I plopped down in a kitchen chair. I took me five minutes to realize that I was hungry. I opened the cupboard. I had a dozen Ramen Noodle packets, some canned soup, and a can of skettios. Not in the mood.
"I'm going to get a brainfreezy!" I yelled to Damon, who was watching TV.
"Okydoke. See you whenever." I looked speculatively at the TV. A green kid and a kid with a huge head were chasing each other around with planets.
"You're rotting your brain." I told him. He looked at me kinda creepy.
"Not MY brain."
"Whatever." I walked outside and slammed the door. I started walking toward the 24/7. "I never knew there was another waste lock so close. In the whole planet, there's two on the same street"
"Yeah, weird, isn't it?"
"What the… Oh, I forgot you were in my pocket, Elijah."
"Yeah. I am spooky, no?"
"Uh…yeah. You're spooky."
"How come you keep thinking about Johnny?"
"Um…he killed me in the last 24 hours, does that count as a reason?"
"No, you're not thinking about THAT. You're thinking about HIM."
"So? We're both waste locks. We have a lot in common. Who knows how many there are on EARTH? Probably just six or seven. So finding another isn't a garuntee."
"OOOH! YOU LIKE HIM!"
"NO!"
"Johnny and Marissa, sittin-"
"SHUT UP OR I'LL PITCH YOU DOWN A SEWER DRAIN!"
O.O
"There. That's better."
I walked into the 24/7 with all the air of a normal everyday customer. Hehe. There wasn't anyone else in there, which is normal, I guess, at two thirty in the morning. I walked back to the brainfreezy machine. They had a new flavor, Destructive Lime Explosion. I was debating whether to try this, or just go with Peanut DOOM when the door rang, announcing the arrival of another customer. I chose Lime explosion, and went to fill up the cup.
"How come all of a sudden you're EVRYWHERE?" A familiar voice whined.
"Ditto." I turned around. "I just want a brainfreezy. Leave me alone."
"Oooh! New flavor!" Nny grabbed the biggest cup they had, and pulled the lever. Nothing happened. I instantly panicked.
"THE BRAINFREEZY MACHINES BROKEEEEN!"I screeched. ( I am not pleasant when I have been denied life-giving SUGAR.)
"We turn the brainfreezy machine off at 2:00." Said the clerk. I glared at him, a new guy with spiky blonde hair. (They always have a new guy working here, I wonder why…)
"Why didn't you tell me that BEFORE I got the cup out?"
"Eh." He shrugged his shoulders. Johnny got really mad for some reason.
"Will you just turn the stupid thing on?"
"Nope, can't do that."
"Johnny, the lever's right here…" I pulled down on it. The machine whirred to life.
"HEY! You can't do that! You're not allowed to do that!"
"Shut up." Johnny glared at him. He didn't take the hint.
"You can't DO that! Turn it back off!"
"The basement's getting kinda empty." Said Damon in my ear. "Damon? Where did THAT come from?"
"Oh, I'm part of your mind now. I'm lonely, get your brainfreezy and come home, OK?"
"All right…" I filled up my cup. When it was done, I filled up Johnny's cup, too. (He was otherwise occupied.) The lime freezy slowly oozed out of the freezing thingie into the cup. I tied not to discern the noises it made from the noises behind me. "Here. My treat." I handed him the cup. He took it cautiously.
"YOU take the first sip."
"Hahaha. I'm not ALLOWED to poison you, remember? Anyway, it's not like it would do any good." I walked behind the counter, and entered the code. The drawer popped open. Most people in my position would REMOVE the contents, but I just put in the two dollars to pay for the brainfreezys. "Thanks."
"Hey, you kill the annoying clerk, I pay for the brainfreezys." I looked behind me. "How do you suppose they stay in business? It seems like they ALWAYS have a new guy working in there. I guess I know what HAPPENS to most of them…"
"I wanna know why people keep applying." He asked.
"Humanity is stupid. All of them. Running around not caring about anything but themselves, NOW. They've screwed everything else up so bad they can't see it even if they wanted to."
"It's sometimes fun to watch, though. Like an ant farm, only bigger and a lot more destructive. They build their great cities, only to have them destroyed by other people. At least the ants help each other. All THEY do is fight."
"Yeah. Hey… wanna go up to the cliffs?"
"Where?"
"You know, that great lookout? The younger kids call it lovers lane"
0.o
"Oh, shut up. I didn't mean it like that, you loser."
"Sigh. Ok. But just to get away from Rev. MEAT. He's driving me NUTS."
"Fine with me. C'mon, My house is closer. We'll take my car."
Now, I don't really care what you think, but I think my car is awesome. It's a dark blue pickup, with a hood. I didn't get extended cab, because I don't really have any friends. And it's not like I need any extra trunk space. I keep a tent and a sleeping bag in the back all the time. Sometimes I just need to go away for a while, and not worry about coming back. I drove up the twisting road slowly, trying not to go off the gaurdrail-less road. It would be a long, LONG trip down the mountain if I went off the side. And then I'd have to get another car. NOT GOOD.
I didn't say much on the trip up. Turns out he knew where this place was after all. We came up to the flat place at the top, and I pulled up really close to the edge, like I always do. I climbed up, and sat on the roof of the car. From where I was, it looked like I was flying high above the ground, with nothing around. Then Johnny ruined the effect by climbing up next to me.
"It's so pretty when you're looking DOWN on it." I said quietly. He looked at me kinda funny.
"It just adds to the whole ant farm thing. Look at them. They go around in meaningless circles. And why? So they can make themselves somehow more important than the next person. To be richer, more famous, more beautiful. But no one thinks of becoming KINDER." There was silence for a moment. "Maybe I just come up here too much for my own good."
"No, no, you're right. Of course, none of those things make any difference to ME."
"And that's the appeal of being a waste lock. You see things for how they really are. Of course, this is only really appealing in IDEA, rather than actual experience."
"Did you ever really think what'll happen once we're no longer waste locks? Do you suppose we'll die? Maybe really getting old and dying is how we'll lose it. I dunno. Can you imagine being 46 years old, still talking in angst mode all the time, still killing people to feed a stupid WALL?"
"Mine's a floor. Yeah, I can just picture us all. HEY YOU KIDS! GET OFF MY LAWN OR I'LL DISEMBOWEL YOU!" Johnny laughed.
"They won't believe us, either. Ha. Stupid kids."
"Maybe we'll be like 'Old Ms. G., don't go near her house or she'll EAT YOU!' kinda old people. Then some kid'll get convinced we're really sweet old people, just nobody likes us."
"Like in all the movies. He'll come over, being the good samaritin."
"Ha! I'll laugh at that kid."
"He won't care."
"No, he won't."
We had a good laugh. I just hoped nobody else would come up. Somehow, I got the impression that Johnny wasn't as easygoing as I was. I don't think he would appreciate an interruption just now. Fortunatly for them, no one came.
A/N I find myself writing a lot of this sentimental stuff all of a sudden, and I don't really know why. I keep trying to download ZIM music, and the stupid linksys, which should download, like a Mb at a time, keeps going at like 50 bytes. I wish you could talk to computers so I could tell it to HURRY THE FRICK UP! Ok, I have vented, back to the rapidly deteriorating fic.