Page 33 of Little Paper Games
“Oh God! I’m sorry, Kenna. It totally slipped my mind.” I didn’t want him to sound so sincere.
“Well, that would have been fine if you hadn’t completely ignored me! I knocked, I called. And nothing,” I argued tersely.
“Hey, hey. Come in here, okay? Let’s talk.” No, this wasn’t the Jude I wanted. It was harder to handle nice Jude. I may hate arrogant asshole Jude, but at least I knew what I was getting with him.
“Seriously, Kenna. I unplugged yesterday. I forgot that was our agreement. I needed a day away from all the news and social media. I turned my phone on do-not-disturb so I didn’t get anything that wasn’t my parents.” His explanation tracked. But I was still frustrated.
“I get it, but maybe listen if I knock, okay?” I countered, feeling the frustration leave my body quickly. He nodded and I let that give me some measure of relief.
I understood wanting to unplug. The news had been a veritable nightmare lately. Death counts rising, people gathering in opposition of the virus and any safety mandates in place. It was frustration at best. I’d had more than a handful of friends on Facebook who’d already had family come down with the virus. There was even one girl from one of my classes whose uncle had just died from it.
Between that and the news reporting Covid deaths like baseball statistics, it was a lot to handle. The whole world was in a state of panic and fear. I couldn’t blame him for wanting that space away from it all.
“Seriously, I mean it,” I reiterated after a moment. I didn’t want to admit it, but having someone I knew living next door, even if it was Jude, made me feel safer in all of this.
“You got it, Red,” he smirked.
“Are you ever going to stop calling me Red?” I groaned.
“Magic eight ball says… not likely.” He brought over the jars with our bucket list items and set them on the coffee table.
“Let’s do this, then.” I sighed and reached into the jar that was labeled ‘Jude’.
Please don’t be anal.
Please don’t be anal.
I unwrapped the paper slowly.
“Well, what did you get?” he asked excitedly.
“Watch porn together.” I was mildly disappointed. It didn’t sound very fun in my book.
“Oh, this will be fun,” he said with an evil grin.
“Sure, watching people fuck while we sit there like idiots. So much fun,” I deadpanned.
“Oh, it’ll be more fun than you think, Red. Be here tonight at nine.” I nodded to him as I stood and made my way back to my side of the duplex.
“Oh, and Red?” he asked, pulling my gaze back to him. “Be sure to wear what you did the night the lights went out.”
The night the lights went out?
“I was wearing nothing but a lace robe and thigh highs, Jude,” I scoffed.
“Exactly.” There was that smirk again. I shook my head. Neanderthal. With a halfhearted thumbs up of acknowledgment, I made my way back to my place. I had hours to fill, and I was already bored as fuck.
The day passed slowly. I finished the book I’d begun only yesterday and had cleaned my house up. Boredom was real in the times of Covid, let me tell you. The clock was barely hitting 6:00 p.m. when my stomach growled loudly. Food could be a good distraction, I supposed.
I made my way to the kitchen, looking for something to eat. Nothing looked good. Nothing sounded good. Well, that wasn’t true. Lots of things sounded good, but I was in exactly zero mood to cook tonight. That wasn’t normally a problem for me, but tonight I just didn’t want to.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Great. Jude.
I opened the adjoining door, already annoyed by the food situation, when the most incredible smell hit me.
“Hey there, Red,” he grinned.
