Heal Me

Chapter Six

Somehow, I'd managed to distract myself for the rest of the night, knowing if I let myself get even remotely close to my computer, I'd end up on Smith's realm again. And I did not want to do that. Not really. Instead, I watched a romantic war movie with Cat and listened to her complain the entire time. She was into war, not so much romance.

After the movie, I took a bubble bath and deep conditioned my hair. I organized the bathroom, cleaned under my bed, leafed through the first chapter of an old trig book... By twelve o'clock, I was cleaning out the fridge.

"Are you okay?" Cat reached around me for the almond milk and poured some into a saucepan for heating on the stove. She wouldn't even allow a microwave in the apartment.

"Sure. Great," I answered, unconvincingly.

"Are you sure?" She stirred her milk, adding Stevia one drop at a time. "Because you're starting to remind me of-"

"Sarah," we said in unison.

"I know, I know..." I grumbled as I tossed a bag of slimy cucumbers into the garbage under the sink. On the one hand, I was proud to have lasted this many hours away from my game. On the other, I was starting to have just the slightest amount of sympathy for Sarah's addiction.

++++

After tossing and turning for hours, I angrily tossed my down comforter aside and got out of bed. There was a calming red glow coming through my window from a billboard across the street. White light washed through my room, time and again. The calming strobe effect was from New York's ever-present traffic. I shuffled quietly to the kitchen in search of one of Cat's herbal sleep-inducing concoctions.

She was forever hailing the effects of something called... what was it again? I rifled through the 'medicine' cabinet.

Spirulina? No.

Niacin? No.

Acaí, Royal Jelly? No, no.

Valerian?

Yes. I popped two of the pills, cringing at their very musty flavor, and headed wearily in the direction of my bedroom, swearing to name my next game character Valerian if this stuff actually worked.

From my doorway, in the peaceful darkness, I glared at the sleeping monitor.

My interlude with Smith had begun cordially enough, turned to fighting, and ended in – well, I had to admit I wasn't sure how it had ended. Why had he stayed to talk to me? Why did he say he'd lose sleep waiting for my mail?

And mostly, why did I care?

Because it wasn't yet settled. And that fact left me with a substantial amount of unease. Oddly, I'd felt more comfortable when he'd been mean to me. Now that I wasn't sure where he stood, I was curious.

At my desk, I turned on the lamp and the computer. The space around me was filled with a relaxing static as the fan whirred to life. I logged impatiently into the game and told myself firmly that I was just getting on my regular character to organize my bags, do a little fishing, maybe check out the auction house... Even if Smith was on the game at three in the morning, he would be safely contained to his own realm, right? It wasn't like I was looking for him.

When given the choice between two servers, Antonitas, my regular server, and Winterhoof, Smith's server, I chose the latter and told myself firmly that I could use whatever damn realm I wanted.

Healslater2 was standing next to the mailbox in obvious desperation to have someone notice her. She was pathetic. But not as pathetic as me, running my mouse over the place where a mail icon would be – if I had mail. But I didn't. So, I waited, because one could appear at any moment. Sometimes there were glitches with the system.