Headsets For Fear

PRESENT 15 : KAITLIN

Thirty days later

I finally managed to take Benji out for a walk outside. I was afraid that after staying such a long time indoors, he might have forgotten what New York looked like. Nothing of that sort. Everything was good.

We went for biking. I sucked at it, naturally, but I still wanted to give it a try. The scenery was pretty soothing, a stark contrast to the dirty streets of New York, and the wind fanning my cheeks was lovely. Benji wasn't a pro either, but we enjoyed.

"We should have brought Rick with us," he remarked after we were done. "He was great at biking. Remember all the stunts he used to perform?"

I nodded. Rick had managed to get two girlfriends for two reasons - because he skin used to be so smooth it felt like velvet, and he was great at biking.

"Alice used to prance around him like a little puppy," I reminisced, a giggle escaping my mouth. "They dated for so long, I actually thought they were in love."

"Really? I never believed it for a second," Benji replied with a flat look.

I chuckled.

We walked around the area, where a couple of other people had also arrived and were biking. I had sprained my elbow already, and wasn't ready for injuring any other parts of my body. 

We returned and Benji opened up our website. There were thirty notifications, and ten more people had logged in since last night. I started checking each of their profiles, and once I was done I turned to the thirty notifications.

When Benji told me about the website idea, I was totally in. Even though I never had a degree in psychology, I had studied it quite a bit. Besides, Corinne used to take every opportunity she could to teach it to me. I said I could help him out, and besides, I needed something to do. While he mostly did the managing part of the website, I replied to the queries of people. There were some common queries, and Nora had created an algorithm for them so that we wouldn't have to answer the same questions again and again.

Benji claimed that he wasn't very good at interacting with people and making them feel better, so he had no objection to me doing the talking. He said I was amazing at making people feel better. I wondered if he was saying this with reference to the days we had spent together in Octo's office, alone and uninterrupted. Sometimes doing nothing but watching comedy specials. And talking. And gardening, even though I mostly did the work.

I think the feelings I had for him when we were back in high school, were becoming alive again. I didn't remember why we'd broken up, but it was probably because none of us could handle the stress in college. Well, there wasn't anything like that now. Benji hadn't changed much - he was still gentle and kind, albeit moody and sarcastic sometimes. I always liked both of his sides.

Though, I'm not really sure how long Benji would continue this work. After his sudden fame, he suddenly got job offers from many companies which needed photographers for various purposes. I guessed it had less to do with his talent and more to do with his reputation, as anyone who would hire him had a great chance of getting more customers. He was the only game survivor, after all.

I had seen a couple of Benji's photos, and they were all great. He just lacked the drive needed to become a successful photographer. Now that he was getting so many opportunities, there was no doubt he would succeed.

I was thinking about all these things, doing my work, when I heard a clinking sound from downstairs. Frowning, I ran downstairs to check what the noise was. It might be Miss Smith breaking a vase or something. But then again, she was far too meticulous. She wouldn't do something like that.