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12.14.2015

Tern woke up in the dark. A few lights made their way through holes in the blinds and painted the wall on the far side of the room. The residual light softly illuminated the bed he lie in, and the desk at its foot. He rolled over, with a stiff neck, and saw the clock bleed out 9:48 to the dark room. The LEDs colored his bedside table blue.

The glass of water Liz had used earlier sat there too, partly full. He inched his way up to sitting and then gulped down the rest of the water. He wiped a few drops from his chin and sat the glass back down.

He uncovered his legs and tested them out on the ground. His heels felt sore, but he could place weight on them. Tern slowly stood up and made his way to the bedroom door, which had been left open a hair. Opening it, he went through the hallway and into the kitchen. A note sat on the kitchen counter, made apparent by a night light which case out bars of light.

“Tern, was home, and you slept. At the bar with Liz. Back 10:30. Chicken in the fridge. - Erin”

He pocketed the note and opened the fridge to pull out the container of chicken. He popped off the sealed top and ate a few pieces of crispy legs, without even warming them up. He scrounged and found some vegetables which he nuked for a few before downing them.

Now his schedule would be all off because of sleeping late and eating late. He placed what he hadn’t finished back in the fridge again and headed back to his bedroom.

He flipped on the light switch as he entered and lights popped on from the ceiling. A network of small diodes spread over the entire ceiling.

He got the glass from the bed stand and filled it in the bathroom next door. His short hair stuck up on the right and in the back. His eyes were blood shot and had deep circles under them. He drank a bit from the faucet before going back into the bedroom.

He sat down with the glass at his desk. He tapped a small metal disc and a thin, transparent screen illuminated. He propped it up on a few books and drew a similar screen from a drawer, which he used as the keyboard to log into the computer.