Hidden Information Problems

[Frozen Smoke]

Near Parker's house, a cell tower repeatedly attempted to deliver a SMS packet to a receiver that was no longer connected to it's control channel, before being stored in the SMSC until it reappeared on the network. The phone in Parker's pocket, an ageing iPhone 5S with a chunk of the glass on the top right of the screen shattered and partially splintered off, did not buzz.

He was cutting it a little tighter to the time than he'd hoped, as he'd gotten talking to someone online, and "I'm going to go smoke weed with a friend from school" was not exactly a socially acceptable or professional way to get out of that conversation, and as such his extraction from it had taken a little longer than he'd wanted to. Not that the conversation hadn't been fun, of course, but there was a certain tedium in finding one's way out of a conversation without implying you had 'better' things to do that he found excruciating.

At least he'd had enough time to change out of his more plainclothes and into something slightly more interesting. He wore a t-shirt with a simple image of the moon reflecting over a lake on a black background, superimposed upon itself twice in both red and blue, to produce a visual reminiscent of early attempts at 3D film. It was one of his favourites. He'd kept the same cap and jeans on though, mostly out of convenience, but also so he wouldn't seem too different to Christine so she'd still be able to pick him out in the crowd. More for her sake than his own.

A sealed, glass jar was placed inside his messenger bag this time, along with a few cans of drink and snacks. Normally this was the sort of thing he'd just come home to get, but Christine had given him a reason to stay outside for longer, so he should be prepared. He agonised for a moment over whether to bring anything else for entertainment, quickly deciding against it, only grabbing his power pack and a few charging cables - just in case. No words were exchanged between Parker and the otherwise unoccupied household as he locked the door behind him. Dad was at the hospital again, he probably wouldn't be back until late. There was a note on the kitchen table telling him where he was, and that he'd be back before 10.

Parker arrived at their meeting spot at 18:02.

[jimmydalad]

It turned 18:00 and there was no sign of Parker. No message from him either. There wasn't even confirmation that he read her message. Christine looked around for any sign of him but constantly came up short. Now the feelings of anxiety were starting to come back. Was he just ignoring her messages? This could just all be an elaborate plot to make her look stupid. He could've just suggested the idea with no plans to follow through just to get her out of his hair. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case considering they just met and it was under morally dubious circumstances. Still, she couldn't have been that bad.

Maybe it was just because he was in transit. Or that he didn't notice. His phone was a pretty old model after all. Those were perfectly logical explanations. But logic wasn't going to be the thing to fully reassure her. The only thing that could do so would be seeing Parker in the flesh.

She took another look around and once again came up short. She gritted her teeth and grimaced towards the ground. She started to fidget faster with the herb grinder, lifting the lid and closing it again and again. She checked her phone again to see if there were any updates, but there was nothing. She tried her best to look natural on the bench, but it was hard to hide her nervousness and displeasure about the situation.

Christine needed to take a breath. It had only just hit 6 pm. Parker could just be one of those people who were late to things. Personally, she preferred being early or on time. It gave you more time to do things there and didn't leave the person who organised the time a paranoid wreck about whether or not you were coming in the first place. Ok, maybe she was projecting herself with the latter.

2 more minutes passed and still no luck. Christine was now tapping her finger against the top of the grinder. Parker still hadn't messaged her back. What gives? How could two minutes feel so long? Chill, Christine. No need to be mad just yet. Not that much time had passed towards him being late. He could still be coming. He should still be coming. He was the one that organised it and made the time. She was happy to give him leeway provided that he eventually turned up. She took one more look around the crowd.

Oh, thank god.

Just like that, all her worrying up till now was rendered moot. She let out a sigh of relief and smiled widely as she pushed herself off of her seat.

"I'm over here Parker!" She yelled, waving her arm in the air as she made her way towards him.

While she certainly would've appreciated if he sent a text saying he was going to be late, at least he was here. That was all that mattered. It didn't hurt to ask, however.

"Did you get my message?" Christine inquired, slipping through the crowd till she ended up next to him. "Cool shirt, by the way."

