Singleplayer [DreamNotFound]

My Goals Are Beyond Your Understanding

My walk back to our shared room is slow and hesitant. If he's awake, I won't know what to say to him. If he isn't, that's good for me. But of course he is.

'Hey,' he looks at me with those dirty yellowish eyes of his. Are they green? Or yellow? Being colourblind sucks.

'Hi,' I say uncertainly. 'How's your headache?'

'Better now, I guess.' He gets up from his bed. 'Do I have to get water myself or will you be a good friend and get it for me?'

I glare at him, and he relents. 'Okay, fine.'

He walks out of the room and I sit down on my own bed. I wish we hadn't gone to that party. If we hadn't, I wouldn't feel so bad right now.

Clay returns with a bottle of water. 'This isn't even cold. Just lukewarm. Who wants to drink lukewarm water?' he complains.

I shake my head, smiling to myself. Clay notices my smile and stares at me.

'What?' I ask.

'Why are you smiling?' he asks.

'I was just thinking about how weird you are.'

Clay scowls at me and twists the cap off the bottle of water. 'Yeah, well, have you taken a look at yourself?' he asks, raising the bottle to his lips.

'Duh. Every day.'

Clay shakes his head and chugs down the water. 'I'm never drinking again.'

'Oh yeah? As far as I know, you're not someone who keeps his word.'

'I didn't know you had such a bad view of me,' he looks down at me through the bottle. 'Can you recall one instance when I didn't do something I swore I would?'

'Uhm, let's see. You said you would carry my books for me if I didn't enjoy the first literature club meeting...'

'But you enjoyed it!'

'I never told you that.'

'You liar.' Clay replaces the cap on the bottle. 'What else?'

'Hmm,' I tap my chin, trying to remember. 'Oh, yeah! That day when you said that you'd do my homework if I won against you at rock-paper-scissors? What about that?'

Clay sighs in defeat. 'Fine. I'm bad at promises, ok?'

'That's what I thought.' I smirk at him. He rolls his eyes and sits down on his bed.

'I didn't do anything stupid, did I?' he asks a second later.

'Huh?' I ask, confused.

'While I was drunk. I didn't do anything stupid, right? Please say I didn't.'

'Uh,' I lose my ability to speak for a second. I can feel heat creeping up my face.

'George?' he looks at me.

'No you didn't.' I say blankly, trying my best to act nonchalant.

Yeah, except for kissing me, my brain remarks unnecessarily.

He sighs in relief. 'Thank god. I was worried I did something I'd regret.'

'Uh huh. Except for kissing like a dozen girls.' And me.

Clay's eyes widen in horror. 'What?'

'Yeah. I advised you against playing Truth or Dare, and yet you did it anyway.'

'Oh my god.' He covers his face with his hands and falls back on his bed. 'Why do I do this to myself? Do you know who the girls were?'

'You expect me to remember the exact names of all those girls?' I shake my head.

'Why am I so dumbbbbbbbb,' he exclaims, raking his fingers down his face. 'Oh my god.'

'Well, I warned you.' I lie back on my bed.

Clay looks around at me from his bed. 'Anything else?'

I almost tell him, but then I switch out my answer at the last second. 'You – no.'

Clay's eyebrows furrow, but he looks away. 'Remind me never to accept a party invitation again.'

'As if you'd listen to me,' I roll my eyes.

'Ha, ha, I am a very irresponsible person and yada yada.' He makes a sarcastic talking gesture with his hand.

A few minutes after lying on my bed without doing anything, I drag myself over to the desk chair to switch on my laptop. My brain reminds me about my homework assignments, but I push it to the back of my mind and type in my laptop password.

'What are you gonna do?' Clay asks me, sitting up on his bed.

'I don't know. Watch YouTube or something.'

'Pshh. Wanna watch Netflix?'

I swivel around in the chair. 'You have a Netflix subscription?'

'Uh huh,' he nods, taking out his phone. 'I'll get my earphones.'

I shut my laptop and get up from the chair, watching Clay rootle around in the wardrobe for his earphones.

'Why'd you even put your earphones in the wardrobe?'

'My goals are beyond your understanding.'

I make a small indignant sound in my throat.

'Aha!' Clay exclaims and brings out what the earphones. He crosses the room to his bed and signals me to come over.

'What?' I ask, confused.

'Come here, you idiot. What are you gonna do, stand there and watch me watch Netflix?'

I walk over to him, cheeks burning. I don't want to be in close quarters with him after what happened yesterday, but having company does feel nice.

'I'm choosing the show,' he says, and I groan.

He scrolls down a little and sighs at something on the screen. 'It's been a year.' He mutters under his breath.

'What?'

'Nothing. Just Rick and Morty.'

'Oh. You watch Rick and Morty?'

'Yeah! I mean, who doesn't?' he rolls his eyes.

'I don't.' I remark.

Clay whips his head around to look at me so fast that I'm surprised he didn't snap his neck. 'What?'

'Yeah, I don't.' I shrug. As much as you can shrug when you're sitting in a twin bed with another adult. I'm very aware of Clay's shoulder pressing against mine.

Clay shakes his head disapprovingly. 'You're watching Rick and Morty.'

'What? Why?'

'Just because.' He types in the words in the search bar. I sigh.

'Whatever.' I say. At least, I tried to say before Clay put an arm around my shoulders.

'God, you're so small. Shortie.'

'Excuse me.' I say after a few second's pause. I can't get my muscles to relax.

The video starts, and what I think is the show's theme song plays in my ears. After about a minute or so of sitting rigidly and not processing what the characters are saying, I force myself to relax.

'Hey, can you start it over again?' I ask Clay. He hits the pause button on the video.

'Why?'

'I just –' I decide to be honest. 'I just zoned out.'

'For an entire minute?' he asks, looking at me incredulously.

'Yeah. Just start it over again.'

Clay sighs and rewinds the video. I manage to start listening, and even lean into Clay a little. It feels strange, even wrong, after yesterday, but I can't act distant all the time or it'd seem weird.