Chapter 2: My Friend Malamar?

I'm walking down the street. It's mostly empty, leaving me to only my thoughts. I can't stop thinking about the man I saw last night. I know he needed help. I know I should have gave it to him. I let him walk away even though it was obvious he wasn't here mentally. He could've gotten hurt. Or worse.

I sigh and throw my head. I hope nothing happened to him. If something did, ot's my fault. I let him walk away. I'm about to enter the store, but I then notice a giant crowd, cheering and whooping. I let curiosity get the better of me and go check it out.

I push my way through the people, making my way to the source of their entertainment. My jaw drops. The person that has everyone's attention is none other than the man from last night! He's dancing around, chanting "My friend Malamar."

I can't help but just stare. This doesn't seem normal. At all. After his dance and the crowd clears out, I approach him.

"Hey," I say gently, giving a small wave. "How you doing?"

The man looks at me and smiles. "Fabulous! My friend Malamar has truly changed my life!"

"Look," I say, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I can tell something's up. Please, let me help you!"

He laughs and shrugs my hand off, shaking his head. "No, no! I don't need help! Not now, anyways. My friend Malamar fixed everything!"

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Sir," I say, my voice firm, "let me take you to a hospital. Please!"

Again, the man laughs and shakes his head, bit this time he says no more, walking away. I clench my jaw and curl my fingers into a tight fist, resisting the urge to chase. I take a deep breath.

"Fine," I mutter, walking back to the grocery store, the whole reason I'm even here.

An hour and a half later

I walk into my house, greeted by Char. It growls happily and rubs its head against me affectionately. I return the love petting its neck.

"You will not believe what happened today," I say with a sigh. It makes a sound of curiosity. "Remember the guy from last? Yeah. I saw him singing and dancing about 'his friend Malamar," I cringe at the words. "He kept saying it over and over again! I don't ever want to hear them again."

Char chuckles and rolls its eyes. "Don't do that, " I say. "You know I hate when you act like I'm over dramatic."

Still, Char just stared at me with smile that screamed a sarcastic "sure, bud."

"I'm being serious! Trust me, if you were there, it would have annoyed you, too," I walk to my computer, not even waiting for Char's reaction. "I am curious, though. I didn't think Malamar lived in this area," I say, pulling up Malamar's natural habitats. As I scroll through the areas, which does in fact say it doesn't live here, a notification appears in the bottom right corner of my screen. It's from my nephew Apollo and it's labeled "My Friend Malamar!"

"What the..." I mutter as I click on it. The link goes to a news story that happened earlier today.

"Char! Come here," I call out. Char walks up to me, growling in question. "Check this out," I say, pointing at the video. We watch a woman street art Malamar on a wall, talking about it being "cute and adorable" (not my words). We see a taxi driver that's done a full on Malamar themed cab. Then, the man. Dancing around and chanting "my friend Malamar" (insert dramatic groan of annoyance) to the large crowd.

"See," I say, and Char gives a growl of disgust. "Yeah, gets annoying, huh? Who's just being dramatic now? Thought so," I say with a smug smirk, looking back at the screen.

"Seriously, though," I say, my arrogant smirk replaced with a confused frown, "what is happening?"

I plan on making these get longer as time goes on. There may still be some short one in the future, but I'm going to try to keep them lengthy.