Hope We Meet

Not related to the prompt.

Dedicated to Maraika!!! 😎

Prompt: You live in the future when everyone has a robot companion and yours doesn't work so well. At school, he embarrasses you and at home, he gets you into trouble.

Prompt Credits: https://www.servicescape.com/writing-prompt-generator

2032

Downtown NY

“We knew you were trouble-some, Terry. But I had no idea you were this mischievous, hacking into my server and blaming it on Echo, your loyal partner,” Said Miles Suarez, my dad, and the real-life Tony Stark. He's a lot like Stark: genius, sarcastic, difficult to persuade, boastful, and...you get the picture. If Tony Stark was real, my dad would be his twin.

I looked down at my sneakers, admiring them as if it was the first time I saw them. I was having trouble coming up with a way to persuade my parents that I wasn't to blame for everything that had happened. But who is going to believe that if the only two people who are brave enough to hack into the server are a naive, awkward 18-year-old and an intelligent innocent humanoid robot, Echo (developed by dad), who is the apple of everyone's eye except mine?

When my father built a humanoid companion robot for me during my freshman year, I was overjoyed. Nowadays, it was not uncommon to own a humanoid. But, because my father was overprotective of me, he didn't want to give me a robot at such a young age. I was overjoyed to have a robot, which I named 'Echo.' Everything was going swimmingly; Echo and I started going to school together, and because I'm an introvert, my only friends were Tom and Anne. As a result, Echo became my best friend. To me, he was more than a machine.

But then, all of a sudden, things began to change. As usual, I plugged in Echo to charge that night. I went to bed after plugging in. I was completely exhausted. It was raining cats and dogs that night, with thunderclaps and lightning. The next morning, I awoke to the sound of my dad yelling at me.

“Wakey-wakey, Terrance!!”

When I looked at my wall clock, I realized I was late. I wondered why the alarm didn't go off and why Echo didn't wake me up. I realized I might have been in deep sleep because I didn't wake up, and Echo, ever the loving friend, didn't wake me up, happy to see me sleep well.

Echo began behaving strangely from that day forward. When Tom's bot, Rojo and Anne's bot, Luca, and every other bot in the school were working perfectly fine, it was the only mine that wasn't.

“You have some explaining to do, kid,” a voice said, breaking me out of my trance. This time it was my mom, the famous pastry chef in Downtown NY, Gracelyn Suarez. 

I looked up, feeling helpless and unsure what to do, and shot a glare at Echo, who was plugged in on the lab counter. He was the one who was responsible for this, but, here, I was the one who was getting all the blames.

“Don’t you glare at him, Terry? I know what you’re gonna say; I didn’t do it. He hacked into the server himself. Terry, a robot is just a machine, they can’t lie as we humans do,” Dad voiced, irritation and annoyance clearly visible in his voice.

I lowered my eyes slowly. I hate this feeling, even after you didn’t do anything wrong, your parents would scold you and persuade you that you’re the guilty one.

“You’ll never create trouble for us or else, young man, you’re gonna be grounded. Do I make myself clear, Terry?”

“B-but, dad, it’s not my fau-”

“Do I make myself clear?” He repeated, this time stressing on his words, angrily.

“Yes, dad,” I let out a deep sigh and mumbled, just before rushing to my room upstairs. I jumped onto my bed. Why does my life have to be this horrible? I hope things would turn out great tomorrow. The odds of that happening is 2 out of 10. Still, I have hope.

As I said before I’m the biggest weirdo ever. Everyone made fun of me and laughed at me. Except for Anne, Tom, and Allure. Yes, I know you're going to ask me who Allure is. Allure is the girl in my class who everyone adores.

She is the daughter of our robotics professor. Her eyes are an alluring baby blue, and her hair is a chocolate blonde wavy. The entire school, including the freshmen, were head over heels for her, and to be honest, I have a crush on her as well, but how is she going to notice me among all those model-looking, muscular fanboys, and how the hell is she going to fall in love with a nobody like me?

