Planning

“Great, the contract is complete,” Jasmine stated as she dismissed her copy of the contract into whatever void she pulled the blank version out of. “Now is a good time-” Her phone sent out an alert interrupting her. “Hold that thought, John, it seems like you’ve been missing for too long. The police are looking for you.”

“Looking for me! Why? Do they think I had something to do with Meadow’s disappearance? Oh no, what am I going to do?” He began to freak out for the umpteenth time since arriving at Meadow’s house. John was sweating profusely as his thoughts ran wild while he paced back and forth in the room.

“Whoa, take a chill pill. I never said anything about you being a suspect. Why do you instantly jump to the worst-case scenario?” The brown-haired reporter interrupted John’s panic attack by wrapping her delicate hands on the teen’s shoulders to stop his pacing. With the woman’s close proximity to him, John noticed that her cigarette had an alluring coffee aroma. “Right now, they have a BOLO out for you.”

“What’s a BOLO?” he cut her off at the use of the odd term.

“It means be on the lookout. They don’t consider you a person of interest, they just want to find you safe. It’s probably because it has been two hours since your call to 911 and you being missing has worried the officers or your mother whom I’m sure has been informed of the situation by now. You also had a panic attack during your call so they are worried you might have done something stupid since you didn’t wait like you informed the operator you would.” Jasmine released her grip on the Gamer after explaining the situation to him.

John calmed down a bit as he processed Jasmine’s words. “Sorry, I can be paranoid at times. By the way, why does your phone have an alert on me?” he asked awkwardly.

“That’s a fair question. For now, I’ll give you a short answer. After hearing the 911 call, I decided I needed to get any bit of information from you about the break-in, so I set up my phone to be flagged if emergency services alter your status. I know you want to ask more questions, but let’s take care of the police outside before we waste any more time.”

“Ok, I’ll leave the barrier and explain myself once I think of a way to do that without revealing what I’ve been through.” He paused when he remembered the state of his uniform. ”At least I took an extra uniform with me when I left the house. I would think I was guilty with the way I’m dressed.” He opened his menu; with a few adjustments, his tattered uniform was replaced with one in perfect condition.

“Wow, talk about convenient. I wish I could do that. It would save me a lot of time,” she expressed with a look of envy at The Gamer’s sudden change. Jasmine proceeded by suggesting, “Don’t worry too much about your disappearing act either. That could easily be explained, tell them you started panicking and ran off, they will believe you.”

“That shouldn’t be hard for me to sell. It is partially true, and even though helping me find Meadow is in our agreement, I’m still very worried about her. I’m suppressing a lot of emotions caused by this hectic morning.”

The buxom woman’s face shifted with a wry smile. “I’m unsure what you’ve gone through until this point, but your life going forward will require you to be able to push through emotions like those or you may not be able to survive. You have my assistance for now, but if this deal of ours is going to work, your mentality needs to improve or you would be wasting both of our time,” Jasmine gave him some harsh advice.

“That does make sense,” John agreed. “But what’s wrong with being sad about the situation? I should be able to worry about my friend, right?” he responded quizzically.

“Worrying is fine. My problem with you is how you keep sounding like you won’t be able to move forward. Giving up won’t help anyone, you need to have confidence. Straighten your back.” she gave his ass a playful slap for emphasis, that caused John to jump forward a bit, ”and do everything you can. If you wanted to leave this task in someone else’s hands, you would have stayed outside on that porch and waited for the police, so embrace your decision.”

John pulled away beet red when he realized that his chest was pressed against her breasts. “I’ll try my best to keep a level head,” he promised nervously

The reporter stifled a laugh as she saw how easily it was to embarrass The Gamer. “With that out of the way, let’s get this taken care of. We need to get you outside to talk to the officers before they think you are suspicious. It’s best to leave the barrier outside of the house. When exiting barriers, mundane people won’t be able to perceive us, but this house is a crime scene. If we left where we are, there is no way we’d be able to move somewhere inconspicuous. I’ll head down first. Meet me on the porch when you’re ready, just don’t take too long,” she instructed him as she sashayed across the room giving him the best view of her ass since he met her. He admired her ample rear as it swayed with each bewitching step of her long legs.

With Jasmine out of the room, John was again alone with his thoughts. ‘I can do this. Jasmine is right, I don’t know much about this gift yet. I do know that I’m no longer the loser at the bottom of the totem pole, unless I let myself be. Actions are the best way for me to help Meadow.’ The Gamer made his way out of the room and onto the stairs to head toward the door as he began formulating what to say. ‘I’ll tell anybody that asks that I was freaking out and hiding in the wooded portion of the nearby park to be alone.’ He shook his head. ’Mom won’t believe that I ignored her calls for nearly an hour because I hid in the park. Would she?’

He pulled up his character sheet. ’Maybe raising my Charisma stat would help. The question is how much should I put in? I have to be careful with how I allocate my points, I may need to use some to help me survive if I get attacked again.’ John stared at his stats for a moment before coming to a conclusion. ‘My agreement with Jasmine included her helping me grow stronger. My growth rate seems to be somewhat fast at the moment, especially if I have someone 13 levels higher than me to help. I’ll put all my points in Charisma for now, hopefully that will make me more convincing.’ With a few quick clicks, 5 points were added to his Charisma stat.

Jasmine stood on the sidewalk waiting for John. “Here, take my card so you are able to contact me.” She handed him a thin slip with her contact information.” Once you are done talking to the police and your mother, reach out to me so that I can meet up with you to finish our earlier conversation,” she instructed him before vanishing before his eyes as she exited the barrier.