Slawter Woods

Awakening to fall asleep

A buzzing sound woke Vanoss from his sleep. He groaned and pulled the covers up over his head, silently willing the noise to stop. When it didn't, he reluctantly rolled over and opened his eyes. His phone was ringing on his bedside table. After staring at it angrily for a while, he slowly reached out and picked it up.

"Hello?" His voice was hoarse with sleep.

"Evan! Time to wake up, bitch! It's here!" The hysterically energetic voice belonged to Delirious.

"What? What's here? And why the fuck are you up already?" Vanoss yawned, wondering how Delirious could be so full of energy. They had been playing games all night, not going to bed until 7am. He looked at his phone. 10:47. He sighed.

"That new VR kit I ordered! It just arrived! So get your ass out of the bed, I bet you'll get yours too! They said they pride themselves in timely deliveries, after all." Delirious was ridiculously excited. He had somehow managed to convince Vanoss to play a new Virtual Reality game with him. A horror game, no less. Vanoss didn't like scary games, and didn't play much VR, so his agreement was nothing short of a miracle.

"Fine, I'll get up. But it's gonna take a whole pot of coffee to get me going," he said, another yawn escaping him as he made his way towards the kitchen.

"Drink as much as you need, man. Or just go outside and stand in your yard for a bit, that oughta wake you up." Delirious laughed wickedly.

"Ha ha. Trying to make fun of the Canadian winter, but failing miserably," Vanoss replied tiredly.

"What? Failing? How am I failing? It's cold as fuck outside, and even worse up where you live, with all your mooses and maple syrup and snow that's so fucking deep that even Wildcat would disappear in it," Delirious argued. The last part made Vanoss laugh.

"Come on, now you're exaggerating. Tyler is 6' 5". There's not enough snow here for him to just vanish like a freaking ninja."

"Heh, maybe not. But could you imagine though? Like, he says, 'Hey guys, lemme show you something cool! Ninja pig, vanish!', and then he just dives into the snow." They both laughed heartily at the idea.

"But he would totally fail though, and his legs would be sticking out," Vanoss suggested.

"Yeah, and then he'd have to ask for help to get back up," Delirious continued, and another round of laughter echoed through their phones.

"Aww man, that's funny. Okay, you're forgiven." Vanoss was still chuckling as he flipped the switch on his coffee machine.

"Wait, forgiven for what?" Delirious sounded confused.

"For waking me up too early," Vanoss stated simply.

"What?! But you need to be awake when the delivery guy comes!" Delirious protested.

"And what if he doesn't come until late in the afternoon? Or maybe he won't come at all today. Then you have woken me up for no reason and I'll be grumpy as shit for the rest of the day." Vanoss realized that he was nearly yelling as he grabbed a mug from a cabinet and put it on the counter.

"But... I... I'm sorry..." There was a hint of genuine sadness in his friend's voice, and Vanoss suddenly felt bad for him. Delirious had just been excited to play a new game, to share a new experience with him, and what did he do? He yelled at him, simply because he got angry for something so trivial as being awakened too soon. He leaned against the counter, took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"Delirious, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just tired, okay? Will you please forgive me?" He spoke softly, his apology wrapped in honesty.