NaNoWriMo 09 - Internet Romance for Dummies Chapter 2
Sorry, I should have posted this yesterday but I'm not used to posting my novel bits on LJ.
OMG I'm seriously surprised to see all of the positive feedback I've gotten on Chapter One. Y'all are awesome and a big part of what's going to keep me chugging along, especially while I'm dealing with the whole Cymbalta fog crap.
Tycho's antics with the sugar packets are very loosely based on something I did last year when very bored at work. I didn't do anything as epic as a sugar castle, but I did make an elaborate pyramid type thing out of individual creamers, pennies, tiny road cones and tiny replicas of stone henge. Very bored. I can feel Tycho's pain.
Banner art by house_of_raila.
The point of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month and therefore the emphasis is on quantity over quality. Critique is discouraged for this reason.
You have a private message.
DrmzInDgtl: Hey Ty.
JavaSquirrel69: Hey. Something up?
DrmzInDgtl: No, why?
JavaSquirrel69: You normally only message me after Acorn and Heero start acting stupid. I don't even see you in the chat.
DrmzInDgtl: I'm lurking. I was just wondering if you were going to show up tonight.
JavaSquirrel69: Oh. Yeah, I'm here for a little bit. I open tomorrow so I don't want to stay up too late. Beth's gonna kill me if I get hyped up on caffeine to stay awake and end up setting the place on fire or something.
DrmzInDgtl: LOL. Well you should probably go to bed then.
JavaSquirrel69: I will soon. But is there something you wanted to talk to me about or were you waiting because I'm just that awesome?
DrmzInDgtl: Uh something like that. There isn't anything in particular I wanted to talk about though, so if you want to go to bed you can. You know you're cranky when you haven't gotten enough sleep.
JavaSquirrel69: Yeah, yeah. Okay fine, I'll go to bed MOM.
DrmzInDgtl: Ouch.
JavaSquirrel69: Night Frank.
DrmzInDgtl: Night Ty.
Tycho closed the lid to his laptop and stood, stretching with a loud yawn. His bed was definitely looking comfortable, especially since he knew he would be getting up entirely too early the next morning. With almost mechanical motions he brushed his teeth and used the bathroom before turning off his light and crawling into bed. As the silence of the night settled into the dark room Tycho felt sleep coming, but before he could slip into blissful unconsciousness something else tugged at the edge of his mind. How did Frank know he was cranky when he hadn't gotten enough sleep?
Coffee was necessary, Beth would just have to deal. Tycho rubbed his tired eyes as he worked on opening the coffee shop, making sure everything was ready for the morning's first customers while Beth restocked the cooler. The nagging question of how a guy he had only spoken to in an internet chat room could know anything about him had kept him from getting a good night's sleep. Of course, it was perfectly plausible that the guy had just taken a guess, after all most people were cranky if they didn't get enough sleep. But it was the way that he had said it, the way he had said "you know you're cranky" as if it was something he knew for absolute certain. That was what bothered Tycho, and try as he might he couldn't push it out of his head.
"You look like crap this morning," Beth said, setting an energy drink on the counter. "My treat. Blend it with orange juice and the smoothie mix."
"Huh?"
"Trust me on this."
Tycho just shrugged and did as he was told. If Beth was actually encouraging him to have caffeine then he must be worse off than he thought.
"You're not sick are you? Because if you give me swine flu I'm going to be so pissed. I have a vacation coming up."
Tycho forced a laugh and shook his head. "Nah, I just couldn't sleep last night. I'm pretty sure it's not contagious."
"Better not be. So why couldn't you sleep? If it's TMI I don't want to hear it, you can just make up something."
Finding it unusually difficult to do two things at once, Tycho focused on working the blender and finishing his caffeinated concoction before answering. "Sadly, it's not TMI, though if it was I would totally tell you and wouldn't leave out a single detail."
"How sweet."
"I'm a giver. But no, I was just thinking. You ever have one of those nights where no matter how hard you try you can't shut your brain off?"
"Yeah," Beth said. "But I wasn't aware yours was on in the first place. I didn't figure it was a problem you had."
"Funny. I'm pouring my heart out and-"
Beth held her hand up to silence him. "Okay cut the dramatics and just get on with it. We only have five minutes till we open."
"I like my dramatics." Tycho took a drink of his smoothie. "Ooh this is really good. We should sell these."
"Focus!"
"Oh, sorry. Someone just said something weird to me online last night."
"Like pedophile weird?"
"I don't even want to know why that's where your brain went first. No, it was just something about me being cranky if I don't get enough sleep."
"Which is true."
"Yeah I know, but how did he know that? That's what I keep thinking about."
Beth bit back a sarcastic remark when she saw the look on Tycho's face. For once he wasn't smirking or smiling, but instead looked downright concerned. It was surprising how much something so small was bothering him.
"Well maybe he's a customer here and he's seen you first thing in the morning. "
"A customer?" Tycho's eyes widened. "That is not any less creepy than the scenerios my brain was coming up with last night. In fact, it may be worse."
"Why?"
"Because a customer knows who I am! But I don't know who they are!"
"Maybe he just thought it might freak you out if he told you they were a customer here. It doesn't look like he'd be wrong."
"That's stalking! Seeing me at work and then talking to me online without telling me who they are? Yeah, that's stalking."
Beth sighed and shook her head. "Tycho, that's not stalking."
"I have a stalker! Oh my God! I have a stalker and they're going to kill me."
"You're being ridiculous."
"They probably know where I live!"
"I really shouldn't have said anything."
"Beth! They could be out there right now!" Tycho grabbed his coworker by the shoulders. "They could be waiting till we open so they can come in, kidnap me and then kill you so there won't be any witnesses!"
