An electronics store was pumping with EDM and the bass vibrated all the goods on the store’s shelf. Nikel was working a late shift but enjoyed his work. The drones were flying about, flashing banners in red “70% off now.” He leaned back into the wall and took a puff of his vaporizer. The vaporizer said, “only 10,453 puffs left in this cartridge.”
Nikel felt calm, scanning the various activity around him. There was families and kids. It felt more like a toy store then an electronics store.
His wrist vibrated, he received an incoming message from Poppo.
“Yo man, you got to stop by tonight, we’re doing something radical,” read the text on his device.
Nikel thought, “hmm, do I really trust Poppo?” Last time they had hung out the informational detectives interrogated them for 48 hours, which was due to a gag that Poppo that was going to be hilarious. But instead it caught the alarm of law enforcement. It took there parents and friends in high places to convince all that they were not criminals and to remove them from the watch list. Unfortunately, that was only of of the many instances of poor judgment he had while hanging out with Poppo. Another time Poppo took him to a girls house for a party and they ended apologizing to the parents, cleaning the house and Nikel even washed the dishes because he felt so horrible about the situation.
Nikel quickly dashed his fingers across the screen to dismiss the message from Poppo. Today was quiet in the store and when he went home that evening, he hoped for a quiet home at night. He welcomed the peace and solitude, it seemed even more so now that he was older. Dating was not on the table for the moment. The break-up still felt fresh in his heart, an open un-protected wound. His quiet nights were the healing remedy necessary for this particular wound.
