Maddie’s Back For Breakfast

The opening note of David Bowie’s “Heroes” played loudly in my room. My eyes blinked open slowly as I reached around to fumble in and around my pockets to turn off my alarm. “Fuck, I forgot… I changed my shifts but not my alarm.”

The bliss of being able to curl back up in my warm and cozy bed after a scare like that was cut short by my sudden recollection of what had happened last night. I sat bolt upright in bed, wide awake. There had been a succubus! In my apartment! And she read my mind! Oh god, she read my mind. And she mentioned the app, and she snapped her fingers and made me fall asleep and she was stressed about work and…

My train of thought came to a slow, agonizing halt. “A dream…must’ve been…”I slowly turned around and faced my pillow, as though it had been the one to do this to me. It had to have been a dream, right? Honestly, well done for that one, subconscious! It felt so real…

She did remind me of the app though, and since I was wide awake, I figured I’d just take a quick peek again. Greeted with a similar menu as before, I looked at my three options: [Custom Girls], [Achievements], and [Play Game (14:54:32)].

“Wait, if Custom Girls isn’t the bejeweled ripoff,” I tentatively lifted my finger and tapped the button, “Just what is it?”

Immediately, I was shocked to see what I found. [Madeline ‘Maddie’ Woods] and [Lily Hayes] were displayed and highlighted in pink. Moving to press the button for Maddie, I heard the lock on my apartment’s front door click, and the familiar creek of the door itself opening.

“Charlie? Are you here?”

Maddie’s voice echoed through the halls. For a moment, I was too stunned to speak. I hadn’t even pressed her name yet! I called back, “Yeah, hey! Welcome back!”

I got up and headed to the kitchen, her usual hangout spot. Walking in with just my home sweatpants and a T-shirt, I was very surprised to see that Maddie was not alone. She turned to me as I entered, “Hey Charlie, you remember-“

“Lily Hayes…”

There she was, the small latina beauty. One of many of what I referred to as Maddie’s “Hot” friends. Okay, maybe it was stereotypical, but she was small and fiesty, a smart woman, but definitely preferred to go out drinking than studying for exams. She was short, and had proportionately small breasts, nice, thick thighs from countless squats at the gym, and a reputation for… not being super difficult to get in bed. She was definitely a woman of the night, but don’t let that fool you. If you got on her bad side, she could obliterate you with her acid tongue and quick wit. Y’know, if she was 2 feet taller, had tattoos, and was a bit more ‘Filled out’, she could do a very convincing cosplay of that succubus from my dreams…

Y'know what, that actually made a lot of sense.

Maddie continued, “Yeah, that’s her! We had a bit of a ‘girls night’ yesterday so we’re just getting some breakfast and coffee before she takes off. Want some?” She motioned the fresh pot towards me, momentarily waking me up and realizing that I had just been staring at Lily.

“Uh, no… sorry, I just… ate already.”

Lily scoffed with a smile, “Yeah, looks like it.”

Despite her giggles, Maddie looked at me with compassionate eyes that said, “Don’t listen to her, she’s just kidding.”

I rolled my own eyes and headed towards the living room, leaving them to their conversation and doing some more investigation on this app. How did it know that they were here? Is it somehow linked to their phones? Is it stealing my and everyone I know’s data as we speak?

I finally tapped Maddie’s button, a small rendered avatar loading below a branching tree of upgrade options, like some kind of video game RPG. It looked just like her. Well, like a Chibi version of her, but the red hair, the curvy body, hell, even the outfit matched. I looked over to see that the stylish jeans and cute hoodie her avatar had one was the same she was wearing in real life.

The same went for Lily, I noticed, her slimming but still fairly casual blouse had been copy-pasted onto her avatar’s body.

And the upgrade tree wasn’t exactly normal. The only non-greyed out options (Guess I had to work my way up) were stuff like “Becomes slightly more flirty/provocative,” “Bend Over,” and “Shows Cleavage.”

“So it is a porn game!” I thought to myself. Seeing as most of these starter options only cost two gems and I had thirty, it shouldn’t- wait, thirty? A popup from the game explained that I’d receive ten gems every night at midnight, including last night.

Anyway, seeing as I had plenty to spare, I chose the flirty option for Maddie and the bend over option for Lily. But… nothing happened. The game made a small indication for buying the item, I got a notice saying that awareness was automatically set to ‘off’, and the avatars each played a little animation, but still, nothing actually occurred. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but if-

“Yeah, my boobs are great, wanna feel?”

For some reason, I was distracted.

“Maddie!” Lily hissed from their kitchen table, “I wasn’t saying that, I was just saying that all these carbs just go to my waist and yours go… elsewhere.”

She was embarrassed about Maddie joking around like that? Jeez, it’s never who you expect, huh?

Maddie laughed softly, “I know, I know, I’m just teasing you. But, honestly, carbs aside,” she leaned in closer, her voice going breathy for a moment, “if I had to pick a girl…”

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see her eyebrow furrow, as though she didn’t mean to say that.

Lily playfully shoved her shoulder but smiled, “Knock if off!”

“What? Everyone’s a *little* bit gay, right?”

“Yeah well, your ‘A little’ is most people’s ‘A lot’. Especially mine!”

“Oh puh-lease! You know you love it!”

At this, Lily blushed and looked downwards, but I could see in Maddie’s eyes confusion, and even something that might have looked like fear.

After a moment, Lily regained her composure and matter-of-factly stated, “Alright, well, I’d better get going then.”

Maddie, seemingly back in control, replied, “Yeah, fair enough. I think I’ll take a shower then,” In one fell swoop, she quickly and cleanly pulled her hoodie off her head, her shirt coming with it, revealing her exposed breasts in nothing but a bra. She pointed at me, then at Lily, “Either of you want to join?”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe it. ‘Slightly more flirty’ my ass! This app was making her sound like a nymphomaniac! Lily snapped me out of my ogling by shouting like a concerned mother, “Madeline!”

Running away to the bathroom with wicked laughter, apparently seeing it all as some big joke, Maddie headed through the halls until we heard a door slam. Lily turned to me, “Is she… okay? I mean… is she usually like this?”

At this point, I was still trying to burn the image into my retinas, but then I got an idea. I said, “No…not yet,” and toggled awareness for all custom settings to be off. Suddenly, Lily’s entire demeanor shifted subtly. She stopped looking so concerned, releasing tension from her shoulders. She seemed confused for a moment, but quickly overcame it. “What was I saying? Anyway, I’ll probably just head out now. See you, Charlie. Tell Maddie I left, yeah?”

All I had to do was hit one button, and she spread her legs slightly, adjusted how she was holding her purse, and bent over at the waist, with her hands holding her shins. Her thick hair flew into her face, but she calmly swept it to the side. I couldn’t see her dangling breasts from where I was sitting though, so naturally, I stood up. She remained there, unmoving for a moment, when I politely asked, “Lucy… what are you doing right now?”

“I’m bending over, what does it look like?”

“Okay, but why?”

“Ay ay ay what’s the big deal? It’s just a little more comfortable, that’s all.”

Immediately after saying this though, the effect seemingly ended and she stood herself back up. She tapped her foot impatiently and sighed, “Any more inane questions? I really should be going now.”