Decision

After the better part of an hour had passed, and they were both sufficiently high. Garrett had to go back downstairs, so Reese walked with him to the door and said their goodbyes. Closing the door after letting him out, Reese walked back to the couch, took out his phone, and looked at it in his hand for a few moments with a conflicted expression.

Seeming to have come to a decision, acceptance filled him as he walked over to the computer and took a picture of his most recent attempt at integrating the AI and software, then emailed it to his supervisor Ed as an attachment, along with a message saying that he was unable to make any progress on the project and felt that he did not have the ability to work for MS, so he was going to quit in two weeks. After putting in his two weeks notice, Reese felt a pressure that had been on his shoulders for so long that he'd forgotten it was there disappear as he let out a long breath.

Reese knew that if he didn't confront this issue now, he'd only be digging a bigger grave for himself. Rather than letting things get out of hand to the point of no return, Reese decided to end it where he had some sort of control over what would happen to him now. 'Looks like I'm going to need to go job hunting again. But not tonight. Tonight I'm just going to relax. '

Going to his fridge, he pulled open the freezer door and grabbed an unopened pint of Hennessey Cognac from inside it, setting it on the counter after closing the freezer. He opened up the cabinet and grabbed a fairly large glass cup, then opened the fridge and grabbed a half empty bottle of cherry Bepsi. Grabbing a cork opener from a drawer, he opened up the Hennessey and filled the glass 2/3 of the way full, then filled the rest of the glass with the Bepsi leaving only a centimeter of distance from the rim before carefully taking the full glass to the living room.

He turned on the TV, searching through the channels until he found a movie starring a well known comedian that he thought was interesting. In the movie, the main character receives a letter from his long lost father about a treasure that his father had buried years ago, then embarks on an adventure to find his father. Along the way, he meets 6 other men who's father's are the sane as his, and that join him on his misadventures until they finally find and rescue his father from a bandit group.

After the movie ended, and after downing another two full glasses of alcohol after his first one, Reese was hit by an urge to move around, to leave his house and roam around outside even though it was already 11 pm. Stumbling his way to the front door, he grabbed a heavy sweater from the closet and a pair of running shoes, then grabbed his keys off of the dining table and left the apartment.

He carefully made his way down the stairs, grabbing the railing frequently to steady himself, then started walking down to a small covered parking area where his car was parked. Halfway to his car, he reconsidered, as judging by his difficulties with simply walking, he was in absolutely no condition to drive. Instead, he started walking towards the entrance of the apartment complex. As he walked toward the entrance, he looked at the darkness of the empty apartments and the few, isolated lit windows there were, slowly stumbling along in the cool of the fall night.

It had already reached the point of the season where all but the most stubborn of trees had lost all their leaves, leaving nothing but bare branches to reach towards the dark night sky. Occasional flashes of light from passing head lights lit up the asphalt as he walked on it, stretching his shadow meters long behind him.

After he reached the gate, he walked to a small chain link door a couple feet away from that was locked by a rusted padlock. Reese clumsily grabbed his keys, then searched through the keys until he found a conspicuous golden one before fitting it into the keyhole then relocking the door behind him.

Reese then started walking down the sidewalk, no particular destination in mind, just aimlessly wandering around. Next to Reese's small apartment complex was another, much larger apartment complex, and as he walked past it he listened to the sounds of life coming from it, so unlike his silent apartment. Babies crying, TV's blaring, the low murmur of people talking, the whoosh of cars rushing past on the streets, all these sounds and more filled his ears as he walked.

Around 2 am, Reese finally ended up walking back up the stairs to his apartment, his steps much steadier after his walk helped him to sober up. Opening the door, a wave of fatigue hit him along with the warmth from inside the apartment. After locking his door, he walked to his couches and laid down, quickly falling asleep.