Hell's Book of Random One-shots

Dumb - The Incident

Thumbs with chipped paint on the nails deftly moved the joysticks with a confidence that only a practiced player could exude, the movements so sure that they were hypnotising to watch and he found that he couldn't tear his eyes away, much to his friend's chagrin.

"Dude, you're meant to be my second pair on eyes in this game, you good?"

He tore his eyes from the control pad and looked up to meet his friend's concerned eyes, the game paused as his attention zoned in on him.

"Huh? Yeah...yeah, I'm good."

"It's the break-up, right?"

"Is that even a question?"

"No, but I'm saying it anyway," he smiled, setting the controller down to one side and shifting on the bed to face him better, one foot resting on the mattress beneath them. "You know you can talk to me, right? I just went through a break-up too."

"Yeah, but yours was different."

"More amicable, yeah, but it still sucked, it's not like I wanted to break up with her."

"But you still did."

He shrugged, picking at the frays at the bottom of his jeans.

"Yeah, she wanted to go to college and I know that I can't do long distance but I wasn't going to hold her back, that wouldn't have been fair on either of us."

"Wow...who knew you could be so mature?"

"You say that every time it's brought up."

"Because it's true," he smiled. "They grow up so fast."

"Doesn't it just tug on the heartstrings?" He grinned back and then, with the energy of a golden retriever, leaned forward and gave his thigh a little slap before he stood up. "Tell you what, let's cheer you up, I'll sort out some food, grab some beer and we'll play some Guitar Hero."

He didn't have a chance to reply, barely a sputter had left his lips before he left the room in a couple of broad strides, the game long forgotten as his IRL mission took priority.

His eyes trailed after his best friend, a light smile coming to his face as the door closed.

Truthfully, he felt a little dumb, coming over and moping about his break-up when they had arranged to have a proper hang out for the first time in weeks, but it wasn't like he had asked to be broken up with and if anyone understood then it would be him.

Not that that stopped him from feeling bad about ruining their night, even if he didn't seem to care.

That's just how he was, he took everything in stride and never seemed to let anything bring down the mood, so he vowed to go down the same route and to make sure he didn't let the mood come back down.

They had to work equally, that was part of the point of them hanging out.

And that's when he decided to pull himself together and actually do something while he waited.

Standing from the bed, he crossed the room and started to hook-up the bits they would need for the game, finding the two compatible guitars in the corner gathering dust from the last time they had played.

It tugged a little at his chest to see them there like that, it hadn't been too long ago that they were constantly in use as they both worked their way into mastering each song on the hardest difficulty, though he wasn't the master that his friend was.

Life had quickly taken their time away and so the guitars lay there forgotten until a day like this one rolled by, a rare moment where their time wasn't taken up with a date or working or lying around hoping to figure out just where the future was heading.