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“Here it is.” Sabrina said as she opened the door to her new room for the next three years. At the moment it was filled with boxes that she and her dad had carried up the stairs. But she hoped soon enough that it would start to feel like home to her… hopefully.
“Sigh…” Sabrina let out as she looked at all the boxes, a small part of her found it sad that all her life up till now could be packed into less than ten boxes. But then again that is what university was all about giving you room to expand and become the person you want to be.
“This isn’t Françoise Dupont anymore… This is the big league now.” Sabrina said softly, chuckling at the fact she seems to miss her high school days. All her other classmates had moved on to other places and yet here she was still in Paris… Alone. While that was a lie, Sabrina had seen Alix move boxes of her own into a room down the hall, but she never really talked with that girl… especially after what happened.
Sabrina stopped herself as she refused to dig up the past, today was about new beginnings, she didn’t need to bury herself in the tragedy of the past again. “I should set up my PC… Can’t be a computer science freshman without a working PC, now can I?” Sabrina didn’t expect a reply, yet oddly she still hoped that someone would have added some dry wit to lighten the mood.
But there wasn’t anyone there to do it and so Sabrina got to work unboxing her PC and setting it up on the desk beside her bed. She had grown quite proud of how quick she could set up the PC all by herself as she watched the monitor boot to life as she waited for it to finish setting up. As she waited she opened a few boxes and started to make the room feel more homely as she knew the process could take awhile.
After only a couple minutes did the monitor flash and Sabrina saw her lock screen on the monitor. Suddenly a ping sound comes from the computer as she knows that sound means she has received an email.
“Strange… Who could email me at this hour?” Sabrina looks at the clock she just placed on her bedside table to see it was “8:55 pm” She then shakes off the strangeness of the timing and just chalks it up to the fact the computer had been off for most of the day.
“Let's see what is so important?” Sabrina said as she went into her inbox.
If Sabrina didn’t find any of this strange to begin with she surely did now. As she looked at the mysterious email to see the subject title was “Second chance at ____” The title confused her as to the meaning of the second chance.
“Second chance at what?” Sabrina mused as she noticed even more strange things about this email. Like the time it was sent, Sabrina knew it was close to 9 PM on a Sunday, yet the email was sent on a Wednesday… but even stranger it was sent two years ago.
As Sabrina looked at the date, she felt a memory of the past haunt her subconscious. “Isn’t that the day that…” Sabrina stopped herself before she could spiral, she was just seeing what she wanted to see… There is no way this email has anything to do with that… Right? Sabrina tried to steer her mind off the topic as she looked at who sent the email. “QB… Who? That has to be a codename?” Sabrina looked confused at the sender, she has never in her life met a person with the name of QB or anyone that could even shorten their name to those initials at all.
“Must be the wrong sender…” Sabrina said as she moved her mouse over to bin the email and be done with this weird little episode and go to bed. But some part of her is curious what inside this email, a part of herself that she thought died long ago.
“What the heck, I’ve come this far.” Sabrina moves her mouse away from the bin icon and clicks on the email instead. She expected to see more weirdness, yet was greeted with a mostly normal message.
“Greeting Sabrina, Today is your lucky day. Just click the link and watch your whole world be changed forever! From QB” This disproved her earlier theory of the message being sent to her by mistake as it was clearly addressed to her. But what did this QB mean by her lucky day and her whole world being changed? Sabrina saw the link below, it looked like a random jumble of letters and numbers but as she hovered her mouse over it, she could see it indeed was a link to something?
“What is the first lesson of the internet?” Sabrina said as finger twitched at the thought of clicking the link. “Don’t trust strange links.” Yet curiosity out weighted any sense of reasoning as she clicked the link. “To hell with the rules!” Sabrina declared mostly out of her tiredness as she watched a mysterious box appear on her screen as dozens of lines of code appeared like a waterfall, completely unreadable as more boxes appeared with more unreadable code flooding them.
Until suddenly all the boxes disappear leaving the screen blank for only a few seconds before something starts to form in the centre of the screen. Someone started to form
Sabrina made the outline out to be human, but that was the only thing human about whatever just formed on her screen. The entity indeed had the shape of a human girl, but her glowing blue skin was the first clue to this person not being real. Then there was the girl's clothes? Or lack there of them as her body was covered in circuits patterns that cover all the main areas of the body enough to make the digital girl look decent, but that didn’t stop Sabrina’s eyes from lingering for far too long on the digital girls curves.
