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For the next five or so minutes, I cruised us around the vicinity for the vaguest thing that resembled an empty rectangle while Irene sat side-eyeing all the cars that weren\'t exactly following proper parking etiquette.

"781PHZ," Irene said disapprovingly, eyes staring lasers at a blue sedan. "I know him. Got dragged in for a D.U.I a couple of months back."

I snorted.

"Y\'know, should I even be surprised you have an entire archive of felonies you can just in your head?" 

"He\'s taking up a lane, and blocking an exit for two," Irene went on with that sour little note trailing behind her words. "It wasn\'t his first offense either actually. He\'s been snagged for a lot of other things. Always bailed out within a few hours."

"Lucky guy."

"Not for long," Irene said ominously.

I seriously wouldn\'t put it past her to just hop out of the car any second now and start issuing tickets and clamps \'till she runs the entire police supply dry.

Yet alas, a prior, more pressing engagement awaited us at the moment.

By good fortune, I managed to snag a space not too far out just as the prior occupant was wheeling themselves out, and after one long trek of awkward silence later, we arrived at the entrance of the park with no flaming bird anywhere near in sight.

I\'ll tell you what there was though - people, lots and lots of people, sitting, standing, strolling, all equally mesmerized by a captivating performance happening high in the sky. I didn\'t know what I was seeing at first; dozens, probably hundreds of tiny glowing pinpricks of light swirling and swaying across the night like a massive swarm of multicolored fireflies - then from random zigzags and swerve, the lights began to assemble and take shape like a singular hivemind, like - 

"Drones…" Irene whispered with the subtlest sense of awe in her voice. 

The drones continued to take their place in the sky, one by one like a giant game of connect-the-dots, forming a bright glittering constellation of the earth itself, spinning in the vast backdrop of empty space before it was suddenly engulfed and filled to the brim with the sound and sight of more fireworks commemorating another year\'s revolution.

People clapped, people cheered, bottles were raised up high and beer went spilling down low. Christmas was barely a week ago, and yet they somehow managed to up their game with that short of a time span.

We entrenched ourselves deeper into the fanfare, the mass of lights above our heads continuously shifting and transforming into more wondrous forms of spectacle. It dove like a plane, pounced like a lion, and even became target practice for a bombardment of fireworks.

Well, Ria\'s right about one thing… it really was quite the light show, alright. 

And speaking of Ria…

"You\'re late!" 

She jumped at us, emerging from the company and interlocked arms of drunken brethren, holding a beer can of her own and with absolutely no one batting a second glance at her - we\'ll call it \'blinding personality\'.

"I did the math, you know?" she continued to berate, huffing in her own sense of superiority.

"You do math?" I asked in shock and awe.

"Between how fast I was going and how fast you could go, it should have been me trailing behind your ass at the finish line. What? Were you hoping for a tortoise and the hare situation? What took you so long to get here?" 

I glanced at Irene for a second, who seemed unusually absorbed in staring at the skies; the honest answer wasn\'t exactly mine to give out… so instead I went ahead and gave the simplest one.

"You know speed limits are a thing here, right?" 

Ria blew her lips at me.

"Seriously afraid of getting arrested? With the company you keep? You do know it pays to have friends in high places, yes?" She huffed again, smirking impishly. "And since you\'re more than friends with most of your friends, you really oughta know that that\'s a lotta leverage you\'re holding between your legs there."

I sighed. "Any way I can use my leverage to clean that mouth of yours? even a little?" 

"Sorry," she said, batting her eyelids extra sweetly. "But you\'re still a little bit too young for me."

"What?"

"Besides," she downed her can, smacking her lips. "You already got plenty of other mouths to feed, don\'t you?"

I felt my insides lurch.

"No, that\'s not what I - "

"You\'re having fun," Irene said, barging in with the same old dreary delivery of hers. "Seeing all this - not so bitter now after being woken up, hm?" 

I saw myself out, took a step back. Anytime those two locked gazes as of late, gravity seemed stronger ten times over within their vicinity. And especially after hearing Irene\'s true feelings regarding Ria… yeah, I\'m really feeling the pull alright.

"It is possible to feel more than one emotion," Ria replied coolly. "Would you rather I snipe at you every chance possible or just simply enjoy this moment between you and I?"

"And what is this moment to you?" 

"Hello, nice to see you, I miss you, let\'s catch up?" Ria suggested one after the other, "Happy birthday, Happy New Year - girl, there are many, many things you can call this moment, last but not least though," she leaned forward, stretching her arm, a tender smile visible as she warmly stroked the top of Irene\'s head. "Goodbye again." 

"Goodbye," Irene repeated. "Again.

"Yeah, but not for now," Ria assured her to little success. "For now, we have all the fun we can. I mean, why the hell else do you think I brought us all here for?" 

"Because you wanted to?" 

"Right!" She beamed. "And what I want is usually what\'s best. You should know that by now."

"If you say so," Irene deadpanned.

"Then when we all had our fun, the fireworks stops, the yawning starts, and we all go droopy-eyed and wobbly, then yes," she finished, her smile not wavering an inch. "We\'ll all go into our own sweet dreams." 

Irene remained muted in both words and expressions. Ria didn\'t notice, or maybe just chose not to, turning to me once again instead with a twinkle afresh in her gaze.

"Oh, and speaking of friends in high places, by the way," she said, swaying giddily. "I believe I might have met one of yours."

That\'s news to me.

"Who?" I asked, breezing through the admittedly short list of acquaintances I had in my head. "And how do they know me from you?" 

The moment I said those words, a firework soared above me, exploding, engulfing me in the light of clarity and it all clicked at once.

Who else was in on the secret? Who else would see a literal woman smoldering red and orange and think of me instantly?  Who the hell else could put together an event such as this for the sake of the people?

Most importantly… who would?

"He\'s not exactly the leisurely strolling type, or \'least I don\'t think so" Ria said, confirming it all for me irrefutably. Then, with grace unique to her bearings, she spun her heels toward the beer-can-paved trail. "C\'mon, we had a talk earlier - said he\'d be absolutely delighted to share a drink with you, and honestly, I could go for something stronger too." 

Wish I could say the feeling\'s mutual. 

"C\'mon," Ria said, five paces deep into the tight mass of jolly drunkards, gesturing at us to follow. "Let\'s see if we can\'t find him again."