Chapter Text
Red sat at her desk, head in hands. Why did taxes have to be so complicated? Like, the government already knew how much she owed, so why did she have to figure it out herself? Did they really expect a college student, fresh out of secondary (or high) school (okay, maybe not quite), to have time for adulting? Seriously.
The documents always called her Rye. And while yes, that was technically her name, she went by Red. After all, that’s what Seyn always called her.
She decided to take a break and check her messages on her PC. Well, a sorry excuse of one. The computer was a Windows 8 without a freaking graphics card.
Red almost cried out of relief when she saw a DM from Seyn. Well, more like twenty of them. They were all saying things like, “Wanna play Minecraft?” and, “Please my aunt is a pain!” and, “I need my informal counseling,” and, “Change your username, you know I can’t spell.”
As soon as she hopped on their call (titled “chaos on hypixel at three in the morning and twelve at night”), Red cheerfully greeted Seyn. “Heyo, you streaming any time soon?”
“Um, I might. I just need to talk to you about something. You know that I can’t stay with my Aunt for very long. She can only get so much time off from work and she thinks I’m so irresponsible and suicidal…” Red seriously wondered if Seyn was okay.
“…asking if I can stay with you ‘till I can get my own place. I’m sure I can whip something up if you can’t, but I just really need to have someone I can trust and who understands,” Seyn said.
Red thought about it for a moment. Her house was far from big, but she had an extra room she was pretty sure would work for Seyn, though the walls were bare and there was no bed. Maybe they could paint it and find a bed that they could afford… once Red figured out freaking taxes .
So she agreed to let Seyn stay.
The two proceeded to play Hypixel for 4 hours (which honestly was nothing, Red probably had the willpower to pull an all-nighter, though she had yet to do so), winning and losing various bedwars games.
After a while, Seyn logged off after admitting that she skipped lunch to play Minecraft. Red supposed she wasn’t much better, also skipping dinner for the sake of playing Minecraft until 9:00 pm. That meant for Seyn it was… 5:00 pm. For once, the time at which they were playing was reasonable.
Red decided to procrastinate paying taxes until the next day. She decided to cross-stitch and watch YouTube until it was late. After about 5 hours, she went downstairs to drink some tea before bed (yes, caffeinated).
Red got out a mug and filled it with water. She stuck it in the microwave like the heathen she was and hit the +30 seconds button five times.
Red sat down, looking out the kitchen window into the road her house was on, the sound of the microwave running in the background. She breathed for once.
Even though Seyn was the one with asthma, Red often couldn’t get any time to simply exist, to just breathe and nothing else. Except for when she got to play Minecraft with her friend. These sessions, and just chilling in the middle of the night, were the only times she could truly breathe .
The microwave beeped thrice, signaling that the water was done. Red got out the box of tea she kept in the cabinet, pulling out an Earl Grey tea bag. Letting it steep, she opened YouTube on her phone to watch some Minecraft videos. Most YouTubers she watched, Seyn had gotten her into.
Shortly after drinking her tea, Red went to bed.
Red woke up to her alarm beeping. Groaning, she pulled herself out of bed to turn it off, silently swearing at herself for forgetting to turn it off on a Saturday.
She went through her morning routine, eating cold pizza from the previous night and brushing her teeth and hair. As soon as she finished, her phone rang, a picture of Seyn’s dog showing up as her profile picture. “What’s up?” Red asked, looking at the clock. It was 5:30 am.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to call you,” Seyn said. Red started mathing (what do you mean, that is definitely a word) to figure out what time it was for Seyn. “And yes, I am fully aware that it’s 2:30 in the morning for me.”
“What’s up? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m okay. It’s just… I was thinking about last night, and I was wondering how to get to where you live. I mean, you live in Ontario, and I live in California, so-”
“Wait, how do you know where I live?”
Seyn went silent for a moment. “That’s… an unimportant detail.”
Red sighed. “I guess you’ll have to get on a plane.”
“Yeah, no dip, Sherlock. What I mean is, how will I afford a plane ticket? I’m still in high school, so it’s not like I can get a full-time job-”
“Wait, what? Is- is that even legal? For you to come live with me?”
“Of course. I turn eighteen at the end of the school year, which is in two weeks.”
“That’s good. But you’ll still have to get citizenship to live here.”
“My father was Canadian. And if Google is right, that automatically grants me citizenship in the great land of Canada.”
Red heard some indistinct yelling coming from Seyn’s end of the phone, presumably outside of her room.
“That’s my aunt,” Seyn explained. “I gotta go.”
She hung up before Red could say goodbye.
—
All alone again, Red didn’t know what to do. Sure, she had plenty of experience being alone (being an only child low-key sucked), but that didn’t mean she enjoyed it. And due to a severe lack of motivation to do, well, anything, she just sat on her bed, staring at a brown wall.
Not knowing what to do, Red just cried. She felt empty and alone and worthless, all the little things having built up over the past few weeks. It felt good and terrible to just… let it all out. Man, she needed therapy. Maybe she could join Seyn in those counseling sessions. This was becoming far too common of an occurrence. But really, other than writing in her notebook, what could she do?