Procrastinators on Stage (Chris Kendall/crabstickz fanfic) *unedited*

Part 25- I Don't Like Strangers

“What’s this game like?” I asked Chris as I removed the case to a game called ‘Fuzion Frenzy 2’ from the hoard of games that Chris had on the wall-length shelves in the lounge.

Chris looked up at me from where he’d been putting the game disk for ‘The Simpsons: Hit and Run’ back into its case. He climbed to his feet and walked over to me with the case, tidying it away now that we’d completed the game together. “It’s a multiplayer game where you go to different planets and complete different mini games. It’s kind of like a mini game tournament game show thing. I got it free with my Xbox.”

I flipped the case over to skim through the game summary. Underneath the summary, there were six perky looking characters standing on a grey star background, and all of these characters were wearing all-in-one, futuristic looking attire. The game certainly looked…interesting. “Is it a shitty game then? If it was free, that’s what you’d expect, right?”

One corner of Chris’ mouth twitched up as he took the game from me and walked back to the TV. “Sometimes, but then you can get Mario games free with certain consoles, so it’s not always true. This game is average and all, but the presenter guy is annoying as fuck. He goes on and on and on about pointless shit which you don’t need to know about.”

I grinned to myself as sat myself down in Chris’ red reserved-for-gaming-beanbag before the TV. “He sounds like someone else I know,” I said innocently, looking at Chris exaggeratedly to try and get my point across to him.

Chris rolled his eyes as he put the disk into the console. “Go and get the hot chocolate and toast, would ya?”

“But I’m making dinner tonight! How is making breakfast as well fair?”

“It’s your day to cook generally, not just dinner,” Chris pointed out. He picked up the two Xbox controllers before looking down at me in the beanbag. “Besides, you’re in my seat.”

I groaned as I tugged myself out from my comfy seat to go and make our standard gaming breakfast. “I want a bean bag!” I called out to him as I moved through the dark flat to the kitchen.

“You’ll have to buy it yourself, then!”

I smiled to myself in amusement as I turned on the kitchen light before making my way to the fridge to collect the milk and bread. Nutella on toast and hot chocolates at four am had become a routine for me and Chris. Today was Saturday, so I technically had to be at the theatre in five hours to clean, but that still gave us some time to play ‘Fuzion Frenzy 2’ and eat.

I slotted two pieces of bread into the toaster and set the kettle to boil with a flick of two switches. Sorting out the components for breakfast in this kitchen had become almost second nature for me. I could prepare it all in about ten minutes, and that length of time was largely due to how long it took for the bread to toast.

The smell of the toast cooking filled me with a homely feeling as I retrieved the two slices from the toaster and popped in two more bits of bread in their place. It reminded me of how I used to make toast for one of my brothers before school when I was home. Toast with butter and strawberry jam on a floral plate alongside a plastic cup of orange juice, slowly being devoured by an innocent six year old. Making toast here, on the other hand, was giving me a new memory. It was stupid to think that something as simple as warmed or slightly burnt bread could remind me of so much, but it just did. I didn’t tell Chris about the sentimental qualities the toast gave me, because I knew it was weird. Chris didn’t need reassuring of my odd qualities.

With the toast dressed in Nutella and the hot chocolate powder semi-dissolved in the drink, I returned to Chris to play the video game. Chris was relaxing on his beanbag with a faint look of boredom on his face as he gazed out the window to the dark of the city. Although, it wasn’t all that dark outside due to the orange and yellow glow of light pollution which shielded the stars as well as making it look like the city was aflame. It almost made me want to take a spontaneous holiday out into the country just so that I could actually see the details of the sky rather than being blinded by the florescent lightings of this place.