Convergence III: Fulfillment In Becoming

Chapter Twelve: Closer

It is July in the year 2061, and it is the last two days of Nick Althorne's life.

July 18th. And lights up on, naturally, anyone but Nick Althorne.

"Yeah, I'm really excited!" Ella twirled the phone cord, smiling to herself. Her cheeks were a bright pink. "I guess I'll meet you, uh, tomorrow at 3pm? Yeah, great! Awesome, see you then! Bye!" And then she hung up. "God. Oh, my God. Her voice is. Oh, my God."

"So why didn't you say you loved her at the end?" Jackie teasingly smiled.

"I almost did, but I caught myself just in time!" Ella laughed, flapping her hands up and down. "She just broke up with her boyfriend, so I'm not gonna jump right into that. You feel?"

"Yeah, sure, I feel." Jackie giggled. "Romance is a fickle pickle."

"But tomorrow?" Ella seemed afloat, sighing dreamily with every word. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna do something big."

"Oh?" Jackie closed their laptop, leaning over. "Do tell."

"Can't tell," pointed Ella, smirking as she shook her finger. She seemed to pace, jumping up and down. "Can't even tell you that or I'll psych myself out. But it's gonna be big. Tomorrow is gonna be the biggest day of my life, just you wait."

"I'm excited for you, Cinderella," Jackie smiled. "Just make sure to be home before midnight."

"That's an old person joke, I get it."

Jackie's mouth was agape with a slight smirk. "That is a timeless movie!"

"It's, like, a hundred years old," Ella joked. "So you must have gotten to see it in theaters."

"Wow. Says the kid who's gonna be 17 on her next birthday." Jackie retorted, opening their laptop again. "Did I not save—oh my fucking god."

"What?" Ella blinked.

"After all these years, the Sims games still don't have autosave. Grand." Jackie rubbed their hands over their eyes, moving their glasses up.

"I thought you were doing work!" She giggled, watching a spinning green gem idle on the screen.

"I was!" Jackie grinned, turning to her as they waited. "I was running shows on newly installed software."

"You mean you were playing with a new content pack from Pinterest."

"Call it what you will, I know what I'm doing!"

Ella giggled, and then glanced down at her watch. "Hey, uh, did Nick go to the office today?"

"Not that I know of," replied Jackie, still waiting for their game to load. "You haven't seen them either?"

"You mean you haven't?" Ella asked back.

"So neither of us have seen Nick?"

"They can't still be asleep, it's 2:30." Ella walked in front of the table and looked out into the hallway. "They never even sleep at all!"

"Nick?" Jackie raised their voice, now ignoring their open laptop and looking where Ella was. "Nick! Ella, go knock on the door or something."

So Ella did. She knocked on the door, and leaned her ear up to it. "Nick? Are you asleep?"

"Yeah," replied a voice from the other side. It sounded odd. "I'm just not feeling too good today."

"Oh. Do you need anything? Is this, uh, magic related?"