[Frozen Smoke]

Parker raised his hand back in something akin to a mirror of her, loosely gesturing back in her direction in order to acknowledge that he saw her too, before dropping his arm and closing the distance. He smiled though, glad they could avoid running into the same problem as before, and enjoying the enthusiasm a little. He wondered just what caused that enthusiasm though, she certainly wasn't rushing over to make physical contact, and her body language wasn't as open as he'd expect from someone who was perfectly comfortable in this situation.

The question broke off his line of thought however, and he blinked, uttering a soft "Huh?" that belied his genuine lack of understanding. Had he missed a text from her? He pulled out his phone and began to check his messages, just in case his phone hadn't rung or something. "I don't think I got anything." he said.

There was a pause, before he realised that the phone in his hand was not the one she had contacted him with, and he realised what had happened. His eyes widened for a moment, before a brief pained look came over his face as he realised how much more this could have backfired, if she'd tried to change the time or meeting location. That was stupid of him. "I uh, yeah, sorry - I turn that phone off when I'm not doing things. I'll give you my actual number for the future, just don't text it about the stuff." he apologised, hoping the sign of trust would allay her seeming fears of being abandoned somewhat.

The compliment required a small, polite "Thanks!" in return, and nothing else. He couldn't help but feel a sense of smug satisfaction in knowing that his clothing appealed to others just as much as it did him. He'd wear it either way, but accidentally brushing up against good taste with his own was a pleasant coincidence that he was happy enough to accept, even if she was merely being polite - which was likely.

With their brief re-introduction over however, it was time to direct the both of them towards the main event, although he wasn't just going to tell her that. That would be too overeager. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small, carbon-fibre patterned pen vape, different than the one he'd used earlier. This was a "dry herb" vape, but as with most things, "dry herb" simply translated to "weed".

"Looking forwards to trying this thing out." he said as he held it in his right hand. It looked inconspicuous enough, and the chamber mostly held the smell in, but apparently it was both better for your lungs than smoking and easier to get away with in public.

[jimmydalad]

"Oh. Uhh fair enough." Was all the reply she could muster in response to Parker's explanation. She felt like an idiot. No, she was an idiot. She should've expected that Parker would use a burner phone for drug dealing. No one in that business long enough would ever think of having incriminating evidence like that on their personal phone. After all, from what she saw, the phone he had on him at the park was old and crummy. The pieces started to fit together in her mind and each piece that slotted into place caused Christine to fall deeper into the spiral of embarrassment and self-loathing.

What initially started out as anxiety at Parker not receiving her message had morphed into depression at her self-perceived stupidity. However, her face, which had betrayed a heavy frown for a few seconds, was painted with a small smile as she stretched the corners of her lips against their will. She refused to be a Debbie Downer. She was going to have a good time even if it killed her. That's what the weed was for after all.

She kept her plastered smile as she gave Parker a thumbs up in response to his gratitude. Whether it was genuine or just being polite, she had no clue. It was a seriously cool top though. Her grey hoodie and white t-shirt ensemble paled in comparison and her clothes were crinkly as well. Maybe she should've gone home just to wear something better.

Christine stayed silent as she watched Parker pull out his vape. At first, she thought it was the same vape he was using before, but a few seconds scrutinizing it illuminated that it was different to the one he had before.

"I didn't know that vapes could have weed in them." She mused, taking a few more seconds to take in the object. It was certainly... novel. Though she had believed that vaping seemed cool, she never really thought about those two worlds meshing with one another. That seemed like a dangerous combo, especially for her.

"I think I'll be fine with just boring old blunts."

She laughed half-heartedly at herself afterwards, trying to push herself through this encounter and get to the weed. Once she got to the weed, she could subdue the potential emotional crisis that was threatening to consume her. Parker didn't need to see this side of her. No one should have to.

"Well, wanna lead the way or should I?" She asked, the smile straining slightly as she tried to exude a friendly and chill demeanour that was at odds with the nervous wreck inside. She just needed to fake it till she made it. Christine was certainly very familiar with that.

