I throw my keys on the kitchen counter, leave the lights off, and carefully lay my new dress over the back of a stool. At the fridge I consider finishing off the bottle of wine staring at me, but instead go for a soda. I’ll make better choices tomorrow. It’s barely eight o'clock, but it’s been a long day.
The black console sits on my entertainment center across the room. Finn left his game system here and since he’s playing at the office and spending most of his free time with me doing other activities, he hasn’t missed it. The blinking light on the front calls to me from the semi-darkness.
I can’t imagine Finn, my cute nerd with the dark brown hair and crinkles near his eyes ever doing to me what Marissa has had to go through. Sure, Finn has a killer smile that has women swooning for him, and for some unexplainable reasons his black-rimmed glasses are hot, but every word out of his mouth is genuine. Cody made a mistake, but he put himself in the precarious position in the first place. Finn is not Cody, and Cody is not every man out there.
Blink, blink, blink. The flashing light catches my eye again as I ponder Finn from my kitchen. I cannot continue to play the damn game without Finn here. Eventually he’ll want me to play with him again and he’s sure to notice the improvements I've made to our little cottage. The place needed a table and some chairs, okay? Don’t judge. Then I had to make a chest to store all the berries I picked for us. And well, it expanded from there.
I refuse to give in to the game’s allure tonight and instead walk to my bookshelf for a happy read. My favorite worn titles stare back at me. There’s a little something for everyone, fromTheAlchemistto pure smut romance, but I’m not pulled in. Hollywood turns every series I like into a movie anyway. I can wait it out.
Actually, a movie might do the trick. I head to the short shelf next to my TV to look at my selection. It puts me dangerously close to the blinking box, but I will resist. I’d invite Finn over to keep me occupied, but from earlier texts he had Jake drop him off somewhere with Trey and they are still out doing whatever boys do in this town on Thursday night. I don't want to become the needy girlfriend who interrupts guys night so I have taken a radio silence plan for the evening.
I step to my left to see a few hard-to-read movie cover spines and my foot kicks an object on the ground. It’s a game controller. A controller, sitting there, looking at me. I peek down at it and scrunch up my face in disgust as if the black plastic piece carries some form of disease. I try to go back to the three rows of movies in front of me, but my foot touches it again.
Okay, fine, maybe that last time was on purpose. I mean it has to be so lonely down there all by itself. I do have two or three hours before I need to be in bed. I could check in with my character. Make sure she hasn’t mysteriously disappeared. It’s the responsible thing to do. If I log on now, I’d be doing Finn a favor. I want to make sure his little fort is ready for him when he decides to come over and play again.
My arguments are flimsy, I’m aware of this, but I want to check out the cave a few screen lengths past our house. I barely made it a few feet in last night before I thought I saw a dragon in the far back corner and ran out, too scared to continue. Tonight, I feel brave. Tonight, I will do it.
The hiss and pop of fire declares his arrival. Even if I tried I can’t unsee the doom descending this way. The sky darkens and he flies directly for me. The game view is top down, so the scale of his nose, neck, and wings are in view first as he flies directly overhead. His massive body blocks out my entire screen for mere seconds, but I force my character to run in the direction of our cottage.
I poundthe run button on my controller as hard as I can, but my character doesn’t pick up any additional speed. My own adrenaline increases as the dragon passes back and forth above me. Each time his body covers the view on my television screen, I worry I’m running in vain. His body swerves and our plot of land comes into focus as my character runs past burning trees — evidence this dragon isn’t friendly.
I try to think of all those technical mumble jumble words Finn used when he talked about the dragons and then calculate out how many hours I’ve played without him. But I do business math, not a dragon-wants-to-burn-my-face-off math, so I come back with a blank.
In the end I lead the dragon right to our house and watch as he covers my screen again. The now familiar hiss and pop is back, louder than before. I have nowhere else to run so I push my character through the house door moving my body as I move the controller in the direction she needs to run. I swear it helps.
I’m tucked away in a corner of the simple wooden house watching the dragon circle back and forth. With each pass he starts more small fires surround the area. The tree Finn and I planted by the front door to celebrate the achievement of finishing our house lights up and flames engulf it.