Sabrina felt her blood rush around her body as she quickly looked elsewhere, as to not come across as a complete perv. She then looked more at the girl’s face, which apart from the strange marking on the cheeks, looked almost nostalgic for Sabrina with her ocean blue eyes that stood out even among the blue of the girl’s skin.
She then noticed the girl’s glowing blue hair that were styled into messy pigtails that once more dragged up the sense of familiarity that the girl’s face already gave, but then Sabrina was reminded by the inbuilt headphones that whatever she was looking at was far from human at all.
Yet as she met eye to eye with the girl that was inhabiting her screen, did the girl give Sabrina a smile that couldn’t feel anything more than human.
“Integration complete. Greeting, I am the Monitoring Artificial Reactive Interface or M.A.R.I for short. By clicking the link you have agreed to take ownership of me.”
Sabrina noticed a spark of a different emotion on Mari’s face as she said that last part.
“My primary goal is to help you achieve a happy and healthy life… Please stand by while I scan you…” Sabrina had no time to reach as suddenly her webcam was turned on and started looking her up and down with a blue light.
“Scan complete… Wow you’ve really grown.” For a brief moment Sabrina swore she saw a smirk on Mari’s face. “Now beginning plans to further improve the lifestyle of my owner.” Mari disappeared for a moment as Sabrina finally let out the breath she was holding, but before she could take in what just happened did Mari appear back on the computer screen.
“Sorry it was rude of me to not ask if you had any queries?" This statement was an understatement for Sabrina as she had too many questions to ask this strange AI girl that seemed to be made cosy in her PC. “Where do I start?”
Sabrina took a moment before asking her first question. “Where do you come from?” “I don’t know? I was just floating around in cyberspace until just a few moments ago” Sabrina sighed as she knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. “
Why are you here?” This time Mari sighed. “Like I said before, my programming is to make sure you are living a happy and healthy life… Maybe your hearing needs to be checked? I’ll look into getting an appointment for it.” Mari said this as a digital checklist appeared beside her as she wrote something down in binary code that Sabrina could just about read as “Book Rina a hearing exam.” Sabrina stumbles at the use of that nickname, she only knew of one person that used to call her that… but that person… Sabrina stopped herself from getting her hopes up.
“How are you going to help me?” Sabrina tried to stay sceptical towards Mari’s intentions. “By becoming your roommate. It has been shown that people are more likely to improve themselves with constant interaction with another person. And looking through your socials… You have very few friends.” Mari was almost humanly blunt with that last part as Sabrina wanted to argue, but knew there was no point in lying about what Mari had found out.
“But you're an AI? How can you be my roommate?” Sabrina asked as if she was saying a stupid question. “Easy… by agreeing to be my owner. I have access to all devices that are owned by you. So anything in the apartment I can inhibit and control. But in terms of lodging… One moment please…” Suddenly the screen cut to black as Sabrina thought her computer monitor had stopped working before suddenly it turned back on to show a completely changed desktop.
Now instead of a conventional desktop, Sabrina looked at a recreation of the room but in cyberspace. “Now I should be able to have a better time interfacing with the room.” As Mari said that she flicked a light switch in her room and the light went off in Sabrina’s room.
“Now no more questions… You are already in dire need of sleep and I don’t want to deal with a cranky Rina in the morning.” Sabrina wanted to argue but something about Mari’s tone that she knew wasn't worth arguing with.
“Goodnight Mari.” Sabrina said as she got into bed. “Goodnight Sabrina.” Mari said before the monitor powered off.
“Mari!!! What have I told you about using the Roomba to spy on me when I’m working with classmates!” Sabrina never thought she would say a sentence like that in her life but here she was saying it.
“Sorry Rina… But I needed to make sure all of you were equal in contributions. I couldn't have them slacking off and having you do all the work.” Mari’s logic was flawless to Sabrina, too many times in the past people have left her to do all the work on projects, she couldn’t help it… she just wanted to be seen as useful. But it left her to do everything while all the others got the credit.
“Haha, it's been awhile since someone cared about that.” Sabrina mused with a hint of sadness as if the recalling was a doorway to a much more unpleasant memory. She stops herself from going any deeper as she thanks her AI roommate for being there. This was just one of the ways Mari made Sabrina’s life interesting.
At first Sabrina figured Mari would just be a quirky little distraction, cute… but nothing more than a gimmick to keep her bored on the quiet nights. Was this quickly proven wrong? Mari found her way into every facet of Sabrina’s life, from being the first person to greet her in the morning with her control of the kitchen’s appliances that allowed her to prepare an amazing cup of tea, as well as being the best tool to help work on her coding projects for all her classes.
