Stories

Gamer

Being held back four years in high school isn't a big deal. A lot of kids in this country are still in high school at my age. I saw it on the news. When the report came on the TV, my mom, an incredibly obese woman who received 700 dollars checks every month from the government, yelled at me in her labored voice, huffing and screaming, “Billy! Come down! There's someone dumb as you in Alabama!”

I went downstairs to catch the last bit of it. The newscaster, an alluring Japanese woman with ruby red lips I yearned to smooch, shook her head and said, “That poor stupid overgrown child.”

“Momma, I ain't nothing like that man. I am intelligent and well-read.”

“No you ain't, boy. You's a god damned idiot! I sure wished I had that abortion.”

“Whatever, MOM! At least I don't weigh, like, six hundred fucking pounds!”

Momma began crying profusely at this cutting and insightful jab. I often commented on how fat she was only to watch her cry. Satisfied with myself, I went back upstairs to play some more DoTA 2. DOTA 2 is an incredibly complex video game created by several of the greatest minds of our century. It requires the most intelligent types of minds to excel. I am currently one of the highest ranked players, I'll have you know. Which means my brain capacity is enormous and that I have an IQ of at least 190.

I yelled some stupid shit at the screen that you wouldn't understand, because the concepts and strategies of DOTA 2 are all well beyond your feeble grasp, dumb reader. I had been put on a team of morons, so we lost by a ton. Irate that I would be wronged so deeply, I closed the game, and went to their forums, where I could voice my dissent that subhumans would attempt to play this game. Two hours later, I had crafted a truly earth shattering diatribe.

It was 3 AM and Momma yelled at me to go to bed, as I had school tomorrow.

“Shut up, Mom! You're not my boss!”

I finally went to sleep at 5 AM, but only after watching several hours of DOTA 2 videos and arguing on Reddit about DOTA 2. If it were not for this video game to fill the hours of my pointless life, I do not know what I would do.

Sometimes at night when I think about all the video games I had played, I wondered if I had not made a terrible mistake. Certainly being a 20 year old 11^th grader could somehow be connected to this, I thought, but fortunately I am always able to dash these thoughts out of my mind and get some solid shut eye. When I slept, I had a dream. It was of a girl I knew from the local video game store. She has huge honkin' tits.

In the morning I ate cereal and had some beer, even though Momma did not want me to.

On the bus, some freshman girls made fun of me for being 20 years old, but I ignored them by staring out the window and counting how many fast food restaurants we passed. Eight, to be exact, and everyday, my mom eats at all of them.

At school, I pissed myself.

Nothing to do but sleep.

"Friendship is less simple. It is long and hard to obtain, but when one has it there's no getting rid of it; one simply has to cope with it." - Camus, The Fall

Today was shit.

This mask is cool, though.

How the woman who works at Kaiser Health member services got her job.

Kaiser Health Care: "Why do you want this job?"

SNARLING WOMAN: "I hate people and feel it would better if they were dead. I also hate talking to people. Everyone is fucking trash!"

Kaiser Health Care: "GREAT! You're super hired!"

Feel Better

Boarding the train, he takes his reserved seat, beside a woman. She smiles and asks many questions. He answers indirectly. Their conversation starts and stops. She gives up, choosing to read instead.

The landscape is flat and green, and stretches forever like this.

They discuss books. Noticing the way she thumbs the pages, he says, "You don't like that book, do you?"

She assures him she does, and goes back to reading.

He thinks this was stupid to say, so looks out the window. The trees are grey and leafless, ordered into neat rows. He finds this fascinating, and touches her leg to get her attention. She is pleased by the sight, and smiles at him, squinting in the late-day sunlight. He looks out the window some more. The train arrives at the station. His stop. He gets up to leave, says good bye. Afterward, somewhere outside the train, on the street, waiting at the crosswalk, he wonders what her name was.

I drew this for a friend.

My friend told me to draw this. I was relieved when my friend expressed satisfaction with the final product.

For the foreseeable future, we will continue to be friends.