Sunday, journal entry 3:

My face is cold. All I could see was the ceiling of my bedroom, which was stained with small finger prints of mine. How did it get there? My mom would usually take my consoles away when I haven't had breakfast or lunch yet. Why is that bad? 4 years ago, I used to eat so often my mom would think I would die an hour without it. And so, when she found out I would rather rot my brain playing rocket league instead of trying to explode my stomach, she'd rather see me diabetic than brain dead. In that period without my games, I would make my own happiness by jumping on my bed while touching the ceiling with my fingers, causing the dirty fingerprint marks. One of the days when my mom took my console away, I was jumping on the bed with all my might. Until, one of the bottom legs broke, and I almost went face first to the floor. I wouldn't entirely blame my weight on it. Still, I'm always reminded of the past where I used to be a full blown chud. But the fingerprints aren't what  keeps the past in the present, it's mostly the fact I sleep at a downward angle every night, since the broken leg was never fixed.

"What time is it?" I say.

With my lower back aching in pain and the breeze of the AC making it impossible to uncover myself from my spongebob blanket, I decided to grab my phone and scrunch myself onto my bed.

"I'm too tired." I said in a tired tone.

Hiding under my blanket, I pressed the screen of my phone to check the time. I waited 3 seconds, still trying to fight the sleep. When it didn't turn on, I pressed it again… Still nothing. 

"What the hell?" I said with my eyelids barely open.

I pressed and held the power button, thinking my mom turned it off when I couldn't wake up to my alarms. But once it showed me an empty battery icon with a charger icon flashing near the charging input, I let the sleep win. Can you blame me? The AC has been blowing the entire night, making my room a human refrigerator. And the only thing saving me was my warm, fuzzy blanket.

"Grr-r-r" my stomach retaliated.

I sighed pretty hard while saying, "Once a chud, always a chud".

Instead of putting on clothes to stay warm like a normal person, I took my blanket straight downstairs in my underwear. And I know what you're thinking. I'm pretty weird, but at least it's efficient.

 Looking around my living room, I check for a charger lying around.

"There you are." I said.

A charger connected into my six outlet extension cord laid on the couch, waiting for my arrival. I started charging my phone as I sat on the couch waiting for it to turn on. But then I realized the charger currently charging my phone was the slowest one in the house.

Ughhh, I don't want to wait for so long, I thought, laying down.

I wanted to make breakfast while using my phone. Without it, I would rather wait 10 minutes for my phone to be at one percent than to cook in utter silence.

"I might as well have a snack," 

Getting up from the couch is hard when your knees buckle every step of the way to the refrigerator. Without holding onto the walls, I would've definitely eaten shit on the ground.

"Let's see what we have here."

When I opened the fridge, I wasn't surprised to see the lack of snacks. The door racks on the refrigerator had their own spaces. The right door rack was ruled by condiments while the left was ruled by medicines. In the front, there were three big shelves, while two drawers took their spaces in the bottom. To make this simpler, both drawers were filled with vegetables and produce. In the three shelves, the top part was mostly filled with expired or forgotten ingredients nobody wanted to throw out. The middle part was filled with many drinks and old takeouts, from soda and Chinese food to chicken nuggets and chocolate milk. Finally, the bottom part was filled with a…single chocolate cake slice?

"Wait. Wait! WAIT!!"

In shock, I grabbed the cake, quickly examining it. The 10 dollar price tag was all I needed to confirm it wasn't a dream after all. I closed the fridge while walking to the dining table.

"Is it really in there?"

I was suspicious. When I sat down, my mind kept thinking of the possibility that the girl may have drugged the cake. I mean, why else would you turn around and mush a cake?

"Oh well, I can't waste perfectly good cake," I said.

I couldn't eat it how I usually do, big and fast bites. My plan was to scratch the outer part of the cake first, making sure to examine every bite for a scrunched up paper ball. And maybe check for some lead too while I'm at it. 

Spending 10 minutes of thinly slicing an already small chocolate cake was brutal. The enjoyment of eating the chocolate was gone since every slice wouldn't satisfy my taste buds for a second. I was once again getting tired, with my hand slightly shaking from the fear of tearing the paper. 

"You know what!"

I grabbed the cake with my right hand while slowly crushing it, letting the bits fall through my fingers. Then, I heard a crunch. My heart started to beat rapidly. I didn't know whether to suspect a message that made me wish I ate the whole cake or her actual phone number. My hand opened slowly, looking for the piece of paper with the details that'll make me feel better from this flu.

It's actually there.

Seeing the paper ball sticking out of the cake was the best thing that could've happened to me. Before opening it, I ran to grab my phone to enter her number. 

"Only 3 percent!?" I yelled. 

But I couldn't complain now. I had her number, the number of a strange pretty girl that I met in a dirty public transit station. It doesn't get more romantic than that, doesn't it?

I opened the sticky note with my phone ready to dial in the number. I was really excited and nervous that I was finally going to have the number of a girl that isn't related to me. Just accomplishing that would make me happy for the whole year. 

It's–It's just letters.

The sticky note didn't have a phone number written down, it had a date and address.

Reading out the date, it said "9/10/23 at 2PM. Don't be late."

My face couldn't decide whether to look depressed or shocked at the fact I just got edged. But I couldn't let myself down just yet. I switched to my maps app and entered the address.

"AN HOUR AWAY?" I yelled at my phone.

It's fine Miles, you probably have enough time to get there.

Trying to stay calm, I looked at the time on my phone for the first time.

Andddd I'm not going.

It was 12:40 PM, I am currently in my underwear at a dining table with a spongebob blanket. I haven't even eaten breakfast or lunch yet, and I wasn't even playing any games. Or was I?

"It's too late, I'll never make it in time."

As I swiped up the screen to exit the app, I accidentally tapped on a route to the address. If I make the bus coming in 10 minutes, I'll make it on the dot. I look at my legs, wondering if I should full throttle them to make the bus on time or keep it safe to prevent a cramp. 

"What the hell, I came all this way."

I started to tell my brain to tell my legs to let me use them at full speed one last time. 

Please, just this once! I thought, taking a deep breath and running.

Pause of journal entry 3. Time stamp: 12:40:27 PM