“What, you gonna walk me home, Erin?”

“Maybe go find a comfy bush?” Haylin giggles. 

Snort, "I'm not that drunk yet," she insists. "I was gonna call a cab," she tells Cati, "Could drop you off before I go up the cliff." 

“Or you could stay with me? Not go back to that big creaky house on your own. Or something.”

"It is pretty lonely up there," she admits. "Alright." 

"It was really nice seeing you," she tells Haylin. "You have my number, right? We should get together sometime when I'm in San M again."

“Yes! Absolutely.” Haylin wobbles upright to hug Erin tightly. “Don’t be a stranger now.” She giggles. “Stranger in StrangerVille.”

Cati snorts. 

"Never heard that one before," she laughs. 

And shortly, a cab is called, and they head outside to meet it. 

“Should probably give you a head’s up, my place isn’t really anything special. Was going to be a pit stop, but then I just...didn’t leave.”

"I'd probably take a hovel in a swamp over the old place right now," she snorts. 

"...What happened, though? You basically dropped off the map after high school. I mean, I guess I can't talk - none of us can, really, I've talked to Caine exactly twice and have no idea where he is now, I haven't actually seen Robin face-to-face more than once, and I kind of ran out the doors at grad straight to San M and never looked back..." But hell, at least they'd kept in some amount of contact. 

Cati is quiet for the first part of the cab ride, and then sighs. “I just thought I was meant for something better. And then I got it and it turned out it sucked. And all I wanted was to turn back time and keep my promise to stay in contact with you all.”

She's quiet for a long moment. 

"...Well, we've got another chance, now," she says. "We can track down Robin and get him in on it, too. Maybe he even has some idea where Caine went." 

“Yeah, that might be a you only thing. Kinda...burned the crops and salted the earth on that one.”

Blink. "Oh yeah, you two were..." 

"He never actually told me what happened there. He'd just change the topic when I brought you up."

“He...uh. Well. He told me he had feelings for me, and then I made sure he didn’t anymore.”

Cati digs her nails into her palm. “Better that way.”

"...Oh."

Well, that explains the avoidance. 

"I don't know what you said, but... maybe you can work it out? I think he's... hurt, more than anything, even now." 

“Nah. Like I said. Better this way.”

The cab pulls up, and Cati sits up to pay. “Welcome to my shithole.”

"It's not that bad. Believe me, I've slept in worse places." Not that that's exactly a ringing endorsement. 

“I can promise the spare room is at least clean. No promises as to the rest of the house.”

Cati gets out of the cab and jogs up the stairs to her front door. It’s a classic colonial house, with a front porch and a decent backyard, but it’s worn down, the white and green paint peeling and flaking.

She offers the cab driver a quick thanks, and then follows her up the stairs. 

Cati unlocks her door and opens it wide for Erin.

The first room is split into a living room on one side, couch, tv, all that. On the other side is a monstrous computer set up, cords and bits of tech lying in chaotically organised bundles.

"Wow," she says, staring at it all from the doorway. "That's... quite the set-up." 

“Yeah, the work at the grocer’s is just so I don’t spend all my time staring at those screens. Programming brings in the real money.”

She points out down the hall. “First door on your right is the spare room. Another door down is the bathroom. Want a cup of tea? Or some water?”

"I should definitely have some of one of those, before I sleep," she agrees, wry. "If you're making tea, I'll take that, if not water's fine."

“Come and gaze upon my stupidly huge collection of herbal tea.”

She leads Erin into the kitchen, and low and behold, one open cupboard is filled to bursting with herbal tea.