The Love of An Computer Artist

I awoke with the most painful headache ever; it literally felt like a marching band was beating at the walls of my skull. See this is why I never wanted to drink, the hangovers are way worse than downing the drinks. While rubbing the sides of my head and whimpering like dog in pain, I made my way to the bathroom to have a quick shower; it was a good thing the shop wasn’t open on Fridays because I definitely wouldn’t have gone in.

Just as I was stepping out of the bathroom, I heard the combination of a male and female screaming their heads off downstairs. I quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top then went downstairs to only see a picture perfect moment. Standing before me was the guy from last night holding one of the polka-dotted couch pillows as a shield and Jae Jung holding the broom from the kitchen like a baseball bat. If my head didn’t hurt like it did, I would have taken a picture and posted on my video gamers’ feed. I didn’t feel like playing a mediator so I just quietly walked over to the both of them and started humming loudly to get their attention.

“Shay, who is this man?” asked Jae Jung as she stood behind me while still holding the broom, “I came home from a friend’s place and found him on the couch. I almost called the…” I couldn’t take her rambling anymore, so I took the pillow from the guy and softly shoved it in her face. I hated being mean to anyone especially to her but her nonsense talking wasn’t doing me any justice.

“I will explain why he is here but first can one of you two…please tell me how to get rid of a hangover.” I laid face first onto the couch as I could hear one of them walk off, I guess. I don’t know how that solved my hangover problem. The couch sunken down beside me then I felt a light touch from a calloused hand on my shoulder and I immediately went stiff. The person’s touch sent a tingle or jolt of electricity down my spine and I knew right away that Jae Jung must have been the one to have walked off somewhere. I don’t know why but I quickly hopped off that couch and stared at the tattooed man sitting there. I looked at him closely and my eyes fell to his hands, ‘STAR…WARS’ there was only one person that I knew had that tattoo. There was no way he was Tony Perry because Tony Perry had a…dermal…piercing. My eyes popped up to his face and sure enough he had the same piercing.

“Excuse me…can I use your shower?” I was brought out of my thoughts by his soft voice and all I could do was nod. I was speechless. I didn’t utter a single word as I lead him to the guest bathroom and I didn’t say anything even when I was giving him a pair of Jae Jung’s ex boyfriend left over clothes. It wasn’t because he was a famous guy in a band, that didn’t mean a thing to me; it was the fact that I was afraid to talk, I was so used to talking to my friends and people online, not a complete stranger. While waiting for Tony to finish, I went back to the living room to find Jae Jung holding a bottle of water and a plastic bag. I didn’t know what she was applying so I just stared at her.

“For the hangover silly, take two of the Advil and wash them down with the water then you’ll be fine.” I took the ‘cure for a hangover’ from her and did what I was told. “Well, I’m going head to work now, have fun with…that guy…if you end up dead or something, don’t haunt me!” She yelled as she walked outside then left. Yeah if I ever end up dead…I am definitely going to haunt her until she goes bananas.

I decided to play some MineCraft—which was a daily routine on my days off just me sitting in the living room on the floor in front of the TV and a Xbox, while I waited for the medicine to kick in. After eight minutes of playing and raging, I heard the sound of music coming from off of the couch behind me. It sounded like maybe a phone; it couldn’t have been mine since it wasn’t my ringtone. I quickly press pause on the game and searched the couch until I found what appeared to be Tony’s phone. All I could was just stare stupidly at it like if I stared hard enough, maybe the ringing would stop. Why was I being so weird? Who just stares at phones like that, apparently that’s what I do.

Before I could do anything else, a tattooed hand reached for the phone and was answering it, “Hey…yeah, I’m fine…I went home with that girl from last night…no, Hi-me, I didn’t sleep with her…yeah, you can come get me. I will find out her address then text it to you…” I felt bad for listening, so I just continued to sit on the floor and went on a Creeper/Spider massacre. At the corner of my eye, I could see him hanging and hesitantly taking a seat on the floor next to me. “So…”

“So?” Could this morning get any more awkward?

“It’s 556 Floral Drive…”

“How did you…”

“…I heard…some of what you said.” It was a good thing I had dark skin because I was blushing like a strawberry from embarrassment.

“Oh,” I could hear tapping so I was assuming that he was texting Jaime my address, “So what you playing?”

“Mine…craft,” I tightly gripped the handles of the controller as my hands started to sweat. What is wrong with me? He was just trying to start up a conversation with me and here I was being a scrambling mess.

“Hey…relax,” he said as he placed a hand on my shoulder, “Just take a deep breath and just relax.” I had even realized that I was shaking from holding the controller so tightly. I put it down and watched as Tony started a 1-2-3 count breathing exercise. I took a deep breath and followed along as I started to relax. Once I was calm, I was able to come out of my shell, I just had to pretend that he was one of those Xbox Live people that you never see but you can hear them.

While I played my game, we would frequently ask each other questions and we found out that we didn’t live that far from one another; I even told him about my job at One Ink and he was considering checking the place out. Just as I was giving him my number, the sound of a car honk could be heard coming from outside and I knew it was time for him to go now. We got up and walked to the door, sure enough standing outside leaning against a blue Range Rover was Jaime, Mike and Vic. I thought he was just going to leave but what he did next surprised me, he leaned over and pulled me into a hug. I stood there for a moment before hesitantly wrapping my arms around him as we hugged for what seemed like an eternity. I was first to break the hug but I really didn’t want to because for the second time today, I felt that strange electric shock to my spine.

“Thanks for last night and today, it was nice meeting you, Shay,” he said with a smile growing on face.

“No problem and it was nice meeting you too, Tony.” I leaned on the door frame to support myself since I was still thinking about that hug.

“I will return the clothes when we hang out next time.”

“So there will be a next time?” I said as a smile tugged at the corners of my lips.

“Of course,” he chuckled then started walking backwards towards his friends.

“See you later.” I waved with the biggest smile on my face.

“Agreed!” he waved one last time before greeting the guys as they waved a hello to me then climbed back into the car after I waved back. Once I closed the door, I still had a smile on my face and my cheeks were on fire; what was wrong with me? Why was I blushing like this?

Notes

Hey, guys I was reading over Ch. 1 & 2 and I was trying to fix some errors, but when I would bring up the chapter editor, it would freeze the page. SO I could fix anything. I apologize.

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