Afterward (A Veneer prison story)

The Trolls

Veneer pulled into the back lot of the arena. He looked around for a bus. He didn't know what BroZone rode around in. Finally, he saw it, a small bus with BroZone's logo on the side. 

Veneer drove his car up to his, careful not to crush it because it was so small. He parked and got out. After walking up to the bus, Veneer knocked on the door. He couldn't actually knock, and had to use two fingers. 

The door opens, and John Dory walked out. "What are you doing here?" He looked angry. 

Veneer felt his ears get red. "Umm.. well I... I wanted to apologize." 

John Dory looked up at him suspiciously. "Let me go get my brothers." 

John Dory went inside. Veneer fiddled with his keys, he was still nervous, but he felt slightly better. 

After a few minutes, John Dory walked back outside with all his brothers, Viva, and Poppy. It made Veneer feel better that Viva was there, as she was the one who he really needed to talk to. Veneer noticed that Floyd was standing near the back.

Branch looked up at him. "What do you want?"  He said, looking upset. 

"Well... I wanted to talk to you guys... and umm... apologize." Veneer looked down. 

Bruce looked at his brothers and then up to Veneer. "Maybe we should do this somewhere else, I would invite you inside, but ya'know.." He trailed off.

Clay looked around, Veneer noticed that he was holding hands with Viva. "We could go to that coffee place we stopped at when we got here. It had some good deals." 

Branch frowned. "Do you really think we should go with him? He kidnapped Floyd, and we have a show at seven." 

Poppy turned to Branch, frowning. "Branch, its only eleven. Plus, he didn't even kidnap Floyd. Oh, and he confessed, he's not going to do it again. Floyd, what do you think?" 

Floyd flipped his hair over. He kept his blank expression. "I don't care. He won't hurt us though." 

They all broke out into an argument. Veneer just stood there awkwardly, he didn't know if he should say anything or keep quiet. Finally, Bruce spoke up. 

"Everyone stop! We're going to talk with Veneer, and if you want to stay here you can." 

Poppy smiled. "Thanks Bruce!" 

"Okay, Veneer you can follow us in your car. Are you okay with that?" 

"Umm yeah." Veneer felt awkward and didn't know what to say. 

"Okay." 

The trolls all went back into the bus, while Veneer got in his car. He sat in the drivers seat for a while, he assumed that the trolls were fighting over who gets to drive. He didn't know what to think, it seemed like they wanted to forgive him, but he didn't know. He couldn't read Floyd, as he had never seen him happy, even when he got recused.  

Finally, the troll's bus started to move. Veneer started his car and drove off behind them. He had to watch their car because they drove in the trolls lane, and he drove in the normal lane. 

After a five minutes drive, they arrived at the coffee shop. Because they were still in Mount Rageous, the bus looked tiny next to the normal sized building. The trolls parked and Veneer pulled up next to them. 

After walking in and finding a seat, they all ordered. Veneer ordered a vanilla latte, and everyone else ordered a pretty normal drink. But when Floyd ordered, he got a black coffee and told the waiter to make it "as black as his soul". Veneer didn't think that he was being serious, but who knows with Floyd. They paid and found a table, Veneer felt super awkward sitting there with all of them. The trolls had to sit on the table because they were too small for the chairs.  

Finally, Branch broke the silence. "Why are you here? We're all pretty busy so if you just want to waste our time then you can do that some other time." 

Poppy looked at him sadly. "Branch." She frowned. "Stop it. He wanted to apologize and I think that we should let him do that." 

Veneer looked over at her. "Umm.. thanks Poppy." He sighed. "So, I have been feeling really bad about what me and Velvet did to you and put you guys through. And.. umm.. I wish that Velvet was here to say sorry too and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." 

Bruce looked over at Veneer then around the table. "Okay." 

Veneer looked over at him. "Yeah.. wait what?" 

"Yeah, we all basically forgave you after you confessed, I mean all except for Branch." 

"Oh. Okay, but I'm still confused." 

Poppy turned to him. "After you said that you were wrong, we all forgave you. Floyd said that you didn't even really want to go through with it, so why wouldn't we forgive you?" 

"Okay." Veneer felt better knowing that Floyd forgave him. "So you're not mad at me?" 

Branch looked angry. "Of course we are! You kidnapped Floyd, you..." 

Bruce cut him off. "Branch! Veneer, no one here is mad at you. Besides Branch, but he'll come around." 

Veneer smiled, it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. "Okay. But I need to tell Viva something." 

Viva turned to him, she had been pretty zoned out this whole time. "What's up?" 

"Well. I kinda tried to press charges against you, but I dropped them because I didn't want to hurt you guys anymore." 

Viva looked fine. "Okay, thanks for dropping them." 

Veneer didn't know what to think. He looked at her, confused. "Why aren't you upset?" 

"Well, I did push you down, so you probably should have gone through with it. But, thanks for not." 

"Your welcome? But I still feel bad." 

For the first time, Floyd voiced his opinion. "Don't. You actually almost let me go. If it wasn't for Velvet you wouldn't have done it." 

"Yeah. I wish that Velvet was here to apologize too." 

Bruce looked up from his coffee. "It's still pretty brave for you to come here by yourself." 

"Thanks." Veneer gave a soft smile. 

"Yeah. How is Velvet anyway?" Poppy asked. 

"She's still in prison, and she's mad at me and wants me to bail her out. She'll probably get out soon, though. I'm going to go see her tomorrow." Veneer hadn't been planning to see her, but talking about her made him think that he should. 

"That's good." She smiled 

Clay looked over at the clock, then at Veneer. "Well, Veneer, this talk has been great, but we should probably get ready for our show. We'll have to get together sometime soon, though."

"Yeah." Veneer smiled. "Thanks for agreeing to talk in the first place." 

Bruce glanced over at Branch and then to Veneer. "Yeah, sorry about Branch, he's still a little moody." 

"It's okay. Thanks again for everything." 

Poppy stood up. "Yeah, see you soon!" 

"See you soon." Veneer stood up and walked out to his car. He sighed, he couldn't believe that they had forgiven him just like that. Maybe people didn't hate him as much as he thought. He started his car and drove off towards Ritz's house.