Alt Shift

Chapter 11 - The Dragon

Well, that was the plan, but I had to grab Julian by the arm and pull him through the canteen because he kept trying to run off and get some more food. He’s supposed to be showing me around, yet for some reason I’m the one that has to keep him under control, something’s a little off with that scenario.

That train of thought made me chuckle to myself, which in turn caught Julian’s attention and he increased his pace slightly so that he was just ahead of me, making it seem like he was once again leading the way. Trying to regain some dignity and authority he asked “So, now that you’ve seen a fair bit of Zerco, do you have any questions?”

After a moment’s thought I tentatively replied, “Yeah, um, not exactly about Zerco itself, but... why were you assigned to win me over and do the whole introduction thing, are you trained in persuasive techniques or something?”

“Well... we just thought you were... that way inclined.” He said rather sheepishly, and I could have sworn I saw a slight blush appearing on his cheeks.

“W-Why?” I exclaimed, because as far as I knew I’d never fancied a guy before.

“We don’t have any records of you ever having had... female relations.” Julian was still acting strangely shy, it just wasn’t like him, but I couldn’t figure out why.

“I never really had time for a girlfriend; I’ve always been tinkering with my computers and learning new code.” I said, trying to defend myself. “Are you okay Julian? You look really shy and you’ve been talking about this as if from a distance.”

There was a pause before he finally answered me. “Well, to be honest I was quite disappointed when you said you weren’t interested... in me.” He said, looking quite dejected and glum. He must have noticed me looking at him, because he immediately made himself cheer up and half-pouncing at me he suddenly asked, “Any chance you might have changed your mind, now that you got to know my wonderful, bubbly personality?”

His sudden playfulness reminded me of the way he chased after cake and it made me laugh a little, so I replied honestly to his enquiry. “You are certainly fun to be around, and you are definitely the most energetic person I know, but I’m still going to have to say no, sorry. But I definitely want us to be good friends because you seem genuinely great company to keep.”

 I think my openness was a relief to him in some ways because he smiled and jokingly said, “Oh well, you can’t blame a guy for trying, right?”

There was a moment of awkward silence, but fortunately we reached the doors to the recreational centre just after that and I gladly pushed through the smooth wooden doors, knowing that whatever was on the other side, it would at least spark a conversation.

As I walked through the double doors I came to a reception desk and beyond that were several hallways, each with multiple rooms branching off them. Julian came in behind me shortly after and began to explain the layout of this large area. “This is the reception, where you sign in to a room and hire equipment, that sort of thing. The rooms to the right are all sport oriented, the first few rooms are actually Astroturf 5-a-side football pitches, we use them for a weekly competition tournament by the way, and I think the only other room of note to you along this side is the velodrome, which also has an X-Games style race track next to it. Along the left hand side are dance studios and various rooms for different types of martial arts, but down the middle path are the tech based hobbies; there are various rooms with gaming suites, PC rigs, mini cinemas, that sort of thing, and down the end of this hallway is a soundproofed area for music, which also has a recording studio for the musically talented amongst us. Speaking of which, there’s someone I’d like you to meet, and I bet you anything she’s down there.”