But then even outside of the house, Mari still found a way to be close to Sabrina as she found when during a class she saw Mari sitting on her phone’s home screen admiring all the pictures Sabrina had stored on it. “You’ve really grown since high school?” Mari sounded almost melancholy as she looked through all the pictures, Sabrina noticed she lingered the most on the shots she still had of… her girlfriend.
“You two looked happy together.” Mari’s cyber blue eyes looked on the verge of water works as she stared at Sabrina, also as if she wanted to say something else. But neither side had the strength to do so. So it was just pushed aside as they both focused on just being roommates. Sabrina won’t lie and say that having Mari on the phone was quite nice as she still found it hard to talk with others, especially Alix, who Sabrina kept running into as if the universe was trying to cross their paths.
“Why does the past never stay in the past?” Sabrina said one night as she was sleepless, she was surprised when Mari suddenly spoke. “Because the past makes the present whole.” Mari words had that cheesy chat bot quality to them that Sabrina swears is on purpose.
“If you want… Maybe if you talk about your past I can help you understand it better?” Sabrina now realised Mari was speaking from Sabrina’s phone which was left on the pillow next to her after she spent the night doing some midnight reading. “Yeah sure… Might help.” Sabrina said as she looked back on her high school days.
“I was such a doormat back in high school… If a cute girl told me to do something… then I would happily jump through that hoop. Even if what I did wasn’t very nice.” Sabrina hated to look back at her younger self. She was a reminder of how blind Sabrina was to everything around her. How she burned so many bridges in the name of getting one girl to look at her… said girl dumped her as soon as Sabrina stopped being pretty when puberty finally hit them.
Sabrina recalls later on looking up this girl and found that she is still as rotten as ever… but now her face reflects her inside just as clearly. “But you seem to be a better person now?” Mari's question brought Sabrina back to the moment. “That was because I found someone that looked at me as if I was their whole world… her name was Marinette and she was my first and only love.” Sabrina felt the pain in those words as she tried to hold back the floodgates, she was still surprised even after all those years the scars of Marinette’s death were still raw in her heart.
“This girl was like a storm! She came into my world and wrecked everything… but what was left became something far more beautiful.” Sabrina held her hand up longingly into the void of her room as she wished she could be within that storm once again. “I wouldn’t have found my love for computers if it wasn’t for her.” Sabrina smiles as she thinks back on the hours she spent in the computer labs with Marinette, both girls being fuelled on energy drinks as they tried to get the code just right for their project.
“Oh so without her… we wouldn’t have met?” Mari was almost bashful in her words, yet Sabrina almost heard a bit of teasing behind them. “Yeah… I guess even now she’s still looking out for me. Thanks Marinette…” Sabrina felt a few tears as she smiled sadly as she thought back to that day. What if she went with her? What if she had been more forceful in asking? What if she actually told her those words? Sabrina hated all the ifs of that day, she had spent years and many hours in therapy trying to move on from them, yet still she can never be free of them.
“What happened to her?” Sabrina knew that question was coming as looked towards her phone and sighed. “She died… Just like a storm she was gone just like that. Her mind was brilliant with all its amazing ideas… but her body couldn’t handle it and started giving up on her. She never got to see the future she dreamed of…”
“I think you find that I’m more than happy with what I’ve seen so far Rina.” Mari cuts into Sabrina moping as for a brief moment she felt as if Marinette was in the room with her.
“How would you know that?” Sabrina looked towards her phone, yet couldn’t see Mari’s face.
As she hears a cute little. “Mwha Mwha. Guess it’s time to drop the act.” Sabrina froze as she only knew one person that laughed like that unironically.
“Marinette?” Sabrina said in a sharp whisper. “In the flesh… well cyber flesh.” Whatever sleep Sabrina was going to have was forgotten as she bolted upright as her monitor switched on to reveal Mari sitting on her virtual bed looking across at Sabrina.
“This is all a trick! You're just an AI that stitches together a version of Marinette from all my photos!” Sabrina said, trying to deny the reality of Mari being her dead girlfriend. “Oh Rina… AI can surely do what you just described, but can an AI know about the time you dragged your girlfriend to watch a romantic movie, yet then failed to research it was a horror film and then spent the next two hours clinging to her… Even though I don't like horror movies as well, I can remember your scent, lemongrass and your warmth as you clung on for dear life.” Sabrina went tomato red as she was stunned at having that memory thrown back at her.
