Thursday, 4/11/2216, Part 2

I’m nervous when she shows up. 

I was ashamed at the unsaved memory of her naked, or at least what I thought she looked like naked. Close enough. Probably as close as I’m ever gonna get. Thinking about it like that made me want to save the memory, but considering she was a drug dealer, unregistered no less, and the fact that the vision was triggered by shock… yeah, it wasn’t a good idea. Fallible animal memory would have to do.

The door slides open. She shook a black hood off her head as she walked in, letting her long black hair settle on her shoulders before making eye contact. At that moment I suddenly realize sitting staring at the door was probably not the slickest thing in the world, but if she thought it was creepy, she made no comment.

“Hey K,” I say standing up, slightly embarrassed by the things I was trying to recall 5 seconds ago, but now couldn’t get out of my head.

“Hey Kriss, 20 gigs?” she asks, pulling a drive out of a black shoulder bag.

I take the drive. Her hand is less than two inches from mine for a moment. It makes me excited.

“Umm, uh, yeah, thanks.”

I haven’t moved my hand. I notice and quickly drop it to my side, thankfully maintaining my grasp on the drive. I’m sweating. Ew. Why am I so cringe!?

She furrows her brow and cocks her head slightly.

“Anything else?”

“Nah, um, yeah, actually. I wanted to ask, are there other unbound?”

She smiled slightly at that, more curious than anything.

“A few,” she said cautiously.

“Doesn’t it make it hard? You can’t get UBI or any government services”

She shrugged.

I decided to push it even though I could tell she was trying to slip out of this conversation.

“How did you survive before working for BLAZE?”

She paused, parted her lips as if to speak, thought better of it, licked her teeth and said: “When you can’t rely on the government you find a way”

“But—“ I began.

“Listen—“ she cut me off.

Suddenly a third voice interrupted.

“Excuse me who the hell is this!?”

“You asshole!” K exclaimed jumping back, pulling her hood down over her shining black hair with one hand while she reached into her bag with the other. “What the f—!” Then she looked up and burst out laughing. A bright, beautiful laugh.

I groaned. A long pained groan. Standing there at the entrance to the bedroom was the projection of Ami, my house AI. With her slender arms folded across her maid uniform and a death glare firing out from underneath her furrowed brow she could almost be mistaken for human… that is, if it weren’t for the cat ears sticking out of her bright blue hair.

“I’m so sorry” I said to K as hot blood boiled its way up my cheeks “Ami, please turn off!”

“I will not turn off!” She yelled as K howled in amusement.

“I’m so sorry” I said again suddenly feeling nauseous “she’s an AI”

“Oh, I know,” K said leaning on my table for support “In fantasy girlfriend mode, no less.”

Before I can vomit from shame I go into household apps in my NAC, select household, select Ami, select mode, select interactive, select off. She vanishes. K lets out a few final laughs before easing down into a wide smile.

“I… she… doesn’t record, she’s totally modular” I manage, weakly.

“Oh I know.” She said as her smile shrunk to encase her teeth, “come on, don’t be so embarrassed, the cat ears were funny for sure but I’ve seen way worse.”

“I… didn’t remember. My bad.”

She put her hand on my shoulder.

“It was a good laugh. And on that note, I'm getting out of here.” And with that, she spun around and left.

“Thank you,” I manage to call out after her as the door slid shut.

. . .

I sink into the couch like a brick in the ocean. Ami had come back out ready for a fight but I cut her off.

“Thank you Ami.” I said.

“You… I… What!?” She said looking genuinely confused.

“As embarrassing as you are, you’ll never embarrass me more than I embarrass myself. So thank you for saving me.”

“I… why do you even care about being embarrassed in front of some random girl though?” Her voice was still icy but I could tell she was melting.

“Her name is K. She just came by to drop some stuff off.”

“Oh, one of them.” Ami had floated over now and was ‘sitting’ next to me on the couch. Her blue hair swayed slightly to a phantom breeze.

“You know I don’t like you doing that shit.” She said, softly now, voice tinged with concern. I had briefly considered turning off the cat ears, but thought better of it seeing her again. I’ve already been exposed. I can be as cringe as I actually am now.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“What happened to Donnelle?”

“I don’t know, suspended I guess.”

“Oh… that’s sad. I liked Donnelle.”

“Me too, he was cool.”

“… Anyway, that bitch better watch out!” Ami said suddenly energized. She held up her little fists in a boxers stance, ‘punching' my chest.

I laughed at that, leaning my head back as the projections of her hands became 2D and warped when they touched my shirt. It wasn’t a pure laugh like K’s but it was a good solid laugh, the first good one in a while.

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure she will.”

She smiled. “Hey!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m supposed to be embarrassing, I’m your girlfriend.”

“True.” I said.

‘I’m glad she’s not real,’ I thought but didn’t say. A real girl would never put up with an unambitious, drug dependent slob like me.