A Stable Loop In Time

Chapter 1

“Hello?” Xan asked.

“Yo Xanda, it’s me, Alan!” Alan said enthusiastically over the phone. “Hey, where are you right now? Oh, right, you’re at home, because you’re too much of a bummer to go the beach and hang with the other guys. Why is that, anyway?”

“Told you yesterday when you asked me if I was going to the beach: I suck at volleyball, I don’t like swimming, and I’m just going to get a sunburn,” Xan explained. “And yeah, I’m at home, and I’m bored. So bored it’s not even funny. So bored I can’t even write any raps because I have nothing to rap about. Except being bored.”

“Yeah, well, one of the guys on my volleyball team-“

I just knew he was playing volleyball, Xan thought.

“-Sprained his ankle, so now we can’t really play anymore. So, do you wanna hang for a little while at your house? I’ll bring over my copy of Mario Kart 10, and maybe you won’t be so bored after that. So mind-numbingly bored. So torturously out of things to do. So-“

“I know I’m bored, stop rubbing it in,” Xan sighed exasperatedly. “I already beat Mario Kart 10, though.”

“Yeah, but this is the New Super Updated Negative World Edition!” A trumpet fanfare practically accompanied Alan’s over-enthusiastic declaration. “You can’t beat the NSUNWE. I mean, you can probably beat the levels, but you can’t-“

“Okay, fine, bring your super updated version. Whatever,” Xan said.

At that moment, the phone beeped annoyingly in Xan’s ear, signaling that somebody was trying to call him.

“Oh, sorry, hold on a sec, gotta see who else is calling,” Xan told Alan, pressing a button on the phone. “Hello, this is Alexander, who is this?”

Silence broadcast in Xan’s ears.

“Whatever.” Xan pressed the button again, saying to Alan that he was back.

“Hey, one more thing,” Alan asked. “Is it cool if I bring somebody else over? I met this girl at the beach.”

“Did you really?” Xan asked sarcastically.

“Yep!” Alan completely ignored Xan’s sarcasm.

“Alan, if you bring your new girlfriend over, I’m gonna beat you because you’re not going to be paying close enough attention to the game,” Xan stated dryly. “And because it’s not even going to be a challenge for me at that point, I’m gonna get bored again.”

“By the power of Grayskull, I swear that she is not my girlfriend. Yet. And besides, she wants to Kart too.”

“Is your not-your-girlfriend actually good at that game?”

“That’s what she says.”

“Well, okay then, just get over here fast, because the boredness is deepening.”

Alan laughed. “Okay, dude.”

The phone made a clicking noise as Alan hung up. Xan sat back down on the couch and just waited.

…

…

……

And then the friggin phone friggin rang. Again.

“Okay, who’s this?” Xan wondered aloud. He looked at the Caller ID screen, which, as he found, was only displaying one word:

TIME

“That’s weird…” Xan thought about it for a second or two, but he couldn’t remember ever being called by somebody with the Caller ID, “TIME.” He picked up the phone anyway.

“Who is this?” Xan asked.

“…” The phone made no noise in response.

“Hey, who is this, dude?” Xan demanded.

 The phone emitted a sound like an electric drill. Loudly.

Xan yanked the handset away from his ear, surprised, but slightly less bored. “Dang it, prank call, probably. Whatever.”

Just then, the doorbell rang a few times. Alan. Xan walked to the front door and opened it up.

“I have arrived with the epic game!” Alan cheerily remarked as he walked in the door. Alan, standing at a height of six feet even, towered over the relatively short Xan, who was only five foot six.

“Okay…” Xan replied with an air of complete un-cheeriness.

As Alan proceeded to basically skip over to the game console, a girl, only slightly taller than Xan, with light brown hair and green eyes walked in. Noticing Xan’s bored expression, she smiled at him and messed with his blond hair. “Cheer up, dude. Can’t be that boring.” She walked into the living room and sat down on the left side of the couch.

As Xan walked back to the red couch on which the three of them would soon play Mario Kart, Alan took that moment to look away from the powering-up game console and introduce his friend. “Oh, yeah…  This is Destiny Rose, dude. And Destiny, this is-“

“He can introduce himself,” Destiny interrupted.

“Sorry.”

“Really, it’s okay,” Xan insisted, sitting down on the right side of the couch. “But whatever. My name is Xan.”

“Cool name,” Destiny said. And for the first time that day, Xan smiled. Destiny smiled back.

…

“Okay, let’s play the game!” Game controller in hand, Alan jumped backwards right into the middle of the couch, bouncing both Xan and Destiny closer to the center of the old couch. Xan scooted right back into his corner, though.

“Okay, then…” Xan picked up his controller, and he saw that Destiny did too. Well, this is something, he thought. Maybe this day won’t be so boring…

The credits screens on the TV flashed by silently as the game loaded. The title screen appeared-

MARIO KART! TTTEEENNN!!!

The speakers absolutely blasted the cartoony-sounding exclamation jarringly loud, followed by ultra-loud game music.

“Ah! Turn it off!” Alan yelled, covering his ears in pain.

Xan literally leaped off the couch and pretty much punched the volume-down button on the TV screen. The music switched from ear-splittingly loud to soothingly medium volume.

“Whoo… That was crazy…” Destiny sighed, slouching down into the couch. “What the heck were you watching that you had to crank up that loud, anyway?”

“I don’t remember turning my TV up that loud ever…” Xan remarked. “Well, now that we're definitely awake, let’s play the game.  Hopefully, there will be no jarring distractions like-“

The phone rang again.

Xan whipped around in his seat and screamed at the phone, “SHUT UP!”

The phone stopped ringing.

Ignoring Destiny and Alan’s looks of surprise. Xan sat down again and sighed. “Just start the actual game.”