Chapter 2.

Carter throws himself on my bed, letting out a loud sigh. 

“Long day?” I ask mockingly.

“You wouldn’t believe.” I jump on his legs and pick up a Nintendo switch controller. 

“Got enough energy for Mario Kart?” he makes a noise that I take as a no, and doesn’t move from where he’s lying, eyes closed at the ceiling. 

“We can order food.” He sticks his hand up to receive the controller immediately, excited to get his hands on the fries he was denied at lunch. I giggle and throw it at his face, which hits him square on the nose. He sits up and makes an action about to throw it back at my own face, I brace for it, but it doesn’t make contact. I look at where the controller had landed on the floor.

“Hah! Missed.” I point at him grinning. Making direct eye contact he shrugs.

“Guess I did.”

I hear a knock on the front door as soon as Waluigi crosses the finish line. I had just beaten Carter by a millisecond; boasting my glory, I stand up and head to the hallway, where he follows me. I open the door and come face to face with a pair of familiar eyes, I can’t place where from though. 

Those same electric blue eyes staring at me, on the ground, clouded vision. He doesn’t say anything. Just watches. 

Suddenly I’m back staring at the actual person in front of me. Disregarding my mind I throw the possibility out of the window, the man from that night wasn’t the same. Carter takes over and hands him the cash before thanking him politely.

“Have a good night.” A deep voice comes from in front of me. The man doesn’t break eye contact with me. I just give an unsure nod and go to close the door. 

After discarding the pizza box on the table hastily, Carter interrogates me. 

“What was that? You’re really off today.” I try to shake the gaze of the stranger from my head but it’s all I see when I close my eyes. 

“I don’t know, just. That guy seemed... familiar.” One look at Carter and I know that he knows what I mean. 

“It wasn’t him. You’re fine.” He pulls me into a hug at the same time that tears fill my eyes. I cling to the back of his shirt, sobs wracking my body, letting myself cry for the first time in a while, all the closed off emotions spill out. Carter just rubs my back and pats my hair, letting the tear stain on his shirt spread further. Slowly, I pull apart from the embrace, but grab his hand, not wanting to lose full contact yet. I grab the box and we retreat back to my room to sit on the bed and eat. 

I’m finally over the salty taste of tears on my cheeks. My eyes are still puffy, and I feel gross albeit better. My normal energy returns but feels a bit flooded. 

“Let’s watch a horror movie.” I try to resume my normal antics by pushing on his knee playfully, but it comes off annoyed. He smiles sadly.

“Of course, but it has to be a shitty one we can laugh at.” 

“Always.” 

“Person who jumps the most has a forfeit.” I scrunch my face up in confusion.

“But you always jump at the smallest things. I’ll definitely win, why would you suggest that?” I ask.

“It might make you feel better if I have to do a forfeit, plus you might be more vulnerable to jump scares in this state.” He teases and I make a face of mock offense. I already feel better, weight of repressed pain slowly lifting off my shoulders. 

Carter loses obviously, jumping so violently that it startles me. 

“Literally, what did you think was going to happen?” I tilt my head at him. He just rolls his neck, laughing in humiliation.

“What are your commands?”  I think for a moment. I don’t wanna put him through hell but something to make him realise how dumb his suggestion was, so he never does it again. 

“Go to the fridge and make a cocktail of three liquids and drink it in its entirety.” He looks determined. For what reason! It was a disgusting forfeit. 

“Alright, watch this.” He says cockily and saunters off into the dark kitchen. I don’t bother to turn on the lights, because my parents were trying to sleep now that they’re back from work. He makes a loud sound when knocking over a bottle of ranch. We fall into a fit of stifled laughter. The only light coming from the refrigerator, I see him set the bottle back upright and pull out the milk and cola. He loudly grabs a glass from the cabinet and sets it down. He then pours the two into the glass and adds tap water, the concoction turning an ugly brown colour. 

“Well, bottoms up.” He whispers and downs the full glass in three gulps. I stare in horror. 

