Survival Of The Fittest

Viki's comment had made Evan wonder the very same thing. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it. "2 Missed Calls" flashed on the front LCD screen, and he suddenly realized he had set his phone to "silent" earlier in the night. Panic ran though his body. He opened the phone to view the calls he missed. The screen switched to the missed calls panel immediately.

The first call said "Home", followed by Evan's house phone number. No doubt his parents had been trying to get a hold of him, probably to ask some silly question like "When are you coming home?" or "What did you want for dinner?". The second call said "Unknown", followed by a number Evan didn't recognize, but had no doubt it was probably a phone down at the police station. Without thinking, Evan shut his phone and turned to Viki, saying "Ah I had it on silent, but the only call I missed was from home anyways. I guess Gabe and Kara and Steve probably figured stuff out on their own. No need to let it spoil the night, hmm?". He slid the phone back into his pocket, keeping it on silent so it wouldn't interrupt the evening.

Evan approached the front counter of the place. Like the rest of the decor it was spattered with flourescent paints and colors that glowed under a blacklight (which Evan always felt was odd, since the blacklights were only on in the arena.) Behind the counter was a flat panel of plexiglass, from which Evan could see a small part of the arena, which was designed like a maze to keep the game interesting. The blacklights were on in the arena, but the houselighting was off. This caused the maze to glow with the special paints used to draw random zig-zags and patterns on the walls, and made the kids with white shirts stand out from miles away. He could see a breif glowing set of blobs move past, and had no doubt it was a kid running by the window. The clerk at the counter was a younger guys, about 17. Evan new him well.

"Hey man, how's the night treating you?" Evan said calmly, placing an arm on the counter and pulling out his wallet. "Oh hey dude. How's stuff?" the acne-faced attendent replied. "Stuff's good. I'm just going in for one game tonight, but I've got someone with me, so I need two". The attendent looked past Evan to Viki, who was standing just behind him. He shifted his attention back to Evan and smiled slightly. "Two games it is buddy. With your discount that's seven bucks". Evan handed him a ten dollar bill curtly, and collected his change and the small neon blue tags that allowed players to activiate their weapon packs in-game. "Thanks buddy. How much longer till the round in there is done?" Evan asked politely. "About ten minutes bud. You came on a good night. Lots of newbies". The two of them cracked a smile at each other, and then Evan turned to face Viki. "It'll be about ten minutes. Looks like we've got some time to kill. You want a drink or something?"

The game in session would be over in ten minutes, but that didn't bother Evan. There was no shortage of things to do in the lobby. Some of the other kids waiting to get in had already surrounded the many arcade games in the lobby, including Evan's favorite one, Silent Scope. There was also an unused basketball throwing game in the corner, and a snack machine next to a drink machine. "Or we can just sit down and chill for a bit... up to you...".

Evan's newfound interest in his cell phone piqued Viki's curiosity as well, although she refrained from being rude and staring at the display on his phone as he checked his missed calls. It was pretty obvious he'd had at least one missed call, considering he stared at the number for a few moments before quickly shutting the phone and shrugging it off like it had been no one important. He mentioned that his parents had called him, but he certainly didn't seem to have any intentions of calling them back anytime soon.

"Yeah," Viki mused with a light shrug, "But you know... it's kind of strange that Gabe wouldn't even call you. I thought you guys were really good friends or something. That girl... well, I can see why she didn't call, she's probably too high and mighty to admit that she got arrested and I'm sure she probably doesn't want to beg for help from anybody. She seems way too proud, from what I've seen... but I don't know many people proud enough to sit in a jail cell all night."

She supposed it didn't really matter anyway. Evan approached the counter and engaged in a short conversation with the clerk behind it. Apparently, they knew one another, which meant that the boy was either a personal friend -- which based on appearances, Viki somehow doubted -- or Evan was here quite often. The thought somehow amused her. She hadn't pegged him for being into anything "fun", really. Most of the well-off people she'd ever known had been kind of stuck up and way above doing anything like this. It was a pleasant surprise to see that Evan wasn't like that.

Ten minutes. That was the verdict from the somewhat younger clerk on how long they would wait before they could get in on a game. She didn't mind all that much. She probably needed to call her dad and let him know where she was, but it was starting to get late, and if she called, he might tell her to come home. Evan offered a drink, and Viki simply shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

"Something to drink sounds good," Viki mused with a cheery smile, "I don't know about you, but I'm practically dying from that run earlier."

((Will post soon, uber busy...soon...soon))