analogies • tofuudiger short story

Analogies: One

Poke

"I bet you can't thing of an analogy for a tiger," Joe taunted me as he downed another potion from Straubucks. Blue swirls came off of him.

I smiled slightly and hit my mouse, making my Minecraft character punch him. "It's like, you go into a store and see the fluffiest of the fluffy stuffed animals," I began in a soothing voice. Nathan, aka NoBoom, giggled like a Japenese schoolgirl. "And you just hug it, ya know, because its fluffy . . . then it gives you Ebola."

Joe stayed silent and I could tell he was struggling not the laugh, then he placed down a jukebox. He then flashed the stal disc, and he slipped it into the Minecraft block. Our Mafia song (media) began playing.

"So," Joe said, making the weird Mafia voice. "We brought you here for a reason No- NoBoom."

I nodded my Minecraft character, agreeing. "Wait?" Nathan said in a normal voice. I grinned to myself- the scene was going on normally. "I thought we were playing analogies!"

Joe made a pfft sound. "Aye, aye NoBoom. You gotta, you see, get on our ship."

I interrupted, following the rough script. "Our ship as in expecting the unexpected."

Nathan was crouching and slowly moving around. "But then its not the unexpected because its expected," he said in a Mafia voice, looking confused.

After we finished our recording, NoBoom said something. "I gotta go," he apologized. "See ya."

Joe laughed. "Bye."

"Later bro."

User left your channel, the robot TeamSpeak voice chimed as NoBoom disappeared from Minecraft.

"Wanna Skype, Joe?" I asked.

He nodded. "Sure."

I clicked on the blue icon, turning on my webcam while waiting impatiently for the laggy program to open. I called Joe and he accepted.

When his image loaded, I had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. My friend looked just beautiful with his messy hair and his knit sweater. "What? Am I ugly?"

I shook my head. "Ayyeeeee, Joe you ain't," I told him with a small laugh. Joe looked relibeved as he ran his hands through his hair. "Wanna play some more analogies?"

"Kay. You start."

I tilted my head, thinking. "What's an analogy for a doorway?" I asked, stumped on ideas.

Joe pursed his lips. "Imagine an opening, but like sometimes it leads to a bad place and sometimes it leads to a good place. And it can hold a lot of memories."

"Dude you just described it," I said after a tense moment of silence.

He laughed, tilting his head back a bit and closing his eyes. "My turn. What's an analogy for love."

I froze, and I couldn't think. Another part of my brain controlled my mouth and I said something I've been thinking of for a long time. "Imagine a tiger . . . and a boy with a red shirt."

What I was saying registered in Joe's mind and he stared at my openly confused. I clicked the hang up button in a moment of stress, cursing once I realized the extent of what I said.

I just ruined our friendship.