"Cheers!"
The four of them clinked glass bottles together with jubilation, while a fifth man sat back and raised his bottle.
"Ay, Cheers to that. I'm proud of you kids." Mumbled Devon, a guitar pick between his lips as he mussed about with the strings of his old acoustic guitar. He leaned further back into the chair, and brushed the chords lightly, filling the dark room with a sudden warmth and character. He brushed his long hair straight back, and started to pick gently at the strings.
Eli stood proud, his eyes clear, and a graduation cap on his head. "I'm just glad we made it all together. It's been a long four years, and a lot of hard work. I couldn't have done it without any you, and particularly you Grace,"
The blonde girl woman by his side rubbed his arm, looking up at him proudly. She leaned up and the pair kissed. "I always believed in you." She concluded. Contrary to the rest, she wasn't boasting any new degree, and was dressed in a light dress under a jean jacket. Her heels were very poorly suited to the precarious and cluttered terrain of the abandoned house. Her purse, despite everyone's assurance that things would be fine, was filled with gauze, medical tape, antibiotics, and everything else that might be expected of a nurse, though her soft expression reflected a demeanor more suited for bedside comfort, than ER triage.
Harrison sat heavily in the cushions of a ruined couch. "We made it, but this is just the start isn't it?" The larger man had dark curly hair, and wore a pragmatic leather jacket and jeans, accented by a black shirt with a mandala pattern woven into it. "You're probably off to some engineering firm." He gestured to Eli. "I'm diving into post-grad, and Zarra's..."
"And I'm going to focus on my blog." Zarra concluded.
"I thought you said you were going to write for the local paper?" Harrison asked.
"I said I'd think about it." She sighed. The girl had a stark clean undercut, with long asymmetrical bangs. Her hair complimented her bold expressive face with dramatic winged eyeliner giving an intensity to her eyes. Her high wasted skinny jeans showed every curve of her legs, as she literally fell into Harrisons lap. She was waifish in comparison to the larger stockier man. She played with the top button of his shirt, undoing it and showing his chest hair beneath. "I'm not sure the paper's in the business of publishing horror. You're still chasing your dream. I'm not going to give up on mine so quickly."
"I'm not asking you to give up on it... It's just going to be hard to make ends meet..."
"Well, then, you can go to school part time, and get a job as an archivist somewhere." She met his eyes and raised an eyebrow, her tone challenging.
Harry flustered. "Y-yeah, but if I'm not going full time, I have to start paying back my loans."
"Booooo!" Devon interjected, suddenly stopping his strumming. His rough clothes and sandals made him look like a permanent resident of the ramshackle house. Oddly, he looked at home in it, smiling for the first time in weeks, an expression accented by subtle wrinkles that had come far earlier than they should have. "You kids just graduated." He said with a smile. "I don't want to hear all this bickering about loans. Drink, hang, puff." He winked as he produced a small baggy from his pocket, and passed it to Harrison.
"Heeey! There's a graduation gift." Harry cheered.
"You lot are doing right by yourselves. Working hard, going to school. I'm proud of you." Devon nodded. "I'm just here to remind you kids to take it easy once and a while."
Devon stuck a blunt in his own lips, lit it with a gas station bic, and took a deep breath. His body relaxed, and he began to play on the guitar once again, this time more deliberately.
"You know." Eli chuckled. "For some reason I figured you'd stop calling us kids when we graduation."
"Never." Devon chuckled.
"You're only 6 years older than us."
"Yes, but wizened by life experience, and many eons more mature."
Eli just laughed as he took a long draw on the blunt Eli passed him. He offered it to Grace, but she shook her head, and wrinkled her nose.
"So what does that make me?" Grace asked, raising her voice and eyebrow in a theatrical provocation. "You're only 3 years older than me."
"You're all my kids," Devon chuckled before taking on a more dramatic tone. "The years are but a drop in the eternity of my life."
She smirked and rolled her eyes. "So this is your childhood hangout?" She asked, addressing the rest of the group.
Eli nodded. "Sort of. We used to come here and make trouble when we wanted to get away on the weekend. Harry would tell his parents he was at my place, I'd tell my parents I was at his, then we'd come here and make a mess of things. Course, Harry and Zarra would come here for a different reason." Eli chuckled as his eyes flit between the couch and the dark couple.
"So you kept dating after highschool? That's really cool. Not many relationships survive that change." Grace smiled genuinely.
"Well... Relationship..." Harry shrugged as he slid his hand up and down Zarra's thigh.
Zarra fixed him in a sharp gaze, a curious smile on her lips.
"I know we're an odd group." Eli pleaded their case to Grace, "But we've really been there for each other over the years. Devon's been like a brother to me since... You know." He shrugged. "I'm glad you two finally get to meet and hang out."
Grace turned her expression to the upper twenty something man. "Me too Devon. Eli really appreciates you."
Devon waved off the compliment evasively. "Truth be told," Devon winked at Eli. "I'm surprised my Eli got with a lady as impressive as you Grace. Look at you, smart, beautiful, successful, You sure about him?"
She laughed. "I am."
The night wore on as the group talked about college, the future, goals and ambitions. Music carried them away in a cloud of smoke and laughter until all gave way to silence.
Finally Devon spoke up. "Hey... What's this here?" He squinted his eyes as he noticed a gleam of silver under a pile of broken boards.
He picked it up, saw himself in the mirror, and turned the knob. "Shit man!" He shouted, suddenly dropping the mirror to the ground.
"Heeey, what's the deal?" Zarra asked, She was draped over the couch, her head resting on Harry's arm. "Great, because this room needed more broken glass." She tittered as she glanced at Devon.
"It wasn't that man." Devon insisted. "I turned a little knob, and my reflection changed."
Eli started to laugh. "I think you've smoked enough for tonight."
"I'm serious! That's some magic mirror shit."
The three friends laughed him off, but Grace rose to her feet, and picked up the mirror in her manicured hands. She blinked, expression cold and stoic. "He's... right. Look!" She turned the mirror to the rest of the crew.
In each of their places, someone else was reflected. Not just a little different, but radically unfamiliar. Different faces, expressions, bodies, even sexes.
"See!" Hissed Devon. "I told you!"
Grace turned the mirror back at herself. "Ugh. I'm a boy." She started to preen her own hairs as if to clean the messy masculine face she saw reflected in the mirror.
"Here, let me see." Eli declared. "I bet it's got smartphone circuitry stuck in the frame, and the mirror is just an LED screen. This could be some crazy AR technology." Grace passed it and Eli turned the knob. His reflection shuddered through a dozen different faces, slowly everyone rose to their feet, and piled around him as he examined the mirror.
"Maybe these antennae are connecting it to the internet? That still doesn't explain why it's lying around here though."
He tried to turn the knob counter-clockwise, but it did nothing. He turned it clockwise once again, and everyone's features changed dramatically. It was such a confusing jumble, it was difficult to tell who was who. There was a red headed older woman in a frumpy sweater. A pudgy woman with big round spectacles. A blonde girl clearly in her teens holding her belly, but even more startling were the animal people. One with clearly feline features, and the other looking like a fox.
"What's the button do?" Zarra asked.
"Let's find out." Eli concluded, and pressed it.
