Chapter 48 - Pay And Play And Lay And Lies.

Pay and Play is a place... how do I describe this... it gives me the vibe of a place you'll see if the sun disappears and we rely on electricity for heat (if that's even possible I don't know, I'm no boring scientist.) Silent and dim. I can hear my footsteps echoes a little. To use another word, it's a lot more like a place for underground gambling but with cool-looking PCs and… I guess christmas lights? Only this one has red, green, and blue colors changing every ten seconds.

"This place sucks," I say, rubbing my nose. This place is also dusty. I point at the lights, "Why are they using Christmas lights here?"

Carrie, who is walking in front of me, gets her ear twitched. She turns around and follows my eyes. Christmas lights...? And with a 'what the fuck' expression she says, "Yo, that's not a Christmas light. That's like the most boomer shit anyone could say."

Her neck bends forward.

That's not a Christmas light?

Boomer?

The hell is--

"Don't think much about it, boomer." Carrie snorts.

And walks away, leaving me wondering if I'm either too ahead or late of time to understand this world's slang.

And Fatty replaces her position, looks around carefully before explaining it to me, "She means you're old."

Hey, I'm not that old. And how would anyone be able to name what's the cooler version of Christmas lights? It's literally changing color like one. If anything it's a rip-off technology.

Anyway, this has surprised me. Carrie seems a lot calmer than I expected seeing me here. I guess the joke was on me. I thought Carrie's reaction was a little bit interesting and cute. Oh no, my tutor caught me skipping school. How would I explain? If I suck him off will he let me off the hook? I don't really mind if it's him. But of course these thoughts are just what I imagined. And what you expect often turns into a disappointment. None of the cute and fluffy and lewd scenarios happen. But one thing happens. Carrie is not that super annoyed like back in reconcile room to let me follow her.

Well, it's not like I really know much about her but…

Her tired eyes tell me something.

Worried?

Sad?

Exausted?

I shrug off the guess (assumptions are tiring) and decide to follow the girls at the counter.

And there's one ugly human greets us.

"Hehe…" is the first thing he lets out. Not a very good first impression to me. I don't like him.

When I look at him closely, a certain fictional character comes into my mind.

Holy shit, he looks like Simon from Adventure Time.

The counter man is a contrast to everything around him. The people and atmosphere in here are grim but he shoves it away with a what we could consider disgusting grin. This guy really a game changer.

So basically, he's a weirdo.

"Ooooohh," the man says with a voice of that feminine (somehow coming from his ugly bastard build.) He scans me from down to up as he grins, "I see, the YOLO squad has a new member huh. Quite a surprise too, a man! What a jump," His orange hair shakes and a pair of orange eyes look toward the grumpy Carrie, "I thought you said that you're new member is going to be a lot more---"

He eyes me again...

But before his big mouth could say what, Carrie shushed him. "Look, Fuckers…"

Fuckers?

The man shakes his head with a sad smile, "Oh come on, Carry-your-ash. It's Fuck, the rest is taken as an offence."

So this guy's name is fuckers--oops sorry, Fuck…? What a splendid name. I guess his parents are just sex addicts and want their son to be a remainder that they are fucking all days. What a nice family. Can I have a family? I have one. I had one. Who killed them?

"Hah…" Carrie scratches her back neck, "Fuckers, shut the fuck up. We're not friends, don't make this friendly."

"Aww…" Fuck is sad… but still wearing his smile. What a weirdo. He's a lot more weirder than me. Oh, that's like me admitting I'm weird. Well yes, I'm immortal I'm very weird. In a good way of course. Fuck is weird in a bad way.

Carrie ignores his plea, "I've been waiting for an hour now, doing nothing but practising as you saw. Tell me, where's the enemy squad?"

Fuck gives it a chuckle, "Isn't it weird you call them the enemy's squad? They have a name."

Carrie snorts, "the only thing weird here is you and your fucking name."

She's right you know. We all think so. I bet you do too.

Fuck glances up, "Well, I wouldn't know where's SHOT right now. I'm just a simple owner of a shitty cyber cafe."

Sharp Eyes comes forward as he puts a bill on the desk counter, chiming in. "Shitty cyber cafe, fucking name, and disgusting smile."

