The Eternal Dreams Trilogy (Most Imaginative Setting Winner 2012)

Chapter Three: ... In All the Wrong Places (Part 1)

        The image of my friends lounging around my room reminded me that things were different once. I was beginning to forget what it was like to be whole. Together was where we belonged. To be apart was to be unmade. My room was just one of the many places we had marked as our own over the years. It was dark outside, but outside felt far away. It was safe between those four walls. Our bedrooms were safe havens from it all. When we were alone, we didn’t have to pretend.

        “Do you mind if I use your Internet, Kail?” Thalia asked, walking over to my computer. I told her she could. I felt like I was watching my memory instead of living it. “I just want to check my Neopets account before we head out to the movies.”

        “Your parents let you use the Internet?” Cora asked. We both nodded our heads as Thalia logged onto my computer. “Lucky. My parents saw something on TV and now they think I’ll get abducted by some creepy old man.”

        Things like the internet and cell phones kept people apart. I felt sorry for kids that missed out on a time before that stuff really ruled over everybody. For the most part, we grew up away from that lifestyle. Only later in our teenage years did social media begin to infect our lives. Back then, when any of us wanted to talk, we found each other. That’s how it used to be anyway. ‘Real life’ was becoming something of a bygone era.

        “Osias can’t make it out tonight,” Thalia told us. “He got his tonsils taken out. He’s currently at home sipping Ginger Ale between vomiting sessions.”

        “Charming,” Cora said with a sigh.

        “Poor guy,” Thalia said, clicking furiously at something on the screen. “He really wanted to see this movie. He’s the only one that even read the book.”

        “We should go right now,” Kanoa said, grabbing his coat and heading for the door. “It’s Harry Potter. You know the line is going to be out the doors. That’s the whole reason why we bought our tickets in advance, right? We need to get going if we want good seats.”

        “More like we should get going if we want any seats,” Cora said, standing up off the floor. “Do you they’d let us sit on the floor at the theatre?”

        “Which movie is this one, anyway?” Kanoa asked. “Harry Potter and the Shimmering Wand or something?”

        “That just sounds wrong,” Cora replied, shaking her head. “And weird. I think it’s the second one. Maybe the third?”

        “No,” Thalia said, standing up from my computer chair. She turned around to face us, an unfamiliar sternness in her eyes. “We should stay with Osias.”

        “What?” Kanoa asked. “But he’s stuck at home. What are we supposed to do? Watch him throw up?”

        “Yes,” Thalia replied, her voice void of any attempts at humour. “He’s our best friend. He deserves us at his side.”

        “But what about the tickets?” Kanoa asked, becoming increasingly frustrated.

        “She’s right,” Cora said, grabbing Kanoa’s shoulder. “We can’t leave him alone like that. We can see it another time. He needs us now.”

        Kanoa’s eyes spun around the room, shifting between Thalia and Cora in a futile attempt to dissuade them from missing the movie. He whined and grumbled, but it did nothing to sway their resolve. He sighed and kicked at the foot of my bed, utterly defeated.
        
        “Ugh,” he moaned. “Having friends can really get in the way of having fun sometimes. This was shaping up to be a classic night for The Inseparable Six you know!”

        “Come on Kanoa,” Thalia said, pushing him back toward the door. “Let’s go.”

        We exited my room, walked a few paces and suddenly entered Osias’ room, as if we lived just down the hall from one another. Osias was lying beside his bed with a bucket in his hands, spasmodically gagging his guts out. Thalia went over and held the bucket for him. They smiled at each other for a moment before he puked again. Thalia patted him on the back.

        “You have no idea what this means to me you guys,” Osias croaked, the bucket making his voice echo a little.

        “Means about seven bucks to me for the price of the ticket,” Kanoa grumbled, going over to Osias’ Playstation 2 and booting it up. “I’ll take that in cash or cheque by the way. What? I’m just kidding.”