Technoblade
(the opponent from the duel)
had never really been Clayton's opponent
and he would never really be Clayton's friend.
People on the internet would constantly pit them against each other.
But as soon as the internet eased down,
they would each just go back to doing... whatever they were doing before.
...
Magnets with the same charge
do not repel because they hate each other
or are too shy
or have better things to do.
It's just in their nature.
Come to think of it,
Technoblade had gotten the then-small name of Dream into Minecraft Mondays,
right after all those boxes were carried down the stairs.
That was Clayton's first time in the spotlight.
But by August he was the most subscribed-to Minecraft YouTuber ever
and he didn't need anything or anyone,
so he had no favors to ask of Technoblade
and Technoblade had no favors to ask of him.
...
They never talked
but Technoblade was almost always online on Discord.
Always a little green dot next to the profile picture with the cartoon pig.
It reminded Clayton that he was online, and it would only take a second to send a few words to him.
Then that nice and funny guy would send a few words back.
Nothing was wrong.
...
Silence again.
Always lots of silence.
Forever.
He just wasn't sure... when.
Too confusing.
Why couldn't he see anything?
Someone else was reading out his thoughts.
He didn't like it.
He went back to sleep.
...
Anyway,
a second is a short time.
A day is a long time.
There were a lot of days
and millions of seconds
and in each one of those millions of seconds,
Clayton could have just decided to send him a message.
But he never did.
In his mind, the little green dot meant he'll be online tomorrow
and he's probably talking to somebody else right now
and I'll just talk to him tomorrow.
Never today.
Tomorrow.
...
A day is a long time.
But a year is also a long time.
And Clayton told himself that there were a lot of years
and that there was no rush.
Tomorrow.
...
And every once in a while,
they would run into each other on Clayton's server
or they would be on the same team in a tournament.
In fact,
they had just won a championship together
what,
one week before the duel?
Yes,
that had been nice.
...
What was most confusing of all was that they could really get along.
They had so much in common.
People always said they were the best two Minecraft YouTubers on the planet.
But somehow,
they never talked outside of streams.
Somehow,
the cycle of "tomorrow" never stopped.
All the seconds and days in the world
would not be enough for these two people to become real friends.
You can't count to infinity.
2020,
2021,
2022...
...
Pause.
And rewind.
Because it was still August 2020,
and the duel had just ended,
and a video game was all that was on Clayton's mind.
The wind outside was still chilly.
He sat in the chair, forcing a fake smile, feeling so glad that nobody could see his face
because he had lost
6-4.
...
For maybe the first time in his life, he felt a strange feeling of tightness
in his throat.
A faint, crushing...
sting,
as if something in there had stopped working.
...
For the next half-hour, two people sat in their chairs on opposite sides of the United States
and pressed keys on their keyboards
and made small talk as they ran circles around an arena.
Clayton's voice was unusually high.
It's okay, calm down, you agreed to split the money anyways. You could have won, you were so close, but- just breathe. Breathe.
...
And when the half-hour was over,
the recordings stopped
and suddenly, only the two of them were left in the call.
The basement was still silent
until Clayton said bye to "Dave" (Technoblade's real name).
He wasn't sure why he used that name.
Maybe it was because another version of him always did.
And there was a pause
and one of those famous awkward laughs.
And Technoblade sighed
and he said "see ya"
and his little status dot changed from green to gray.
Offline.
Clayton's breathing finally slowed down.
...
This is not a useless chapter:
remember its words
and remember its name.