I’m the black sheep of my family. As I previously stated, my dad, even though he doesn't own a company as Stark did, is one of the best engineers, and my mom is the best pastry chef. I'm pretty sure I'm not an engineer or a chef. I almost set the whole house on fire the last time I tried to cook, and the last time I tried to help dad build a robot, I inserted the wrong chip, and the robot malfunctioned, and I was inches away from being killed by that robot. 

So, if you ask me what my ambition or dream is, I'd say without hesitation: I have no idea. I have no idea what I want to be when all of my friends have clear plans for their future.

Okay, let's get back to the point. And even if Allure notices me, because I'm socially awkward, I'll have a hard time convincing her that I fell in love with her not because I'm sympathetic, because she's in a wheelchair, and as I said, the model-looking boys fell for her either because of beauty or sympathy, which is why she rejected all of them. She despises sympathy.

She was in a car accident when she was eight years old, resulting in paraplegia; she has been paralyzed from the waist down for ten years.

I flipped open my laptop, hoping that I could find something cheerful to read or someone cheerful to speak to. I logged into my Reedsy Prompts account. Yeah, you guessed it right. I write. I guess it’s the only thing I know to do properly other than being a complete weirdo. 

New notifications

As usual, some Reedsians have followed me and liked my most recent story, 'The Scarlet Thread' (A Mystery Romance Short Story), while others have downvoted me.

I had 1000 karma points the last time I logged in, but now I only have 725. I exhaled a long sigh. This was not just my case; many Reedsians were experiencing the same issue of being constantly downvoted. We're so used to being downvoted that we don't care about Karma Points. 

 My eyes widened when I saw this name flash on the screen.

Nico Scout

Nichole Scout was my first Reedsy friend, and she is still my best friend here. She is an amazing person. She is kind, she makes a lot of jokes, and she is also a fantastic writer. She has bright blue eyes and golden brown hair, and she is from British Columbia, Canada, according to what she said. She is so modest that she refuses to admit that she is a wonderful writer. We've only known each other for about 5 months. But I always feel as if I've known her for a lifetime.

💬 Nico Scout left a comment on your book 'The Scarlet Thread'

I plugged in AirPods and played the ‘Liked Songs’ playlist on Spotify.

Yo, what’s up, August!

No, no need to be puzzled. Terence Chava Suarez is my real name. August Reynolds is my pen name; if my book is ever published (which I hope it will be), I'd prefer to be known as August rather than Terence.

I was on vacation with my family when Ashlynn told me that you had written a new story. Sorry for taking so long to read it.

Ashlynn is one of Nico's Reedsy friends. They are good friends who are also working on a story together. They're pretty amazing. I'm not particularly close to Ash, but I've read some of her stories and, from what I've heard, she's a good writer.

I was enthralled by the story. And I see you’re good at writing mystery and romance stories. I love the way you create your characters; you've made them as detailed and one-of-a-kind as a woodworker carving his work. Charlie and Mabel were so adorable, and I was heartbroken when Mabel gave up her life for him.

I smiled to myself. Because I enjoyed observing my surroundings so much, the majority of the characters in my story were based on people I knew.

So that's all I wanted to say to you. I know you've been looking forward to my new short story. So, I'm currently experiencing writer's block and am attempting to overcome it. But don't worry, I'll be back with a new story this week.

Aw, Nico, everything will be alright, okay. Waiting for your new story.

Nichole ➡️ Out

P.S: Hope we could meet someday! 

P.P.S: Don’t forget to check out Olivia Rodrigo’s newest album. It’s all angsty and stuff and I know that you’ll love the album.

I chuckled to myself, seeing her sign-off. She always ends her comments with this sign off and I find it very cool. I, too, hope to meet you someday, somewhere. The world is small, and the earth is round. So, we'll meet someday.

I typed a reply and shifted the laptop from my lap to the desk. I stared at the ceiling, humming along to the song in my head.

‘I found a love for me.

Darling, just dive right in and follow my lead.

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet.

Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me.’

My life seemed meaningless to me. I used to believe that I had nothing to live for. But I guess I've found something to live for now. Someone to live for.