Catching Chester

Chapter Three

Four hours into the twelve hour flight to Africa, I feel ants crawling on my bones and know that I need to find something to do to pass the time. Chester is sitting beside me in the aisle seat, head bent as he types swiftly and efficiently on his keyboard. He looks absorbed in his work, eyes scrunched tightly together, lips pursed in a strong look of rock solid concentration. His screen is tilted away from me, so I can't tell what he's doing, but it must be pretty serious work to captured his complete focus.

"Die alien slime balls." He mutters in a hushed voice, hunching further over his keyboard and repeatedly pressing the space bar as if attempting to drive it right through the bottom of his computer.

Ok. That doesn't sound like he's working on his taxes, or stringing together a few lines of complicated computer code.

"Oh my God." I say loudly, a bit miffed. "You're playing a game aren't you?! I've been sitting here for hours playing with my fingernail clippings and this little plastic ice cream spoon! Thanks for hanging me out to dry buddy."

Chester presses a key on the board, presumably pausing his game. He gently removes his earbuds and faintly I hear some kind of opera pouring from them, the foreign kind you can never understand.

"Did you say something?" He blinks, totally obvious.

"You're supposed to be protecting me." I huff, pointing to his expensive looking lap top, the kind that's made specifically for gaming. Black. Sleek. Probably cost an arm, a leg and maybe a pair of kidneys. "How are you supposed to watch out for me, if you're playing..." I jerk the screen towards me on his lap. "Space Station Invasion?"

He jerks it back towards him, his face blushing red, apparently embarrassed at being caught having fun.

"If there was danger present, you would alert me to it." He defends hastily, glancing between me and the screen where his character is frozen, guns at the ready to charge the onslaught of slimy green and purple creatures.

The creatures look like mutated versions of Barney. I hate them immediately.

"Is that a two player game?" I ask eagerly, leaning into him to better study the little topography charts and weapons lists. Unlike me, Chester doesn't enforce a personal space boundary. He seems perfectly content to have me leaning against his arm. Because that's what friends do right? They lean. They play video games together, and they inhale the oceanic cologne making him smell as if he'd spent the entire day at the beach, being warmed by the sun and kicking up the surf.

Ok. Maybe that last part was just me noticing how good he smelled up close, but hey, friends do that too. What if he stunk? As highly unlikely as it was that he had ever smelled rank in his entire life, a true friend would have outed him on it. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to notice my bunny nose twitching at the pleasant smell that is Chester, because he's digging into his briefcase for a second headset. They are pink and have rhinestones on the outside.

"It is, in fact, two players." He invites, handing it to me, but only relinquishing it when I tug gently.

I study the ear pieces for ear wax residue, because...that would be just eewww.

"They're brand new." He smirks knowingly, but the upward crinkle of his smile crumbles downward as the realization of the words hit home for him. They are brand new because he had bought them for her, but she had never played with him. Her. His "girlfriend", and I use that term lightly because he's too lonely for that relationship to be doing him any good.

I plug into the second jack on his computer and the opera music assaults my ears. Seriously? Who listens to opera music in this day and age?

"TURN IT DOWN!" I yell, then instantly regret it because duh, the music is only loud to Chester and I, not everyone on the entire plane whom I had just yelled at.