Bone Diggers - Chapter Forty

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In the days after the launch party, everything boiled down to waiting. The 'leave' Owen was given from NY Today had come and gone, and now he was left to juggle both. Days were spent at the newspaper and afterward he headed to fnVR. Thanks to them, he didn't need the extra money, from either the paper or bone digging gigs, but he refused to drop the ball on either. Nor was he was the only one holding on to their old job. By the look of Andreah's riding outfit, she had gone back to her day job, too.

Their office phone rarely rang. If it did, it was usually Jorge. Andreah always answered like it was a mini-game to persistently to annoy the man. When it rang today, Owen continued to ignore it.

"Insert Credits? Yeah, I've heard of your place," Andreah said, as she twirled the coiled phone cord in her hand. "Tonight? Uh, I'm not sure. Let me check." Owen had already looked up at her when she moved the receiver away from her face. "There's a happy hour going on at an arcade bar on West 24th. They're wondering if we'd like to attend as honored guests."

Owen held out his hand for the phone, which meant Andreah had to pick up the base and carry it over to him. Once he was on the line, he cleared his throat. "Hello, this is Owen."

"Hey, Owen! Nice to talk to you. We were wondering if you'd like to come by tonight to our arcade. We've been playing the live streams of Daniel's story and would love to have both you and Andreah attend as a surprise. Your night will be on us."

Owen was pretty sure he'd heard of the place before, but hadn't ever had the chance to stop by. "Sure, why not. What time should we be there?"

"Nine should be good. We're so excited to have you."

"No problem, see you then." Owen handed the phone back to Andreah, who returned the entire assembly back to the desk it belonged on. She mumbled something that sounded like a curse as she walked over to her bag.

"What's that?" he asked, his eyes following her.

"Nothing. I was just hoping I could depend on you to keep this a boring night, as usual."

Owen ignored the backhanded insult for the sake of not ruining the entire conversation. "You could just not go if you don't want to."

"And let it look like I'm the boring one? Nah son." She pulled a skirt and crop top out of her bag. The wrinkles hinted it had been in there all week in case of situations like this. "I wonder if anyone has an iron." When they shared a cab to the arcade, splitting the fare so evenly it was almost suspicious. Owen even held the door for her as they walked in. The atmosphere wasn't anything like a surprise party, which was a relief to them both. That didn't mean they were anonymous however. A girl, who looked just old enough to serve the drinks, bounced over to them so fast that she must have been waiting. "Hey! Owen and Andreah, right?" Andreah nodded with an awkward smile as she clutched her purse. "Awesome, well, I'm Jamie. We reserved a table for you. Carl is over at the bar. . You're welcome to help yourself to all our games." She walked them over to their booth. The seats had high enough backs someone could stand on the seat and still not match their height.

"Thanks," Owen said, and glanced at the table that had a large screen with game systems hooked up somewhere. The only way he could tell was the controllers sitting there. He made a hum of approval towards Andreah before leading them to the bar.

"Hi! I'm the guy who called you," said who Owen guessed was Carl. "Where's Andreah?"

Owen thought she was following. He glanced away from the white countertop that was currently glowing blue. She had somehow disappeared into thin air. "She's here, just...not here."

"Well, alright," he chuckled. "What can I get you two?"

"Uh, a Dos Equis for Andreah, and you can just surprise me."

Once he got the drinks, he turned to look at the number of people he'd have to mingle with the rest of the night. It was busy, with a solid mass of people both hanging out by a DJ and moving around the maze of arcade games. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. There didn't seem to be a need to put on a show. He smiled to himself. This was doable.

Even better, he spotted Andreah by an old school Asteroids game. She was watching the current player like a hawk, already wanting to jump on. It was an odd change, since she hadn't seemed up for going out before.

"Here," Owen said once he reached her, and handed over her beer.

She looked at the beer, at him, then back at the beer. "Oh. Thanks," she said softly, blinking a few times before reaching out to take it. Owen couldn't make sense of her confusion for a second. Without thinking, he had remembered her favorite beer and brought it to her without being asked.

He narrowed his eyes at the awkwardness before just sidestepping the whole situation to find his own retro love. It took a little bit of wandering before he found it. But there it was. The black-lit beauty that is a 1982 Tron game. No one was occupying it at the moment, so the temptation was all too easily indulged. He retrieved a few quarters from his pocket and dropped them into the machine. The click of the coins traveling before the game musically registered the credit was a welcome and nearly forgotten sound. He wore an even smile as he abandoned his drink at his feet and played.

