video games ✘ clifford.

1.0

Soon eleven o'clock at night rolled around. It came quickly, almost as if time were anticipating the stroke of midnight as well. Scents of clean linen air freshener and chocolates filled the air, pushing each other around in a fight to see which sweet smell would dominate and take over the arcade. My green eyes met Michael's and Bill said my shift was over. I quickly thanked him, and walked over to Furby. 

"What should we do this time?" I asked him.

He ran a hand through his purple hair, thinking. His hair reminded me of lilacs. It was pretty. "Are you staring at me?" he asked, raising the eyebrow that wasn't pierced, because I imagine that it would hurt badly to move it seeing that it was freshly pierced.

"No." I answered quickly. Furby started laughing at me. A blush crept onto my cheeks and I looked down.

"Do you have a crush on me blondie." he cooed. 

I blushed even harder. "No." I said. "Furby I do not have a crush on you." I confirmed. It wasn't a real confirmation, I just lied, because deep down in the pit of my stomach I knew that if Furby once said to me, "Hey Blondie, would you like to be my girlfriend?" I would not even hesitate to say yes.

"What if I asked you to go on a date?" he asked me sarcastically, still teasing. 

I rolled my eyes. "Furby, shut up."

He chuckled lightly. "But still, we should really hang out outside of the arcade, when do you have off?"

"Today's friday, right?" I asked. Furby nodded. "I have off on the weekends."

Then a smirk was plastered onto his face. "How about you and me do something a little rebellious tonight?"

Oh no. In school I'm referred to as the 'smarty pants-ed goodie-goodie'. I don't do things like this. But if it meant hanging out with Furby tonight...

"Sure." I said. 

He looked surprised. "Really?" he asked for confirmation. I nodded.

...

Soon later 11:55pm rolled around and our eyes met. "Which game?" I asked.

He pointed to a pac-man machine. I stared at the cartoon art on the side and thought about what it would be like in there. Maybe you had to grab the little white balls? Maybe you had to walk through them?

Whatever it was I was sure as hell about to find out.

I inserted the quarter at 11:59, and a moment later everything went black as it was supposed to.

We woke facing the ghosts. There was a translucent purple wall seperating us from them, and Furby looked at me. "I think we run." he said.

I nodded, pulling my blonde hair into a messy bun. "I think so too." then we ran into the depths of the maze. White balls that we were supposed to collect were before me, and I tried to grab one. My hand went right through it, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye with a little ping! sound. So you do run through them.

Furby and I began to sprint through the maze. Our task was to get them all, since who knows what would happen if one of the ghosts caught us.

Shoes slapped against shining obsidian floors. Glowing violet walls surrounded us as if they were sound barriers, the only noises being heard were the heay pants from our lungs, shoes on rock and pings from the floating spheres. I felt as if I was never going to run out of energy, I wasn't getting tired and I wasn't slowing. Despite how I ran in gym, which I always trailed behind, I was on fire, keeping a steady sprint.

Suddenly there was a creak noise. I stopped dead in my tracks. Slapping noises could be heard.

The ghosts were released. 

Furby and I sprinted harder and faster than we were before, trying to cover as much ground as possible. Soon we were running into spots where we had already cleared. I picked up a larger sphere. That meant the ghosts were blue now. I ran into one. Literally, ran into one. It disappeared. I ran into another a few moments later. It also disappeared. 

"I got rid of a ghost!" Michael shouted, and it sounded as if it were coming from a dark void below the earth. 

"Two!" I panted, sprinting harder. There was a loud pop sound and I didn't really know what that meant.

I heard a ghost and I ran faster, confident that I was going to take it out. 

"CATHY NO!" I heard Furby scream.

"Wha-" I started to ask, when I ran into a- not very vulnerable, ghost. And I felt the overwhelming feeling that I was sinking.

I woke on the floor beside the pac-man machine. I didnt see Furby. 

"Furby?" I asked quietly. I looked around. When I turned my body back around to where it was originally facing I saw Michael laying on the floor, just now opening his eyes. 

"Wow." he sighed out. "That was quite interesting and a little bit scary."

I laughed.