Chapter Text
Avery never imagined he'd be here, but… Well.
That he is.
…On a plane heading to California, that is.
He's lived most of his life in Florida, so it's kind of a big change. He's been to other states before and sure, Cali's been one of them, but—this feels so much bigger, somehow.
…
Or maybe he just wants a change.
Maybe he's tired of his old house and his old life and his old room and Derek's the old computer now sitting in a garbage dump somewhere.
…Derek wouldn't be mad at that, right?
Not that Derek even can be, really, but…
Does he really even have to be tired of anything specific? Can't he just be tired?
Maybe he is just tired.
…
Anyway.
California.
Yeah.
He's moving there.
He doesn't really have a goal in mind, as far as anything after moving.
Get a job somewhere, probably. Earn enough money for a new laptop. Something cheap maybe, doesn't matter. Maybe get a pet. A dog or cat or something, if his new apartment allows it (the website or landlord didn't specifically say). Maybe a guinea pig. Or a snake. He's always wanted to have a snake.
…
Those are nice ideas.
(That's all they are.)
*
In hindsight, maybe he should've kept the computer.
He'd downloaded all of the files from it onto his phone, he doesn't necessarily need the thing but…
He misses it.
However weird that sounds.
…
Or maybe he just misses Derek.
Nope, definitely don't need the thing.
Especially now that he's—
Y'know.
He's staying away from gaming for a while.
Specifically from Minecraft.
He wants to get out of the house more, y'know? Figuratively I mean. He… Has an apartment. Not a house.
Heh.
…
Yeah.
And, nature's nice. The trees and stuff. Green's pretty vibrant and stuff. It's a nice color.
…
The sun is… Certainly pretty yellow.
He hates yellow, now. By the way.
It'd long-since stopped being his favorite a while ago. (He'll joke and say it's cause of the endless golden gates he had to traverse through.) (It was the moment he saw the strange golden symbol in the floor of the platform, the hundreds of golden eyes beating down on him, and then all of the moments proceeding after the moment Derek asked him, What are you doing here?)
But, maybe that's a given.
And he'll hate the color yellow itself for the rest of his life, he decides.
His current crisis—regarding the color yellow—is the apartment's walls are piss-yellow colored and that in itself should be a crime against humanity.
Yellow as a whole is.
…
Literally.
The landlord's pretty chill, thankfully, so he wastes no time painting over it.
. . .
…Red's a pretty nice color, too.
*
He also replacess the flooring; not for any particular reason, just. He can, apparently. It's no longer ugly brown carpet (who the HELL pairs that with piss-yellow???) and now polished birch wood flooring.
…
His landlord is really chill. Her name is Eric and she's nice. She's older, ish. Maybe in her fourties?
And yes, he's one of those people (birch is his favorite wood in and outside of Minecraft, sue him).
Listen, if he has some crap left to live for and indulge in, then…
.
.
.
Yeah.
Okay.
He's…
. . .
He's been better. Okay?
Honestly this isn't even the worst of it, you should've seen him the night he lost— New Year's. New Year's Day.
But yeah he's doing alright. All things considered.
Doesn't wake up and wish he was dead anymore! Haha!!
(Now he just wishes it'd been him.)
It wouldn't matter anyway, really, if you think about it, because that's—
That chapter of his life is over. He's moved on!
He took his time processing it, denying it, being angry at it, trying to bargain with it, grieving it, and he's fine! He ACCEPTS it now, the whole five stages of… Sadness, or whatever.
He's fine, and the world's fine, and that's all that matters.
…
But…
It'd.
It would be even finer, and cooler, if Derek was here too.
Avery imagines living right down the hall from him. Derek would already know him so they wouldn't have to do the whole enemies to friends thing because Derek wouldn't have to get to know all the annoying parts of Avery, because he already knew them.
And they'd hang out, and probably never play Minecraft ever again so instead they'd switch to, like. Peak, or something? (No Roblox. Avery didn't want to touch Roblox with a hundred foot pole.) Or— Well, Paralives has been pretty good so far but he's not sure Derek'd be into, like. Life sims.
OH! They could play Stardew Valley! That seemed like a good not-Minecraft compromise! Similar enough in the things you could do but different enough, and he's never played Stardew to completion like he's done Minecraft and they could mine together and fight together and farm together and—
Or maybe Derek wouldn't want another game so similar to Minecraft, or maybe he'd wanna play games on his own. Avery could do that! They could parallel play, or something. Derek could play a story game or whatever (he'd seemed like the type to like story-based games), and Avery could play Paralives, and he'd make both of them on it. And that wouldn't be weird. And it wouldn't get weird. Avery's Para simply wouldn't get married like, ever, and it was fine and not weird.
And, when they weren't playing games together they could cook together, swapping between different apartments. Avery liked cooking, and he especially liked cooking for other people (when they were around). He could teach Derek all the recipes he knew— Wait no, he couldn't do that Derek already knows them— But he could maybe show him what it was like to make them himself if he hasn't already. Is Derek a good cook? He should ask him. He should go right now and ask—
He snaps himself out of his endless pacing and goes to the door, hand reaching for the knob.
He'd just…
…ask…
Derek.
Ask Derek.
Avery blinks. His fingertips graze the metal doorknob.
The doorknob's golden.
Derek's not behind this door.
Derek's not out in the hall.
Derek's not in this building. Derek isn't here. Derek isn't across the hall from him. Derek doesn't live in this building.
Derek doesn't live.
"Oh," Avery says. Frowning very, very deeply to himself.
He pulls his hand back and his legs give out.