[Frozen Smoke]

Parker watched as her expression shifted into a Schrodinger-esque superimposition of both an understanding smile and something darker, before being fully observed, causing the wave function to collapse and her expression to settle on understanding. He wasn't sure what that was about. Did she think he was lying? Probably not, considering the phone in his hands was obviously different, but then again she hadn't proven herself to be the most observant person. Still, it seemed that whatever thoughts lay behind that frown were ones she wasn't keen on sharing, and that was fine by him. He had no particular desire to dig into her problems, unless she decided to share, he wasn't about to make them his own.

He was happy to accept her moving on from the topic with a smile, and a nod at her deciding not to try the vape, despite it not being offered, there was seemingly an unspoken rule amongst stoners that stuff just got shared. It wasn't something he particularly enjoyed, and sharing stuff your mouth went on was really unhygienic, so he mostly stayed away from it - But she didn't know that. He understood the decision as well, he'd heard vapes didn't get you as high as smoking did, hell he'd even brought a regular joint of his own.

He put his vape back in his bag at her suggestion that he lead the way, thinking for a moment, before speaking up to agree. "I've got an idea of where in particular we can go, yeah" he said, with a smile, and walked with her down one of the wooded paths that branched off from the bridge to lead onto the riverside trails. After a few minutes of walking though, he cut off through the trees, inviting Christine wordlessly to follow him through the trees to the river's edge.

---

Parker had made mistakes, he realised. Not in smoking his whole joint before the high from vaping kicked in, that had turned out to be amazing, but in picking the last rock, which had slapped the water like a belly flopping toddler before sinking into the browny-green colour the water was this close to the bank of the river, where the red-brown mud of land bled into the rushing current of blue water.

"Fuck."

He couldn't remember quite why they'd started, but at some point they'd started seeing if they could skim stones off the river. It had turned out that they both sort of could, but she was much better than him at it, so whilst her stones gracefully skipped across the water like she'd enchanted them with a forbidden hopscotch based ritual, he was struggling to get them to go further than a pair of skips before sinking into the blue.

It felt like there was something slowing him down from figuring it out, like someone was blowing up a balloon inside his head, and all the thoughts were being pushed to the edges. He didn't mind that though. He laughed at his own ineptitude momentarily, before turning to his companion.

"Pretty sure if they gave you a sling you could take on Goliath" he joked, before returning his attention to the rocky ground, looking for another stone to give a go. Flat and round, that was what he was looking for.

[jimmydalad]

Sweet, he had a place in mind. That took the pressure off of her, which was a relief. With the self-imposed pressure that she put upon herself, it was nice that Parker was taking the lead. The last thing she wanted to worry about was taking Parker to a place that he'd find boring.

"Oh cool, then you lead the way," Christine responded, letting Parker go ahead of her before following behind him. She stayed a few feet behind him, not too far to lose him in the crowd but not too near that she would be seen as encroaching his personal space. It was a fine line to tread and she did her best to look like she maintained this balancing act naturally.

It was only now, as Christine followed Parker through the trees that some people would find the situation highly questionable. She was following a drug dealer she just met into a secluded area without telling anyone where she was going. If she was a smart girl, warning bells would've been going off by now. However, she wasn't a smart girl and Parker was from school. The latter should be enough for her to feel comfortable enough that she wasn't going to end up with a shiv inside her by the end of the evening. Plus, weed was in the picture. What she needed now was weed.

---

Yup, weed was definitely the thing she needed.

Christine inhaled a large amount of weed, letting it swirl inside her and feel it drift through her lungs before exhaling. The smoke drifted up to the air as she watched with smug amusement Parker's rock flopping into the water. While she was slightly impressed by the fact that Parker was able to skip rocks at all, it was still nothing compared to her.

"There's no way in hell you're ever gonna beat me." She drawled, giggling to herself at Parker's frustration.

The funny thing was that Parker was the one that challenged her in the first place. After she threw the first rock across the river, Parker stated that he could skip rocks better than she could. There was no way she could take a challenge like that lying down. For what Parker didn't know was that Christine was all too practiced with the art of rock skipping and throwing. Having spent many a time alone by the river, she had a lot of experience with skimming rocks on the water. She knew that flat and round rocks were best. She knew the technique of flicking the wrist and knew how to hold the rock in her hand for peak rock skipping efficiency. Some would say she was a master of rock throwing.

"You bet I would." She responded, laughing to herself as she inhaled from her joint. "It's a shame they don't have rock throwing in the Olympics. I'd totally take home the gold."

