Author Note: Anyways here's Act 2, and Dream 2 next, enjoy.
Jethro woke up with a sweat, he was shaking. He got up and stumbled around, when he got his balance back, he looked for the bathroom. He found it and walked in, turned on the sink and washed his face. He took a look in the mirror, it was dirty and smeared. He wiped it with his wet hand. He saw his bed hair, always messy, hazy grey eyes like looking at fog, sags under his eyes like he's fifty.
Damn….
He clenched his fist, the dressing, and medical tape around his left hand is soaked. He wanted to bust that mirror, he hated the way he looked, the times he had to pick up the pieces and glue them together, but the cracks will always show, no matter what, they're there. But he restrained himself; he looked away, and splashed his face with water again. He hesitated if he wanted to look up, he moved his eyes up, the reflection was black and white, and Cabele stood at his right, bloody and still filled with holes. He turned around to see nobody behind him; he gave a tired sigh, and stared back at the mirror. He then, remembered that Aeris invited him over to her place today. He walked out of his apartment, and went next door. He knocked the door twice. Leo opened the door.
"Hey, can help you?"
"Uh, yeah, ya roommate invited me ova here, I live next door..."
"AHHHH! So you're our new neighbor! How's it going man?" Leo thrust his hand out; Jethro was surprised at the cat's enthusiasm. He clutched his hand shook it. "Come on in, I'll give you the grand tour." The apartment was like his, but the placements of the rooms are different, they walked into the kitchen, there Aeris sat there eating some toast. She looked up and smiled at him.
"Morning, Jethro you sleep well in there?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess." Jethro rubbed the back of his neck. Aeris gave him a small look, but then shrugged it off.
"Well, that's good. I see you met Leo there." She tilted her head over at him, "He's a real handful isn't he?"
"I get a handful of myself all the time, if you know what I mean?" Leo nudged Jethro; he gave him a small smirk.
What an anklebita…
Aeris slapped her face, "Jesus, Leo, not when we have guests around…"
"Hey, it's not my fault if I'm a comedic genius."
"You're a major fuck up, that's what you are."
"Hey, now that hurts, I may have had a slight chance of being retarded, but I came out just fine."
"But you ARE retarded!" The two argued back and forth, Jethro just stood there, feeling extremely uncomfortable and awkward being in the middle of the verbal battlefield.
"Um…maybe I should go…" he said, looking eagerly at the door.
"What? Oh no, sorry Jethro, we didn't mean to make you feel awkward." Aeris said
"Yeah sorry bro, Aeris likes to start things up like this." Leo said, shrugging.
"What? Why you…" Aeris clenched her fists hard, steam coming out of her ears.
"Hey, Jethro lets go into living room and play some Xbox." Leo said, as he walked away. Jethro looked at Aeris, worried that she might explode, and accidently kill him in blinding fury.
"Uh, should we do something 'bout her?"
"Nah, she'll get over it." Leo called from the living room.
"O-oh, aight…" he cautiously stepped away, and walked into the room. Leo was sitting on the couch, he handed Jethro a black controller. Jethro grabbed it and sat next to him.
"So, what ya want to play?" Leo said.
"I don't know…what ya got?" Leo got off the couch and crouched down at the stack of games, and sorted the ones that have multiplayer on them.
"Let's see here….we got Call of Duty, Gears 3, Halo, Mortal Kombat, Army of Two…"
"Uh, let's play Call of duty" Jethro said.
"Alright", he popped the disc in, and sat on the couch, "So, what do you want to play?"
"How 'bout some deathmatch?" he said, he looked at how awkwardly he held the controller.
"You're on" The game counted down 3, 2, 1. After eight minutes, Jethro got rolled with a k/d of 2-38.
"Dang, dude you REALLY suck." Leo said, usually he would be celebrating a victory, but this time it was just sad.
"Sorry, mate I'm not much of a console playa…" he said as he tossed the controller on carpet.
"Ah, I see, so you a PC gamer?"
"Yup, played a lot when I was thirteen."
