My first Casey/Zeke fic... ooh, how I'm branching out... :)
Hello... first time, so be gentle with me, people... ;)
Title: "The World Wide WHAT? (Part One)"
Rating: PG-13 for language
Synopsis: It's the year 2000, and Zeke is convinced that everyone's insane.
Zeke was never the computer type of guy. Even with all the excitement of it all (to which there could be no end, to some people), he’d refused to get one. They seemed way too complicated; he remembered stopping at Casey’s to pick him up for a small get together at Stokely’s, having to head upstairs to his room. He found him with one shoe on, one shoe off and his clothing looking rumpled. “Case…” he’d started, sounding annoyed. “I’d told you eight o’clock,”
“Hold on, hold on,”
So there Zeke had been, just standing in the doorway and puffing impatient breaths out his mouth. Casey was hunched over his computer per usual, scattering his fingers crazily over its keyboard. “What do you do on that thing, anyways?” he’d asked. Casey turned to him with a smile.
“Programming some music,”
“Oh?”
Figuring he had Zeke’s interest, he pushed his chair over slightly. “Wanna listen?” he’d asked. Zeke replied by pointing at his watch and raising an eyebrow.
All computers seemed to do was waste your time; Zeke didn’t even care about all the porn sites one could visit in a night. A magazine and his hand sufficed for him. All that clicking and bright screen action would most likely give him a headache.
When he left the auto shop he was working at in downtown Herrington, told by his boss to get some office supplies at the huge mega-electronics shop, ‘KillerWatt’, he was frustrated. Randy, the lazy assed idiot always seemed to take the best advantage of Zeke when he was in between cars. He’d just installed a new computer system and didn’t know how to work it just yet. He expected Zeke to know everything about computers, simply because it seemed EVERYONE his age did nowadays. “Can’t figger out how te get the damn thinged online,” Randy grumbled past his fat cigar. Zeke rolled his eyes in leaving, hoping he wouldn’t look like an idiot in asking some pimpled dickwad that worked there where to find service manuals for America Online usage.
As he entered the store’s door, two things happened: one, he realized the tightwad hadn’t given him any cash should he muck through the aisles and actually find the damned books he needed. And two, loud sirens and lights began going off at his third step inside. It was enough to knock him straight onto his ass; lucky for him there was a small half wall nearby, where he backed into quickly and stood shock still like a deer in headlights. ‘What kind of fucking security system IS this??’ he thought frantically as he saw three employees run over to him. ‘JESUS CHRIST!! I haven’t stolen anything since… since… Thursday!! And not from here, dammit, I JUST walked IN!’
“CONGRATULATIONS!!” one of the employees with a colorful nametag reading ‘Sari’ called, grabbing Zeke’s arm and tugging him with her and the other two beaming morons walking alongside her. His head whipped from side to side, not knowing what to do.
“I… I came in just for… manuals…”
They were now in front of a small podium, decorated with a trellis like structure lined with logos of various computer companies. One of the employees had run off, telling the other two he was going to get ‘Mr. Sherman’. Zeke blinked furiously as Sari returned to him with a cardboard crown. He backed off slightly, making her laugh. “Come on now!! You’ve WON!”
“Won… won what??” Zeke hissed, annoyed. Every customer in the store was there, staring with glazed expressions at the scene that lay before him or her. Zeke became highly conspicuous now, something he hated. As he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, he saw the employee that had left returning, along with an older chubby man. He immediately grabbed Zeke’s hand and shook it vigorously; smiling at him with a stupid, wide grin.
“Congratulations, son! You’re our 2000th customer!!”
Whooping went through the crowd then, some people looking upon him with jealousy. Zeke was entirely confused. “There’s a contest?” he mumbled out. Mr. Sherman laughed out loud.
“Of COURSE! Didn’t you see all our posters? Not to mention, it’s been the buzz of the town. It’s not everyday an entire computer set up is given away, y’now!!” Mr. Sherman said, giving Zeke a friendly clap on the back.
Oh no. Fuckin’a no.
****
Fucking millennium. Fucking numbers, making people go fucking crazy. Jesus.