Fuck chuckles again, "Oh, come on. You surely don't mean that." He takes the bill and asks, "Which row?"

Sharp Eyes gives Carrie, their captain, a look and she replies with a frown, "Don't pretend you don't know, Fuck. Of course we'll take the usual."

"Just to make sure, my dear," says Fuck.

"Fuck." Carrie fucked.

He takes insults as if it's a burger.

Either he used to it and he's a fellow masochist.

"We're going in first, Carrie." Nerdy, who has been silent this whole time says.

Carrie rolls her eyes, "whatever."

Nerdy brings both Sharp Eyes and Fatty out of the scene and sits on a row of opened PCs.

It's just me and Carrie and Fuck now, somehow.

"Why are you still here, my dear?" Fuck starts.

Carrie doesn't appreciate what he calls her (I don't too) and shakes her head. Carrie says, "But they told me to contact you if something comes up. And something comes up, everyone apparently is fucking late!"

Carrie touches her forehead, "And my goddam tutor found me."

She didn't even give me a glance.

Maybe she doesn't need to do that with my existence already stuck in her brain. She can see me everywhere anytime without me being there.

Fuck opens his eyes wide, "Tutor?"

The scene turns silent as both of them look at me.

What?

Should I say something in here?

Why do I always end up in a situation where everyone stares at me as if they're waiting for an answer?

…

You know what, I guess that makes sense. I'm a tutor and why the fuck did I end up in here? I should give an explanation before Fuck's head explodes for opening his eyes too much. But I wouldn't say, 'hey I come here for Carrie. Oh come now Carrie, chop chop, back to school now, learn we go' which is the normal thing to do here--as a real tutor that is. But I'm anything but a normal tutor. So the best thing to say here is…

"I'm in love with Carrie so I wouldn't say anything…"

"..."

"..."

Fuck tilts his head, "I don't expect this kind of sudden development, Carrie. Is he being serious?"

And Carrie sighs, "no. Apparently, this tutor is fucked up like you.

Well, that seems to be a failure. I was of course being 'not serious.' My plan is too gaslight but it wasn't too thick enough. I hate telling the truth anyway.

"Well, Mr. Tutor? What are you doing here?" Fuck starts.

"Er…" let's see what I can come up with. I give Carrie a look and then answers, "I guess I want to spend quality time together with Carrie."

"Quality time?" Carrie clicks her tongue, "don't shit with me. What do you want for real? If you're going to take me back to school, how about fuck off?"

"Hey," I shrug, "I wouldn't mind two or three games, you know? Like, I play Runescape for days and I still love it."

And I could hear Sharp eyes whispering to her friend, "what the fuck is Runescape?"

It's either this world doesn't have any game called Runescape or I'm indeed a boomer or whatever they called me. Man, Runescape was a good game.

"Er… Pok*mon?" I suggest another game.

No one answers. No one reacts. They just think of me as a crazy person who has lost in time.

Oh goddamit, am I really one of the boomer? I'm pretty sure I know what YOLO or LOL stands for. Or that isn't cool anymore? Fuck.

Fuck rubs his chin, "well, this is a problem…" his eyes go down and up as if I'm being scanned again…everyone likes to do this to me. "They said not to bring anyone other than your squad.

"They don't like their name to be spread around."

Carrie shrugs, "then just kill him."

Her red eyes of both flame and cold.

"I don't care anyway."

I smile, "owch."

Carrie twirls and glances over her head, "anyway, Fuck. Please do something. I don't like waiting."

"All right little missy."

"Fuck you," then Carrie goes away together with her YOLO squad.

When I try to follow her, Fuck stops me with a cough.

"You should leave."

"Why?"

"It might be risky for you to stay here."

Hm, sure. This place kinda creeps anyone out.

"In a cyber cafe?"

Fuck nods, "this is not a 'normal' cyber cafe as you can assume."

I shrug, "figure."

I start to take a step, "whatever comes I can handle it."

"Haha, so confident." His tone turns rusty, "we only have one life you know so best be careful."

I smile and walk away.

I could hear Fuck sigh, "Did warn you."