Play No More (Player Next Door sequel) ✓

02 | Trademark

Thank you to @amone.de.beer this beautiful trailer that shows a playful side  

Chapter 2: Trademark

It was a long walk home, made even longer by the two coffee stops I had to make mid-way.

Totally necessary, I swear. The first place had a broken frothing machine. And what's a delicious double shot caramel cloud macchiato without the froth?

Nothing I tell you.

Nothing. *In Gollum's voice*

I turned the corner onto my street.

"There you are!" A girl with the most intricately braided bun and killer make-up stood on the pavement outside my house.

She had red sneakers, black pants and a purple set of headphones around her neck that matched her lipstick.

"Cearra?" I said.

She was chewing bubble gum that she popped when she saw me. "GIRRRRRRRRL, you made me wait!"

Now I live on a very quiet street. It's the main rule of suburbia. Everyone has their issues that they keep nicely locked away behind a trimmed front lawn.

We may not have a trimmed lawn, but we have garden gnomes.

"You went on the most insane date and you never gave me an update?!" Cearra loudly shouted, "I've been waiting years."

"It's been a day-"

"Years! And why won't you respond to my messages?"

I looked down at my zero-messages phone and that's when I suddenly realized, "Oh! I must have run out of data."

"Who doesn't have unlimited data in this decade?"

"Me, like I said.  And now that we've covered I'm poor, is there anything else we should discuss?" I asked.

Cearra blushed and her confidence eroded into a pile of guilt. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go there. I didn't realize you didn't have... maybe you could join my family plan?"

"Sure, I'm hoping to upgrade my family this Christmas," I joked, and then had to emphasize that it was a joke because her expression did not look amused, "Really, it's a joke."

She came a long way to talk about limited data plans.

"Hey, hey!" Cearra yelled, realizing that I was distracting her, "Your date with the hottest guy in school is not in my imagination and I need to hear about it. Every single detail. Where you went, the weather, what he said, how he said what he said... You left me on a cliffhanger."

I didn't realize anyone was waiting on an update.

"Let's start with the weather," I said, surprised she'd even given me that easy out.  I glanced nervously at the house across the street.

He lives there.

He's lived opposite me my whole life and only started to notice me last summer when we were camp counselors together. I wonder if he was inside now, ignoring me again.

Maybe he could hear us. At the volume Cearra was speaking in, I'd be surprised if Canada hadn't heard her.

The sound of a car pulling into the Dawson driveway caught my attention. A beautiful lady got out with perfectly blown out hair. She was carrying grocery bags.

Cearra really needed to keep quiet now.

"He is in so many girl's fantasies," Cearra continued, still facing me with great focus, "Do you even know the kinds I'm talking about?!"