Where I Lay My Head

Sebastian followed me around like a stray puppy, struggling to muster up some sort of defense on his part. As I paced the living room to rid myself of him, something directly in front of the telivision caught my eye and I put an abrupt hault to our little parade.

"What's that?" I gasped, raising my arm to point at the white and black box, enstrangled in wires that lead to the TV.

This was something I hadn't come across before. It was a long rectangular shape that was parted into three sections. It's two outer sections seemed to be just a dock for a couple of detachable, joystick controllers to sit on, whereas the middle was blossoming with viny wires. It was specked with buttons and a black label that read

Telegames:
PONG

in block letters. The other boys joined Sebstian and I where we stood before the TV.

"You haven't ever played Pong?" Snake queried.

I had remembered Pong from a diner in Mullica but that console was enormous, bigger than a human and didn't hook up to the telivision because it had a screen of its own.

"No, I haven't..." I said quietly, taking a seat with the box on the floor and waiting for somebody to join me.

Snake was the first and only one to do that. We each took a controller and he poked at a large grey button under the TV screen to turn it on. While the game loaded, he explained the general idea which seemed to be simple enough. It deeply compared to tennis, except better because all you had to do was move the joystick.

The first half hour we played I was only getting used to the idea of a video game. After that I was playing as well as my adversary, in this case Snake, and couldn't manage to stop. For the next five hours we played until everbodys moaning became over-powering to my new-found addiction. Apparently, they needed to 'party'.

The only commitment to anything I had by then was somehow getting off of the floor to the sofa without exposing myself anymore. I managed to do that, and once I settled on the middle cushion there wasn't much more moving on my part. It was almost nine and I was exhausted from the day.

"Come on, babe!" Sebastian, the last voice I wanted to hear, commanded.

I stared at the ceiling to make it clear that I didn't condone much conversation with him. "No, I'm not going tonight."

"Yes you are!" he urged and coralled his endless legs into action while advancing towards me.

For the first time that day, Cecil took mercy on me and made Baz stay at a safe distance, which wasn't an incredible task considering how much bulk he had over the dainty man.

"Just go, dude. I'm stayin' home too. I'm hungover, and she just needs to get used to some things. You guys go and you can come back later if you want."

"But--" Sebastian tried to reach past Cecil for me again, to no avail.

"Go dude!" Cecil exclaimed, struggling to maintain a friendly atmosphere as Sebastian tested him.

This guy was somethin' else, and not in a particularly good way. What would he want to do with me? Hopefully his infatuation was just for the day when I was the only girl around to pursue, because I really wasn't all that special. Perhaps he would find another girl that night and would push me aside soon (as if I needed that much pushing).

Or, maybe he saw me, the awkward little Amish girl congested with moral-fiber and standards, as one of his only challenges in some time and would stop at nothing until I gave in.