I move my head again and reach for my phone but remember it’s at my desk. “What time is it?”
The circles on my back stop and the room lights up when Trey turns on his phone. “A little after six.”
Wonderful. I’ve been sitting on the floor in an empty closet crying into his shoulder for over an hour. Yes, definitely a hot mess over here.
My face heats and I’m thankful for the darkened room. “I’m sorry.” I try to move away again, but still his arm holds on.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I would have sat on the floor with you all night.”
I laugh a small amount at his words because they came from Trey and there isn’t another response I can muster at the moment.
“Come on. Let’s get out of the closet.”
He stands up and then reaches an arm out to help me. My legs ache after being still for so long and I stretch them out for a second while Trey does the same. He opens the door and I blink repeatedly as the light from the lobby filters into the room.
My face has to be tear stained and red, but he doesn’t comment as I follow him into the empty lobby. I scan the room and take note that besides the pen still on the floor, everything is where I left it when I made my frantic dash to the closet.
Trey opens the door to the offices and sticks his head on the other side before looking back. “It’s empty. Everyone’s gone home. Come on."
My heels click on the floor and it sounds louder than normal. The desk-filled room is empty of people on the other side of the door. The lights slowly flicker back on as Trey flips the switches to our right. The door to Trey’s office is closed. The blinds on his big window are open, but the lights inside are off.
He walks through to his right and stops at the two large sectional sofas that corner off the side of the room. The large television is black, but he grabs a remote and the screen flashes to life. Various gaming consoles and controllers litter the space, dead giveaways this is the area where the boys play games throughout the day.
I stand beside him next to the black leather sofas. “You know this place needs bean bags if you’re going to play up the whole gamer thing.”
He laughs and then jumps over the back of the couch and settles in the middle. “I kept telling Finn to pick some up while we shopped, but he wouldn’t listen to me. These are comfortable, but they don’t cradle the butt like a bean bag.” He taps the seat next to him. Rather than jump over and risk kicking him in the face, I take the adult approach and walk around.
Two controllers lay outstretched on the floor and he reaches down to pick both up handing one to me. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you to pick up your toys when you were done playing with them?” I joke and take the controller from him.
“Nah, it’s easier to find everything this way.” He uses his controls to highlight and click on the play game screen and we wait for the screen to load.
“What are we playing?” For some reason sitting on a couch with my maybe boyfriend to play a video game feels like the perfect thing to do to forget my earlier freak out. It’s almost normal and normal is comforting right now.
“Dragons Reborn,” he answers with ease but doesn’t add the “what else?” comment I hear in his words.
The screen finishes loading and he grabs my controller from me punching a series of buttons I’ll never remember until a female character blinks on the screen. She lands on her feet with the cobblestone street beneath her. Wearing a pair of brown pants and a light green shirt, her long blonde hair is the only indication my character’s a girl. The graphics aren’t as sophisticated as some of the games I’ve seen my cousin play, the scenery and characters a little pixelated and blocky. People fill in the space around us and after we walk a few feet, buildings come into focus until we're standing in a small town center.
“Be careful what you do on the street. All of these are actual people playing on this server all around the world.”
“What can I do besides walk?” I ask.
“Well if you had a sword, you’d want to make sure you have it sheathed or people could see it as a threat.”
I put his warning somewhere in the recess of my mind to use for later should I ever have a sword. It’s a scary to think someone would trust me with a sharp object even in a video game. I follow behind Trey as he walks into a small wooden home. The game loads and the room fills with wooden tables in almost every available space. Each table top holds stacks of different colored cloth. Trey opens a dialog box and enters some numbers before a few pieces of cloth float through the space and magically enter his character before disappearing.
“What just happened?” I ask as we head back out to the road.
Trey walks his character through the winding street and I push random buttons until mine catches up. “I bought some fabric. We’ll find a tailor to turn it into clothing.”
We walk past a shop with an anvil hanging over the door — the universal sign for a blacksmith in this online realm and our real one. I went through a castle phase in middle school, okay? I was on the lookout for my white knight so I could be a princess. The door is closed and the building has a roof rather than being open to the contents inside. We walk by without stopping.
“A real person’s character makes clothes?” The possibilities in this game are a little overwhelming as we pass various buildings some with doors open and some closed.
“Yeah, they increase their skills as they play and make clothes to barter with other characters. There are blacksmiths and tavern owners. A little of everything and more than one shop for each since people aren’t always online."
“So I could design my own clothes in this game?” Did Trey just tell me I could be a Dragons Reborn fashion designer?
He grins in my direction at the question. “Well the options are pre-determined, but sure.”
I use the back of my palm to hit his shoulder in excitement. “I want to be a tailor,” I demand like a small child who decides they want to be an astronaut one day over lunch.
His smile grows. “It takes a while to build up the skills. Some of these players are online most of the day.”
Nothing is going to take away from my excitement of being a fashion designer — neither predetermined outfits or lack of skill set. “It’s okay. I can play during the day. I heard my bosses won’t mind.” I quickly wink at him and then return my focus to the game.
At that he outright laughs but doesn’t object. His character turns down a path to our left and I scramble to follow again.
