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Boredom.
You hear the word all the time, but you have no idea what it means-- not until a virus keeps you inside for the next month or so.
It. Totally. Sucks.
I made the most out of my time at first, catching up on schoolwork, looking around on MyStable, I even went out for a walk before a cop ordered me to get back inside. It was going great at first...
Until I got to the second day, then I was so incredibly bored.
I even fired up the Gamebox that Sunset got at some flea market not too long ago—I wasn’t even sure the thing worked until we had a gaming session with it last week, playing Uno... it got pretty chaotic pretty quick, needless to say, and a lot of things were said...
It was day thirty-three now, and as I laid on my bed, not wanting to get up, I heard my phone ring and saw Sunset calling for a FaceTime. I looked at myself, realizing I was an absolute mess with my hair frayed out in every direction and I quickly tried to slick it with my hand before I answered.
“Hey... Sunset?” I asked as I saw the person on the other side.
To say Sunset didn’t look her best would be an understatement— the picture I have as her contact from MyStable was a bold comparison from how she looked now. From what I could see from the screen, she was wearing a white tank top, and like my own hair, hers was messy and had no sign of being combed in a while...
“Heyyyy, Flash... What’s up...?” She asked in a tired voice.
She was also lying in bed, her eyes barely peeking at the camera as the rest of her face was smothered into her pillow.
She still looked as gorgeous as ever.
“Uh... not much, how’ve you been?” I asked, curious about why she called.
She let out a yawn and smacked her lips a tad, clearly tired.
“I’ve, uh... been good... yeah...” She said, almost nodding off before waking back up.
I let out a chuckle before my next question came right to me.
“Sunset, did you get any sleep last night?”
She glanced at me and chuckled.
“Yep-- a whole 3 hours.” She said with a smile on her face, much to my worry.
We both sat there, neither of us knowing what to say to the other until Sunset cleared her throat.
“So, uh... you wanna hop on Gamebox or something? I have this VR game I wanted to try out... you have all the stuff for it, right?” She asked, still somewhat tired.
“Yep, got it all, just lemme hop on your account and download it, real quick.” I said as I did exactly that, firing up the console as I glanced at the soon-to-be-used headset and smiled at the advancement in technology.
As I let it finish downloading, appropriately named “Zombie-Slayer VR”, I looked at the time, seeing that I had a few hours before I had to go to my “essential” job, and back at the screen at the girl with bags forming under her eyelids with messy bed-hair almost filling the screen...
“Let's do this...”
With a push of a button on my headset and a gentle movement of my foot to move aside my coffee table, I was ready...
An hour into our gaming session, Sunset and I were running down separate corridors, hordes of digital undead swarming from every direction. Despite me actually standing almost completely in place, sweat was still fogging up my lenses and being wiped from my chin.
“Group up, we can take them!” I heard Sunset shout through the somewhat uncomfortable headset around my ears.
I kept running, getting hit once or twice, but not enough to take me down as we eventually grouped up and ran together.
“Run and gun, Flash, run and gun!” Sunset yelled as she opened fire and kept sprinting, me doing the same.
Eventually, we hit a dead end, and the still large horde wasn’t too far from us... together we stood against the dead-end, our fallen teammates, Trixie and someone we met online, both cheering us on as we opened fire on the horde, throwing the occasional grenade as the feeling of seeing these things up close made it all that much more intense. We both took turns reloading and letting out battle cries as we constantly unloaded our clips.
By the end of it all, Sunset and I stood over an amalgam of digital corpses clipping together and completely hiding the floor. We looked over to each other and gave a virtual high-five as the screen flashed white, our teammates respawning next to us as a sign reading “congratulations” appeared above us.
“Most excellent display, Flash!” Trixie complimented, shocking since for the first time I knew of, it wasn’t one of herself.
“Yeah, that was awesome, you guys!” Snails cheered.
“Flash, if weren’t stuck in our homes, I could come ki--…"
…
Silence, no-one said a word as Sunset’s VR avatar seemed to back up a bit...
“I-I gotta go... walk Ray.” She said as she logged off without another word.
I checked my time and turned to the others, neither of them knowing what to say.
“Yeah, I gotta go, too—apparently fast food is considered essential...” I said as we shared our goodbyes and I shut the game off.
As I got into my uniform and started my car, I couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong... what was Sunset gonna say?
I didn’t question it as I drove off to work. As I parked in my spot, a question popped into my head.
Why did Ray need a walk all of a sudden? I don’t think she ever walked him whenever she talked to me... right?
Wait...
“Ray’s a gecko!” I said aloud, confusing my coworkers as I immediately looked back and washed my hands.
Later that night, after I got home and showered, I decided to send Sunset a text, but I had no idea what to say. As I struggled to text her, my phone dinged...
Have any idea what to say to her, yet? Trixie texted.
I looked at the message for a moment before I responded.
I mean, what can I say to her? I texted back.
Nothing for a moment, but as I went to log online, she answered.
Well, she likes you. Do you like her?
I didn't hesitate as I texted back.
Yeah I think I do. She's not like how she was when we dated, y'know?
You said it. I can see why you like her, and I think you should go for it.
I took a sigh, knowing that Trixie was right...
Well, what do I say?
I could almost feel Trixie facepalm after I sent that text.
Just be yourself-- it's clearly what she likes about you.
After a minute of taking that advice in, I took a sigh and texted Sunset...
Hey.
A minute passed, with me wondering if texting her was a mistake... maybe I should've waited a bit longer? Maybe I should've just called her? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe I just have to take a--
Yo.
I let out a slightly relieved sigh as I started texting back.
So... about earlier...
Another second.
Yeah. I know you're not that stupid and I think we both felt the same way for a while, now.
I gently formed a smile as I recalled the times we've talked recently... it was never like how it used to be since she changed.
Wait...
The same?
I'm guessing it started in Everfree, right?
My fingers tapped the screen, my fingertips getting a tad sore from the abuse I'm putting them through.
Yeah. The wink on the cruise did no favors, lol.
The "lol" didn't feel right... but neither did just saying that mood-lifter through a monotone text.
I couldn't help myself, it just felt right lmao.
Wow...
Now I wish I manned up and asked you out before this all went down...
I wish I went for it, too...
We both didn't text back, with me feeling a sense of relief getting all of that out in the open. After a second, I knew what I had to do...
Well, there's nothing we can do now, but after this passes, wanna meet up?
The seconds that passed felt like hours until I saw the little dot-dot-dot showing that she was texting back...
As long as it's not like our first date at the theater, I'm down lol.
I let out a laugh as I quickly texted back.
If I remember right, YOU were the one who got us kicked out.
Yeah, fair enough lol
I sighed a breath of relief and sat back, not sure exactly what to text back...
I gtg for the night, I have volunteer work first thing tomorrow. Good night. <3
I couldn't help but form a smile at the little heart at the end...
Night <3
