6/1/10

Women and Emotions
By Jen Prex


“Come on, come on,” Tom chanted under his breath. He sat in front of his computer, playing his favorite game. His gun clad character floated down through the canyon with its parachute. Enemies fired from all around. His character had only 10/360 health points left. Tom inched further and further forward on his seat. He kept hitting the left mouse button, firing shots of his own. One final blast hit his character. Game over. He slumped back in his chair. All of the tension drained away as he further relaxed. He was no longer in the game. This was reality.

The high scores list lit the screen. Tom appeared at number three. Not his personal best, but he had been close. Only a few more shots and he would have exceeded his previous high score.

Just as he was about to start a new game, his stomach grumbled. Time for lunch. If he recalled correctly, there was some Chinese food left from dinner the previous night. He stood up and closed his laptop before heading out of his room and downstairs.

He passed by the guest bedroom. The door was closed, but he didn’t need to see inside to know she was in there. Sarah really was something. She was an old friend of his from college. They kept in touch after they graduated, but unfortunately work separated them. She moved to New York while he settled in Chicago. This week, she decided to take some vacation time so that she could visit him.

He never knew he could miss someone so much. He didn’t even fully realize it until she had shown up on his doorstep the day before yesterday. It felt as if he was only moments away from giving a presentation on his latest discovery at a biology conference. The excitement and nerves were battling within him. She was a friend. Why did he feel that way?

Video games and science were his specialty. He was a genius, but aside from analytical looks at video game characters or scientific explanations about them, he was clueless when it came to women and emotions…especially when the two are combined. Add him into the equation, and, well . . . . Pluto will not only be declared a planet once more, it will be declared the largest planet in the universe before any of it would ever make sense to him.

His stomach’s protest pulled him out of his musings. He knocked on her door. “I’m gonna get some lunch now. I’ll be downstairs if you want to join me.” He had started to turn away when the door opened.

“I was about to go eat anyways. Perfect timing,” she said.

Tom just nodded. He stood staring at her for a moment until she raised an eyebrow. Oh, right. It felt as if the temperature jumped up 50 degrees in that moment. He stepped aside to let her pass and then followed behind her.

This week is going to be interesting.


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Bio: Jen Prex is a senior creative writing major and music theory minor at Seton Hill University. She was published twice in the school’s award-winning literary-art magazine Eye Contact, for which she is also a literary editor. She lives in Bethel Park, PA when off campus.