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it was fate. was it fate? maybe. it felt like it.
that saturday morning you felt like going to your local movie theater, willing to check if they had that new movie, "Megan Is Missing". you saw its trailer somewhere -- maybe on tv -- and you felt like it was right up your alley! you realized you felt kinda nervous as you maneuvered your car in the free space in the parking lot, since you never really ever went somewhere this public without the comfort of another person. it got worse as you got in the theater, seeing many couples holding hands and stuff, giggling at the ticket booths you were currently far from. you felt lonely, pathetic, and mostly disappointed, since you went all the way there just to realize they did not even have that movie you were looking for yet. turning around to leave, you noticed a corridor full of arcade games. but one really stuck out to you.
the dance dance revolution supernova 2 machine thing. holy shit, you loved that game like two years ago. yknow, when you had time to play it? yeah. nowadays you couldn't get distracted from your new job, with COLLEGE studies on top of that, so you stopped for a while. but seeing that thing there… it felt like an awakening. a rediscovered memory.
you hesitated, but you basically immediately ran to the thing, whilst trying to remember some of your favorite songs from the game, or what difficulty you could reach on them.
reaching it, you fumbled your hands in your pockets, looking for the wallet full of change you knew you had brought, and the proceeded to let your muscle memory to kick in and do everything for you: put the coins where you had to put them, put the mode you really liked (doubles, because you liked the manuality and movement required of it all), and locked back in to browse the songs. finding one you felt you remembered enough and quite enjoyed, you took a deep breath, and let the notes of the probably unnecessarily high volume of the music consume you, the screen flashing many notes you, making you frottle all around without even grazing the bars behind you, too engrossed to feel anything other than the music, your feet tapping on the huge controllers, and the sweat starting to grease your hair, you thought initially. until you did feel something else. of course, the gaze of a figure behind you. whatever, it was normal to be stared at while playing so quickly; you weren't really an amateur, you thought at least.
but it felt different. more piercing. maybe even harsh. you even considered looking at the figure through the reflection of the screen in front of you, but it would've been too distracting. you were so close to finishing it with a perfect score! so you ignored them as best as you could, but it felt nearly impossible.
fortunately, your subconscious that was still very focused on the game made it finish quicker than you would've expected it to, making you able to properly breathe for a second and slowly turn to fix your sight on the mysterious person to figure out why it felt so heavy to have their gaze upon you.
the first thing you saw were some cargo pants with a very nice cream colour. you averted your eyes instinctively higher as you took note of a white shirt under the calmingly nice dark shade of blue of a hoodie. then you saw them. the clearest blue eyes you've ever seen. a messy fringe hidden by the hoodie's hood. a flat mouth, closed, but hiding maybe a million different things to say. he spoke none of them.
the man lurked not close to you, but not in the middle of the corridor either. he stood tall at a comfortable few feet from you, averting his eyes as you made eye contact. you spoke.
"hey-" "you're quite good." he said in sync with you, now fumbling with the hem of his hoodie. his deep voice felt as piercing as his gaze on you. you were not expecting that. "o-oh! thank you-" "c-can i play now?" he interrupted again as he shyly let one of his hands lazily point at the arcade machine. he kept his eyes downcast, starting to shift his weight one foot to another. "... okay..!" you replied, disappointed once more, since you honestly wanted to go for another round. maybe the disappointment showed in your tone, since the stranger tensed slightly as he started to close the space between you to get on the controllers, looking at you again apologetically. he was quick to counter with a "m-m-maybe we can play together if you want-! as i noticed, we're basically the same level of skill; it shouldn't be so hard for you.." he looked back at the "INSERT COIN" text on the screen of the machine as se pronounced the last part of his phrase, mumbling it a tiny bit. you stopped in you tracks between the controller and the floor, thankful for having your back on this guy since you felt a huge grin grace your face for a second, before you pondered: you never played with someone else before… why not change that now? why were you even hesitating?? "yeah! sure!" you enthusiastically turned around and got back on the left side of the arcade, smiling contentedly. you let him insert his coins and choose the song; how bad would it be if you played for a bit with this guy?
a lot, actually. first of all, you guys were NOT the 'same level of skill' like he said before, him being both very and a little better than you, having a quicker reaction time but having a teeny tiny bit less stamina than you. second of all, it turned out that "playing for a bit with this guy" meant playing for what you realized was almost five hours as you impulsively checked your watch after feeling a wave of hunger hit you. 4 pm. did you seriously skip lunch just to play a dancing game with a stranger? yes you did, you thought. and you had fun too. but maybe it was time to take a break.
