Video Game Girlfriend

Chapter 2

As I walk in the front door and kick off my shoes I call out to see if by chance anyone made it home before I did. It’s really rare for anyone to be home before me, my sister is on the volleyball team as well, and they stay late to practice. My mom stays after school most days to gain some of her sanity back by watching Netflix in her classroom while grading papers. And my dad normally goes out for a beer or two at our local bar before coming home, giving me just enough time to take care of some of my “extracurricular” activities. I walk to the bathroom, making sure to close and lock the door behind me in case anyone does happen to come home early. I pull down my pants and sit on the toilet, pulling my phone out of my back pocket as I do so. I can’t get the image of Hailey’s perfect little body out of my head, the sweat rolling across her skin making her glisten in the sunlight. Her long tan legs tensing up and releasing as she stretches on the field. Her perky breasts bouncing around as she jumps for the ball. Before I know it I have my d**k in my hand and am stroking it furiously. The thought of even touching her threatened to make me spew all over the place. 

It doesn’t take me long to finish with thoughts of Hailey running through my head like that. I quickly clean myself up in the sink before heading out into the kitchen to grab myself a snack. Settling on a blueberry poptart, I grab my backpack which I had left on the dining room floor and rush off to my room to start on my homework. As if school isn’t hard enough, they have to send it home with us as well. I pulled out my math, wanting to get the easy stuff over with first before moving on to the writing assignment our English teacher Mrs. Hamilton had given us. English has never been my strong suit, give me a math problem and i can have it done in seconds, but any sort of grammatical anything and I’m stumped. 

As I’m wrapping up my math homework, I hear the front door open and the familiar sound of my sister's million different bags banging into walls and chairs as she shuffles through the front door.  She has a different bag for everything it seems, and she has to take them all with her every single day. I couldn’t imagine carrying around that much stuff on a daily basis, let alone everywhere I went that day. 

“Hey nimwit,” I hear her yell from the kitchen, “can you come out here real fast I need your help with something.” I groan into my pillow before slowly getting up and padding my way into the kitchen.

“What Lex?” I say, annoyance cutting through my voice.

“Will you help me with my math homework?” She says in a fake sweet voice, pouting out her bottom lip at me. “I have to go meet up with the rest of the team for a last minute meeting and I’m not going to have time to finish it when I get back.” She states, again pretending to beg to get me to do it.

“I have my own homework you know,” I state plainly, “besides, even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I have to be at work in an hour. There’s no way I can finish my paper for Mrs. Hamilton, and your math homework too before I have to go.” I finished. She looks at me and rolls her eyes, annoyance clear as day on her face.

“Ugh, Whatever.” She groans. “You used to do my homework for me all the time until you got that stupid job.” She states, rolling her eyes and slumping into a nearby chair. She folds her arms over her chest before huffing out a loud breath of air.

“Sorry little sis, that's what happens when you actually have to grow up. You’re a sophomore now, you’re going to have to grow up and get one for yourself here soon.” I state, before turning around and heading back to my room. “Good luck on your math though.” I yell out behind me as I close my bedroom door and hop back into my bed. I pull out my writing assignment and start reading over the rubric before opening a new file on my computer to type away. 

About forty-five minutes later my alarm on my phone goes off, letting me know it’s time to head to work. I close my laptop and start placing everything back into my backpack. I didn’t finish my paper, not by a long shot, but I got enough done that picking it up and finishing it tonight after work shouldn’t be a problem at all. I slide off my pants and shirt from the day, and walk over to my dresser. I grab the bright green shirt off the top, and some black cargo shorts from the drawer beneath. As I’m sliding them on I’m greeted by the scent of bread and deli meat, a smell not even the strongest of washing machines can seem to get rid of. I grab the visor hanging on the edge of my lamp and put it on my head, before walking out of my bedroom, towards the front door. As I reach for the handle to leave my house, the door bursts open. I’m greeted by the harsh smell of booze and cigarette smoke, something I'm all too familiar with. My dad stumbles through the doorway, and I grab him and usher him to the couch, not wanting him to fall and hurt himself as he’s done so many times before. After I get him settled I call for my sister, I don’t have time to babysit today seeing as I’m already going to be late.

