Sweater Guy and Cubicle Girl

Cherub Baby Pt. 1

"Hey, my mom called." Said Corey.

"What for?" I asked. She actually calls quite a bit, I think it's cute.

"Well uh, she says I have to let Conrad stay with us for a few days." He said, like something was wrong.

"Oh, why? Is she going somewhere?"

"No... She says he's been in his room playing videogames for 72 hours and she wants him to do a gaming 'detox' and get some good sleep."

"Oh well that sounds nice, what's so wrong with that?" I asked, still not understanding.

"We have to go get him" He said, still in the same tone.

"I just don't understand what's wrong Corey."

"This child has been gaming and feeding on Mtn Dew and doritos for 72 hours straight. And my mother wants us to be a rehab for this child who has had a lifelong addiction to gluing himself to screens... not to mention that WE HAVE TO GO TEAR HIM AWAY FROM HIS 72 HOUR LONG GAMING SESSION!"

"Oh..." I said, finally understanding. "I guess that is kinda not great."

"My mom says to come get him now or she'll beat my ass."

"Geez lets go!" I said, rushing him to the car.

When we got to his mothers house, I was stunned. It was so beautiful and absolutely massive. It was a big colonial style home right by a beautiful crystal clear lake. When we got to the door his mother had opened it before we even got to knock. She looked frazzled like she was busy with misbehaving children all day. She didn't have her headscarf and her long wavy brown hair was put up into a messy bun. I hadn't noticed before how young she looked, her face looked like she couldn't be a day past 30. I was snapped out of my daydream-realization when she yelled to Corey "COME GET LITTLE BOY!!" She pulled him inside and I followed closely.

The inside of the house was even prettier than the outside. There was vintage decorations everywhere and on top of the fireplace in the den there were thousands of pictures of all 3 of her children as babies along with little crystal animal sculptures all around them, I thought maybe she collected them.

"Hey cmon, you gotta help me with this. I'd rather not have to pick him up and force him into the car." Corey said.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Just help me talk him into coming, he likes you more than me" Corey said, laughing.

"Okay I'll try" I said. Corey opened the door to Conrads room. Immediately my thoughts were drowned out by the extremely loud sound of intense screamo music playing from the speaker on his bed and guns from his video game. Just as I was looking in, Corey shoved me in and shut the door behind me. 'Ugh, why do I have to do al the work?' I thought to myself. All the curtains were closed over the windows and it was extremely dark aside from the blinking light from his TV and neon green lights along the border of the ceiling. His walls and ceiling were painted black and there were millions of posters sloppily pasted everywhere. Conrad sat on the center of his bed with his eyes glued to the screen and his fingers moving so rapidly across the controller that they appeared blurred. "Conrad?" I said softly. I received no reply or even slightest bit of acknowledgement. "Conrad?" I tried again, still nothing. I went over to his bed and turned off his speaker. The music stopped abruptly but I only received a very annoyed "Why?" from Conrad.

"Conrad honey, do you think you can pause your game for a moment?"

"No. Can't pause. Online."

"Well please can you stop for a bit? I need to talk to you."

"No."

By then I was frustrated, so I went over to his window and threw open the curtains. The bright morning sunshine hit the room violently, lighting everything up almost blindingly. Conrad screamed and fell over and yelled at me. "WHY?? LOOK YOU MADE ME DIE!!" He yelled, pointing at the screen. I could really see his face in the light. He had tired dark circles around his eyes, he always did but they were much more prominent now. His face was so pale there wasn't any color in his cheeks, and they looked much more sunken in than usual.