Shafted [ONC 2022]

Weight Lifted

Kadin set his laptop on the desk and booted up Skype. An hour before, he'd walked through the door after signing his contract and take a tour of his new workplace. His hair was still damp from his quick shower, and he'd opened his window to let the stale air out of the room. There were two things he needed to settle before he could sleep at night. First talking to his parents and second, texting Rukiya.

The first would be the hardest, the second, more embarrassing. But, as Tobias said, this would be good for him. So, with shaking hands, he called his parents. His mom's face appeared on the screen moments later, and she smiled at the sight of him.

"Kadin, how are you?" she asked, her words lilting. Despite being well into her fifties, his mom didn't look a day over forty. The lines around her eyes deepened in a way that made her look friendlier. The grays had taken over the front of her head since she stopped dying them away.

He roughed up his hair. "I'm alright, ma. Is dad there? I wanted to talk to him, too."

"Yeah, he's right here." She looked at a point off camera. "Honey, it's Kadin."

When his father appeared on the screen, Kadin clammed up even more. When his mother got mad, she lay into him for days, but his father simply shook his head and said something like: I can't with you, son. And somehow, that hurt a lot more than his mother's yelling.

"Son, how's your vacation?" his father asked. "You packing up?" His father was darker skinned than his mother, and Kadin had inherited the slight curl of his hair. He'd grown a gut in his old age, along with a penchant for cola. Though he'd never blame the former on the latter.

Kadin whipped his head around and spotted his suitcases, opened on the bed. He'd been unpacking, finally, since this temporary living situation now became semi-permanent. "No, actually I..." He stared down at his keyboard and used the hairline scratches in the corner as a distraction.

"Kadin, what is it?" his mother prompted.

"I'm actually not on vacation. I've been job hunting in Hapton because I quit my old one three weeks ago." The words came out in a rush, and the silence that followed them made his stomach drop. He could imagine the looks on their faces, the disappointment.

"Why did you quit?" his father finally asked. To his credit, his voice was even, void of judgment.

Kadin shrugged and leaned back in his seat. "I was miserable." There was no gentle way to put it. "I was burnt out. The long hours left me with no time to do anything I actually enjoyed. I could barely hold down a stable friendship, much less a stable relationship." He sucked in a breath and shook his head. "I didn't hate my work, but, at some point, it stopped being fulfilling. I was just grinding for a check."

"Kadin." His mother drew his attention back to the screen. She didn't seem mad. If the furrow in her brow was any indication, she was worried. The same kind of motherly worry that stayed on her face when she nursed him through bouts of sickness. "Why didn't you say something? You know you can talk to us about anything."

He raked a hand through his still damp hair. "I don't know. I just didn't want to disappoint you. I mean... you guys came here with nothing and built a life for us. And I didn't want you to feel like I was taking that for granted."

His father exchanged a look with his mom. "Well, what are you doing now? Looking for something new?"

"Remember a year ago, when I told you I was getting back into art? I got a job as a character designer for an indie game studio. Tobias hooked me up with the interview. I start Monday."

"Character design? You mean that thing you tried to show me on the iPad?" His father mimicked a stylus with his finger in a way Kadin would've found funny if he wasn't so wound up.

"Kind of. It's a lot more intense than that."

His mother's frown deepened. "So, you're not coming home? You won't visit?"

"Of course I'm coming home," Kadin answered quickly. "I still need to figure out what I'll do with the house, but I'll make time to visit often, I promise, and when I figure out my living situation here, you can come visit me."

Her face softened a fraction. "Alright Kadin. If this makes you happy, then I'm happy. But tell me more about what you'll be doing at this new job."

Kadin smiled. What he'd intended to be a ten or fifteen minute talk turned into an hour-long conversation. He tried to explain how his job worked, but his parents understood next to nothing about video games. So he focused on his living situation.

He'd be staying with Tobias for the foreseeable future, at least until he saved up enough money for his own place. The studio offered to come in and set up a system for him to work from home if need be. With the office being an hour away by train, he could see himself taking advantage of that a lot.

By the end of it, his parents still didn't get what he'd be doing, but assured him he'd have their full support, which was more than he could ask for. And when he hung up the call, he felt light again. He got up and stretched, the late afternoon sun pooling through his window to warm his feet.

Outside rush hour traffic clogged the main roads and a symphony of blaring horns and sirens filled the muggy air. Kadin pulled the blinds shut and swiped his phone from his bed. Surely, by this time, Rukiya would be home. He'd hate to disturb her during work.

He found her number buried in his list of contacts, hovered his thumb over her name. What would he even say?

Hey, can I have my beanie back? Too forward.

Hi, how have you been? Weather's warming up these days. Maybe she hated small talk.

Hey Rukiya, hope you've been doing okay since last week. Would you like to meet sometime for coffee? Better.

Just as he went to hit send, a message from an unknown number came up on his dash. It started with a picture of his beanie sitting on what looked like a nightstand.

Hey, it's Rukiya. Sorry for not messaging earlier and for holding your hat hostage. 'I'm free tomorrow, so if you send me your location, I can drop it off. Or if you'd rather we meet somewhere, that can be arranged too. Let me know.

Kadin smiled. Another weight of his shoulders.