Just Alive You Say?

by JayFury

Jason has to figure out the rules of life the hard way. He has to make big choices and learn to live with them. he is learning how to handle himself as a young man in this harsh world that has no mercy and he has to do so without losing himself. He loses one of his biggest role models and is now faced with questions he has no answers to.

Just Alive You Say? (J.A.Y.S)
"Reminisce" (Chapter 1)

I tried to look through the keyboard again… I still couldn't see the nut. He shouted from the other side of the room saying it was there, I just wasn't looking hard enough. I shook it a bit to listen for any unfastened object but it was pretty solid. I tried to shake it harder, but still nothing.
I looked his way and told him I gave up. I had been searching for the nut that held my Bluetooth mouse in one piece for almost half an hour now. And I wasn't leaving till I found it. When I put the keyboard down, he finally lost the online game he was trying to win and blurted out a curse.
"And Dan bites the dust…" I hollered. "… Space Racing isn't for him."
He had never won a tournament from the time he first got all his computer parts to create a gaming pc. I was naturally better than him at it but even I only got less than five wins through the two years we'd had the two pc's.
That game was made almost impossible to beat. It was a little like a mix of minecraft, spaceships, super bike racing, guns, formula 1 and a whole lot of open world to explore. The game was so huge it took up 60% of the "50 terabyte" NewStart company server. And a lot of things required precision and attention to the slightest detail.
It was like a whole parallel cube world in itself where you can literally do anything and be anything. It was the real life "Oasis' …cubed oasis… Dan and I had created our very own profiles where we played as brothers and we were pretty good at it. The online community started to fear us but when it came to tournaments, we were put in our place.
I decided to get on opening up the keyboard when I heard him say he found the nut. It was right next to the desktop. I wondered how it got there, and why he didn't say anything all this time.
"How did you not see it there before?" I asked him.

He just shrugged and got up from the chair and got ready to leave too. I looked at my watch and it read 2pm. I had to get back home by 3pm to watch the finale to adventure time. Yes… I … a 20 year old… still watched adventure time.

Not because it was a cartoon, but because it had a carefully crafted storyline that was oddly like my own life. Growing up without a father, having locked up emotional baggage… having a best friend who wasn't different from Jake "the dog" … the dog part too, he was a dog when it comes to flirting with girls, mahn that guy was a dog.
I screwed my mouse back together and tested it out on his pc. It was much smoother than it was before. No more lagged drag or whatever you call it. I wasn't good with the hardware fixing of the computer. That was one of Dan's skill set.
I met him at the beginning of high school… just when everyone was starting to make friends. I was seated in the corner fixed on my book and determined to finish it before I got home, but Dan walked up to me and tossed me a burger.
He was older than me by a year but as time passed it was obvious that I was the older one In terms of other things. From then on we were always together in school. The two brothers who always teamed up with each other to win any competition that arose.
Everyone thought he was my brother because we always came to school together and left together. When he wouldn't show for school, neither would I. because I would be at his place playing video games or playing his electric guitar with him.
Dan's mom outed me and told my mom about it. But they didn't do anything other than a week of no video games and that was because we rarely skipped school.
When we started to notice the girls at school, we helped each other by planning out how to get our crushes to notice us, like intentionally swapping chairs or intimidating other students to give up their seats so one of us would seat next to our crush.
And when our seat swapping would work, and the girl accepted a date, the other would make sure the date went out perfectly, and trying to set the perfect conditions so that the other would have fun on that day.
But most of the girls we ever dated… he, 5… me, 2… always ended up cheating or breaking our heart one way or the other.
"Where are you going?" I asked him.
"Oh nowhere, just going to visit a girl. Got to get back my hoodie, last night was too cold, and I don't want to be cold today."
"Really? It was 24 degrees last night. What girl."
"I know, I didn't say I needed the hoodie. Just some girl, you'll meet her soon." He smirked.
"You are sick bro, when did she even get your hoodie." I laughed at him.
"Just joking bro, she didn't get my hoodie, that thing is off limits to girls."
I picked up my hoodie from the chair which was similar to Dan's except his was blue and didn't have the awesome art woven into it like mine. We both headed to the living room for the front door. We passed through the kitchen to find Dan's mom baking some scones for her women's book club or something. When she saw us she pulled the tray out of the oven, set it down and took off her mittens.
"Oh, going out Dan?"
"Yeah mom, just going to a friend's place, I might spend the night."
"Oh ok. Jay's place?"
"uhmm, no … you haven't met her.…" he choked on his own words "…..him…. Hercules… you haven't met Hercules."
"Hercules? That's a… mystical name" she was smiling
"It's a nickname Mom…"
"Alright… alright… I don't understand you kids and the names you give each other these days."
"Mom, I'm not a kid…" he said as he was picking up both our skateboards from the side of the door.
At that point I was inching towards the main door trying not to laugh at him.
"Ha, wikala mu ng'anda yandi*(you still live in my house) so technically, you are still my kid. Ain't that right Jay?" she said./p
"That's right Mrs Kunda" I replied while chuckling.
"Ok, have it how you want. I'm my own boss…" he opened the door and walked out smiling, feeling that he was his own boss…