After many, many rounds, someone called next game. His demise came from clearing too many grid bugs and running out of time. Unable to play again, he decided to walk around and see the rest of the place. If he wasn't there more or less alone, he would have sat down to enjoy the view rather than searching for new entertainment.

Over the loud music, a good Bastille song at that, he could hear Andreah's voice before he caught sight of her.

"No, that's completely the wrong tactic. You two need to keep up with each other. You can't just jump around all willy nilly. You need to find the sweet spot where nothing hits you."

"If you think you know so much," some guy said, after she berated his Contra gameplay, "prove it."

"I don't have a second player I can trust."

Owen lingered around them for a moment longer before deciding to step forward. "I'll play."

Andreah looked over her shoulder, raising her eyebrows as if to ask 'seriously?' Owen nodded as he looked at his new opponents.

"Fine. Challengers go first," Andreah said, as she stepped to the side.

"So, I'm guessing you'll take Lance?" Andreah quipped after the other team started to play. A mere coincidence of character names was apparently hilarious to her.

"So, I'm guessing your sense of humor is rusty?" Owen countered. A player two joke was such a low bar.

She lifted her chin. "You liked it once upon a time."

"I trusted you once upon a time."

Their opponents snickered, making it easier for Andreah to keep the offense from showing as she straightened her posture. "Look, if you're going to—"

"I just want to play," Owen cut her off. He didn't want this to become something else, especially here and now. Andreah seemed to agree. She settled for crossing her arms and watching the game.

Once they finished, Andreah clapped at the men's somewhat valiant efforts. They messed up during the fire pipes by rushing around too much. By their sour looks as Owen and Andreah took their places, they knew it too.

Owen was uncertain if they would fare any better. "We could really use the Konami Code right now," he said, despite picking up a gun that sprayed multiple bullets at once.

"It's okay. We got this."

He stole a glance over at her, wasting a second with a surprise that turned into renewed confidence that was better than any power up. "Plus ça change."

Andreah dared to look away from the screen, a dangerous move since there were turrets shooting at them. Owen didn't have to look away to feel her question. "The more things change," he said, jumping up to a higher level of the map, "the more they stay the same."

Her attention snapped back to the game as she escaped the part of their world where his words existed. If he had looked at her, he would have seen the warm pink that brushed her cheeks.

"Y'all are gonna lose if you keep talking to each other," one of the guys piped up over their shoulders.

"Yeah, Owen. You're gonna make us lose," Andreah said sarcastically. They were actually doing very well so far, despite what the guy thought.

"Maybe I will," Owen said, before reaching over to jerk her joystick around.

"Hey! The hell, man." Andreah recovered quickly enough to avoid death, her hip bumping into Owen as a weak attempt to push him away. "If you throw this game, you're dead."

"Okay, okay." Owen said with a smile. "Just keeping things fun."

"Focus," Andreah said, before she picked up the flamethrower by accident. No one should actually ever want the thing. It had no distance.

They made it safely past where their opponents died, and could have called it good. But from the look on Andreah's face, she was in it to go beyond winning it. She wanted to make it to the end. It was amazing watching the predictive nature of her play style. Owen guessed that she had played enough times to know what part of the screen the next enemies were coming from. She shot there before they even appeared.

They made it to the mouth of the final area, quite literally since they faced a toothed maw that released small enemies. Andreah looked ready to break off the buttons with her urgency. Owen grinned a little at her competitive flare, wondering why she wasn't a PvP player on AoS with that kind of energy.

When they stepped away, the credits started scrolling and Andreah was beaming. "Fuck yeah!"

Their competition shared a grumble, and fled before Andreah could trash talk them. With no one besides Owen to gloat to, she threw her arms around him.

He took a step back in surprise as she seemingly came out of nowhere, since he'd been staring at the screen in disbelief. It was impossible not to laugh at it all and give her a celebratory hug back. "I thought this game would have a kill screen."

The comment sobered Andreah's excitement slightly as she stepped away. "You never beat it before?"

"I always die right after the pixeled wannabe jock throws shit at me."

Andreah stared, wide-eyed at him. Long enough that it started to make him nervous. "You little devil!" She tapped him on the arm. "Look at you, hotshot."

Owen laughed again. "I guess we make a good team."