There was something about weed that was indescribable. Something that just kept on bringing her back to it. Maybe it was the fact that it alleviated the numerous thoughts in her mind, or at the very least blurred them to a point where she wasn't weighed down by her insecurities. Or it could be the fact that it helped give her confidence, loosen her cognitions and the amount she cared about others opinions. Then there was how weed was a unifying force, something that bonded people together, like herself and Parker. Whatever it was, weed always filled her with such euphoria and satisfaction that she never wanted to let that feeling go.

She observed Parker looking around on the ground, trying to pick through rocks. Was he still trying? Bless him. Christine herself took a look around for a suitable rock and managed to find one just to the right of her.

"Looking for something?" She asked in a teasing fashion, picking up the rock and showing it to him. She set her joint on a large rock beside her and stood up. If you wanted a rock to truly skip, you gotta put your whole body into it. She curled her index finger around the edge of the rock as turned to face the water sideways with her left foot forward. Her feet were shoulder width apart. Her eyes narrowed as she bent her right knee upwards and stepped backwards, building up the momentum for the throw. Rocking back, she bent her knees and wrist backwards, coiling like a snake would. Then, she lunged. She wrist snapped forward and slung the rock, her body and arm bending forwards to follow through the throw. She felt gratified as the rock danced across the water, skipping 15 times before diving into the water. She turned to Parker.

"That's how it's done."

A satisfied grin was on her face as she sat back down and took another whiff of weed. Oooh this was some good shit. She'd have to commend Parker for that.

[Frozen Smoke]

Parker laughed at the little joke about rock throwing at the Olympics, partly because that's basically what Shotput was, just without the skimming. It wasn't that funny, but it was enough to tip him over the edge from general happiness into chipper laughter. Things were spinning a little bit, but not in the drunken "oh god everythings moving" sense, it was just an ethereal sense of motion. Like he could feel the earth spinning under him or something.

He took another try at the whole rock throwing thing, but he'd already ceded victory in their little game to her. It skipped twice before tumbling down into the river, and he laughed at his own spectacular failure once again. It was cool to see just how good she was at it though. It spoke of practice, time spent honing that. He wondered if she'd done it with a parent, or a friend, or if she'd just found herself doing it out of boredom. He was sure he could probe, figure it out, but it felt so inconsequential as he sat down, resting his head against the big sign that stood by the river warning people not to swim in it. He was fairly sure that was a moot point, as the river was likely more runoff than rainwater this far downstream, and didn't exactly look like an idyllic swimming spot - But perhaps he was overestimating people's sense of self preservation.

He put up his hands in mock surrender as she looked at him. "I give up, you have me beat" he conceded with a goofy smile. Accepting defeat wasn't that hard, and he might as well make an effort to seem humbled by the experience.

[jimmydalad]

"You bet I do." Christine quipped, chuckling to herself as the effects of the weed really started to get to her. She let out a few dumb giggles as she slouched against the tree and looked over the river. She observed the ripples from Parker's rock disperse and eventually sink into the murky depths of the river water. She saw how the ripples briefly distorted the image of the city in its reflection before once again settling back to an imperfect replication of the cityscape in front of the pair. Honestly, she could spend hours sitting by the river and watching Chattanooga dance in the water. In fact, she had lost so much time to the river and to the world that she would sadly never have access to.

She forced herself away from her tendencies to look wistfully in the distance as she focused her attention on Parker. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to smoke by the riverside if she had the intention of being social. There was something about the combination of nature and marijuana that elevated her to a higher level of consciousness. It allowed her to have a greater appreciation for the beauty of nature. She could find herself enraptured by the sound of the wind blowing through the trees or watch the water ripple from the rocks that she skipped across it. It was a beauty she was unable to appreciate normally, being blinded by the stress of daily living. She wished she could capture onto this state of being more often.

Her head tilted from one side to another, each tilt punctuated with another hit of weed as she tried to grasp for a topic to discuss with the words that were circling around her head. God, coming up with something to talk about when you've just met the person was hard. At parties, she could either piggyback off other conversations or just sit there and enjoy the marijuana permeating through her respiratory system due to the loud music. The ball was very much in her court here and not knowing much about Parker meant that she was having to really consider where she could go.

