The Seventeen Effect

Chapter 2

Please read, vote, and comment! Thanks to @NightNoises for the cover above!

Chapter 2

Ten minutes after leaving her home, she pulled into the Nasar driveway. She stepped out of her car and slammed the door shut, locking the doors before heading towards the door. She noticed a large, blue minivan next to her car, concluding that Asra's father was there. Her father and mother had been separated for almost half a year, but sometimes he came over to their house and spent time with his daughter; at least, mostly on holidays. Cyara began compulsively scratching her hand, continuing to glance at the car. Asra almost never mentioned her dad, and she found every single way to move away from the topic when it crept up during lunch or class. Cyara herself had only met her father once, but he was a rather rude and grumpy man from her experience. She traipsed down the concrete driveway to the door. Once she arrived at her destination, her shaky hand clicked the button at the side of the door. She heard the doorbell go off, silently humming the tone as she had heard it way too often.

After a couple of sounds that signified someone was unlocking the chain on the door, a short, chubby middle-aged woman appeared in front of her. Cyara smiled brightly as she said her hello to Mrs. Nasar. She could hear a significantly loud noise from the inside, the girl positive that it was her best friend's doing.

"Cyara!" the woman exclaimed, hugging the young girl with enthusiasm. She held the fragile girl tightly with a firm grip, and she had no other choice to hug her as well. Afterwards, Mrs. Nasar kindly moved away from the entrance and extended her hand further into the house, motioning her daughter's friend to enter. Cyara entered the house and warmly stated "thank you." She took off her shoes on the welcome mat, a simple thing that must be done before entering the Nasar household, and strolled down the narrow entrance hallway.

Inside was Asra playing a video game, a silver shiny controller grasped between her hands, obviously not letting it go at any given moment. Her fingers shifted from button to button in a synchronized fashion, playing the game with ease. She didn't notice Cyara was staring in her direction.

Annoyed of her daughter's lack of awareness of her surroundings, the mother boomed, "Asra! Cyara is here!"

"She is?" Asra paused her game with a single click and walked over. She took a look at Cyara, as if thinking about something, and looked at her mom, nodding. She grabbed her friends arm and pulled her over to the living room.

Asra plopped back into her seat and scolded, "Why do you always feel the need to be so polite here? You're practically family. Didn't my mom tell you you could be as relaxed here as possible?" Asra snickered and continued her game. "I guess twelve years of friendship isn't enough to make you comfortable in the other's home," she said while beating up the mob of antagonists in the game.

"I guess I'm too nice," Cyara sighed sarcastically. "Maybe I should just lay down..." She fake yawned and slowly laid down in Asra's direction. She dipped low enough to press random buttons and moved anything she could to mess up the game. Asra jerked the controller away from Cyara's grasp, but it was too late; her life already gave out and she died instantly. The girl's eye twitched in annoyance. She lifted her hand and slapped Cyara on the forehead. Cyara cradled on the couch, groaning in pain.

"I've been trying to beat this level for days!" She puts her pointer finger and thumb horizontal to each other, a small gap between them. "I was this close! This close to finishing the level!"

Cyara didn't feel bad in the slightest, and simply smiled, a heavily sarcastic "whoops" escaping her lips. She didn't understand what was so aggravating about it, seeing that she wasn't a gamer whatsoever. She did love playing video games, but her lack of sufficient hand-eye coordination lowered her motivation to play.