Entanglement

8 - Tour Guide

"So..." You pour your second cup of coffee of the day. "What were you thinking? With me showing you around today?"

Techno's sitting at the island of the upstairs kitchen a few feet away from you, looking at something on his phone. He looks up slightly, not at you but just in thought before eventually just reflecting the question back to you. "I dunno, what were you thinking?"

"Uh..." You think back to the times when you used to go out regularly. There was a lot of walking back then, bonding with whoever you were with while slowly making your way from place to place. What's within walking distance of here? "There's an outdoor mall a couple blocks away if you're into that. They always have these fun little events in the center... area." You trail off, slightly cringing at the last part of your sentence. "And a shit-ton of restaurants around," you add.

He finally looks at you, no real expression on his face. "Cool." Cool? "When do you wanna go?"

That's it? "Whenever you want, I don't exactly have a schedule or anything," you chuckle into the bitter drink you're holding before drinking much more than you should with one gulp. You don't like coffee.

He nods and stands up to go back to his room. Not another word. You're left standing alone in the kitchen. Alright.

You take the rest of your caffeine back to your room. If he doesn't have ideas of his own, you can figure something out.

"I'll be right down!" You yell, trying to hurriedly shove your shoes on to meet Techno downstairs.

"It's all good," he calls back, you barely hear it.

You grab your phone and bounce downstairs. "So, I'm actually kinda hyped," you walk up to him. "I looked it up and it's amateur magician night at the square tonight."

"That sounds horrible."

"Exactly, quality entertainment." He still looks unconvinced. "Okay, we're gonna do other shit, obviously."

He shifts his weight between his feet a few times. "That vlog idea Dream was talking about seems cool."

You pause. Is he really suggesting- "you actually want to do that?"

"Why not?" He shrugs.

"I just- I didn't think you'd want to, but yeah! Yeah, that'd be super cool," you smile. "And I could probably just censor your face with your profile picture or something."

"You don't have to censor anythin', I don't really care."

"Oh," when you think back, he's shown his face on camera a few times in the past, "okay, cool. This is gonna be fun." He nods and starts heading to the front door. You grab a water bottle from the coffee table and follow him.

It's quiet to the end of the driveway but once you both hang left you open your mouth.

"The mall up here is huge, Techno. I remember when I first moved here I got fucking lost in the Eastside with my friend James," you immediately try to jump into a story.

"Uh..."

"Not that we're gonna get lost, I know where I'm going... I think." You finally get a reaction out of him. Just a little scoff, but you're still proud of yourself.

Looking up at him every time you want to say something is almost a chore. He has a solid five inches on you and your neck does not appreciate the extra work. You still look up, though. A few times.

"So, uh, what did you usually get up to? Before you were, y'know..." fucking evicted.

"Honestly I just ordered Cheesecake Factory an ungodly amount of times."