ellernate…

by god, the man really played on itrapped’s mind. he couldn’t get the former hacker, his former best friend, out of his mind. wherever itrapped looked, ellernate was there. if he looked over at a clothes-rack, there was a suit, the sort ellernate always used to wear. if he chose to gaze out of the window, there would be people walking out there, wearing the same shade of red that ellernate’s combat attire & tie had been. itrapped slammed his head into his palm, eyes screwing shut, attempting to no result to get the damn hacker out of his mind.

“hey, itrapped. you feeling alright?” it was chance. itrapped’s new best friend.

chance took a seat beside itrapped at the casino bar, sliding itrapped’s usual choice of drink over to him. itrapped looked up on instinct, first at the drink then up at chance to mumble a faint thanks.. only to be struck dumb with the similarity between ellernate & chance all over again for the fifth time that night. itrapped couldn’t keep up with this anymore. chance had to go. but he loved him, didn’t he? just how he’d loved ellernate. if it wouldn’t be chance, it’d be itrapped in the end. itrapped knew he just wouldn’t be able to deal with it any longer if this were to hold up. …but he’d wait. give chance some unforeseen grace period.

chance, on the other hand, he loved his new best friend. he was unaware of the constant brush-offs of itrapped’s, oblivious to the other’s often-offending cold stoic demeanour. he gave his friend time, & sometimes this paid off, with itrapped & chance having some genuinely good times spent together until itrapped went through another one of his triggers, which chance quickly worked out to be something either related to the american flag, the colour red; a specific shade of it, or pinstripe suits & fedoras.

currently, chance had invited itrapped back over to his casino for the third night that week. he’d noticed how tense itrapped had been during the day & had picked up on itrapped’s exhausted tone over call, & had decided on the spot that what itrapped needed was another night out indulging with his best friend. well, this had been quite an ordinary night of drinking & silly goof-offs. now that the casino was beginning to empty out, itrapped had slumped over the counter of the bar whilst chance had gone to check on something in the back of the casino. he returned soon enough, a look of concern crossing his face as he observed itrapped slumped over the counter like that.

“…hey, itrap?” his voice was cautious; tentative. he stepped over to itrapped, lightly laying a hand on his best friend’s left shoulder. “are you ok?”