"Well, then in that case." Leo got up, "follow me." Jethro got up and followed him. They passed the kitchen, where Aeris was still, clenching her fists at the table, in rage. They walked into a hallway; Leo opened a door that had a pink room in it. "Here, go and log on to Aeris's computer, and open steam , and launch Team Fortress 2, go to favorites and click on the first server, alright? But only if you can crack her password, she doesn't like anyone reading her fanfic, especially me. So if you can get by it then we'll duel each other." He opened the door to his room.
"Uh, mate I don't think I wanna do that." Jethro said
"Why?"
"Well, Aeris doesn't look like she'd be happy to see me on her computer… plus I'm a little afraid to lose something vital."
"Reeeelaaax, she's usually locked up like that for a while, especially when guests are over." He walked into his room, and gave Jethro a thumbs up. He walked into Aeris's room, and turned on the computer. He waited for it to setup, and then clicked on user "Aeris". The password prompt came up. He thought to himself what it could be. He remembers Leo saying she doesn't like him reading her stories.
The anklebita is pretty thick, so it's probably something like…
He taped the keys, and pushed enter, the welcome sign came up. He followed Leo's instructions, and got into the game. He chose to be on RED team, and picked the soldier. A prompt came up saying that leonardothen00bcrusher wanted to duel, he accepted it. After the game, Jethro won the duel, 10 points against 3 points. Leo left the game, and so did Jethro he turned off the computer and walked out of Aeris's room, and met up with him at the hallway.
"Dang, I SUCK." Leo said
"You weren't too bad, mate." Jethro said with a smile, "besides that fact that obvious spy, is obvious."
"Hey, now…"
"I'm kiddin' mate." Jethro walked out of the hall way, he looked into the kitchen, Aeris had recovered from her rage, she was sitting drinking coffee and playing with her new DS. She looked up and gave an embarrassed smile.
"Yeah, sorry about earlier today, Leo is just freaking annoying isn't he?"
"He's aight, I guess."
"Really? Doesn't annoy you one bit?" Aeris looked surprised. Jethro shook his head in reply, "Wow, you're probably the only sane person in the world that can tolerate Leo." Jethro gave a shrug; he looked at the microwave time, 7:45.
"Anyways, I'm thinkin' about headin' back." He said as he started walking out.
"Hey, wait! Jethro!" Aeris called. He looked back at her, "You know, me and Leo were going to go out to eat tonight; I was just thinking… would you like to join us?"
"Uh, I don't know…"
"Come on, I want to make it up to you for this morning. Pleeeeeeaaassee?" Aeris gave him a look a child would to its parents. For some reason, Jethro couldn't say no to that look. Aeris looked pleased with herself; she got up and called Leo then zipped up her jacket, "So does Chinese sound good to you?"
"Sure" Jethro said. Leo came into the kitchen.
"So, where are we going?"
"Ugh, Leo I told a million times, we're going out to the Chinese buffet."
"Oh, yeah that's right."
"Yeah, good job numnuts." Aeris said as she pinched her forehead, "And Leo, this time if you need to use the bathroom, just go without saying anything stupid, okay?"
"Sure thing!" Leo said. Aeris sighed and the three went out and were walking down the hallway to the elevator.
"Hey Jethro, what was Aeris's password?" Leo whispered.
"Password." Jethro whispered back. Leo look dumbfounded, and then face palmed himself.
"Dammit!" he said. Aeris turned around.
"What the hell are you guys talking about?"
"Nothin'" Jethro said as he looked at Leo. Aeris looked at them both suspiciously, and then she rolled her eyes, and pressed the elevator button. The elevator came up within seconds, and they stepped inside, Leo had his hand on his face still, he was muttering under his breath.
"Damn, that was so obvious; I can't believe I never thought of that, stupid, stupid me…"
Aeris looked at him, and cock her eyebrow.
"What the hell is wrong with him?" she looked at Jethro.
"Self-actualization" Jethro said bluntly. Aeris looked confused, as elevator doors closed.
Making new friends here…cause the old one are over there, buried six feet under the dirt…or wanting me six feet under…