I arrive at work, walking in at five on the dot. I try to walk swiftly to the terminal so I can clock in before my manager see’s me and berates me for not getting here earlier. However, I’m not so lucky. Just as I walk around the corner to the terminal, I hear his voice from across the store.

“Ah, look who decided to finally show up today.” My Boss’s cold and raspy voice shoots over to where I’m standing. I sigh and finish clocking in, knowing it’s going to be one hell of a shift today. 

“Sorry sir,” I say, turning around and facing the man himself, he must’ve walked over here while I was staring at the screen of the terminal. 

“Do you have a good reason for showing up late?” he growls at me. “Your shift may not start until five, but I’ve made it very clear to all my employees, including yourself, that I expect you to be here fifteen minutes early to help with prep.” He states, crossing his arms and leaning back causing him to stretch out to his full height of upwards of 6 '5".

“Just homework sir,” I state looking down at my feet. “Time must’ve gotten away from me.” I finish, not wanting to get into the details of my drunken father. 

“This is your final warning boy,” he says coldly, “If it happens again don’t bother showing up.” After that he turns around and walks back to the front of the store. I wait to hear his office door shut before exhaling and heading to the prep line. I work in a fairly well known sandwich shop that's split with a gas station. With it being one of only five places to eat in this town, we stay pretty busy most days of the week. Today’s Tuesday, one of our slower days of the week, so there’s only two of us in the store today. Myself and Jenny. Jenny is a forty year old woman, she’s worked in just about every place there is to work in this town. She’s got a hard exterior and gives a lot of people a bad vibe, but if you get to know her you’ll find she's actually a big sweetheart. Jenny and I work most Tuesdays by ourselves together, so we have a routine worked out pretty well. She works the gas station side, while I work the sandwich side, only switching if one of us needs a bathroom break. I like working with Jenny because she’s not much of a talker. It’s not unheard of for us to work an entire shift together without saying a single word to one another. Just get in, do your s**t, and get out, exactly how I like it. 

When I get to the prep table I see all the canisters from the morning shift that need to be filled set up along the table. How nice of them I think to myself as I slump over to see what all I need to pull tonight. The morning shift is supposed to fill their containers before leaving, so the night shift only has to prepare what will be needed the following morning, however it’s very rarely that they do. I don’t mind on nights like tonight when it’s slow, however on Fridays and Saturdays it’s a giant pain in my ass. Thankfully it’s not a lot that needs pulled, I sigh and turn towards the walk-in, pulling the handle open and stepping inside the giant icebox. I hate the cold, so I quickly grab everything I need to refill this morning's containers before jumping back out and into the warmth of the store. 

I mindlessly finish prepping for tonight and tomorrow, putting everything away. I occasionally will hear the doorbell, alerting me that someone is up front waiting on a sandwich, but that only happens once or twice. After prep I’ll normally make myself a sandwich for dinner and sit at one of the tables to eat before continuing on with my cleaning/closing duties. Today I decided on a tuna melt. My buddies hate these, and refuse to be in even the same vicinity of me while I eat one. So I don’t make them for myself very often, but today it’s just calling out to me. I finish making my sandwich and take a seat in the dining area, unwrapping my sandwich and digging in as fast as I can before a customer comes in wanting a sandwich and interrupts my meal time. 

Almost as soon as the thought crosses my mind do I hear the annoying ding of the front door as a customer walks in. I watch loathingly as a family of three walk up to the sandwich counter and begin reading the menu above it. I sigh as I wrap up my sandwich and carry it back to the back with me. I place it on the back table and walk to the sandwich line, opening the doors as I go. I grab some gloves and snap them on my hands before looking at the gentleman in front.

“What can I get started for you?” I ask, bearing my fake, overly cheerful, customer service smile. He orders his sandwich in a timely fashion, moving down the line and waiting on the other end by the register for the rest of his family to finish ordering. The older woman goes next, she’s a bit more picky than the man was, but still manages to finish fairly fast. After wrapping her sandwich and placing it next to the gentlemen's, I move back to the start and get ready for the final sandwich.

