2 kids cause street mayhem for slushies

Knock, knock.

Yuan was pulled from his world of staring at the wall shortly after waking up and doing nothing by two abrupt knocks at....his window.

That's odd, he thought, my window is on the second floor. Nobody could get up on here, unless...

His brown eyes flicked over to the window immediately following that thought. Sure enough, a gloved hand reached over and knocked firmly again against the window. It drew back quickly, as if the person needed it to balance.

Gloved hand... Oh no.

Yuan sighed and pulled himself out of bed. He knew what to expect every day, but this early? Seems like he had to step up his game. He slipped out of bed and pulled open the window, the sunshine gracing his face instantly. He poked his head out and looked around until he was met with the sight of his friendly rival, Buggy, sitting on his roof at 7 AM holding his gasoline tank. His heart sank for a little bit, thinking he'd taken the recent prank wars too far and doused him, but he then noticed there was a bendy straw in the tank. The young arsonist was sipping out of it.

"Hey, Yuan," he greeted after taking a sip from the straw and fixing his scarf onehandedly. "How are ya doing on this fine morning?"

"...Buggy," was all Yuan could get out at the moment.

"That's me," replied Buggy.

"You're...you're sitting on my roof, it's 7 in the morning."

"Yup."

"And you're drinking gasoline."

Buggy snorted. "Yeah. Want some?" He held out the tank, shaking it around a little.

"What? Of course I don't, what...how..."

"Huh. Figures. Well, what am I supposed to do with the rest of it, then? I can't possibly finish this whole thing," Buggy pouted, examining the tank. "I guess I'll just..." He started pouring the substance on Yuan's roof. Yuan choked a scream, reaching out and swiping at him.

"What are you doing, are you crazy?!" He yelled, trying to reach him from the window, Buggy laughing and dodging.

"Hah! Oh my god, I got you so hard! This isn- hey! Hey, hey, stop it--" Yuan managed to thwack him on the arm, causing him to lose his grip on the roof and drop the gasoline tank. It fell to the ground, the contents spilling out on the lawn, and Buggy slipped, clawing at the roof. "Yuan, you fu-" He fell off, landing into Yuan's family's array of bushes.  Yuan looked back and forth from the fallen arsonist and the gasoline...wait, that wasn't gasoline. It was light blue and mushy, it was melting into water in between the ridges of the roof and sliding into the gutter. Yuan groaned, and looked out over the front lawn to where Buggy had fallen. 

"Sorry about that," he shouted down. "Are you...okay?" He saw Buggy's face appear out of the bushes, looking up at him with an annoyed expression. He crawled out of the bushes, trying to look as miserable as possible. 

"No. I've broken every bone in my body and now I'm dead," he replied, throwing himself onto the ground and reaching for his gasoline tank. Yuan closed the window, and threw on some socially acceptable clothes before heading outside. He looked down to Buggy, still sprawled out on the floor and sipping from the bendy straw and whatever was left in the tank.

"C'mon, get up," Yuan said, holding out a hand. Buggy took it and stood himself up, brushing some bush stuff and dirt off of himself. "Seriously, what was in that tank? Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Blue raspberry slushy," Buggy answered, lifting up his tank and tilting it a little over his mouth until the last drops of slushy fell into his mouth. "But now there's nothing because you slapped it out of my hand like that. Thanks a lot."

"How the heck did you get it in your tank? And why? That thing must be filthy." 

"It's BYO cup day at 7-11, so I took my chances and my savings and filled this baby up. And, when I started looking at it, I realized I could get you good with it by making you think I was gonna set your pillion on fire." Buggy stuck his tongue out, which was dyed blue by the slushy. Yuan punched him playfully in the shoulder. 

"Hey, I've got an empty, washed-out container of bleach just for this moment. Wanna bring it with me and drink our stuff in public?" Yuan grinned mischievously, and Buggy returned the grin. It faded shortly.

"Wait...I would, but I don't have any more money on me." Buggy frowned. 

"Isn't it only, like, a buck fifty?"

Buggy gave him a look that read, hey, what can you do, simultaneously stretching out the insides of his pockets to show he was broke as hell.

"...Don't worry about it. It's on me. Let's do this," he said, racing into his house to grab his bleach container. Buggy laughed, grabbing his gasoline tank and running behind him.

“Okay, here, I’ll tuck all of our stuff into our backpack here, plus some napkins…”

“Some napkins? It looks like you just emptied an entire pack of the things into our bag.”

“Hey, hey, you know how huge drink spills can get.”

“God…whatever. Just hurry up, we’re taking forever. What if they empty out the slushy machines by the time we get there?” Buggy was hopping around anxiously.

“They’re not gonna empty out slushy machines that quickly,” Yuan laughed. “Anyways, I’m already done. Let me just…” He strapped on the backpack, patting it. “Can you check that it won’t open when—hey, where are you going?”

“Hop on losers, we’re gonna get some slushies,” Buggy barked at him, already seated on the old bicycle. 

