‘I wonder what Jackie would look like in watercolor?’ Jo blinked against the thought, shaking her head. ‘Stop that.’ She pushed the thought back as she mentally chastised herself. ‘Stop thinking about her like that. You barely know each other.’ Jo took a deep breath and sighed before returning to painting the small people in the foreground. 

Jo stomach grumbled, announcing its emptiness, and she set her paintbrush down. She slapped her hands on her knees, pushing herself to her feet. “Okay. Food.”

Jo trekked into the kitchen, opened her fridge, and stared into the empty appliance for several minutes before doing the same with her bare cupboards. Clicking her tongue before moving for her phone, and noticed the time, which let her know that nearly three hours had passed. “I guess I should do some grocery shopping.” She opened up the food delivery app, adding items to it, which consisted for a truly ungodly amount of frozen T.V. dinners and junk food. “And ordered.” Plugging in her phone. “Now I wait.” 

Jo retook her seat and forced herself to work on the rest of the painting. She went to work adding details to the building, painting windows and balconies with overflowing flower beds and ivy trellis. People sitting at tables, or standing and leaning against the railing. 

A knock at her door caused Jo to jump, nearly ruining the painting. “Fuck!” She yelled as there was another series of knocks. She slammed her paintbrush down, stalking over to the door. She peered through the peephole, noticing a guy standing with bags of groceries surrounding him. She rolled her eyes, opening the door a fraction of an inch. “I had it set for contactless delivery.” Jo got a whiff of the man, who she could now tell was incredibly high. 

The man looked down at his phone, laughing. “Heh. So you did. My bad. I’ll just leave these here then.” He set the bags he was holding down and turned on his heel. 

Jo watched as he left, walking out of view, and she opened the door bringing her groceries inside, moving them into her kitchen. She began putting them where they belonged, only leaving one T.V. dinner out so she could eat. Something she needed to do desperately.

Jo leaned against the counter while she waited for her ‘meal’ to cook. Picking up her phone to bring up Candy Crush[change name later?]. Her microwave beeped, announcing that her food, if you could even call it that, was done, and she grabbed it only to nearly drop it as she let out a yelp. “Ouch! Hot!” She shook her hand, sucking at the not quite burn before grabbing a towel to carefully bring the t.v. dinner over to her sitting area. 

Jo dug into the salisbury steak and watery mashed potatoes. She ate it more to put something in her stomach then anything else. She tapped at the game of Candy Crush on her phone as she chewed a mouthful when her phone dinged and a text from Jackie came through.

Jackie:

Wot r u up 2?

Jo snorted at the text talk Jackie used. 

Jo:

Eating. You?

Jackie: 

I’m bored. 

Wanna watch that 

anime i told u about? 

Jo worried her bottom lip trying to keep the smile from pulling at them.

Jo:

How do you 

suppose we do that?

Jackie:

Do you have Discord?

Jo furrowed her brows at the name-drop. 

Jo: 

What's… Discord? 

Jackie:

Are you serious?

Wait how old r u?

Jo raised a brow at the comment. 

Jo:

26. Why?

Jackie:

Huh.

And then, suddenly, her phone rang as Jackie called her. Jo jumped, fumbling for the answer button. “Hello? Is something wrong?” She asked as she put the phone on speaker.

"Uh, no? It’s just hard to type on a flip phone. Do you really not know what Discord is?” 

“N-no?” Jo said hesitantly. “Should I?” 

“I just thought most people our age knew what it was.” 

“So what is this Discord you speak of?”

Jackie laughed into the receiver, and Jo pushed her half-eaten dinner out of the way as she leaned onto the counter. “It’s like, well it's, it's kinda,” Jackie hemmed and hawed before finally saying. “Ya know Skype?” 

“No.”

“Oh come on! Everyone knows what Skype is!”

“I’m joking. Yes, I know what Skype is.” 

“Okay. So it’s like Skype but better.” 

“Skype but better.” Jo nodded, moving to sit by her computer. “Got it. So do I just download it or what?”

“You don’t have to, but it works better as a desktop app.” Jackie spoke into her ear. “Once you’ve made an account, let me know and I’ll tell you my username.”

“M’kay.” Jo hummed, figuring out what she was doing. “Now is probably a bad time to mention I’m kinda tech illiterate.”

“How tech illiterate are we talking?”

“Well,” Jo drawled, clicking the first link, bringing up the website. “There might be a reason why I don’t have social media.”  

“That’s horrible.” Jackie laughed and Jo went about making her account. Once that was done, the other woman gave her her username and she looked it up, sending out a friend request. “Okay. I’ll start the stream, give me half a second to get set up, and I’ll call you.”

“Okay.” Jo said before worrying her bottom lip. “Take your time.”

Jackie hung up and Jo set her phone to the side, moving to sit on her couch. A few moments passed before the call started, and Jo made sure she didn’t click the video option. “Okay. Let's get started! I’m sharing my screen, can you see it?”

“Yeah I can.”

“Cool beans.” Jackie said and hit play, and Jo curled up on the couch, watching as the opening played.

X x x x x X

Several hours and a season and a half later, Jo was officially hooked. She had to admit she hadn’t thought that she would get this hooked this quickly, but now she was determined to finish this series or die trying. Well, hopefully not die trying, but the point stood. She wanted to finish the series. Hopefully with Jackie. She really liked her running commentary.  

“Oh, is it already that late?” Jackie said, and Jo looked over her shoulder to see the darkened sky. “I should probably go. I need to check in on my brother.”

“Okay.” Jo spoke softly. “Can we do this again soon?”

Course. We still gotta finish season 2!” Jackie laughed, and Jo couldn’t keep the smile from her face.

“Yeah.” Jo reached up, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”

“So am I.” Jackie said, and they lapsed into silence, lingering in the voice call before she spoke again. “Well, I should probably go. Good night.”

“Goodnight.” And with that the call disconnected and Jo was left alone once more. The loneliness that she had at one point gotten used to now felt so much more than it had a few hours ago.