8 years later
"Guess what?"
"What is it Lucas?" Payton sighed over the phone.
"I unpacked the last box! That's right we are now officially moved in. Took us six months, but it looks nice, I have the pictures and- why are you laughing?"
"What?" Payton said, "I'm not laughing, no I'm just, okay yeah. You're just so funny."
"Haha, thanks." I sat down on the couch across from the window in our apartment.
"Hey did she-"
"Sorry no. Sierra hasn't called back yet. What is she doing now these days?"
"Living life too the fullest. At least I would think so."
"Well she'll come around when she's needed."
"Yeah, that's the funny thing about her tho. She's more like a shooting start ya know? She's a once in a life time event."
"Whoa okay Mr. Vague." Payton said.
"Hey you asked for this."
"That I did." I smiled and laughed and put the phone down after telling Payton goodbye.
"You call your husband at work?"
"Yes? You got a problem with that?" I asked, standing back up making my way into the kitchen.
"Nope." Ross said looking through my refrigerator.
"Why is it every time you're here my leftovers become extinct?" I asked him.
"Because Brandi can't cook so until she prefects a meal I'm gonna chow here."
"Get out!"
"Hey, I'm also helping. This way, you don't have any moldy food.Oh by the way did you invite everyone?"
"Yes of course I did. Its not everyday you get to plan parties like this. Took us a year to put together." I told him.
"Good. Its been too long." Ross told me.
"Yeah. Yeah it has."
"You heard from Ethan yet?" Ross said with a mouth full of food.
"No, he just landed two days ago. Hey, here's an idea, you go raid their house for food."
"No." Ross's eyes got wide and he began to shake his head, "I wanna live. No."
I laughed at Ross as he continued to exaggerate about how Ethan would have killed him.
"So, he'll be back in time for the party right?"
8 years later
"Wow." I said.
"Yeah. We should move here." Ashton put her head on my shoulder as we looked out our hotel window, looking down at the ocean of Waikiki.
"Uh, let's enjoy our anniversary first and then think about moving here." I said.
"Its beautiful." She sighed. "Let's go walk on the beach."
"Okay, I'll put my shoes on."
The sun was setting and the ocean looked beautiful. The sky was a bright peachy pink color and the water turned purple. About 13 years ago, I was living under a sky made of one's and zero's. Seeing the real thing, was like a new thing to me all the time.
"Be careful." I warned Ashton. She gave me a serious look and rolled her eyes.
"I'm fine and so is the baby. Calm down." She rubbed her stomach as we climbed into the elevator and rode it down to the lobby. When we got to the beach the sky was a deep shade of pink. He held hands as we walked down along the sore. I felt the water come up and wash over my feet. We stopped and looked out at the ocean as sail boats were coming back in.
"Do you miss it?" Ashton blurted out, "Do you miss playing games or the world inside them?"
"No," I sighed, "however, I miss the people and my comrades."
After we were freed from the game, we all kinda went our sperate ways. Lucas got married and moved away, Ross started a music shop back home and he ended up dating Victoria who's real name was Brandi, Travis became the next Steve Jobs but only after his older brother Louis, died a year after being freed from the game and I heard Andy left for New York, and Sierra I never heard from her again after that. The last time I saw her she found her cousin Nate, who she had been looking for since we first got trapped in the game. As it turns out, the reason why she couldn't find him in the game was because the game gear put him in a coma. I had no clue where she was or how she was doing.
The next morning Ashton and I decided to go sight seeing. We drove our rental back up to Liea, a small town in Honolulu. We stopped by this cool tourist spot where we could look down on the entire beach on this hill. The ocean was so blue. In the distance were whales coming up swimming past the island.
"Yeah, you're right."
"About what?" Ashton said.
"We should move here." I smiled as we both looked down at the ocean together. While I was looking out at the scenery someone had walked up behind me and pinched the back of my arm.
"Ow! What the-" I looked back and saw a woman with long jet black hair walking away from me.
