Brendan cautiously climbed out from underneath his bed and looked around his messy dorm room. Coding manuals were toppled over, an empty pizza box laid flat on the floor along with console game cases and clothes, and his T.V. screen had fallen behind his shelf.
"Well, at least it didn't make it any worse," he said after placing his hands on his hips. He then let out an exasperated sigh and bent over to begin tidying up, but was interrupted by a faint knocking sound. Unsure of what it was, he raised his hands up to the hearing aids around his ears and increased the volume of both. The insistent knocking became obnoxiously louder, and he found that it was coming from outside his door. Brendan calmly straightened himself up and walked up to the door, having a pretty good idea of who it was.
His hunch was right as he looked through the peephole to see Vicky standing outside in her purple tank top and matching pajama pants. Her favourite yellow headphones rested around her neck. She looked quite uneasy, so he opened the door.
"Are you okay?" She immediately asked and scanned his tall physique with worried eyes. He hadn't even fully opened the door yet.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't have anything dangerous in my room," he nonchalantly replied as he leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.
"Thank God," she said letting out a relieved sigh. "That was terrifying! Everything was just going left and right! I thought the building was gonna collapse!" Vicky walked into his room without permission. "I didn't even think earthquakes happened in Ripley..."
"Earthquakes can happen anywhere, Vicky. Some places more than others," he exhaled. Brendan was about to follow her inside when something caught his eye. There were small, thin cracks in the hallway floor. It was apparent that they were caused by the earthquake, but because of their insignificant size Brendan dismissed them and slipped back into his room, letting the door close behind him. He watched Vicky’s head turn side to side, looking around his room. He rolled his eyes. He knew she was searching for any damages despite his reassurance. However, her silent inspections didn’t last long too long and in no time she had made herself comfortable in his chair, feet kicked up on his desk. It was clear she wanted a reaction out of him, but Brendan went straight back to cleaning up his room.
Disappointed, Vicky pouted. "So...What have you been up to?" She asked, trying to start a conversation.
While placing his fallen video games and books back on his shelf, he pointed behind him with his thumb to the laptop on his bed.
"The usual."
"You mean that coding stuff? You're always doing that, even when there are better things to do with your time,” she teased.
"Nothing wrong with doing what I like," he calmly defended.
After returning everything to its original state, he inspected his room. His shelf was back in order, his dirty clothes were in a neat pile in a corner of the room, his T.V screen was cracked but back on top of his shelf, and his floor seemed to be clean enough. Thus, satisfied, Brendan gave a quick nod of approval then moved onto his bed. He sat against the wall, grabbed his laptop and settled it atop his lap.
"Really, Brendan? You're going to work while I'm here and ignore me?" Vicky questioned with annoyance. “An earthquake did just happen.”
Brendan paused and stared at Vicky. She stared back. Silence filled the room. Brendan then promptly tilted his head down at his screen, turned his hearing aids off and started typing away. Vicky spun around in the chair and threw her hands in the air in defeat. While her back was turned, Brendan quickly glanced up at her and cracked a light grin before turning his attention back to his screen.
Irked, Vicky pulled out her phone and put on her headphones to listen to music in an attempt to entertain herself. She knew that bothering him wouldn't accomplish anything because once he started working on whatever it was he would work on, it'd be a while before he stopped. She began to wonder how she even became friends with him.
Meanwhile, Brendan continued typing on his computer. His fingers moved at an impressive speed along his keyboard as letters, numbers, brackets and other symbols appeared on his screen at an equally impressive rate. While seen as gibberish and jargon to most, these expressions read easily to him. If an entire book could be written in only code, he could understand it with few problems. However, several things started to distract him from his work. He noticed that his computer screen was much brighter and ridiculously dirty; dirtier than it should have been. Greasy fingerprints layered the keyboard, dust particles clung to his screen and built-up between keys, and his own loose, dead hair laid everywhere. Disgusted, Brendan grabbed the sleeve of his loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirt with the intention of wiping off his screen, but he paused. His shirt was made of cotton so it was soft by default, but now, as he rubbed his fingers against the material, it felt as though he was stroking the thin fur of a kitten. He could feel the indents in his shirt caused by the wrinkles, and the tiny, delicate threading of the pleats. It wasn’t only his fingers that felt this sensation; his entire upper body could feel this comforting softness, as well as the warmth of his shirt caused by his body heat. Unfortunately, his lower half was not so lucky. Brendan liked to wear jeans and now he could feel the rough fibers of the denim material rub against his pale and sensitive skin. In contrast, the cozy sensation of his boxers made it bearable. He could also feel the confusing touch of his polyester-cotton socks surrounding his feet. It was a combination of softness like that of his shirt and smoothness. He even felt the cold temperature of the wall he was leaning on, and the weight and heat of his laptop that sat on him.
Comforted and irritated, Brendan was undecided on whether he liked or hated these sensations. As he tried to figure that out, he suddenly got a whiff of two distinct and unfamiliar scents that filled his room. It was the savoury odor of old pizza, and the sweet flowery aroma of perfume. The mixture of both scents coupled with the regular, stale smell of his room created an overwhelming stench that pierced his nose. His face tightened at the overpowering combination. He tried to look up from his screen to search for the sources and to see if Vicky could smell it as well, but the light of his room was almost too bright for his eyes to handle. His room seemed to be blanketed in an almost blinding glow until his eyes finally adjusted a few moments later. Everything was much brighter than usual, but at least he could see. In fact, his sight was perfect. He already had twenty-twenty vision, but what he was witnessing was far greater than that. Not only could he now read the ingredients of the cereal box on his shelf, which was a good five feet away, but he could also see a tiny spider and its intricate, thin silk webbing in the upper corner of his room near Vicky. However, those weren't all. The scents that he could smell, he could also taste. Everything was both unpleasant and pleasant in his mouth as they were in his nose.
It was unreal. He had no idea what was going on, but while most people would have freaked out at this point, Brendan didn't. His breathing had definitely quickened, but he kept it under control. He was too fascinated by everything. He turned to Vicky to see if she was experiencing the same thing as him, but was disappointed to see that she wasn’t. She just sat there in his chair, headphones on and texting; unaware. He wanted to explore what was going on with him even further, but the overbearing smell in his room was becoming increasingly difficult to endure. How could he concentrate with such a stench in his nostrils? He could handle his new sight, and somewhat of his new sense of touch, but when it came to his sense of smell his tolerance levels dropped. He got out of his bed, catching Vicky's attention, and walked over to his window. He needed to clear out this scent before he could think of doing anything else.
Chapter 3 To be continued...
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