Cold Lust

20: Arcade Work

The arcade seemed rather crowded at this time of the year, even though nothing significant had happened since then. The people there bustled from one another, the arcade machines pinged with one another as scurvy teenagers competed with one another on games older than their fathers. Among those teenagers there was Rose, playing at the arcade machines just like them. The game would always be a 2D fighting one, either very old or relatively new. Either way, Rose was in thrall of playing the game on the arcade machines, competing with whoever she sees on the screen, even losing perception of time as she continued. The arcade was abuzz with glowing lights, loud ping-pongs and people celebrating when they won a lava lamp from a basketball machine. Whether it was day or night, she had no idea.

Few minutes went by and she finally exited the arcade. The orange and grey smoke of the sunset glared very prominently on her as she got out the building and into an alley. Her phone would then ring out, in expense to her abundance of idle time for whatever reason other than her making an excuse.

With this much time in her hands, she picked up the phone. "Yooo sup." Rose spoke in an uncaring fashion.

"Hey, are you at work now?" A voice rang out from the other end, being Isabelle's.

"Uh," Rose turned around to look at the arcade building and all the glowing signs it hung there. "You could say that."

"Oh, well," Isabelle responded. "I was asking if you're gonna be free anytime soon. We could hang out maybe."

"That's... nice," she replied. "But there's one thing. I told Grace I was sick so that I wouldn't have to come to the store today."

"W- wh- what!?" She stuttered from the other end. "Won't she find out?"

"Don't worry, she's not gonna bother!" Rose said this almost as if she never got caught from it.

"Al- alright then..." Isabelle replied. "Where are you at right now?"

"You ever been to arcades?" Rose asked.

"The one beside our coffee shop? Yeah, sometimes."

Rose didn't respond with anything and started to find Isabelle in the coffee shop, peeking through the windows, only to come down without seeing her anywhere. "Wait, where are YOU at? I ain't seeing you here."

"Oh uh, hehe," replied Isabelle. "I'm at home right now, helping my little cousin with his homework."

"Ah, darn it! I was about to scare you from the window in the coffee shop!"

Isabelle let out a chuckle from the other end. "Oh, wow. If you're free, you can call me; we can hang out anytime you like."

Aight, bye." she hung up the phone.

With that, she stuffed back the phone in her pocket and went down the alley lit in the sunset gloom. She wasn't any different from those teenagers at the arcade inside, always lying to get what they want and so on. It wasn't the first time she had done something like this, and she knows it. She wandered into the pavement on the streets as she got out the alley, being met with even more of the sunset shine. Cars bustled from every direction, even much louder than the arcade. Still she walked through the footpath, not caring about anyone passing by while looking towards the deep-blue sky. Small stars were visible upon the newborn night sky, wrapped in the blanket of the orange hue of its mother, the sun.

Ten minutes later and she's at the local park now. The park was half empty, only consisting of some dogs playing in the blue grass and only a handful of people present there amongst the blue shrubs and bushes. The blue leaves the trees of towards the west as it shed more of it, making the leaves rain to the ground. Rose waited and waited until she saw a familiar figure at the park, Isabelle, but she didn't see her though.

Rose instinctively called for her by raising her hand. "Ay, come here!"

She didn't respond.

"Yo!"

"Oh, uh- wha"

"You deaf or something? Get here!" She still insisted.

Isabelle noticed Rose calling for her near a tree, and she walked towards her. "Oh hey! I didn't realize it was you!" said she. "When did you get here?"

"Been here for a few hours." Rose replied. "Wanna sit somewhere? My legs are killing me."

"Uh sure, let me get some coffee first."

After getting the coffee, both Rose and Isabelle went to a nearby bench. The air was quite cool in the evening sunset, as the clouds turned blue and orange at the expense of small twinkling lights visible at the black void. The streets would then light up after a while, putting everything happening on spotlights.

"So, what have you been doing today?" asked Rose, sipping her coffee.

"Nothing much," replied Isabelle. "We had a day off today, so I basically stayed at home."

"Day off for what?" She questioned.

"No idea honestly, hehe," she sipped her coffee. "What did you do today?"

Rose looked around for a while and sipped from her cup. "Arcade work." she said without hesitation.

"Arcade what?"

"Yeah I was at that arcade the whole day," she replied nonchalantly. "Don't ask me why. Can't blame my brother for spending seven hours in there."

"O- Okay than," Isabelle concluded. "Anyways, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, what you go-"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Rose looked quite puzzled after hearing that, as if the correct answer just immediately popped in her head. "W- W- What!? Where did'ya get that from??" She answered.

"I don't know..." she replied in sorrow. "Maybe I've been looking forward to someone."

"Well who's that 'someone'?"

"Don't know either. Just someone who comes to our shop daily."

"Damn, cool. I thought that place already lost a huge amount in sales."

"Hey, that's not nice!" Isabelle exclaimed. "Why'd you say that!"

"Oops sorry." said Rose. "Anyways that guy's your number one donator?"

"Kinda." she replied nervously. "He quite... 'strong', if you can say that."

"God damn, good for you!"

"And when a fight broke out near our shop, he immediately took care of it!"

Rose gave a faint smirk in response, hoping if she's ever going to find someone like that guy. "Heh, nice," she replied. "And why do you think he's the best for ya?"

"He fits perfectly as my type," she responds. "It's been long since I've had someone."

"Well, do you really need him?" Rose questioned.

"W- What makes you think that?"

"You only want him cause he's strong?" Rose replied.

"N- No!" Isabelle exclaimed.

"What good qualities do you have?"

"I- I mainly like writing poetry, sometimes playing video games...?"

Rose took a long breath. She looked at her cup before looking front of her. It's now nighttime, and the blue clouds danced in front of the twinkling lights with the white ball dead centre. "I never actually had a legitimate boyfriend for myself." she spoke.

***

Hooooo, another chapter. It's been so long...
I've already lost TRACK of half the stuff that's supposed to happen here.
But don't worry, I wrote the ENTIRE plotline on a .txt file!
So stay tuned for more Cold Lust!!