“And for you Ma’am?” I state before looking up into the brightest pair of green eyes I’d ever seen before. I normally pay no attention to the people who come in here, knowing they’ll be gone in less than five minutes, there’s no need to get familiar with anyone. This girl however takes my breath away. Her hair is long and black as night. Her skin is a pale white, her nose is button-like with a rainbow of freckles painted gently over top of it. She’s wearing a dark red crop top, a pair of black ripped skinny jeans, and long combat boots. She is the opposite of Hailey in every way, yet just as beautiful. I realize I'm staring wide eyed at this girl and quickly shut my mouth, and shake my head. She smiles innocently, glancing down at her shoes before looking back up at me.

“I’ve actually never been here before,” she states, her voice is small, but loud. Almost kid-like, despite her looking close to my age. “What do you suggest?” She asks, looking at me questioningly, a bit of a smirk playing on her lips. 

“Well this is our most popular bread,” I say, turning around and grabbing a loaf of our cheesiest bread. “Are you really hungry, or only a little?” I ask the girl. I’m trying to play it cool and not let the nervousness melt through to my voice, but it’s proving easier said than done. 

“Not very.” She says. My hands shake as I go to cut the loaf open and in half, I have to cool it before I end up slicing my hand instead of the bread. I open up the now six inch sandwich and begin going through our different meat and cheese options with the girl. “I think I’ll just do a Roast beef and American cheese.” She says, pointing through the glass at the options she wants. I place them on her sandwich, my body still betraying me by making me shake as I'm going. Why am I being so weird? I think to myself. Not once have I ever gotten this nervous around any girl before, not even Hailey. I quickly ask her how she wants the rest of her sandwich, almost rushing her the rest of the way down the line. 

“That’ll be $17.09,” I say to the man after getting all three sandwiches rang up and bagged. He hands me a twenty and I quickly count back his change and hand him the bag. “Y’all have a nice night” I say waving goodbye. My eyes meet up with the girls again. They almost seem to pierce right through my head and into my thoughts. She smiles slightly and waves bye as her and her family walk out the door and into the night. I let out a big gust of air, what’s with me tonight? I shake my head and feel my body start to calm down. That was weird, who was that girl? I think to myself, grabbing my sandwich and going to sit down. It doesn’t matter, my thoughts say back, the chances of you seeing her are slim to none. Right, I think, might as well move on and forget about it. 

The rest of the night goes by without a hitch, and Jenny and I are actually able to head out earlier than normal. On my walk home my thoughts shift back to the girl from earlier, who was she? Why did she have that strong of an effect on me? 

I push those thoughts to the side as I walk in the front door of my house, trying to stay quiet due to the late hour. I slowly close the door behind me and begin sneaking down the hallway towards my bedroom. Once inside, I close the door and flip on the light switch. I sigh and let my shoulders sag, the heaviness in them completely obvious to me now that I’m home. I take off my visor and toss it over onto my dresser, before sliding my shirt up and over my head, tossing it to the floor. My pants soon join my shirt on the floor. Clad only in boxers, I shuffle my way to the bed and flop onto it. I close my eyes and almost drift off to sleep before remembering I have to finish my assignment for Mrs. Hamilton. 

Sighing I push myself up, and lean over my bed to grab my backpack. Shuffling through it I find my English folder and pull it out, placing it on my bed in front of me. I then grab my laptop and open it up, pulling up the file I had begun working on earlier. My mind lull’s as I type away, almost on autopilot, counting on autocorrect to catch any mistakes my tired brain doesn’t see. After about an hour I finally finish, doing one last readthrough before pressing save and closing down my computer for the night. I set it and my backpack on the floor next to my bed before laying down, pulling out my phone to check the time. I groan as I realize it’s now thirty past midnight, and I have to get up in the morning around six so I can have enough time to shower and eat breakfast before I head to the school. Well there goes any chance I had at getting a good night's sleep, I think to myself. I sit up and lean over to turn off my bedroom light, before shuffling under my blankets and laying down. I close my eyes and almost immediately fall asleep. As I do, my mind is filled with dreams of a bright green eyed girl.