Zeke knew he was being a total ass for complaining; how many people would give their left nut to have the set up he did right now; new huge shelves, bookcases, the newest computer technology in the form of wires, plugs, hookups… oh dear God. He’d give his left AND right nut if he could wave a wand and have this whole system put it’s own damn self together. He sat amidst a pile of long cords, all tangled up in his ankles as he fought to read the directions. It had taken him a moment to realize that he was in the “Francais” section of the instructions. Oh well… he knew French anyways.
They may as well have been written in Latin at this point, however. He’d gotten the new desk put together just fine, no problem- that was grunt work, with an occasional bump to the head after misjudging the distance from floor to desk. But plugs and wires, all of them much more complicated than screwing in a light bulb escaped him entirely. “This is useless,” he said aloud, throwing the papers down on the floor. How was he to get this done? It was absolutely impossible; if only he’d had the lack of pride when it’d been delivered, and had taken the help offered by this one representative of the computer company. He looked like a total computer nerd; he could have had this done in a nanosecond. Nerds were good for SOME things…
Wait a minute. Nerds. It WAS still the holiday break, wasn’t it??
****
"Zeke? Ya there?"
Zeke grumbled and fussed, tangled helplessly in a pile of cords. “COME ON IN!!” he yelled gruffly, cursing under his breath as he tried to stand. He heard footsteps coming towards the back hall where he was. He sighed with frustration as he went to turn to the doorway; he was stopped abruptly however, one of the cords pulling his shoelace taut. Casey appeared just in time, seeing Zeke’s leg jerk back and nearly trip him. He chuckled heartily, shaking his head.
“Man, when you say you’re having computer problems, you really mean it,”
Zeke grumbled, looking up. He found himself smiling now; he hadn’t seen his friend in quite a while since school had come to a close, and there had definitely been some changes in Casey since then. He seemed taller, though in standing fully, Zeke saw the top of his head quite clearly still- but not the back of it, something he’d grown used to seeing in Casey’s normal crouching stance. Casey’s hands were deep in his pockets of his jeans, baggy and low, held tight at his waist with a belt. He was still small, but… different. “What’ve you been up to, man?” Zeke said, lighting a cigarette casually. Still smiling he exhaled as Casey shrugged.
“Not too much. You?”
“Eh, look at the floor. That’s how I am right now,”
Casey laughed out loud, walking inside. He took Zeke’s shoulders and gave him a tight hug, slapping his back. Zeke was taken aback once again; Casey had never, ever been so forward as to hug someone, even a friend, in a strong and tight fashion. “Been awhile!” he exclaimed, pulling back and smiling at Zeke.
“Yea, I’d say so. How’s college?”
“It’s college,” Casey said, stopping in his words. “Um… well, college is… you know,”
“Don’t freak, man.” Zeke said, chuckling lightly. “I may not know what it’s like- then again, I don’t wanna know,”
“Uh huh,” Casey said, cocking an eyebrow. He looked to the floor and sighed. “You should at least take a class on computers. Jesus, Zeke…”
“Shut up,” Zeke said, making a ‘pfft’ noise. Casey bent down to the manual and took it up, starting to read.
“Yea, it’s a simple setup. I can see where you could get confused,”
“Sayin’ I’m stupid?”
“No, no,” Casey said, eyes still traveling over the instructions. “I put mine together at home, still had trouble when I brought it to school with me.”
“Sure ya did,” Zeke said with a wry grin. “Think it can be saved?”
“Yea,” Casey said, kneeling on the floor now to untangle the wiring.
*****
“Hand me the screwdriver, will ya?”
Zeke had to laugh, seeing Casey’s extended hand come out from under the desk. As he retrieved it, he shook his head. “You look like me, under a car,” he told him, placing the screwdriver in his outstretched palm.
“It’s a fixer-upper, all right,” Casey said, trying to mock Zeke’s gruff voice. “Air filter’s gone…”
“Casey?”
“Mmm?”
“The air filter is on top of the engine, not the bottom,” Zeke chided playfully, lighting another cigarette. Casey poked his head out, his eyes wide along with his smile.