Her joint flicked up and down as she twiddled her fingers and her eyes drooped slightly. She was thinking too much. She took one more deep inhale before letting her right arm flop to the side. A pensive look formed on her face as she finally grasped onto a topic that they were both familiar with.

"Soooo, like, how long have you been doing.... this? Like the weed and the drug dealing. Like I get weed smoking happens in parties. Heck, that's how I got into it. But uhhh not a lot of kids our age like actual go out and sell that shit."

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to stop the world from spinning too much to lose focus on Parker and she leaned forward slightly. She was curious just how long he'd been doing this illegal shit and how he managed to do it in such a blase fashion. It wasn't normal, but that just made her more curious. The mystery pulled her in. Christine wanted to know more. She wanted to see what was under the mask. What drove a man to do the things he did. And maybe through that, make a connection. A legitimate bond.

"I mean, I did just beat you. You gotta let me know. It's like... law. Or some shit."

Maybe poke the bear a bit and see what happens. She made sure that her eyes didn't leave from Parker's as the smoke of the joint drifted upwards next to her.

[Frozen Smoke]

Parker thoughtlessly accepted that rationale and began talking before he’d really thought about it, after all a little truth seemed like an apt prize for their impromptu competition. As he talked he couldn’t help but feel that he was revealing too much though. That he was exposing weaknesses he couldn’t quite see right now. It put him on edge. He began to scan her face in the moment as his mouth went onto autopilot, looking for a reaction, looking for what she expected him to say. He was constrained by social obligation to finish the story, and it gnawed at him, as he simply wanted to stop - but knew doing so would lead to Christine asking more about it. So he had to continue.

“I smoked with a few friends just before I left England, so I guess that’d technically be the start, but I didn’t smoke again for a few years after that. I kinda just picked it up a year or so ago, because well, it’s like drinking except you can actually get shit done whilst high.”

He punctuated his talk with a momentary hit from his vape, the weed inside already shrivelled and brown, but the act itself was therapeutic. Completing a rote movement that one associated with calming down.

“I don’t really like, sell wholesale or some shit. I’m like… Not an artery of the drugs trade…”

He paused for a moment, trying to remember the word for small blood vessel.

“I’m a capillary of the drugs trade, you know? I mostly just buy for me and help out people like you who ain’t exactly in touch with the shadier segment of society. You’re going to get it anyway, might as well make sure you’re not running into some 6ft tall mexican with face tats and a piece when you’re trying to buy a gram.” he said, punctuating it with a chuckle. Even the people he talked to weren’t that blatant, but he knew she’d think that was what it was like, and he was happy to play that up a little. It got the focus of the conversation away from him.

There was an awkward pause there, as she clearly expected a little more, and he was unwilling to continue. He shrugged and gave her a wide smile.

“Pretty much all there is to it as far as I’m concerned. I help people get the weed they want, I get paid for my time, and I’m buying the weed for personal use anyway so I don’t have to go super out of my way to get it done. Why wouldn’t I, y’know?” he added, taking another drag to indicate he was passing the proverbial talking stick back to her.

[jimmydalad]

Christine was deathly silent as she took in everything that came out of Parker's mouth. Even as she adjusted herself to get comfortable and took another hit from her joint, her eyes never strayed from Parker's. At that very moment, Parker completely encapsulated her world as she absorbed each word that he was willing to divulge. Listening was a very valuable social skill and even in her inebriated state, she still recognised the importance of opening her ears and taking in information that was given to her.

She could very much empathise with Parker's notion of the positives of weed. When she smoked weed, it felt like things would just click into place in her mind. Her mind was able to escape from the jumbled, overwhelming mess that it was. She could properly focus on things and not get drowned out by the loudness of her thoughts. Especially with how difficult subjects were getting in school for her, she knew she was going to need more of it.

Her eyes became blank as Parker started to bring biology into his explanation. Christine was never good at biology. She knew that the artery was in the heart, but her understanding of Parker's analogies extended as far as that. When capillaries were brought into the equation, her face demonstrated her confusion at what Parker was going on about. She wasn't high enough to even try making sense of what he was going on about in that regard.