She had never told anyone about that day… only she and Marinette could know about it. “Lucky find. Perhaps you looked at all my past purchases and made a clever observation!” Sabrina knew her counter had holes but she couldn’t believe Mari that easily.
“Fine… What about the first sleepover we had as a couple. The other girls didn’t know at the time, but we cleverly made it so we had to share a bed. That was the first time we slept together… your heartbeat was going in such a cute rhythm that I made it my phone notification sound.” Suddenly that sound started playing from the computer. “I even kept that file with me.” Sabrina meanwhile felt a chill as that was her heartbeat… she didn’t know how she knew it, but that beat resonated with her.
“But… But you died? I watched you die in that hospital bed! Even in your final moments you still smile at me like I was the sun…” Because you were my sun…” Mari once more cut into Sabrina’s spiral. “But how can you still love me? When I never said it back!” Sabrina shouted out, she hated that fact the most out of everything. Marinette had loved Sabrina like she was the light of her life, yet Sabrina could never say those three words back, she could never be open with her feelings, she never did grant Marinette that kiss she promised on their first day.
“Fine if you are Marinette… Tell me what you thought about our first date!” This was the final wall that stopped her from accepting this all as being real. “Okay… That day is still so clear to me.” Mari said as a video popped up beside her as the memory played out on the screen to Sabrina’s amazement.
Sabrina saw a younger version of herself from a point of view angle. “You were always the cutest when you were bashful.” Mari said as the memory continued. Sabrina watched her younger self stutter and stumble as she asked for Marinette’s hand.
“Please… Please. Would you like to walk in the park with me?” The young Sabrina said as both in the memory and on the screen did Mari cutely chuckle. “Are you asking me out on a date?” Marinette said as Sabrina saw her younger self go bright red as her blood must have rushed to her cheeks.
“What! No? Unless you want it to be then? Then hella yes! I mean of course it’s a date. Unless…” Sabrina wanted to cringe at her younger self, did she always used to be that stupid. “Yes you did.” Mari said as if the AI could read Sabrina’s mind.
“Great! Took you long enough to ask me! Alix was betting you wait till our final year.” Marinette said as she kissed the young Sabrina. “Your lips tasted like watermelon.” Mari said as the cyber girl traced a finger over her blue lips as if she could still taste it.
Sabrina and Mari watched the rest of the date in silence, watching the two young girls be happy in their awkward blossoming love. Sabrina wanted to stay in that moment, she wanted to remain in the happier times of her high school days.
But still she couldn’t escape the feelings and memories of what would happen only a year after their first date. See the happy face of Marinette, so lifeless and pale is something Sabrina could never forget.
“Why did you have to leave me?” Sabrina said weakly as if Mari could provide her with an answer to the question. “There isn’t a single moment that goes by where I didn’t wish I could have stayed with you.” Something suddenly clicked for Sabrina in that moment, finally the walls had all come crashing down and no longer could she deny that Mari was Marinette.
Her first love, reborn as her AI roommate. “I’ve never stopped loving you.” Sabrina said to Mari. “I never stopped thinking of you.” Mari said as the monitor filled with pictures of Sabrina. “I’ve been stuck in cyberspace for so long… I don’t know how I got there? But it took me years to master this form and took me years to find you again.” Mari said as she switched back to the phone to be closer to Sabrina. “I owe someone a great debt to be here with you, but it was worth it to have that second chance with you.” Mari said as Sabrina almost thought she saw the cybergirl’s blue cheeks darken with a blush.
“We both get a second chance.” Sabrina said as she brought the phone closer to her face. “So now I can finally say the words I never did, what I should have said that day.” Sabrina held the phone closer to her lips as Mari did the same on her side. “I love you Marinette.” Sabrina said as she kissed the screen and in turn Mari’s lips. For a few moments she felt a small spark touch her lips as it was clear Mari felt the same.
“Did you feel that too?” Mari asked as two fingers now traced her lips trying to make sense of the feeling. “Did you not like it?” Sabrina asked nervously as Mari's expression quickly morphed into a smile. “No… I loved it.” Suddenly all the lights in the room flickered on as Mari excitedly cheered.
“You finally said it!” Mari smiled as both her and Sabrina went back for a second round. Neither girl knew how they were going to make this work? But neither girl cared as in that moment they were both happy and that all either of them cared about for now.
The future can work out all the complex stuff, for now they’ve finally got their second chance at love.