earbuds

eleven

"Good morning sleepy head. Sleep alright?" I heard George say, rummaging his kitchen, preparing food.

"Yeah. Where's Clay?" I rub my eyes, yawning as well, tiredly making my way to the couch. "And what time is it?"

"8 a.m." He answered, "And Clay is at the computer. Said he needed it for something."

I stop in my tracks and turn around towards George's computer area, which was on the other side of the building basically. With another yawn, I stumble behind the bookshelf where Clay is sat typing away at the computer, inputting random things, but it creating something. "You didn't tell me you did this stuff too." I spoke up, spooking him a bit because he jumped.

"Shit, you scared me." He held his chest and took a deep breath in to chill. "I'm just doing some coding, that's all. Trying to do some stuff, fix some bugs, with a gadget that George was working on." He said.

"You never said you coded."

"I... didn't." He mumbled, turning his way back towards the computer. "Good morning by the way. Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah I did, and you?" I said, crossing my arms and leaning against and on Clay's back right where his shoulders are so that I can watch him type away.

"I had a few hours, only because I slept on the couch, but me and George caught up with each other since it's been a while. I would say I got a good sleep." He said, erasing a bunch of stuff and rewriting it, typing it back in. He tests out the gadget a few times only to rewrite that part of the script.

"This is unrelated to what you're doing, but do you even believe in the whole soulmate thing? Or that soulmates even exist?" I pushed myself up, rather than leaning on him, feeling exponentially colder.

"Maybe not through the earbuds. I don't really believe that the earbuds can actually connect you with your soulmate. I think that's more of a government thing. Like they pair you and some random person or someone that shows interest in the things you show interest in up together." He sets aside the gadget and opens a new document. "Real life soulmates? I don't know. I don't think so. I never really have been 'in love', if you want to put it like that." He takes a breath. "Did you bring your earbuds with you? I'm going to re-code them so they work like a walkie talkie and so the government doesn't hear us. Also, we need to destroy your phone."

"Uh- What?" I question, thinking about all the pictures I took with that phone.

"Save your videos and contacts and pictures to the cloud. I'll get you a new phone later. For now, we need to destroy it. It could send a signal out and rat George out to where he lives. Not only will he be in trouble, but so will you and I." He pauses. "And if you don't think you'll get in trouble because you're the government's child basically, think again." His tone was a lot more serious. "So bring me your phone and earbuds once you get a chance."

I mumbled an "okay" before heading to the couch area where my bag was left. I see it and walk over to it, rummaging through it, grabbing the earbuds and my phone which was turned off currently.

"Are those the soulmate earbuds?" George points to the buds in my hand. I nod and stand up, pushing my bag aside. "I ended up tossing mine because my 'soulmate' died before I got mine. I learned that she deserved to die as she was very greedy and mean to so many people. Not that it really mattered because I'm a fugitive on the run basically, ever since I received my earbuds, but yeah."

"How long have you been doing all this stuff for?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Since I was 16." He answered.

"How old are you now?"

"24."

"Damn-"

"Yeah, he's been doing this shit for 8 years. It started with a few fake passports and some cool gadgets and evolved into what he does now." Clay came up behind me. He grabbed the earbuds out of my hand, his fingers brushing against mine for a split second. I look down to avoid eye contact and put my hand down after he grabs it.

"W-Where's the bathroom again?" I ask, suddenly feeling heated in the cheeks.

"Down the hall, to the left. Should be right next to the guest room. You can't miss it." George says and I make my way to it, locking myself inside.