All she was left with was the stuff she did understand i.e. pretty much everything else. From what she could tell, he was more like a middleman than an actual drug dealer. That seemed slightly better than being an out and out drug dealer? At least, on a sliding scale of oh my god someone our age shouldn't be doing that, it was more reasonable but still morally dubious. And judging from the description of the type of people he dealt with, probably dangerous as well. Then again, here she was smoking weed with her sort-of drug dealer so she probably couldn't talk about scales of morality and sanity.

From the looks of things, he probably wasn't going to divulge much more. Christine was fine with that. Maybe he could've been less vague about some things here and there. In the end, at least he opened up about it and let her a little bit closer into his weird world.

"That's fair." She mumbled, watching as the end of the joint moved closer to her fingers. She was gonna get the most out of this joint while she still could. As she continued to enjoy the marijuana, she tilted her head to the other side as she thought about what to say next. Parker seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable about the conversation. At least, that's what she picked up? She wasn't sure if that was her insecurities bubbling through the copious amounts of weed going through her body. Just in case it was, she decided to play it safe.

"Hey, uhh, if you want to know something about me, shoot. My life probably isn't, like, as different as yours. Like I'm pretty boring, but like... yeah."

Christine was comfortable with this path of conversation. Not like her life could match Parker's in being interesting or different, but at least this way it was more a dialogue than an interview.

[Frozen Smoke]

Some part of Parker was irked that she could tell he wasn't comfortable. He'd thought he'd been doing a good job of pretending to be comfortable talking through that. A larger part of him felt the tension go out of him as that little facade crumbled, because her understanding that and commenting on it meant that it didn't bother her that much in the first place. She even offered herself up for counter probing, which was interesting - Did that mean she wanted to trade questions back and forth? Or did she think she'd upset him and was trying to offer recompense? Or was there a question about herself that she wanted him to ask?

He pondered on his question for a moment, before a thought from earlier recurred - He didn't actually know her name. He'd have to find a way to slip that in alongside the question, that way it wouldn't be too much of a focus. Play it off as just being high, rather than simply not knowing you at all despite being relatively friendly.

"Uh, got any hobbies I guess? Like, stuff you do outside of school. I'm sure your life can't be that boring..." he feigned a thoughtful expression, before looking sheepish. "Uh, sorry I can't seem to..." He clicked his fingers a few times, closing his eyes, before laughing a bit at himself. "I've completely forgotten what your name is, fuck."

[jimmydalad]

Christine watched with great displeasure as the end of her joint moved ever closer to her fingers. Though it was highly tempting, she really shouldn’t smoke her entire new stash in a single evening. Then again, if she continued to smoke, maybe she could make this night last a little longer?

God, couldn’t this feeling last forever? Just sitting here, experiencing life? Why couldn’t her life be like this all the time? It was so much more enjoyable. So much more worth living.

Parker was taking some sweet time to respond, but Christine was slightly more preoccupied with her joint. She took a few more quick inhales. She was going to make the most of the last few slithers of marijuana. Getting the last bits of colour before she came crashing back down to her monochromatic existence.

When Parker finally spoke up, Christine had to take a second. Her eyes opened wide as she took what in what he said before she ended up giggling along with Parker. Did she even introduce herself to him? She just assumed that he knew her name. Maybe she was dumb for that assumption. George Hunter was a pretty big school.

“I’m Christine,” she started, deciding to go with the benefit of the doubt and be chill about this. No need to be make bad impressions, though it did peeve her it took Parker this long to ask. No, chill and cool. Plus, being angry took too much effort.

“As for hobbies... I guess like I do art. Some sketching, but mostly watercolours. That’s like... the best medium for me to express myself. I guess. And like weed’s a hobby I guess? Sorta. Like the feelings are good and shit.”

Her joint was getting ever smaller. A fuse to her enjoyment. God, everlasting weed would be so fucking cool. Maybe spending her life high all the time wouldn’t be so bad. Why did weed have to be illegal?

“Parties are cool too.” At this point she was rambling a bit. Her thoughts were getting even looser as more weed permeated her body. She needed to have some attachment to what was happening around her. She wobbled a bit, but she focused her attention of Parker. Her last tether to keep her grounded.

