Love Collector Ch. 6

Thursday, February 15th

Same shit, different day. Oliver awoke the following morning much the same way he did the day before. His head was pounding from a little too much weed, and the alarm clock on his phone was blaring, screaming at him to rejoin the waking world. He grumbled and shut it off without opening his eyes.

Oliver had another alarm set in case he needed a few minutes of extra sleep, and he could already tell today would be one of those days. Unfortunately, getting back to sleep proved a more difficult challenge than expected. Rather than being met with comforting silence after turning off his alarm, Oliver could hear the sound of faint music playing in the background.

He must've fallen asleep with his game still open, he realized.

Purest Love featured a generic soundtrack like almost every dating sim he'd ever played. Nobody was playing them for their tunes, after all. Players were looking for bangers of a different sort. Turning down the music all the way made things uncomfortable, so Oliver kept it at around twenty-five percent out of habit to not distract from the heroine's voices.

Oliver groped around his bed, his eyes still shut, looking for his laptop. He didn't think anything was amiss when his hand found its already closed lid.

Hundreds of hours of his life were wasted on playing dating sims. As such, this was not the first time cheap, royalty-free themes burrowed their way into his brain. There was one time when he had the hostel theme from Harem Hostel stuck in his head for two weeks on and off, its repetitive music ringing in his ears like the world's most pathetic case of tinnitus.

It sucked, but Oliver assumed it would fade with enough time. He was wrong. The music only seemed to increase in volume the longer he tried returning to sleep. It never got too loud, but it was no longer just there, either. He rubbed his ears and grumbled about it before admitting defeat.

Oliver was met with a strange, blurry sight upon opening his eyes. Though still half-asleep, he could've sworn a text box was floating in front of his face. He couldn't read what it said on account of still being strung out and tired as fuck, but it definitely raised an important question.

"Man, how fucking high did I even get last night...?" Oliver laughed, feeling sorry for himself.

The answer was evidently, 'high enough to physically invoke the Tetris effect in real life.' Still, this was also not the first time this happened to him. Countless character sprites and game UIs often got burned into his retinas to the point where he occasionally saw flashes of them overlapping his vision, especially when going to bed or just waking up.

He outstretched his hand and swiped at the floating text box, dismissing it entirely. Oliver didn't think it would actually work since it's not like there was actually some sort of sci-fi holographic interface that he could physically interact with, but his hallucination was kind enough to go along with his wishes, disappearing after making contact with his hand. The strangeness of it all was enough to fully wake him, so Oliver sat up and rubbed his forehead.

The music still hadn't gone away, adding another source of discomfort. It was mostly unobtrusive, but it remained just at the edge of auditory perception, somehow making it worse. Now that he was more conscious, Oliver realized the song he heard wasn't from Purest Love's soundtrack. It sounded like it could've been, but that was thanks to how repetitive the music in dating games tended to be as a whole. Thus, he couldn't place it from any specific game off the top of his head.

"Whatever," Oliver forced himself out of bed. "It'll stop when it stops. I've got more important things to worry about."

Today was Thursday, which meant nothing to the average person other than it brought along the comforting knowledge that they only had to make it through one more shitty workday until it was time for the weekend. He didn't know what he'd be doing then, but he knew what he had to do now- get ready for the grind.

Oliver had more time than usual since he didn't sleep till his second alarm. Even though he had a shower the night before, he figured he might as well make the most of it and had a quick one. The music still wasn't letting up, its vague, generic, upbeat melody following him wherever he went. Oliver guessed he finally played enough games that it broke his brain, but oh well. That was bound to happen sooner than later.

After finishing his shower, Oliver dried off and put more care into his hygiene than was typical of him. He thoroughly brushed his teeth, combed his hair, shaved, and still had time to spare. The results weren't anything to write home about, but he did look relatively presentable by the time he was done, aside from the fact that he still seemed somewhat hungover.

He wondered if Mia would say anything about it.

Oliver paused in front of the mirror, his face growing red. It'd only been a day since he realized he might've developed a crush on his coworker, and already, he was unconsciously trying to impress her. That was all well and good, but it would be meaningless if he couldn't consciously impress her.

Oliver made his decision while staring at the mirror. His feelings hadn't changed. Other than working hard enough for Tessa to justify his continued employment, he wanted to talk to Mia today and see if he could improve on the good vibes they had yesterday morning.

His goal was to keep the conversation going on and off throughout the day. Coming up with topics would be difficult, as would speaking up when things went quiet, but he was determined to do his best.

Time to pump himself up.

"She's your coworker, there's nothing weird about talking to her," he reminded his reflection. "Especially not when she likes the same things as you. You already know all the right dialogue options, Oliver. Mia said she likes RPGs and farming games, so ask her more about them. She probably has other hobbies, too, so that's also a route you could take... oh, and don't forget to ask her about her pins!"

It was important to remember that even when you were alone, someone was always willing to listen to you. Talking to himself like this occasionally helped Oliver work through his thoughts and plan his next action. A lot of the time, people have stupid ideas that don't sound stupid until they actually say them out loud. While it wasn't foolproof, this method went a long way toward helping him catch bad ideas.

But as far as Oliver could tell, he wasn't coming up with any bad ones. This was easier than he thought. Maybe that was a good sign?

It was too bad Oliver didn't have time to plan out an entire strategy book's worth of conversational topics that might interest Mia, but on the other hand, it was better to start small. He wasn't expecting today to go flawlessly. If he could chat up a girl he found pretty at the drop of a hat, he would've done so by now.

Just because it was his goal all of a sudden didn't mean Oliver had moved past his traumatic experiences.

No.

Today was merely the first step out of many he'd have to take to get closer to Mia. Every question he asked would raise his familiarity with her likes and dislikes and make him more comfortable talking to her. Even now, the thought of screwing up terrified Oliver. He was fearful of making an ass out of himself, of getting mixed signals and misinterpreting Mia's friendliness, but so what?

Oliver might not have been the protagonist of a dating sim, but he could still improve himself.

Everyone could.

Even if it turned out that Mia wasn't interested in him in the way he was starting to think he was interested in her, Oliver had nothing to lose. The worst-case scenario was that he ended up with a new friend, which would bump his grand total all the way up to lucky number one. No matter how he looked at it, that was still a win in his book.

He was ready.

Oliver whipped up some eggs and toast since he had a little extra time after his self-therapy session with the mirror and was ready to go at 8:21 AM. He locked his place up, leaving his apartment complex for the parking lot outside. The shining Californian sun hit his pathetic, hazy, hungover weed brain like a sack of bricks hitting a glass house.

"Gah, fuck... might be time to start taking a lower dose or something..." Oliver mused as he hobbled toward his car, unlocking it from afar. He didn't want to get too reliant on the stuff and was feeling pretty ashamed of doing it two nights in a row.

Oliver opened his car door like he'd done a million times before and was met face-to-face with something that shouldn't have been possible.

He could rationalize the music as an earworm refusing to leave him alone. The floating screen after he opened his eyes? That was a weed-influenced waking dream-style manifestation of the Tetris effect.

But this?

Oliver couldn't write this off.