ONLINE

Leo Gonzalez - LIONG_

LIONG_ is online.

AVETREE101 is online.

AVETREE101 sent you a message.
AVETREE101: Hey

I squint at the laptop screen.

My back has an ache from hunching over for so long but I quickly type in a response to the person who messaged me after pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose with my middle finger.

LIONG_: Hi.

I frown. It feels wrong to message someone you don't know with just a "hey". Hey is for people you know.

AVETREE101: Are you in grade 10
LIONG_: Yep.
AVETREE101: Do you take french
LIONG_: Also yes.

I pause for a second. Homework help, no biggie. French isn't my best subject but it's not my worst either.

AVETREE101: Ok can you help me with some conjugation
LIONG_: Sure.
AVETREE101: Thanks
LIONG_: Okay, so... Passé composé or...?
AVETREE101: Wait let me check

I wait for a few seconds. The school's blogging site is always a bit laggy but I never really care because I'm connected to everyone there and it works.

AVETREE101: Avoir and etre auxiliary
LIONG_: Wait for one second?
AVETREE101: Ok

I look over to my bed. There was my phone, charging on my bed. I grab it and send a text to Eclipse, my best friend. She'd know about this.

I send to her, "Hey, can you send me the être and avoir verbs for passé composé?"

I get a response soon enough. "Auxiliary or conjugation?" I didn't remember that.

"Auxiliary."

She sends me a list of the auxiliary verbs quickly. Eclipse was always a fast typer. I look to the computer and quickly type out what she sent me.

After a couple of minutes I get a response.

AVETREE101: Thanks
LIONG_: No problem.

I'm about to close my tab when I see the little symbol to show that whoever Avetree is is typing behind their screen. I open a new tab. Then I get a little sound, notifying me that Avetree sent me a message, and look to the blog tab.

AVETREE101: Wait could I talk to you again

I think for a second before deciding my answer.

LIONG_: But why, though?
AVETREE101: because none of my friends take french and you do

That's a fair point. I decide to accept it.

LIONG_: When?
AVETREE101: Tomorrow
LIONG_: Depends. What time?
AVETREE101: Same time as today

I look over to the time at the bottom right corner of my screen. 11:34 pm. I sigh because it's too late again and I know I should stop reading this late but I can't help it.

I should probably turn my laptop off so that I won't get tempted to stay up later and so that I could let it charge for the night or else I'll become a zombie tomorrow.

LIONG_: Can't. Earlier?
AVETREE101: 3:30 pm?
LIONG_: Sounds good. Message me.
AVETREE101: Ok thanks
LIONG_: You're welcome.

I quickly close the tab before I start checking out my other frequently visited tabs. Pressing the power button on my laptop so that the screen shuts off, I turn to my bed and roll over with my chair. From there I flop directly onto my bed. My kneecap lightly hits the bottom of my chair, but my chair is soft so it only stings a little bit.

A small, dull thud that fades away quickly.

It takes a few seconds for my muscles to relax though. They're so stiff. From doing what? All I do is I sit at my computer or lie on my bed all day. I don't do anything.

Maybe that's why my older sister always pokes my stomach and calls me tubby. "Leo, you're so tubby," She'd say. I'd shrug because I don't think of myself as stick thin or obese. She'd tell me that I need to work out. I'd tell her that she's too invested in her own looks and everybody else's. Then she would shut up.

I ponder these thoughts until I heard a little "Ping!" from my phone. I forgot it on my table. The ceiling above glowed faintly from my phone's screen.

I sigh. I have to get it or curiosity will get me.

My feet still feel cold when they step on the beige carpet of my room. It's not much, really. It's a small room with blue walls. There's a door on one side and a window on the other side of the room. Then, on the right side of my room, is my bed. A tall black wooden headboard pushed up against the wall. The left corner can touch the window frame.

My dresser is right in front of it. It's short and I have my phone charger and headphones on it.

Across from the bed is my computer table and also where I do my homework. It's made of metal supports and wooden platform and the keyboard part slides out. There is where my phone is, squished in with the keyboard I use instead of the one provided with my laptop. I don't like how flat the laptop's keyboard is, that's my justification.

I grab my phone and press the home button.

The notification is a text from Eclipse.

"Why?" It asks. "Why what?" I ask her back.

"Why do you ask about the French?"

I sit on my bed again. Right at the edge, where my dresser and charger sat.

"Someone asked me so I asked you."

"Who's someone?" She texts me. I don't really think of her as nosy, Eclipse just liked to know things. She's know-y.

"Don't know, I should ask tomorrow." That's my response. She just agrees and sends me a goodnight message.

I put my phone on my dresser to charge. Before I do that I just turn the ringer up so I don't sleep in tomorrow because the alarm didn't go off.

Now I just lie in my bed and stare up at the shapes the shadows on my curling make because the light coming from my window is always changing because the cars pass by. So quickly, they go from long, straight fingers in my room to short rectangles. Then the fingers again.

The pattern goes like this a lot. The shapes don't change. Sometimes the colours do but not often.

I allow my mind to wander. They go from the French test today to Eclipse to Philippe to the new boy, Avery Bradley. I want to laugh at him. I do, quietly now, to myself.

He conforms so much. He's like a clone of Jay Bhatia and all of the so-called popular people in school. It's been a week since he came here.

My mind decides that that's enough laughing, or mean snickering at the least, for now. It wanders again.

I blank before an image comes to mind.

"Who's someone?" Eclipse asked me. Who is someone?

I think about Avetree, behind the screen. Who is Avetree? This shouldn't bother me because it's only a person who asked for my help in French.

But I don't like not knowing. I developed that after years of answers from Eclipse.

That's my last thought before my heavy-lidded eyes closed for the night.