“Yea well, I bet I could’ve found it without getting myself in a pile of wires,” he teased. Zeke rolled his eyes.
“You woulda found a way, Case,”
“Maybe.”
The clock on the wall now chimed off eleven rings, indicating the lateness of the hour. Casey came out from under the desk, shuffling on his hands and feet. “Well, looks like it’s ready for ya,” he said, standing up and brushing dust from his shirt. “Go on and turn it on,”
“Do I have to?” Zeke grumbled out. Casey eyed him with exasperated hilarity.
“I’d KILL for a system like this. The least you could do is let me check it out with ya,”
“Fine, fine,” Zeke said, pushing his new computer chair to the desk. Casey pulled up next to him on a stool, looking eagerly at the screen as Zeke pressed the ‘on’ button. Zeke put his arms up, indicating triumph. “There! I did it!”
“Um, Zeke?” Casey said, cocking an eyebrow. Zeke laughed.
“No, I mean I turned it on. That’s a big step for me,”
“Uh huh,”
After the computer fully loaded, Casey instructed him on how to install the proper programs through every disk he’d acquired at the shop. “You’re a lucky bastard,” Casey said, sighing deeply. “I’d do anything for a cable modem, but the ‘rents won’t spring for one. The shit I could download,”
Zeke laughed out loud; it was rare for Casey to curse, and it always sounded wrong coming from him. “Like what?”
“Oh, anything. Cable is a hell of a lot quicker than dial-up,” Casey said. “And you’re always connected, right when you turn on the comp even,”
“Oh yea?”
“Uh huh,” Casey said, grabbing the mouse and clicking on the browser window. A screen popped out of nowhere and the web browser loaded instantly, making Zeke’s eyes go wide.
“So. I’m on the web now, huh?”
“Yea! What do you wanna check out?”
“Porn.”
“Knew it.” Casey laughed out. “Go on to the top there, and type in a keyword.”
“Keyword?” Zeke said, fighting with the mouse to comply.
“Yea. Just be careful which sites you go to; a lot of them have spy bots, stuff like that. Viruses run rampant in porn sites, and if you register anything with any e-mail accounts you have in ‘em, they’ll sell it to other sites and the next thing y’now, you’ve got spam up the ass,”
“Oh. Sure.”
Casey smiled slowly. “You… have no clue what I just told you, do you?”
“Casey. I want porn.” Zeke replied with. “I’ll type… T&A.”
“Good start,”
This went on awhile, Zeke exclaiming both groans of approval and frustration, Casey laughing along the way. “Aw, she’s hot… hey! Where’d she go??”… “It’s a pop-up window, just click the “X” at the top of it. DON’T click ON it. You’ll get redirected,” …“Password?” “It’s a pay site, Zeke.” “Fuck that,” … By the time Casey was putting on his coat to leave, Zeke was convinced that the internet had to be the most evil thing in the world.
“Already addicted?” Casey asked.
“Huh?”
“I’ve been talking to you for about a minute. You’re just staring at the screen, nearly drooling.”
Zeke rubbed his eyes. “Fuck.” He muttered. “Already. See, THIS is why I haven’t gotten on these things. Addictive personality, and all,”
Casey grinned, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. “Well, I’ll be on my way home then. Parents are probably ready to call the cops, it’s so late.”
“All right,” Zeke said. In standing up to walk him out, he felt how numb his ass was in sitting there the last few hours. “Why don’t I meet up with you tomorrow night? I can buy dinner, it’s the least I can do to thank you for all this.”
“Sure. I haven’t got any plans.”
“Cool. Want to meet me at my work? It’s right in the center of town, ‘Randy’s Garage’.”
“Yea, I know where it is,” Casey said. He turned to Zeke and smiled warmly. “You’ve done all right for yourself, huh?” he asked. Zeke shrugged.
“Guess so. You too?”
“Yea,” Casey said, nodding slowly. He gave Zeke a small wave before leaving the house, walking down to his bike he’d left on the lawn. Zeke watched him ride quickly down the snow-covered sidewalks, making his bike hop slightly over ice patches. That boy done grew up, didn’t he?