Susan's Story #48 - Time Passes (Patreon)

 This one's basically about how time passes for the two, now that the new semester has started for them. With that, I'll start adding dates to each entry. Ideally the passage of time would be told through the story, buuuut I'm not that good at writing. I just think the general accessiblity would be a neat feature, I have it noted down for all the entries anyway. :D

My buddy GhostPlasma really helped me polish this one up. I tend to overexplain, tell not show/hint at. Anyway yeah, wanted to give a shoutout to that.

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10 February 2016 - (4 days later)

Susan looked over the endless column of recommended videos, none grabbing her attention or seemingly worth her time. With a sigh, she dropped the phone next to her on the bed. The midmorning sun shimmered through the curtains creating shifting patterns of light on the floor, she glanced over to her clock, confirming the time; 11:21. Her phone buzzed causing her heartbeat thump in her head.

In Susan’s anticipation she quickly got a hold of her phone and… sighed. ‘Please confirm your new sleeping hours’ “Shut up phone.” Why can’t it be Nathan. With the internships underway for most of their class, her daily contact with Nathan had slimmed down to the occasional text message. It was only the second day, yet to her it already seemed like an eternity. What the hell am I supposed to do now? Suu watched the light shift across the floor her right hand drifting closer to her chest.

"Hey Nathan, got a minute?"

Nathan turned around, using his drawing hand's palm to support his turn. "S-sure, what's wrong?"

The manager chuckled as he moved closer. "Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to have a little chat. I was busy being pulled into a bunch of  yesterday, so I couldn't quite get to know all the new interns."

Nathan glanced over to his laptop. It was barely the second day but they had already buried him under a pile of UV mapping work.

“Ah, don't worry about that. I’m the boss aren’t I?” He chuckled  leaning over onto the edge of the table. "Well, what are your hobbies? Let's start with that."

"Well, modelling for one. I really love being able to pretty much create anything. The only limit is my imagination. Other than that, it's mostly games really. Particularly strategy games - heh -, much  to the dismay of my friends."

"Hahaha really? How so?"

"They don't have that much patience to begin with. So with something like a turn-based game they'll be done in seconds. But I love to think about the possibilities, which ones will lead into gaining an advantage, bit by bit. But that usually means I take a long time so… they just end up waiting for me most of the time. Susan on the other ha- O-oh, sorry."

"Hey man, this isn't an interview! Talk away." He seemed to be enjoying the conversation occasionally looking over his shoulder.

"Right. So Susan's my girlfriend, and she's really into the twitchy shooters. Yet she enjoys playing all these slow games with me. Though if there's one that requires a lot of micromanagement… I'm pretty much toast."

"Nice, so you two like to play games together?"

"Heh, I suppose you could say that. We met each other during a class where they group the different classes together. Though we weren't in the same group at all. That was about…  a while ago now? We've uh… we're going pretty steady so far."

"Awesome. So she's on an internship as well, right? How is that treating the two of you?"

"Yeeaaah… She didn't get one. Some administration mistake or whatever. I tried my best to fix one for her, but those idi-... er- guys waited till the last week to tell her. So now her education is pretty much delayed for half a year. Which isn't too bad but…"

"But you guys probably wouldn't see each other that much during class, right? Different schedules and all.”

"Exactly. I already told her we could still do stuff on the weekends, but she still seemed to take it pretty bad."

"Yeah… hrmm… How is she taking it? Stuff like this happens, but it’s always hard to separate situational failure from personal failure."

"I mean…" Nathan started, looking up onto the ceiling. "She isn't exactly one to... when something is bothering her she doesn’t really talk, she mostly just kinda… shuts down."

"Well, it sounds like you should go check on her. Make sure she knows you still care about her, you know?  It’s always nice to talk to someone. To know that someone is thinking about you."

"Yeah… you're totally right. I'll send a message ri-... is it okay though?  I have a pile of work I need to do."

"Of course! It's good that you ask, but generally here we don't care too much if you occasionally text. Just don't let it distract you too much is all." A shout was heard from across the office causing the manager to turn and sigh. “Good luck talking to her. Things will get better. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to head over to my next… like 5 meetings.”

"Gotcha, thanks!"