Dead Reckoning - A Gregorio del Pilar x Reader story

II - Keyframe

n. a moment that seemed innocuous at the time but ended up marking a diversion into a strange new era of your life—set in motion not by a series of jolting epiphanies but by tiny imperceptible differences between one ordinary day and the next, until entire years of your memory can be compressed into a handful of indelible images—which prevents you from rewinding the past, but allows you to move forward without endless buffering.

* * *

To be honest, one of the reasons that made Via an ideal girl in almost everything, was because she has a massive addiction with video games. She'll always wish to buy the latest one, and expect her to be done with it in a matter of weeks. Basically, she has countless of Youtube subscribers simply just by playing the game. And I know that she is famous at school and all that, but she decides to stick with me and hate to be part of the higher ups.

So, I'm here with her, skipping classes as if that is the most ideal thing to do, at the nearest shop for all video games related. The lone advantage of College students with malls is that you can enter anytime despite having a uniform. And that gives us the great excuse to be here at this time than to sit on class that we've been escaping since first year.

"Bibilhin mo lahat ng iyan?" I ask her, taking note of the countless of CDs she currently has on her arms.

She turns to me slightly and laughs. "Sumobra na ba ulit ako sa kota ko?"

"Padami lang ng padami ang mga binibili mong video games every time na bumibili tayo."

"Di naman ako nakabili noong bakasyon dahil walang allowance. Ngayon na mayroon na ulit... why not grab the opportunity?"

I sigh defeatedly before taking a leisure look at the stacks of CDs and DVDs behind me that had been properly arranged on shelves. The titles on the spines of each make my head hurt, knowing that most of them were titles that I don't even know about.

Say, I've never tried playing video games ever since I turned third year high school. My parents had been so strict about it; saying that I must focus with my studies for a much stable career and good grades. I can say that I've been the good child all along whose entire life was spent on studying and studying and studying. To make matters worse, my parents have control of my usage of the internet. It is not being grounded every time; it was just their way of making sure that I will not lose sight of my studies, especially that I am enrolled at the finest and prestigious university, and been taking up a rather expensive course.

"All done! Tara na, (Y/N)!" Via calls out as she hurries to the main counter to finally check everything out.

I sigh for another time but before I even manage to take another step closer to her, something stops me. I hear Via calling out my name with worry and the CD stacks she has dropped from her hold as she runs towards me. Few of the CDs that had been on the shelf behind me falls to the floor, causing such a groan of dismay to the shop owner and the rest of the clerks. It is a good thing that there are no other consumers on spot, or else...

Via smiles at the clerks and says, "Aayusin namin po ito. Pasensya na po!"

I turn behind me as careful as I could and notice that the strap of my bag had stucked onto a protruding nail's head from the shelf. Honest to goodness, I actually attract trouble and had been so clumsy with things. That basically cause this after all. I carefully move next to Via in order to help her out with the re-stacking, and I can feel the clerks' eyes on us as we do. I feel so ashamed in an instant; but when I look at Via, she smiles at me brightly as she tries to suppress herself from chuckling out loud.

Once we manage to arrange everything back and collect the CDs she intends to buy, she winks at me and murmurs, "Kung di nangyari iyon, di ko mahahanap yung iba pang magagandang video games, (Y/N)."