"Okay first? Get your hands off me." Tycho wisely let go. "And second? Why the hell would anyone want to kidnap you?"
"I don't know! I'm not a stalker, I don't know how their minds work. Maybe " A horrified look crossed Tycho's face. "Maybe they want me to be their sex slave!"
"I should have killed you for the singing."
"I don't want to be some dude's sex slave! Maybe if it was a hot girl or something, but not some dude! "
"Tycho! " Beth slammed her fist on the counter, causing the nearby cups to shake. "Nobody wants to kidnap you and make you their sex slave. You are being completely ridiculous. This is probably some guy half way around the world who made an offhand comment and that was all. If he knew that you were currently ranting about the fact that he wanted to kidnap and rape you he would probably never speak to you again. And you know what? He'd be perfectly justified because you have gone off the deep end."
Tycho stared at his coworker, having not expected that sort of reaction. Though, as her rant progressed he realized that she did actually have a point. It wasn't unusual for him to go a little overboard but he was taking his paranoia to a new level this time.
"Okay," he said with a heavy sigh. "You're right. Can I get by on blaming the lack of sleep?"
Beth crossed her arms and said nothing at first, but finally relented. "Fine. Just drink your caffeine, stop being stupid and don't get so hyper that you make me join your insanity. I would actually like to leave work without a headache today."
"I make no promises, but I'll try."
Knowing that it was the best she was going to get, Beth walked away to open the door. Tycho remained behind the counter sipping on his smoothie and actually found that he felt a little ashamed about his outburst. There really was no reason for him to think that Frank had meant the statement as anything more than just a random comment. In his brief chat experience he had run into a couple of people who were the creepy sort they warned parents about, but Frank had done nothing to suggest he was one of those people. If anything he seemed like he was a little too normal to be hanging out in a gamer chat with the weirdoes they called regulars. Were it not for the fact that he couldn't do it without admitting he had been making completely ridiculous accusations, Tycho would apologize to his cyber friend. But at least what Frank didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
Once he'd allowed the shame to pass and he apologized to Beth multiple times Tycho felt much better. He was even back to his normal cheerful self by the time the first customer walked in the door, which meant that he was back to working on whittling down Beth's sanity.
"Hey Tycho, can you refill the sugar packets?" Beth asked near the end of their shift. "They mysteriously disappeared after Mrs. Thompson got her coffee. I swear she's sticking them in her purse."
"The woman likes her sugar."
"Well they sell it in grocery stores. Seriously, how bad off do you have to be to steal sugar packets from a coffee shop?"
"Oh I bet she's bad. I bet she's real bad."
Beth shook her head, refusing to take the bait, and was just happy to see her coworker heading back into the stockroom where the sugar packets were kept. A minute later he reappeared and it looked like he was actually going to do what he was supposed to be doing. Beth should have known better. When Tycho hadn't returned after several moments she gave up and went to see what he was doing.
"What the hell?"
"No don't look! It's not finished!"
Tycho spread his arms to try and shield his creation but it was too late. Beth had already laid her eyes on the structure that he had been concentrating very hard on making. She wouldn't admit it, but it was actually pretty impressive and resembled a house of cards but was of course made with sugar packets.
"You realize that you're going to have to take that thing down and actually do what I asked you to do right?"
"Not yet! " Tycho stepped back and looked at his handiwork proudly. "Sugar Castle is just the beginning. I still have to create the Jelly Village and Stirrer Forest. I'm contemplating Napkin River but I think that may be a little much."
"You think?" Beth sighed heavily. "I don't know why I even bother trying to reason with you. I'm pretty sure you're clinically insane."
"No, I'm just bored. I'm very, very bored. I hate opening because after the morning rush nobody comes in-" Mid sentence Sugar Castle received one breath too many and unceremoniously collapsed. "Aww, damnit!"
"That's what you get for being so long winded. Now refill the damn sugar before I decide to place Stirrer Forest somewhere very uncomfortable."
"How uncomfortable."
"Very."
After a brief pause Tycho grumbled to himself a little more loudly than necessary, but finally did as he was told. His shift would be over soon and the last thing he needed to do was to make himself some more work. The last time he pushed Beth too hard she made him dust the entire shop, and reorganize the stock room before going home. Even he knew when enough was enough.
When the sugar was stocked and the employee taking over for him arrived Tycho clocked out and made a mad dash to his car before Beth had a chance to say otherwise. He was sure that tomorrow he'd get some kind of lecture but it was his philosophy that there was no point in worrying about things that were going to happen tomorrow. Of course that didn't count things such as being kidnapped by creepy stalkers, but of course that was a moot point anyway. Later on he would talk to Frank online and while he would never apologize and thus admit that he had temporarily lost his mind, he would at least reassure himself that his internet friend wasn't going to rape him. These things were important after all.
As per usual the short drive home went by in a flash, with Tycho barely even registering the fact that he'd been driving. He was so used to the trip that his body went into automatic pilot as soon as he got out of the coffee shop, and he was secure in the fact that his painfully old car was sturdy enough that if his autopilot were to falter it would survive. His car might have been old, ugly, and what some people would refer to as a "land yacht", but he'd seen more than one shopping cart bounce off it without leaving a scratch. The only really annoying part was the lack of automatic windows, automatic locks and a CD player, plus the air conditioner had a habit of dying on hot days but- well it was cheap damnit.
After parking his car Tycho headed inside, his workday finally behind him. He tossed his work apron on the chair closest to the front door, kicked his shoes off in the entryway and made a quick detour to grab a can of soda before heading back to his room. Now he was going to relax. Now he was going to log onto his computer, talk to his friends and-
The soda can hit the floor as soon as he saw the girl sitting on his bed.
"Who the hell are you?"