Beta || Iancorn (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Level Two

After a long, heated conversation with his boss, David finally worked out a schedule. He'd have to miss out on his mom's Christmas dinner to get the vacation days, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He'd choose to never see her again if that was what it took.

Everything was packed. David didn't have too much stuff to begin with, so all he was bringing was a week's worth of clothes and his laptop, along with his toiletries. Still, it took him an hour to pack, making sure he was bringing his best clothes possible. He wanted to make a good impression, after all.

His flight was leaving in four hours, paid for by the company, just like they'd promised. After a lot of back-and-forth with their head of marketing, he'd gotten everything arranged. With how well they handled it, he was sure that he hadn't been the first beta tester they contacted. It didn't matter much to him. He knew he'd be the best out of all of them.

Sabrina was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of corn pops and watching the newest Netflix original in her pyjamas, when he pulled his suitcase to the front door. He swore, that woman would wear those damn pyjamas to work if she could. At times he wondered if they'd ever been washed, for he couldn't remember a night where she hadn't been in them.

"Where are you going?" she asked as she paused the T.V. on a hilarious freeze-frame, the main actress looking like she was about to sneeze. If he gave a single shit about what she was watching, he might've taken a photo of it.

"Away," he replied. He'd never told Sabrina about the job, and he wasn't planning on it. No matter how funny and generally likable Sabrina was, she still wasn't his friend. And knowing her, she'd probably nag him to take her with him. She almost loved gaming as much as he did.

"That's not an answer," she took another spoonful of corn pops, narrowly avoiding spilling milk on herself in the process. "Give me an answer, or I'll follow you outside."

"Why would I care?" he snapped, pulling his suitcase to the door. Deep down, he knew that this interaction was unavoidable. He was probably contractually obligated to tell her whenever he went somewhere or some shit. That fact, however, didn't make the interaction enjoyable in any way, shape, or form.

"Because I'm in my pyjamas," she smirked. "Don't doubt my ability to embarrass you, David."

He wasn't planning on it. The last time he hadn't heeded her warning, at a party in college when he was a little tipsier than he should've been... those memories kept him up at night.

"I'm visiting my mom," David lied. Sabrina had never talked to his mom, so he knew it was a lie he could pull off. "She keeps nagging me to see her. I'm only doing it to shut her up."

Sabrina grinned and mockingly wagged her spoon at him in a way that only she could pull off. "Why would anyone ever want to spend time with you?"

David flipped her off as he flung open the door, not closing in behind him just to piss her off. His taxi was waiting for him outside, and all it took was a flash of his driver's license as a form of I.D before they were off.

He didn't know much about the game he was testing. All he'd been told was that it was something that had never been done, or even attempted, before. All that accomplished was making him even more excited.

It only took twenty minutes to get to the airport. He was insanely early, but David didn't even want to take the chance of being late. The head of marketing had made it very clear that if he missed this flight, he'd have to pay for the next one, and he was broke enough as it is.

Security was a bitch, like usual. The buckle on his belt set off the metal alarm, so he had to spend a solid five minutes going through the full-body scan to make sure he didn't have a gun hidden on him. Even without that, the lineups were huge. It took him close to an hour to get to his terminal.