even though you stayed with this guy -- who still didnt say what his name was -- for five hours, you still felt too shy to talk to him. or maybe it was the fear of meeting that crushing gaze again. whatever the reason- you were a grown adult, for god's sake! talking to someone shouldn't be so hard… for you. so you hesitantly broke the flow of the silence to ask him: "hey, uh…-" "yeah?" he looked up from the controls as he was choosing the next track to look up at you with a confidence he did not seemingly have five hours prior. you almost lost your composure, but mentally squared up and continued: "... would you like to go eat somewhere with me?" WOAH. you did… you did NOT mean to say that. maybe it slipped because you painstakingly mixed up your thoughts in one phrase. okay, no, shut up -"i-i'll pay." you added. "since you-" stop. "you paid for all of the sessions…" STOP! "it's the least i can do." you just kept on going. those white orbs kept you going. the shock shown in his slightly parted mouth kept you going as you… yknow… kept going. his gradually drooping arms kept you going. his greasy hair kept you go- "u-uhm... uh… uhum… eerr…" he went to cover his face after staring at you for a while, hiding himself from you, turning towards the floor. he kept mumbling eerrs and uhms. before you could think of how to apologise, he was quick to ask before shyly facing you again, parting his finger to uncover his right eye to analyze your reaction: "are you vegan?" "...i-im not strictly vegan, but i like vegetables. i rarely eat meat-" "would you wanna come over to my place?" now it was your jaw's turn to drop. what were you supposed to say to that?
you did not know his name yet. you did not know his age. you met him playing an arcade game. you did not know his motives. you had never seen this man in your life up until that point. yet, you were walking towards his car. you were hesitating to hold his hand as you navigated the parking lot. you sat in the passenger seat. and then there you were in his house, which he said was "thankfully empty because his mom was shopping for more socks". you did not ask for any ulterior details.
even though you insisted on being okay with vegetables, he stole a yoghurt from his mom that was in the almost empty fridge and served it to you with a small spoon before he took a single leaf of salad and sat down with a plated leaf and some artillery. you didnt know from where he got his food from because you were distracted from the prettiest pattern you've ever seen on a spoon. "i chose that set." he said, noticing your lost gaze in the handle of the spoon. "i found it in an ad and emailed it to my mom. she bought it, like, the day after." he smiled dryly but contentedly as he started to attack his green item. you gave a quick glance at him before opening the yoghurt packet in front of you.
time passed in an unexpectedly comfortable silence before he spoke after eating half his item; "my name's adam, by the way. i probably should've told you sooner. sorry." he looked at you for a second before looking back at his plate again. you stopped mid bite for a second as you took in the information. you replied after making the bite: "oh, well, my name is [Y/N]." "... okay." he did that tiny smile again. you mentally sighed. you may have known this guy for around six hours, but your pathetic ass was still falling for him. soon after you learned he was 19, like you were. and then conversation started to flow, making you discover your many shared interests and common traits. you really clicked when you both realized you loved massacres and such violent stuff, an interest you thought was wrong and dangerous, so you felt relieved knowing you could excange your knowledge about these topics with someone else. speaking of knowledge, adam knew a LOT about EVERYTHING of that topic. which felt even better, since you also liked doing research about shootings and killings in your free time.
after laughing at a joke you did about Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, adam tensed for a second, as if a cruel realization just hit him. maybe he was worried about his mom?- "would you want to stay for the night?" he pierced you with a serious stare, his joking and more carefree tone from seconds before seemingly vanishing in thin air. "yknow... like... a slumber party?" he continued. you wanted to say yes, so you replied: "i-... i should go back home to get my pajamas-" "i'll give you mine." he answered immediately, as if he was expecting such a counter. you checked your watch. 5:43 pm. "... isn't it a bit too soon to be talking about thi-" "doesn't matter. im a bit tired anyway." and so he abruptly got up, quickly put away everything that was on the table, grabbed your hand - which made your heart sink and butterflies swarm your stomach- and basically dragged you upstairs as you kept repeating excuses that he kept countering.
his room was a cramped mess. well, not really a mess, since it was basically empty, but it still felt like so. his bed was massive. that was all you saw for the two seconds the light from the corridor lit up the room from the outside. after stopping solely to open and close his bedroom door - carefully covering his hand with his sleeve while doing so - he quickly got on the bed and dragged you with him. you were still processing his sudden switch-up before your brain shut down after you felt arms closing in on your torso and pulling you towards the other body in the bed. he felt cold, but that action still made your entire body warm up. you hugged him back without hesitation. after a little while, you felt the chest your head was basically resting on starting to twitch, and tears wetting your already dirty hair, which was full of sweat enough. you heard his chest vibrate as he mumbled how much he felt grateful for meeting me and how he never felt so understood, and you slowly cradled him even if he was the big spoon at the moment. it went like that for a while, the darkness enveloping you both like the blanket adam covered you both with after starting to slowly calm down, and eventually fell asleep, limbs tangleled under the sheets.
tomorrow was going to be a weird day.