"Oh, written in the stars, A million miles away" - Tinie Tempah
They've been familiar strangers so long.
Just red and grey text on a screen; just lines of code deciphered through a program, delivered to their eyes. The click of keys and mechanical whirring were the words they spoke to one another; the meaning and emotions behind those words were their personalities. Faceless, two-lettered beings that could never meet, never touch; light-years apart.
They aren't friends; not really. They're relationship is tolerable at best and antagonistic at worst (never hurtful, though). Most of the time it's simply provoking red text laying down bait that's unfailingly taken by grey; ironic, considering whose supposed to be trolling who. It's why most of their exchanges turn into unproductive, ranting arguments about absolutely nothing; a dance clearly led by red text that's never truly trying to prove anything, with grey text trying to keep up with the steps with growls and snarls.
Definitely ironic.
Though that's kind of the point.
Most of the time they're just ships in the night, passing each other; a line of grey text is left on the message board; a line of red text posted an hour later. Just posting and checking back for a reply later.
It's why there's something special about typing out a line and sending it, and seeing a reply pop up not a minute later. When they're online at the same time, actively conversing, it feels like they're in a world only the two of them know about. Computer screens that serve as hidden windows, linking two beings a million miles away from each other.
And - though both of them wouldn't admit it to anyone else, feel dorky admitting it to themselves, and would NEVER even hint at it to the text behind the screen - there's something really beautiful about it. How two worlds are linked by one thread, candy-caned striped with red and grey. How two beings who can never meet, who will never know one another, who don't even know what the other looks like, can have a relationship as unique as theirs. It's not quite friendship, it's not quite hate, it's not quite rivalry, and yet it's all three at the same time.
And this unique relationship with someone they'll never meet; a mystery being. There's a sense of romance connected with it, but not the romance of lovers, more like the romance of sunsets. The romance that inspires artists, moves poets to tears, warms the hearts of old folks; all wrapped into logs filled with explicit between two teenage boys, one thirteen, one six and a half.
It's a warm Texas night, and he doesn't want to sleep. When he sleeps, he'll have to wake, and when he wakes, he'll have to go to school.
Boring. He opts for reaching for his phone instead, lighting the screen with a tap of his thumb, swiping it to the side and tapping into pesterchum, finding a message for him in grey text posted five hours ago. He taps out a reply, going onto something else until a ding and message at the top of his screen alert him to a reply.
He goes back into pesterchum, the dull tap of his fingers across his screen the only words he offers to a being galaxies away. He waits in the app this time, waiting for a reply, his mouth twitching upwards a bit when he gets one, red eyes trained on red text.
They're together in that secret world again.
Setting his phone on his bed, he stands up and strides over to the window, a pale hand pressed to the glass, peering out. After a moment, he pushes the window open, leaning out into the warm city night, hearing the traffic muffled below him as he stares up at the sky, wondering about the being of the stars so far away, the one with whom he speaks through a screen.
Wondering if the other ever did the same; stood at their window and looked into the abyss of stars, scanning the sky and wonder where the author of those silent words in their chat logs might be.
Who knows; he thought, sparing the dark sky one last glance before pulling his grey hand away from the cold glass.
Catz: I wrote this about six months ago. I decided to post it because I thought it was cute and that someone might enjoy it. I hope you liked it, lovely reader~
Also, the point about "two-lettered beings" referred to how their chumhandles are shorted; CG or TG.