough that Jessica could barely hear the comment.
"Why?" she asked.
"If you'd lived as long as us, you'd understand," Carter answered in Zyan's place.
She looked back at the screen. It was dark, and everyone was shouting as the bullets hailed down and distant explosions cut over the noise. The men in camouflage were gesturing wildly as they moved forward one by one. Some of them reached the next cover safely; others were pierced by bullets and died on the spot.
"Movies tend to glorify war," Zyan said. "But there's no sense in it, no glory. In war, nobody wins. Everyone who comes out alive has lost something. Whether it be friends, their innocence, their sanity, or an actual physical part of their body. It's just death, lives lost at the command of a more powerful person, who doesn't want to fight their own battles. The people on both sides are innocent. They're all carrying out orders—supposedly killing for a higher purpose, but it's senseless killing. It's about money and resources and power. They aren't doing it for survival or out of necessity—at least not both sides. Hundreds, thousands, millions of lost lives, and what for? Aren't those lives worth more than what they're being sacrificed for?"
Carter had grown tenser next to her, either because of Zyan's harsh words or because of the memories that had to have resurfaced. "There are entire countries that live off warfare. They finance themselves by sending their people off to battles that aren't theirs to fight. They don't even put their lives on the line for their own country, but for somebody else's. Entire wars are being fought right now that carry no purpose besides earning money for the people providing the weapons. Innocent people are laying down their lives for the sake of somebody else's pointless crusade."
Jessica lowered her eyes. The pleasant buzz had disappeared as the words sobered her. Of course she'd been aware of the situation, but she tried not to think about it too much; there was already enough pointless violence in the news and on the internet to numb her for the rest of her life. But hearing about it and having experienced it were two very different things. And these two men next to her had lived it.
A heavy silenced settled over the four of them for about two minutes.
"We could watch Lilo & Stitch again," Ava offered.
"I'd prefer that," Zyan replied after a few more seconds of silence.
Ava nodded and untangled herself from Jessica to get up.