8 Cooling Down

Summer was the most uncomfortable season to me. Many may consider summer the season of relaxation. Some may go on vacations or stay comfortable at home. The best way to deal with an uncomfortable season was to relax after all. The satisfaction of cooling down from the heat might be worth it. That's the conclusion I've come to.

"Ah…"

After my incident, I had spent the past few days suffering in the heat. I tried my best to keep cool in various ways. Such as laying down in my bed cooling in shade or getting ice cream from the store.

But a good bath was probably the best way to cool down. It had been over an hour since I've been soaking in the tub. The water on the bathtub swayed as I adjusted myself. This was worth the heat.

"What the hell!"

My relaxation was disturbed from noise coming from outside the bathroom. I almost slipped and slid into the water completely. Some water had gotten up my nose as I gasped for air.

If my assumption is correct, it was Lucy playing a video game on my computer. I could only assume she was playing Hells Craft Online. I refrained from yelling at her to shut up.

It's not worth disturbing my relaxing bath time any further.

Regardless if others have any effect on you stress wise, it was best to keep to yourself. No need to exert any unnecessary energy. As much as I can't stand Lucy as a roommate, I can tolerate her to some degree.

"Oh come on!"

I sighed as the noise bothered me once again.

Why stress myself any more than I am. Stress is a necessity in life if managed well. This was my stress free moment. In the tub as I tried to block out the noise coming from outside.

I wiped my face with my hand. It was then I noticed my hand was wrinkled.

I guess it was time to get out.

When I finished with my bath, I walked out of the bathroom to see Lucy on the computer.

"Could you keep it down?" I asked.

Lucy had ignored me, as usual. She was also focused whenever she was busy on the computer.

I sighed and walked to my bed with my towel over my shoulders. I finished drying my hair and noticed what Lucy was doing on my computer.

"Hey hey hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I screamed at her. "That's my character!"

"Yeah, I'm just borrowing her for a second." Lucy said distracted by the game.

"You can't just borrow my character. Go play your own." I ran up to her.

"I can't play this dungeon with my character. It's too low level, so I thought I borrow it."

She was playing my high level characters in one of the hardest dungeons in the game.

Stress free life down the drain…

I gave up and decided to go read for a few hours while Lucy played. She went on for hours screaming. I could only assume she had a hard time finishing the dungeon.

Her frustration only got worse.

"There's too many quitters. I just wanted to finish this dungeon… Agh!"

She almost flipped my keyboard onto the monitor.

"Hey hey! Be careful with that Lucy!"

I screamed at her. But only to be ignored again.

Lucy then ran into the bathroom. I could hear the water running. It seems like she's going to bathe after rage quitting the game. I could see the death screen from the game on my computer.

She had died in the middle of a dungeon run. It was the boss where you fight Lucifer. She was doing the Aegis of Heaven dungeon, the dungeon I was looking at the other day. It was one of latest dungeons released in the game. Lucy would have to spend some time playing to get to this point. I closed the game as I wasn't in the mood to finish the dungeon Lucy had started.

The sound of water running could be heard from the bathroom still. It was then I had running thoughts in my mind. There's a devil in bath. That devil was Lucy. While Lucy was also female.

…

I would have to resort to a few options to avoid a few misunderstandings.

One. Ignore it as if it was nothing. Lucy was my 'temporary' roommate after all. Huge emphasis on the temporary. I don't plan to keep her here for long. As a roommate, I respect her privacy and won't let her active use of my bathroom be a bother to me.

Two. Leave the room to remove all chances of further misunderstandings. A criminal must remove himself from the crime scene if he doesn't want to get in trouble. Not that I'm committing a crime in any way.

Yes. The most viable option was number two.

Out the door I go.

As I stepped outside, I see someone across the hall from me. It was Raphie.

My door was wide open. Meaning you could hear the water running. I immediately shut the door as fast as I could.

"Oh. Hey Raphie." I chuckled nervously.

"Hey David. Uh. What's wrong?" She asked.

"Uh nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Hm?"

She had a curious look, but then she brushed it off.

"Would you like to go on a walk with me?" Raphie asked.

"Uh… sure."

After bumping into my neighbor in the hallway, we go for a walk. We didn't plan on going anywhere. I ended up just following her.

I was still wearing old gym shorts and a dirty shirt. I was a bit embarassed since I didn't plan to go on a walk in the first place. I wanted to leave my apartment because of Lucy after all.

Raphie on the hand looked better than me. She had a long white summer dress similarly to Lucy. She also wore a hat and had a purse over her shoulders. Raphie had a more elegant look than Lucy, who had a dress like her but acted more rude.

As we went down the stairs, I noticed Colin walking in the front door of the building. Immediately I panicked a little. Maybe a lot more than that actually.

As we passed by Colin, he gave me a wink. I could hear him saying, "Good luck with the neighbor!" I looked at him, turning my head sideways with my eyes screaming "No it's not like that!"

I sighed. I hoped Raphie didn't notice him at all. It would be even more embarrassing to deal with a misunderstanding.

As we exited the building, Raphie headed towards the park. It was a few blocks away, located right next to a church. It wasn't far off from the nearby grocery store.

There was a playground in the middle of the park. There was plenty of children running around with their parents watching over them. An ice cream truck was parked at the opposite side of the church.

"Do you mind if we stopped by the grocery store?" I asked.

"I rather not at the moment…" She chuckled.

"Why not?"

"Well, there's a co-worker I kind of want to avoid for now. It's not like I have a grudge or anything. It's just that we got into an argument over our work and I just don't want to deal with it right now."

"Oh, I see…" I looked over at the park. "Then let's get ice cream." I pointed at the ice cream truck. I got vanilla ice cream while Raphie got strawberry.

We both sat down on a park bench under a tree. The shade cooled us down from walking in the sunlight. We were closer to the playground so we could hear the kids scream as they played around.

"It's nice to spend some time outside." Raphie said.

"It is…" I lied.

"Yeah right." Raphie laughed.

She saw right through me. Even though I was doing perfectly fine so far, it was almost unbearable as a shut-in. Maybe she could see the look on my face when we walked under the scorching sunlight. I could feel the sweat reaching down my back. The ice cream helped a lot though.

Raphie finished her ice cream much faster than me. After she took the last bite of her cone, I asked a question."

"Why are you here?"

She looked at me with a surprised look.

"Not that I mean anything bad by it… I was just curious." I said.

"I just wanted to enjoy the weather."

"I mean living here."

"Well… I wanted to see what it was like being human." Raphie said. "I go to a school nearby. I'm studying medicine. I want to be a doctor."

"Don't tell me you go to…"

"Paramount College."

"Ah!"

"Surprise." Raphie smiled.

I just stared at her for a few seconds. We got to the same school. Now if I ever see her, I can't just ignore her like everyone else. Not that I mean that in a bad way either. It's just my life as a lone shut-in. The surprising part was that I didn't recognize her at all. The school had plenty of students so maybe I never got the chance to see her before.

"So how long have you been living like this?"

"It's been ten years living like a human."

"Have you been here longer?"

"That's a secret."

I was curious. But not curious enough to ask even further. There was something else that was bothering me even more.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"Sure."

"Why isn't Lucy living with you?"

She paused.

"Well she was, until we had a fight."

Raphie looked down at the floor. There was a faint look of sadness on her face.

"I see…"

I wasn't going to pry any further. Maybe I'll ask again another time.

We both sat there at the bench enjoying the cool shade while I finished my ice cream.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. I set you up a job."

"A what?!"