The World Through Various Eyes

[30] Told You So (Alex's POV)

It was Wednesday.

After school, I was slumped over a keyboard, rapidly typing but making many errors.

Sometimes you have those days where everything seems to go right for you, but sometimes you have those days where nothing goes according to plan. Usually I would be hitting every key with precision, and my program would work flawlessly after a few trials of editing my code, but that day, neither were working for me.

I kept bumping the wrong key, which never failed to produce gibberish. At least something was consistent.

No one else was in the lab. I looked up long enough from the desktop to glance over at the clock. It was 4:37. It felt like I had been here much longer.

I clenched my jaw in anger as an message popped up on the screen.

" 'Syntax Error: Could Not Complete Task' my ass," I snarled in frustration, leaning back in the seat. I did this before realizing I was in a regular office chair and not my usual plush swivel chair like at home.

I toppled to the floor, but prevented a collision with the tile and the back of my head by bracing my fall with my hand.

Still panting, I looked across the floor. My earbuds had been yanked out of my ears and were in front of me, still playing music. I had been listening to Electric Light Orchestra, and I could still hear the synthesizers pulsing through the earphones.

When I looked up, I saw my appearance staring back at me.

Which, as slow as I was functioning that day, obviously meant Jade had found me. Despite trying to seek solitude in my world of computer codes (albeit unsuccessfully), she still had located me.

I wasn't quite sure if I really wanted to be alone. Part of me wanted the time to myself, and part of me wanted company. To talk to. To listen to.

She outstretched her hand nonetheless, and I took it, my dry skin cracking as I strained to pull myself up. Every computer and chair seemed to spin as my head became heavy and warm, and I struggled to reacquaint myself with my surroundings.

"Why are you here, Alex? You know you can just go home sometimes, right?"

As much as I appreciated her concern for me, she and I both knew that her words wouldn't change my mind.

Every since I had turned on the monitor and booted up my first computer, I became hooked. Technology offered me a sort of solace from the outside world. When people or life was cruel to me, I could escape to land full of rhyme, reason, and logic.

"Jade," I started, propping the swivel chair back up and sitting myself down onto it.

"Lately I've just been needing some time to myself. I can't just go home and code like I used to, because, despite your parents being software developers and probably having much better equipment and accessories than me, they'd suspect something was up."

Jade nodded, and I knew she understood. At first she was processing what I meant, but a wave of realization flashed over her (my?) face. I had to pretend to be her to the best of my ability, even if it meant giving up my hobby in front of her parents until we could figure a way to get back our original selves.

She walked over and sat down next to me, her eyes still locked on me as she eased herself into the chair. It felt odd watching my thin, small frame from an outsider's perspective, but it wasn't something I was unaccustomed to doing at that point.

"You were right. About everything," her tone murmured regrettably. She didn't sound angry, she sounded disappointed- in herself.

What had I been right about,though? I was never right. It was a well known fact universally accepted by the world and everyone in it that Alex just wasn't the type to be correct.