The Carnivore [boyxboy]

Chapter 18

“This is ancient! Where did you get this!” Deacon pulled… something, out from a closet upstairs in the living room as they were trying to find something to do.

Rory frowned at it. “I think it’s my mom’s.”

“Shit.” Deacon turned the thing over in his hands. “Do you even know what this is?”

“A hunk of junk,” Rory answered, quite proud of his rhyming.

“It’s an old Atari gaming console. This is—this is like from the seventies!” Deacon explained.

“Well considering you just called it ancient, don’t let my mom hear you say that. It was hers when she was a kid, or teenager, or something,” Rory said, leaning over the couch as Deacon began to search through an old box.

“Sweet… controllers and games, too. Come on, Rory. You’ve played some video games before, right? We should try to set this up.”

For as not into video games as Deacon seemed, Rory was just surprised Deacon knew what that was. “I’ve only played at friends’ houses. My mom doesn’t really like gaming.” It had taken everything he had to get a computer in his room—a TV or game console would never happen while he was alive.

“Dude, it has frogger.” Deacon pulled out a game in triumph. “We should be able to do this one, I mean, everyone runs across the street.”

Rory watched him try to set up the cords with the TV, and was surprised that something that old could still connect when it worked. Deacon whistled at the crappy graphics, and tried to work with the stiff joystick. He got focused in on it despite dying almost instantly the first three times. He got about half way before dying again the next time.

“This controller is difficult,” he said, showing how it stuck slightly.

Rory took the controller and didn’t fare much better at first. He died right off the first time, but the second time he made it half way.

They took uneven turns going back and forth, jumping between cars and over logs. Eventually the game started going too fast for either of them to make it safely across without dying, so Deacon went in search of another game.

He found a two player game and set it up. As it started, they both tried to properly maneuver the tanks that were shown on the screen. “Do we kill something?” Deacon asked, right as Rory decided to hit the big red button on his controller.

The TV made a cringing noise that was supposed to be an explosion as Deacon’s tank spun from the hit. “Fuck!” Deacon jumped up instantly. “We shoot each other!”

Rory took advantage of Deacon’s tail spinning tank and began to barrage him with more shots, until Deacon officially lost the round with a number of continued swears. “That wasn’t fair. I wasn’t expecting it,” Deacon complained, right as Rory’s mother walked in.