I followed him.
"Goodbye Mrs Kunda." I said as I closed the door behind me. But Dan interrupted when he came back and squeezed his head through the door
"Leave some of your baked scones for me for when I get back mom." Dan said.
He closed the door and I could hear his mother chuckling inside. I put my hoodie in my bag and walked to the street.
He tossed my board on the pavement and I ran to jump onto it. I landed perfectly then wobbled a bit and pushed forward. He followed behind me and jumped on his… speeding past me.
We cruised our boards through Kari Street and into Bonga Street. The sun wasn't so bright that summer and the cool wind was right in our face. I expected to face traffic on my way back home but the streets where empty and quiet.
After some minutes of high speed skating, Dan, from ahead of me said he was close to the turn he had to take to the girls place, about 5 minutes down the road. I was following him behind on my board and decided to speed up a bit. I was right next to him when I asked who the girl was.
He said it was the girl we had Math with in high school, the one who always glanced at me when I looked back to where my crush was. I wondered how Dan had kept contact with her after so long.
He further said that they had been chatting through Facebook and had gone out on a date a few weeks back. All this was news to me because I thought that he was alone since his last breakup. We had lost some speed at this point.
I felt I needed to ask why he hadn't told me but I figured it wasn't a big deal, so I let it slide. I told him to not let this girl cloud his mind. And I nearly lost my balance and wobbled when I told him so coz I was looking at him while saying so, and my skateboard was supper loose.
He pushed a bit and I lost a bit of speed and had to speed up to catch up to him again. He was looking ahead. Almost like trying to avoid eye contact./p
"I'll be careful bro" he said.
He knew what I meant. I nearly broke our friendship because of a girl once and he told me to be careful but I didn't listen.
The girl had me chose between her and Dan. At first I chose her, but later on realized she wasn't worth it. Dating was something I considered to be long term and she wasn't on the same train, and I wasn't willing to throw away our friendship just like that. So I jumped.
"You better watch out for her fangs, coz she sucks." I joked. Trying to break the ice
"Not as much as your girlfriend. She doesn't even go for parties or anything… no wonder you two are perfect for each other." He shot back.
I gave him a slight punch on the shoulder which made him curve to the other side of the road smoothly then swerved back to my side… the sound the wheels made was perfect. I really love skating.
We raced each other to the end of the section and I won. Doing my victory manual, lifting the front wheels with my hands in the air. He laughed at me saying he let me win so he could see me embarrass myself with the lame manual.
He then followed up with a backside kick flip and crossed his arms like a gangsta taunting me to show him what he got.
I told him I was saving my tricks when I really needed to take him to school.
We both stopped at the turn and laughed at each other. The streets where empty and we decided to do a few more tricks before parting ways, but my phones alarm went off reminding me I still had a finale to watch in fifteen minutes. I told Dan I had to run, and I sped off on my board.
"I wonder what your girlfriend thinks of you knowing you still watch cartoons." he shouted.
I nearly stopped to shoot back but the show was more important. I needed to know if 'fin' the protagonist of adventure time ever did come to amends with his past. And what his future seemed to be, and if he ever got with any of his past relationships.
I reached home about seven minutes later and rushed to the front door. The moment I got in and closed the door, I received a call from Lucile. I figured she just missed me since I hadn't talked to her the whole day, so I decided to call her after watching the finale. I got my skateboard and bag to my room and came to the TV room. She called again, but this time cut before I could mute the call.
After a few seconds I received a message from her and it read.

"Jay, I was in an accident. I'm ok but the other guy is unconscious. I don't know what to do; everyone isn't picking up their phones. I tried calling you and it went through. Please get here as soon as you can. I don't know what to do."

As I read the message i immediately got up and ran to my room to get my board. I received another text from her as I was leaving the house. I never even noticed I had left the front door open.

"I'm close to the train station. And my car has a huge dent. I hope the man isn't dead. Jay, I need you."

*The language used was Bemba. One of Zambia's many languages.