“Dude, oh my god, I’ll pay for your hospital bills I swear.” I shout in a strained hushed voice. I did not expect him to drink thatmuch of that stuff.

“Mmm, I don’t feel good.” He groans. 

“Of course, you don’t idiot, hope you learnt your lesson.” I sigh and shake my head before rinsing the foul-smelling remnants of the ‘drink’. 

“Come on, we have work tomorrow, try and sleep that off.”

I lay next to a sleeping Carter, processing the stressful events that happened. first, I have an actual job now and second, I had two flashbacks all in one day. Mom and Dad won’t be happy. 

I stare out the window through the gaps where the thin, grey curtain billows. The occasional car passes by, and the headlights wash over the room, lighting up the dark space for a second. I roll onto my back and give up on thinking, letting sleep come to me. 

Carter’s spare uniform was like 10 sizes too big on me, but it would only be for today, I would get my own later. The uniform consisted of a black t-shirt with bright purple detailing and the ‘Hyberglow Mall’ logo, paired with my own ripped, black jeans. The shirt constantly threatens to fall off one shoulder, the rest tucked into my waistband, concealing the excessive length. 

Carter stood next to me in the same sized shirt, yet it was only a little loose on him. I had gotten there and seen a mall manager in a similar shirt, but the detailing was pink instead of purple. They had greeted me and told me what to do. It seems easy enough. 

We head to the bowling alley first, where we run into an energetic teenager, stumbling out of the supply room, a goofy grin gracing his face. His shirt has green on it, the colours must be a ranking system for the different roles in staff I figure. He greets us excitedly; standing in front of him I notice he’s slightly shorter than me, he has to be younger than me by a few years. 

“Damian, this Is Tommee, he runs the bowling alley.” What? Tommee seems to notice my confused expression.

“I’m 22.” He's what?! I try to keep my face neutral, to not offend him but he laughs it off and shakes my hand. 

“Nice to meet you, what do you need us to do?” I ask, trying to be helpful and hoping I don’t look like a fool on my first day of the job. 

“I need you two to hand out shoes and collect money. They’re all in their sizes section, and the sheets are here for pricing. If they need sizing or you’re not sure of something don’t hesitate to ask me, I’ll be around and today there’s Jesse and Becky around too.” He leaves with a final wave, going to talk to someone else, the serious look on his face making him look like a different person. 

Carter sighs as the last family walks away, shoes in hand. 

“This is great.” He says as I count out and sort coins into their correct places. 

“Yeah, at least I’m not bored.” My holidays were not filled with the most entertaining activities previously. 

“Hey, I think we have the same break time as Tommee and Ruby, you wanna hang out with them? We don’t have too of course, but-”

“Yeah, why not? Other than probably offending him accidentally, Tommee seemed really cool.” 

“He is, and I’m sure your fine, he’s a chill guy. Ruby’s cool too.” I nod and lock the cash draw. 

 I flop down on the unstable plastic, fold-up chair in the back room of the bowling alley, grabbing my bottled water and chugging the now warm water. Unpleasant as it tasted, I was thirsty. Carter picks his bag up and nudges my ankle with his foot, signalling that we should leave now and go to lunch. Maybe I can find something less repulsive in the food court to quench my thirst. Slowly wondering through the mall, we drag on, passing many groups of people of all different ages. A trio of 8-year-old girls waltz past, acting and dressed like trendy internet influencers. I roll my eyes at the high-key cringe comments they make, and then I see that they all carry the newest iPhone.  Literally where are their parents?

We make it to the food court and sit out the front of a Chinese take-away restaurant, across two people, one was Tommee, wearing his bright toothy smile, and next to him was a pale girl with purple shoulder length hair. She looks up from her phone and offers a socially awkward half-smile. We easily start up a conversation about how I got my job, we get along easily, and they are very open to meeting me.

“We’ve actually heard a lot about you.” Tommee says through a mouthful of food. Ruby nods along, agreeing. I turn my head to Carter questioningly. He smiles sheepishly. I hope he didn’t spill too much to practically strangers. There are some things that no one else can know.