Don't ask. John's Prompt. M&T's characters. Don't own anything, and I should be asleep now

"Bradley...watcha doin'?"

Bradley looked up, and squinted until things came into focus. He should really think these weekend benders through more carefully. Getting drunk off your ass was only really fun when you had someone to be drunk off your ass with. As things had turned out, Jimmy had a stand-up gig, and Jason was going somewhere with his dad, and Francis was converting to another religion (after deciding that Judaism, Rastafarianism, Christianity and Atheism just weren't working out) and Leroy had been preoccupied with one of his frogs, which "just didn't look right." Normally, this wouldn't really have mattered so much, since Bradley still had Kevin to hang out with, but since God was against him that weekend, Kevin had suddenly caught the flu. Fortunately, since Kevin was bored shitless and didn't really give a fuck about passing on his illness to anyone else, he told Bradley to just come over anyway, and to bring booze. It would undoubtedly have been a great way to spend the evening, had Kevin not fallen asleep after ten minutes and less than half a can of beer, leaving Bradley alone to mess around on Kevin's computer. Which was disconnected from the internet. For a while, Bradley had sat guessing passwords, and changing the screensaver to the video footage of JFK's assassination that Kevin had in his documents for unknown reasons, before giving in to his nerdier side, and loading up Zoo Tycoon.

He'd forgotten how much fun this game could be. Well, how much fun releasing carnivorous predators into a public area was, anyway.

"Take that, bitch! Teach you to complain about my damn zoo!"

Someone coming up the stairs. He stood up, blocking the computer from view with his shoulder. He looked round, only to see Esther in the doorway with soup.

"Mom sent me up with this to give to Kevin...guess he won't need it. "

"I guess not."

"Hey Bradley," She tried to peer over his shoulder, "whatcha doin'?"

"N-nothing." Goddamnit, how the hell did you turn off this fucking monitor? Esther curled her lip.

"You hold the button underneath. Zoo Tycoon, huh?"

"No! I mean, how did you-"

"Saw the box. What's the problem anyway. It's just a game. Nothing embarrassing."

"My lions are eating the population."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"I see."

There's silence and then,

"Tigers are better, you know."