“Wait—wait for me!” Yuan yelled, running towards him. Buggy giggled and took off, pedaling for his life. Yuan chased him down, yelling “WAIT” after him, his backpack smacking him in the back with each step. Eventually Buggy hit the brakes, Yuan catching up to him and glaring at him as he sat on the handlebars. “I hate you,” he said breathlessly, fixing his backpack up so he could balance properly. 

“Right back at ya,” Buggy joked, craning his neck so he could be able to see. He took off pedaling again, Yuan held on tight.

“How far away is the 7-11 again?” Yuan asked, raising his voice to battle against the roar of the wind whizzing past them.

“Not too far,” replied Buggy, in a louder voice. “It’ll only take us, say...5 minutes, if traffic isn’t too bad.”

“…Traffic? By traffic, you do mean, like…pedestrians and stuff, right?”

“Nah. I mean cars. If we take the bike path the entire way it’ll take years, but if we just cut through some of the roads we’ll be there before the slushies run out.”

Yuan’s grip on the handlebars tightened a little more.

They reached the first streets, which were luckily not as crowded. Buggy cruised through them with ease, snaking through any unmoving cars and landing back onto the sidewalk. Soon on they reached the more busy streets, the typical ambience of whizzing tires and cars going over bumps in the road becoming present. Buggy was determined to shoot through them as swiftly as before. He looked up.

“Hey, can you lean over? I can’t see.”

“Alright.” Yuan leaned to the right.

“God—the other way!” Buggy tried to look at the traffic light, which was obscured, but Yuan didn’t budge, trying to get back at him for the prank earlier. However, he soon realized his mistake when they hit the asphalt of the road, biking blindly. The two screamed, and Yuan quickly leaned to the left, Buggy swerving sharply to avoid a car shooting right past them.

“You’re gonna get us killed!” Yuan shrieked, legs trying to get ahold of something that wasn’t the front wheel. 

“I am?! You didn’t lean over!” Buggy yelled, veering to the left and avoiding yet another car. Said car honked their horn loudly, clearly inconvenienced by two crazy teens heading straight into a busy road. The two screamed even louder once they skidded through the intersection, cars narrowly passing by them and pounding their horns in unison. When Buggy finally managed to swoop onto a sidewalk, Yuan was still screaming.

“Okay, okay, it’s okay now. We reached the sidewalk again,” Buggy panted, eyes still wide but a grin on his face from the adrenaline. 

“J-Jesus Christ,” Yuan choked out. “Can we avoid stuff like that in the future, please?”

“Aw, c’mon, it was fun…”

“I’d like to make it out of here alive, please.” Yuan managed to find a place to set his feet down. 

More road-cutting and car-honking later, they reached the emptier part of town that withheld the 7-11. Places like these looked like they’d be hotspots for things like cryptid hunting. Naturally, the two enjoyed goofing around in places like these.

“Okay, we’re finally here,” Buggy told Yuan, pulling into the dirt lot.

“Sweet,” Yuan replied, hopping off once Buggy had completely stopped the bicycle. He headed to the doors of the store, Buggy wheeling the bike into a rack and following shortly behind him. “Slushy time,” Yuan said quietly, the two exchanging excited looks and a high-five. They entered, the store letting out its little two-note jingle upon entrance. 

“Welcome to 7…oh god, it’s the gasoline kid again.” The cashier looked exhausted already. Yuan looked to Buggy with a confused look. 

“I had to haggle with him to let me fill it. And for fifty cents less, ‘cause I didn’t have any coins.” His eyes glimmered as he said this, and Yuan didn’t want to ask anything further. 

“We’re here for the BYO cup thing,” Yuan said, holding out his bleach container and his money. He smiled innocently.

“Woah, woah…god, what is it with people and bringing dangerous shit?” sighed the cashier. He stepped out from behind the counter. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, it’s too dangerous.”

“But it’s empty. I washed it out, like a thousand times. I have it solely for this reason and this reason only.” Yuan held the container upside down, gave it a good pat to make sure it didn’t have anything in it.

“Sorry, kid, you should’ve read the rules…” 

“Hey, hey. You let me drink out of this gasoline tank, let the kid drink out of the bleach,” Buggy cut in.

“That’s different, though, you threatened to burn my house down.”

“And I’ll do it if you don’t give my friend his gosh darn slushy,” the arsonist said, trying to seem as intimidating as possible by standing up straight. The cashier sighed and rolled his eyes before returning to his post behind the counter. 

“Whatever. Isn’t my fault if he chokes and dies or whatever,” he mumbled. “You can make it through this, your break’s in a few minutes,” he said to himself as reassurance.

Buggy looked to Yuan and grinned, nodding. 

“Is it really worth it? Outing yourself just to get a sl—“

“Shhhhshshsh. You’ll understand once you take a slurp. Now fill up your thing,” whispered back Buggy, running to the slushy machines.