Chapter Text
The observation was a table of neatly aligned folding chairs, boring the bombay cat more than the fifteen minutes he had to spend within it. The line for the vaccine had moved at a snail’s pace , and his waiting to schedule the second dose only added insult to injury. In his headphones, he was listening to his favorite album, “Exmilitary,” though spacing out as he did. Blood Creepin ended, and the video began to autoplay another song, which he was unfamiliar with. He looked down at his phone.
Charli XCX?
Funny, he thought. I don’t normally enjoy Charli’s music. But there’s something… catchier about it?
He realized he had yet to listen to “How I’m Feeling Now.”
Perhaps this is just a shift in sound for her.
When he eventually exited the clinic, he connected his phone to the car, and put the album on in its entirety. Before “Claws” could come on, he was tapping his fingers to the beat on the wheel.
His apartment was a mess. His clothes were all over the place, unwashed, though he had gotten accustomed to the smell. Days-old cans of four loko were strewn across the floor. His roommate, a broad bengal tiger, was not much a better housekeeper than he. Perhaps worse. He was lying on the couch, the box of cold pizza from last night in his lap. When the bombay opened the door, he raised his hand in an indolent wave.
“Hey, Mac. You get that shitty vaccine?”
Mac groaned. Why do I put up with this?
Just then, the tiger rose to his full height, and Mac remembered why.
“I’m off to the gym, anyways. You wanna tag along?”
“Nah”
“Suit yourself.”
Mac winced as he was slapped on his sore arm.
“Hey, and, Atanasij?” he shouted down the hallway as the tiger was leaving the building.
“Yeah?”
“You better get that vaccine sometime. I don’t want to die from fucking COVID.”
“Nah, dude. Shit goes mental. I don’t trust whatever the liberals want to put into my body.”
Mac put his face in his hands.
“Jesus christ, dude… what if we made like, a deal or something…”
Atanasij laughed.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… I pay for a good dinner, or something?”
“How bout something extra.”
Mac groaned.
“Fine. What?”
“You have to come to the gym with me. One day. I want to see you try and do something athletic for once in your life.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah,” he snickered.
“For your sake, I do it. For the sake of my family. Fuck off,”
The tiger paused for a second, then burst out in another fit of laughter.
“Deal, then. You crack me up, Mac.”
Mac returned to his room and flopped over on the bed, dejected.
Why did I agree to all that shit.
He’s probably not even gonna get the vaccine. He’s probably just gonna lie about it.
I don’t know. I don’t know if I blame him.
Though he was a bit embarrassed to admit it, deep down, Mac didn’t trust the vaccine either. He didn’t consider himself one to blindly believe stories told to him, but they did get to him sometimes: he recalled some of the more ridiculous ones as he logged on to rateyourmusic.com and punched in his score for “How I’m Feeling Now.”