Chapter 8

                                    

                                          
I awaken to the white light of early morning and a forlorn bird call. I wish to rest my head back into the softness of my dreams but the doppelganger and her mother haunts me. For once, something else lurks in my dreams other than my father.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
I hear the pings through the murks of sleep. Only now do I recognize the alarm of my phone. I squint at its fluorescent blue as I rise to my face. The black letters take a second to fall into place. I get only fragments of the 3am conversation.
IaminPayne
Did everyone see the picture I added?
Tanaka_Mina
Who's the woman?
@joshcart has been added
flippin'chick
More like who's the girl? She looks exactly like Joie.
IaminPayne
Joie, you up? We need to get together to discuss this.
artwithJoie
Where at?
Tanaka_Mina
I got a place where we can discuss without interruption. Meet me at Sunset Drive. You can't miss it, there is a huge sign saying Sunset Gaming.
IaminPayne
Everyone met there at 7am.
flippin'chick
Whatever you say, pretty boy.
    I allow the screen to turn to darkness. That's all I feel, darkness. Deep depth in my bones. I lay there in my lightless room for a few seconds more. Nothing to analyze or observe, nothing to jumpstart the thoughts that itch their way into numbers. Numbers, counting, dreaming, that's all I ever do. I open my eyes and the reel starts again.
    Five steps to the desk and its itchy grain. Five taps on the door knob, where my pale ghost haunts me in its sheen. My zipper cruises back and forth in a quintuple on that hoodie with holes in the sleeves. But I glance only twice at the misshapen lump of my mom on the couch where a yellow smell still lingers. My key clicks back and forth in the door, in harmony with the buzz of a city just waking up. 
    I ride with the stench of gasoline and the red of the early morning sky. A weight has settled down on my shoulders last night with the sun. I guess that's why my bones ache so much. Today is the eleventh anniversary of my father leaving. The sun joins with the red of my bike as I turn the fifth corner.
     An ancient neon sign rises to complement the early morning yellow. "Sunset Gaming" it reads, resembling a relic from a bygone era. Four darkened silhouettes linger in its artificial glow. Three I recognize; Madeline's slender frame, Payne's broad shoulders, and Mina's small form. A boy haunts behind her like a shadow. As I ride closer to this mismatched gang I notice how the boy's eyes bore into me. I let my bike fall with a clatter. I don't bother speaking to them, and it's Madeline that breaks the silence.
    "Jesus, you look like death rolled over," she grumbles, stretching out on the scarred asphalt. She rolls a lollipop between her teeth. "What happened?"
    I'm not in the mood for conflict so I acknowledge her question with a shrug and try to smile. I'm sure I look like a horror movie villain, overseeing her next victims. Mina steps back and the mysterious boy in black tosses a hand over her shoulders.
    "Who's the new person?" I whisper to Payne, my throat barely getting out. He squints in what I hope is sympathy and tosses a checkered blanket over my shoulders.
    "His name is Joshua Carter." he whispers, tucking the blanket around my neck. "Remember? From before?" He smiles cheekily at my confusion.
    It comes back all at once in a rush. The brooding boy on the movie spaceship. His dark figure now was only a whisper of his previous self. "The movie star?" I guess, still halfway in my dream state.