“What bout you? I doubt drug dealing’s your main hobby. What do you, like, like doing?”

She took another shot of her joint.

[Frozen Smoke]

Parker nodded along as she spoke, taking the words in as he leaned back and broke eye contact, admiring the sky as he felt himself relaxing back into a slouch. Smoking weed and being good at art - or at least passable enough that she felt comfortable enough to talk about it, instead of hiding her experimentation away - seemed to have a strong correlation. A correlation that he was unfortunately an outlier in, despite his occasional efforts. You'd have thought it would be impossible to fuck up drawing a stick figure, but he was exceptionally gifted in his inability to draw.

He pondered his response to the question for a while. EVE was the most interesting (and time consuming) of his hobbies, but would Christine be interested in that? She didn't seem like the gamer sort, and EVE was niche even in that sphere, and explaining it would take a while. He was fairly sure Christine would sit politely through that, but he was also fairly sure her eyes would glaze over within the first 2 minutes, kept from asking him to shut the hell up by social etiquette. That would not be a particularly great impression to leave her with. He gave her the courtesy of a smile and a snort of air through his nose to let her know that he found the humour she did in the implication that drug dealing could be someone's hobby, and to help keep her at ease, matching his responses to her expectations.

"Just games, you know. Of all kinds. Poker and chess too, not just like, video games." he responded, keeping it vague. If she wanted to know, she'd press more. If she didn't she wouldn't, and that was fine by him too. He didn't particularly want people around school knowing about it anyway, that was how you got labelled as a turbonerd, and being labelled as such wasn't exactly something that bothered him - But it would certainly make life more difficult, as it would bother other people.

He tried to think of what to say as to why games were his main hobby, and what he enjoyed about them, in order to reciprocate what Christine had told him. The honest truth was that he needed to always be keeping himself occupied. Thinking about something, planning something, doing something, it didn't matter. He just had to do it. If he didn't, he just felt... wrong. He'd had to deal with it before, when he went on holiday to a caravan park. His parents had wanted to spend a few weeks just hanging out, relaxing, just avoiding all responsibilities. It had been a torturous 17 days. There was only so much you could do, only so much you could explore, so few people to talk to, only so many times you could re-read the same book. It had felt oddly like what people described stress as feeling like, but that made no sense, as stress was what happened when you did too much, not too little.

He hated the part of him that was glad Mum was too sick for them to go on holiday any more.

He blinked, and snapped back into reality, seeing Christine still looking at him. Shit, how long had he zoned out there for? Only a few seconds he hoped. He made a little show of blinking another couple of times and shaking his head. The weed was getting to him, that was for sure. Normally he could stay focused, but his thoughts felt so free flowing like this. Like he couldn't control where they went, and he was just being dragged along for the ride.

"I uh, like the competitiveness, I guess?" he said, sounding unsure as to what in particular he enjoyed, punctuating the sentence with another drag on the vape, giving himself a brief moment to figure out a way to phrase that idea that sounded a little better. "I like to be pushed to succeed, to get better, if that makes sense?"

[jimmydalad]

Christine grimaced as she reached the end of her joint. She couldn't believe that it was already gone. It felt like it was only moments ago that she started and now it was already over. Well, the joint was over. The conversation was still going. Yeah, she could still enjoy this time was Parker. This was chill, something she could totally gel with. Let her make the most of this fuzzy mindset while she still could.

She stretched her arms, fidgeted in her seat a little to get more comfortable, before fully lounging against the tree behind her. She probably should be worried about bugs or mud or something but eh, she couldn't care enough. Not like her parents really dug deep into what she was doing. They were too busy harassing Ethan and making sure that he became the golden star child that they always wanted, mostly against his will. Christine knew her place in the family. Was it really so bad of her to make the most of it? Nah, she was totally in the right.

