Circa Tempore: The Artificial Organic
Copyright© 2026 by E. B. Redfield
Chapter 2
Kayla absentmindedly chewed on the straw of her free, “designated driver,” soda, completely lost in thought while she waited for Craig and the others to arrive for karaoke. She knew Craig had been upset with her for not making it out to these nights as much as she used to. Truthfully, there were parts about it that she did miss. The socializing and the thrill of getting up on stage and singing horribly in front of a bunch of people was exhilarating and she was excited to experience it again; but she was already feeling overwhelmed by the crowd in the bar, as well as the din. While she waited for Craig and the others to show up, she messaged her gaming squad to survive her current anxiety.
“So, wait, you’re going to do karaoke until closing time; then drive two hours to your parents?” her friend Jen asked her.
“My mom’s ... but yeah,” Kayla replied. “It’s gonna suck.”
Lavonna dropped a gif of a cartoon cat dropping his jaw on the floor. “Girl, why?”
“I haven’t seen my mom in a while,” Kayla replied, “She won’t quit nagging me about it.”
“No, ya weirdo,” Lavonna replied with an eye rolling emoji, “Why are you going to karaoke tonight if you gotta drive that far later? Why not just head out now and get some sleep?”
Kayla chewed her lip. The truth would only invite teasing from the other two.
“I dunno,” she replied, “I promised Craig. I’ve bailed on him a few times already, and it’s been rough for him lately.”
“Yeah, but that bar in particular?” Jen replied, “I know first-hand it’s not the friendliest to trans people. I worry about you going there. I wish you’d have let one of us know so we could have been there with you.”
“Yeah ... I know...” Kayla replied. Jen’s anxiety wasn’t meritless. Kayla had endured more than enough bigotry here ever since she’d come out. Already tonight she had felt the glares directed towards her. Even now she frequently glanced over her shoulders to keep an eye out for anyone lingering too close to her. She didn’t want to force her friends to endure it as well.
“Look, I know what this is really about Kayla,” Lavonna said with a snarky grinning emoji.
“Yeah,” Jen replied, “It’s pretty obvious, honestly.”
“What?” Kayla asked, though she already knew where this was going.
“You got it for Craig, hun. Like ... bad,” Lavonna stated. And even though it was text, Kayla could hear the matter-of-fact tone of her voice. Jen posted an emoji of an arrow pointing up at Lavonna’s statement. Kayla turned red.
“Not this again,” she typed along with a grimace face emoji.
“Oh hun,” Jen replied, “Your denial is legendary.”
“We’ve been best friends since college,” Kayla explained, “Even if you were right, and you’re not, nothing could happen between us. It would be too fucking weird.”
“Kayla, you’re torturing yourself and you know it. Fact time: You’ve blown off game nights ‘cause Craig, ‘needed you,’ a lot,” Lavonna replied, “My advice? Tell him. Put the ball in his court. Might be fucking weird, but the worst that could happen is you get it off your chest and then deal with a little awkwardness,” Kayla’s cheeks burned as she considered the words.
“Hey, nerd!” Craig called. Kayla snapped her head in the direction of his voice, and a wave of anxiety washed over her as she saw him wading through the crowded bar towards her. With him were Nick, Mike, Garth, and a blonde woman with a tiny nose whom Kayla had never met before; but could only assume was Garth’s new girlfriend. Noticeably absent from the group was Jake. Kayla gestured at the table she was sitting at, and quickly texted the group she had to go. Realizing they would be one chair short, she borrowed a chair from a neighboring table and passed it to the woman with the tiny nose.
“Thanks,” the woman responded to Kayla’s gesture. It was loud in the bar, but Kayla didn’t miss the sneer in her voice.
“Oh yeah,” Garth said absentmindedly, putting an arm around the woman, “This is Tammy. Tammy, this is Craig and Dav ... ah, Kayla.” Kayla grimaced at the near-use of her dead-name, but opted to let it slide. At least he had caught himself.
After everyone had ordered, they started passing out the books of songs. Kayla smirked when she noticed Craig almost immediately had four request slips filled out before the book had even reached him, and he passed it by without a glance. Her smirk faltered, though, when she noticed that he had already slammed his first drink before even giving their song slips to the DJ.
“Your hair looks nice!” Craig said to her as moved onto a second beer. She fought to keep her blush in check, the comments from her gaming group still fresh in her mind, “Do something new with it?”
“Well, I skipped the shower this morning ... so no, not really,” she replied awkwardly. He gave her that grin that always made the butterflies in her stomach dance in appreciation, betraying her words to the squad just moments ago. She was so glad they couldn’t see her right now.
“Sooooo,” she asked, poking him to get his attention, “What did your dad want?”
“Oh, the usual,” Craig replied with mock cheeriness, “Just reminding me how much a giant disappointment I am, that I be past-due on giving him a grand-kid. Oh, and apparently, he thinks that ain’t happened yet cause we a thing,” he added, gesturing to himself and Kayla. It was hard to tell in the dim lighting but he seemed flushed as he admitted it. She nearly snorted her soda back into her glass.
“What, for real?” she scoffed, choking nervously on her drink.
“Yeah, he got all in my shit,” Craig said with a shrug, looking down at the songbook determinedly avoiding her eyes, “Feels real entitled.” Kayla buried her face in the songbook and prayed that nobody noticed how red she’d just turned.
“I can’t believe y’all still work there,” Mike commented as he scribbled a song title on a slip of paper. “I mean, with your education and experience you could be doing way better.”
“No kidding, dude,” Garth jumped in, “I mean, I’d be happy to put a word in for you at Engleson’s.” Kayla rolled her eyes, her exclusion to the offer not lost on her. It did however appear to be lost on Craig, who smiled the unconvincing smile of one who had turned down the same proposition so many times that the response was now robotic.
“Someday I’ll be running Golden City,” he replied, “I finna do it right. Make it a place people want to work at.”
“Yeah, and then it’ll tank, the shareholders will complain, the board will push you out, and everyone will get fired,” Nick (ever the optimist) drolled, not looking up from the song book as he did.
“Do you even like working there?” Garth inquired, and Kayla thought it was a fair question. She couldn’t remember a single night at this bar where Craig hadn’t spent a good chunk of the time complaining about both his father and his job. She and Craig had graduated college together with a degree in business administration, and the thing that had initially bonded them was the shared dislike of the field they were going into.
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