Lazing About in a Dating Sim

After we picked up our lunches, Lucia and I walked over to the overgrown courtyard.

“This place looks even more rundown than it usually does.”

“I’m surprised that you even noticed, considering that you're comfortable in basically any location that has a place for you to sit.”

I quipped after sitting down next to Lucia on the mossy boulder that’s been here ever since school started.

“Learn to lower your standards a bit, you’ll be happier.”

Lucia remarked, before taking a sip of orange juice.

“This coming from the girl who complained about the color of the words in her textbook.”

“Oh, don’t give me that. You’d complain too if your textbook was confusing as fuck and written in the worst shade of blue imaginable.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.”

I waved my hands dismissively.

“Anyway, speaking of schoolwork, do you have any exams coming up next week, Otto?”

Lucia asked, before leaning back on my shoulder and taking another bite out of her salami sandwich.

“I have one coming up on Monday. Though, I can’t say that it really matters.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, I’ve gotten my grade up to a B, so even if I fail the exam, the lowest that my grade could go down to is a D.”

“Fair enough, so does that mean you’ll be free tomorrow?”

Lucia said while looking up at me.

“I guess it does, yeah. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I was wondering if you could come with me tomorrow to the ward recharging office.”

“You want me to wait in a line for 3 hours with you… on a Saturday? I knew you were a cruel person, but I didn’t think you were that cruel.”

I remarked after I finished taking a bite out of my turkey sandwich, which was pretty dry.

In turn, Lucia just looked at me with a vexed expression on her face.

“But since I don’t really have much going on Saturday, I guess I could hang out with you in a long line. Would definitely help lower the number of casualties that’ll happen that day.”

“The hell do you mean by that?”

“Well, you do have a tendency to pull out your wand and threaten people whenever things don’t go your way.”

“I do not!”

Lucia said indignantly.

“Uh huh sure, whatever you say.”

I replied in a monotone voice.

“Anyhow, could you tell me more about what we are going to be doing tomorrow? I’d like to know more about the hell that I’ve gotten myself into.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, we’re essentially just gonna be doing what we usually do during the lunch period. Well, for 3 hours that is.”

“Wait, you were serious about that?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I have been?”

“I thought we were just renewing a ward?”

“We are but since the wards are personalized, it takes a bit of time for the guy at the counter to recharge a person's ward.”

“Couldn’t they just have made the wards not personalized and prevented this from happening?”

“Nope, unless you’ve figured out a way to make everyone’s magic stat the same.”

“Figures… so are we gonna be doing anything while waiting or are we just gonna be bored out of our minds for 3 hours?”

“I was thinking of bringing a book or two to pass the time, maybe a deck of cards as well. By the way, what card games do you know?”

“I know how to play solitaire and… that’s basically it.”

“Seriously? You don’t know how to play Grumble or Loxodon?” 

“I haven’t even heard of those games.”

“...Have you ever even played card games with anyone before?”

“Nope.”

“Right, then I’ll probably have to teach you how to play them when we’re walking over there.”

“Appreciate it.”

“Whatever, anyway now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, could I get a bite of your sandwich? I think you got the better one between the both of us.”

“As if, biting into this thing is like biting into a block of sand. It’s so dry.”

“Well, then you’ve got no reason to keep it all to yourself, right?”

“I guess you have a point.”

I remarked before handing Lucia my sandwich that was probably cooked by a being who had hands made of salt.

And after repositioning herself, she took a bite out of it.

An expression of disgust took over her face, not long after.

“I told you it wasn’t that good.”

I remarked in an expectant tone.

“I thought you were just exaggerating, your palette’s pretty terrible, after all.”

“What are you talking about? Aren’t you the one who can’t eat 3/4ths of the food pyramid?” 

“It’s not my fault that vegetables taste like wet cardboard.”

“...What are you? A preschooler? Anyway, could I get a piece of your sandwich? I’m kinda interested in what could be worse than a mouthful of sand.”

“Hmm? Yeah sure I guess.”

Lucia answered before passing her sandwich over to me.

And then I took a large bite out of the top of the sandwich.

Unfortunately for me, it was definitely worse than putting a mouthful of sand in your mouth.

It was as if I had just taken a bite out of a bunch of pine needles stuck between two saltine crackers.

“Ugh, this is worse than licking a cactus.”

“What’d I tell you? Also, did you seriously have to take a bite out of the middle section of the sandwich?”

“Yeah? I mean I assumed that you weren’t going to finish this thing anyway.”

“...I’m more focused on the fact that the section you went for was the only spot on the sandwich that I took a bite out of.”

Lucia remarked before turning her gaze toward the light blue sky above us.

“Ah sorry… I didn’t notice.”

“Just be careful next time… you might give me the wrong idea.”

“...Anyhow, could you give me a rundown on some of the card games that you mentioned now instead of the day of the event?”

I said quickly, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah sure. Though it’ll be a bit hard, considering that I don’t have a deck of cards on me right now.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to the stuff coming out of your mouth being incoherent.”

“Do you just have all those dumb comebacks prepared in advance or something? Actually, that doesn’t make any sense. Since you don’t really put much effort into anything.”

“Whatever, can we just get on with it?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lucia replied before starting to explain the mechanics of the two card games that she mentioned a minute ago.

Though I can’t say that I really registered most of what she said.

Mostly because my heart has been thumping loudly ever since she pointed out what I did.

Okay… now I know it’s definitely not a fluke.

Am I starting to develop heart disease…? Or could it be something else?