Chapter 6

The sun shined onto his eyes waking him up. He slowly reached over to get his headset but decided against it. He wanted to start his morning correctly, so he got up and made breakfast. He opened the fridge and saw there wasn't much other than a potato and a jar of peanut butter. He grabs the jar and started to eat from it. He was thinking, there were many ways to get better. Some things that he could do are going outside more often, exercise, therapy, and medicine. Currently, he only has enough money to pay rent and buy food, so anything that costs too much money wouldn't be an option. As he was trying to think of what to do, he realized he never checked the messages Toby sent.

"Hey, Are you coming today? I want to hear your beautiful voice~"

'Maybe it wouldn't be that bad to spend one more day in the game before I start.' Kevin thought. He finished eating some of the peanut butter before putting it back. Tomorrow he would start his plan! That is what he said to himself. He grabbed the headset and turned it on.

He walked around the lobby for a bit. The lobby was a bit more full than usual. Virtual reality has been increasing in popularity recently since headsets and games are getting cheaper. It's nice to have more people to hang out with, but also sad that the place is getting more crowded. Suddenly a message came in.

"Hello! Want to hang out?" It was from Toby.

He went over to where Toby was, but when he got there he didn't see anyone.

"Is the tracker off? Usually, this thing is better than that..."

As he was about to go look around, he felt something wrap around him.

"I missed you yesterday! What were you up to?" Toby said, squeezing him.

"Ah, I was hanging out with Arj-- um, John."

Toby laughed, "That sounds like fun! You guys live in the same state, right? I wish I could live closer to you. Oh! What did you guys do? Did you guys do anything fun?"

Kevin rubbed the back of his head, "We didn't do anything too interesting. We just ate at a cafe and played games together."

"Ehehe, that sounds fun though! When I learn how to drive and move out, I want to live somewhere near you! Then we could also do those things together." Toby smiled widely.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. I would love to hang out with you as well."

"Can you tell me more about your day? I want to know what kind of things you like!"

Kevin looked away and tried to think of where to start. "We spent the day getting to know each other and talking really. It's not that interesting to listen to but I really did have fun you know? Arjun, I mean John, he has a really gentle personality. I don't know how to describe it, but he was patient with me and he listened to me. He made me feel relaxed and...happy..." As he said that, Kevin cracked a smile.

"Is that so."

Kevin turned to look at him, and for a moment he saw Toby stare at him coldly. He quickly relaxed his face at started smiling again.

Kevin was somewhat taken aback, "Hm? Hey, is everything okay?"

"Ah, sorry. It's just, you're growing up so fast!" He put his hands up to his face, "Soon you'll grow away from me! Seeing the little ones getting ready to go on with their life...It's!"

He starts to dramatically fake cry.

"...Aren't you younger than me?"

"That doesn't matter! Anyways, I need to get going. Let's hang out tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright, see you tomorrow."

He watches as Toby logs off. Usually, he would try to spend the whole day in-game, so it was strange to see him log off with such eagerness. Kevin thought about how he couldn't mention he was going to try to limit his time online. There wasn't much to do about that so Kevin logged off as well.