SUPREME VISION SYSTEM

If not for his mother, he would have asked him to drop his damn acting talk to him face to face. He was just too protective of his mother and the fact that his mother was a naive and innocent woman made him to be more cautious about the people revolving around his mother. 

"Let me take these." Mr. Evans took the bags away from his mother.

"I can manage..."

"No..no...its alright. What is the use of a man beside a woman if not help her with the bags?" He laughed, taking the bags away from her.

Cole narrowed his eyes, his palms curled into a fist. Oh! He could not bear this. How dare he flirt in front of him with his mother. This man was too smooth and his mother was oblivious about all of it.

"If you insist so much. " Ivory smiled letting go of the bags.

"Thank you. Let's get going then." Mr.Evans cheered leading the way towards his car.

Cole and Ivory followed behind. He wanted to drag his mother off from there and get into a taxi instead. He did not like this man. 

"I could carry the bags too. Why did you not allow me?" 

Cole questioned his mother in a voice only audible to his mother, walking alongside him towards the parking lot.

"You are not completely healed yet. Boy!" Ivory frowned, "You just got discharged from the hospital."

"But I m alright. I m not hurt. I could have carried the bags for you..."

"There you go. The bags are kept in the trunk. Now get inside." Mr.Evans interrupted Cole.

He held the front passenger door open hoping Ivory would get in but Cole immediately got inside without giving anyone a time of thought. When Mr.Evans just kept staring at him instead of closing the door, Cole looked back at him.

"I always like riding in the front seat." He innocently stated.

Mr.Evans nodded, " Ahh I see. It's alright." And closed the door with Cole, smirking seating inside.

He went around to open the passenger door in the back for his mother. Cole rolled his eyes at that. Once done, Mr. Evans got inside the driver's seat.

"Woman can open their side of the door too you know. They are not paralyzed. " Cole grunted out.

This made Mr.Evans turn to look at the young man with dirty blonde hair seating beside him.

"Cole...Mr.Evans was trying to be only helpful." His mother wailed from the back.

"I just wanted him to know that you can do things on your own too."

Cole muttered under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear it. Mr. Eva just smiled at the silly tactic of the boy.

"I know that Cole. I was just trying to be polite like a man should be. " Mr. Evans voiced out in his bold tone.

"Try to learn some from him, Cole. It might land you a girlfriend at least in your college. " 

Ivory joked trying to ease the tense aura with a fun one. She just could not do it with her son anymore. He had inherited his father's short temper so there was nothing she could do to control it. It was the generic factor here.

Soon after their car hit the road and everyone remained silent throughout the journey, not saying anything. Perhaps it was better that way. Mr. Evans tuned the radio in. Light rain showering over the city.

Cole looked out throughout the entire journey, seeing the streetlight move backward, the cars lining up. He was back in the real world. But with so many unanswered questions.

His inside was flooded with so many questions with no answer until he called his friends and find out of they were here like him, back in the real-life world...the world they had been trying to get in while playing the game.

Now thinking about the game, it felt so real back at the time when they were inside, finding each other and playing, planning to win it so that they could return back home or was he dreaming all of that while he was asleep in the hospital bed.

The SUV took a u-turn towards their alley. As they passed by the green circle sector where Vin lived, Cole looked at his huge mansion-like house trying to spot if Vin was playing his football outside like usual. 

But the gates were closed, the branded cars were inside and the window was closed to forbidding him from seeing anything. Plus his vision had not turned good yet. He rubbed his eyes to see clearly but no use as the SUV drove past it.

Cole thought of dropping by Vin's house once he reached home. He needed to tell him everything if it was only him who was dreaming or playing inside the real-life gaming system. 

He could not share this information with his mother or the man sitting beside him, driving who was pretending to be too cool for his age and he would never talk to him either. He had yet to threaten him to stay away from his mother.

"And we are home!" Mr.Evans declared.

"We are home, not you," Cole stated.

"Cole, be polite. " Ivory scolded getting out of the car.

"I live right next door boy so technically I m home. " Mr.Evans chuckled.

Ivory laughed and waited for Mr. Evans to open the trunk for her to carry the bags inside. Cole did not say anything and rushed inside the house letting them know he was angry.

"He does not like me. " Mr. Evans said.

"He is like that to everyone. I m sorry from his side. " Ivory apologized. 

She was embarrassed by the way her son was behaving around the man who technically saved his life when she was working in the diner without a damn idea. And then even paid the hospital bills and replaced the damaged furniture with the new second-hand ones which did not look second hand at all for the question.

"It's alright. He is a teenager after all. This age is like that. " Mr. Evans smiled.

"You are correct. That is why I try not to you know intrude in his privacy but then I m also worried at the same time thinking what is going inside that hard head of his." Ivory shook her head.

"I get your worries. My parents were worried too when I was his age. I used to hang out a lot with my friends. I was quite a rebel." Mr. Evans laughed thinking back to his teen years.

"Well, Cole stays in the home so it's a good thing right?" Ivory let out.

"Yes definitely. " Mr. Evans genuinely smiled.

After that, there was nothing more to say. The man and woman awkwardly stared into each other as light rain fell down from the sky. Cole saw the entire thing and he could not help himself but land a hard punch on the window breaking their attention. Both turned to look at the window where Cole was glaring at them.

"I...I think I should get inside." Ivory stuttered.

"Yes....yeah You should." Mr. Evans nodded closing the car trunk as Ivory collected the bags.

"Thank you, Mr. Evans, for everything."

Ivory thanked the kind man one last time. She wanted to call him out to have a cup of tea inside but decided against it knowing her bull-headed son would most likely create a goddamn scene and ruin the situation. She would call him on another day when the boy was in school. She thought and headed inside.

When she entered inside, Cole was not there in the living room and she heard the door of his room shutting sound upstairs. She just shook her head in denial and headed towards the kitchen to start making the lunch.

Meanwhile, inside his room, Cole was awestruck to see the new computer. If the house was caught in fire, how come his computer survived, and then it hit him that it only caught the downstairs in the light fire so perhaps his computer and belongings were saved.

But the computer seemed a bit new. Maybe the men who were called to clean the house must have rubbed it clean. It was not entirely different than his. He let the investigatory mind go and immediately switched it on. 

His cell phone was missing so he thought of contacting Chris and Matty through their discord server and also Vin. He wanted to know if they were alright and back home safe and sound.

He waited impatiently as his personal computer took its precious time to start which proved that it was indeed his computer. He rubbed his nose as he thought of the last time he was here, waiting for the game to start, the match, and then the blast took place.

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