So he was a gamer? Christine wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. Loads of people played games nowadays, even video games. Video games really weren't a thing that could feasibly exist in her life. Calling her parents conservative in their mindset was an understatement. They were always eager to bring up how they rot your brain and are a complete waste of time. Of course, Ethan took their complaints as a challenge and got really invested in pc games, which inevitably pissed off her parents and of course they brought it up at the dinner table because why wouldn't they? It was a totally reasonable thing to do and not confrontational or ridiculous. She mostly just sat there and watched the shitstorm happen in front of her, hoping that one of them wasn't going to bring up her name and make things even worse. Being around that environment never really endeared her towards video games. Plus, they weren't cheap. It wasn't worth it.

God, she was thinking about her family again. That enough was enough to make her glower. She smoked to forget that shit.

Focus on Parker. Focus on Parker. It seemed like Parker had gone to his own little world for a second, which wasn't helping. She stared at him, maybe somewhat intensely, in a mixture of keeping her grounded in the land of the living instead of the land of her thoughts alongside trying to will him into talking so that she could distract herself with something. Her head didn't move, staying slightly tilted to the right as she was feeling too lazy to try and correct her head to its proper orientation. Finally, he spoke.

"I uhh guess I can... understand that."

Maybe she could play off her hesitance as her having difficulty putting together words due to the weed. Being pushed to succeed were words that really didn't sit well with her. What she thought was a way to distract herself from her family only brought her crashing back into them. Christine didn't want to be pushed to succeed if it was anything like what Ethan had to go through. That suffocating nightmare was just as bad as being ignored. Like two sides of a fucked up coin. She looked down as she attempted to obscure the displeasure that was threatening to take over her face from Parker.

"I'm uhh not the... biggest? fan of conflict." She rambled, her voice getting slightly higher with each syllable, "I guess it's... like.. uh cool though."

She could feel the conversation starting to tank as the dark cloud of her home life started to invade the little Eden they had made for themselves. She needed to change the track of this conversation fast before she was gonna go down roads she didn't wanna go down. Christine flailed her head slowly as she looked around, her eyes eventually resting on the reflection of the city lights in the water. Slowly, she looked up and took in the panorama of the Chattanooga cityscape.

"Chattanooga looks pretty from here, huh?"

[Frozen Smoke]

It was an interesting position the two of them had taken now, facing each other at an oblique angle from their chosen side of the tiny clearing in the woods that bled into the river, leaning up against their chosen supports as they found themselves needing all the help they could get to stay vaguely upright. He momentarily pondered why she had not sat down next to him. There was certainly space, and she’d been willing to do so before. Perhaps she simply wanted to be able to see his expression better, or maybe she was getting a touch of the paranoia weed sometimes brought out in him and didn’t want to be too close, just in case.

Her hesitance in response was more notable anyway. She seemed to be thinking hard about her response, as though games brought back memories for her. And judging by her expression, they weren’t good ones. That... Wasn’t that surprising, honestly. He’d seen enough shit in his time to know that a lot of dudes either found themselves doing everything they could to please girls who played games in the mistaken belief that being nice to someone made them a desirable sexual partner, or spew a specific brand of sexism that was just an evolved version of hanging a “no gurls aloud (they stink)” sign on your bedroom door, rather than just ignoring the light octave shift and treating them like someone worthy of respect until proven otherwise.

He wondered if she associated him with that now.

He had to force himself not to react as she spoke again, her voice unsteady now as she stared at him. He could understand that as well, he supposed, but some part of him latched on to what she was saying, judged her for it, and found her wanting. Not wanting to get into fights if you didn’t have to was fair enough - but he could almost feel it now that she was the sort of person who would rather avoid her problems than confront them, content to just close her eyes and hope they went away. Or in this case, stare nervously at them.

He knew what to press now, if he wanted to. He could turn away from her little distraction and push on that, find out what was really bothering her. What made her tick. She’d likely get emotional, and that would make her easier to read - people were bad at controlling their body language when they were concentrating on remembering things, and it made it easy to spot when they were leaving out parts and question accordingly.

He followed her gaze and looked at the grey, uneven, disjointed skyline that had begun to be sprinkled with a few lights as the sun sat a few hours above dusk. He noted the lack of anything architecturally distinctive - no Eiffel Tower or Big Ben to catch the eye - just a mongrel of big buildings in varying styles from the past 40 or years in varying states of use and disrepair, underlined by a meandering green-brown-blue stripe of water from this perspective.

“Sure is.”