The Laptop - Ch.29 - Even More Questions (Patreon)

** content warning: mention of bullying **

"Still nothing," I frowned after checking my phone yet again.

Chelsea was late, and I was worried. I'd sent a half dozen texts over the past fifteen minutes, I'd even tried calling her. The call went straight to voice-mail though, and the texts all showed as 'unread'.

"I don't know what to do," I added as I paced back and forth a few times. "What if she's in trouble?"

Gwen pointed out, "She might have just turned off her phone for some reason? Like I don't know, a class or a lecture or something?"

I frowned again, "Or what if she's in trouble? What if something happened to her and she can't call for help?"

"I don't know Lisa," my friend sighed. "Should we just head home then? Or do you want to wait here a little longer?"

Before I could respond a familiar car came into view, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"There she is!" I smiled as Chelsea pulled up in front of us.

As soon as the car was stopped Gwen and I climbed inside. I took the passenger seat again while my best friend sat behind me. Then I greeted the little catgirl behind the wheel, "Hey Chels!"

My smile faded though, as soon as I noticed her drooping ears and sad expression. I got more worried when I realized something was wrong with her clothes too. The tight scoop-neck top she had on this morning was missing, she was now wearing a huge over-sized t-shirt that obviously didn't fit her. It had a faded university logo across the front, and I was positive it belonged to someone else.

"What happened, are you ok?" I asked. "I was really worried, you didn't answer my texts or my voice call."

Chels grimaced, "Turns out not everyone's as forgiving and understanding as you are, Lisa. I ran into some trouble after all."

"I'm ok though," she added quickly. "That stuff you did yesterday to keep Gwen safe from her parents worked for me as well. It was almost funny actually, the way Becky and Jules got so frustrated."

Then her ears drooped a little lower as she continued, "Except when they figured out they couldn't hurt me, they took their frustration out on my stuff instead. So I'm going to need a new phone, and a new laptop. Maybe I can pick something up when we're at the place where you work? It's a computer store, right? Do they carry phones too?"

"Damn," I frowned. "Who's Becky and Jules? What did they do to you?"

Chelsea's ears somehow managed to dip even lower, and her shoulders slumped as well. "They're a couple more people I should have been a lot nicer to in the past. It wasn't just competitors I walked all over, it was teammates as well."

"Anyways I'm ok," she added. "Like I said, they couldn't hurt me. They tried to rough me up, but in the end they only managed to tear my top. And they busted my phone and laptop."

Gwen spoke up from the back seat, "Where'd you get the uni t-shirt?"

"It came out of lost and found," the catgirl sighed. "Someone called campus security when they saw what was happening, and they came to break things up. That's why I was so late, I had to give them a statement. Now Becky and Jules are probably facing suspension. They might have gotten arrested too, but I convinced the security people not to get the cops involved. I just hope they don't get expelled."

We hadn't started moving yet so I leaned over across the console and gave Chelsea a hug, "I'm sorry Chels. I'm glad you're ok, but I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

"It's ok Lisa," she replied as she hugged me back. "I deserved it, for being such a cut-throat bitch in the past. The main thing is I'm fine, nobody got hurt. Some stuff got damaged, but things can be replaced."

"You didn't deserve it," I insisted as we finally let go of each other. Then as she put the car in gear I asked, "Do you mind hitting a cafe on the way to Frank's place? I owe him a coffee."

Chelsea smiled, "Sure, I could go for a hot drink."

There was a chain coffee place on the way, but rather than go inside Chels took us through the drive-thru. She put the order in, small extra-creamy latte for the tiny catgirl and a medium herbal tea for the elf girl. I got an iced tea, and we ordered an extra-large double-double for Frank. I paid for everything, then we continued on towards the little strip mall where I worked.

As we pulled into a parking spot I said, "You're not going to find a decent laptop here, and Frank doesn't sell phones at all. We can go visit a real store afterwards. Or if you've still got the broken ones I might be able to fix them when we get home."

"Thanks Lisa," Chels replied as all three of us exited the car.

I had my backpack over my shoulder again as I carried the little cardboard tray with my iced tea and Frank's coffee. Gwen and Chels both brought their drinks with them too, as I led the way into the store.

My boss was sitting on a stool behind the counter tinkering with another old refurb laptop, and that was such a familiar sight it actually helped me relax a little. His short brown hair and bushy beard were messy like usual, and he was wearing another colourful t-shirt with some out of date pop-culture reference on the front. An old well-worn cardigan hang open overtop of that, and I knew he'd be wearing an old pair of slacks and some beat-up sneakers.

Without looking up he greeted us in a friendly tone, "Good afternoon ladies. What can I do for you?"

"Hey Frank," I replied as I moved to stand across the counter from him.

"Oh," his smile faded a moment later when he noticed the drinks, "Sorry miss but no food or drinks allowed in the store. You'll have to leave those outside, or come back when you're finished."

I put his coffee down on the counter next to the partially-disassembled laptop then stated, "Last week I watched you eat a pastrami sandwich off the side of a customer's desktop. Anyways this is the coffee I owe you, remember? Twenty-five dollars and a coffee, for that little pink netbook?"

He finally looked up at me, then his eyes widened in shock. He gasped, "Kid?! What happened to you?"

I was pretty much used to that reaction by now, so I just rolled my eyes. "It's complicated. Anyways I'm here because I have some questions about that laptop you sold me."

"Wow kid," he mumbled as his eyes traced up and down over my new body again. "You look great."

Then he glanced at Gwen and Chels, and his eyebrows crept up a little higher. He finally picked up his cup and had a sip, before looking back at me again. The next words he said caught me off guard though.

"You sure work fast kid," he said as if talking to himself. "Looks like Annie was right about you though. I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

That almost made it seem like he was expecting this, or at least he knew what the little laptop was capable of. And I'd never heard him say the name Annie before, but it sounded like she was involved somehow too. Whoever she was. Needless to say I had even more questions by that point, but Frank spoke up again before I had a chance to react.

He gestured to Chels and Gwen as he asked, "So who's your friends? You've been coming in here well over a year now, and this is the first time I've ever seen you around other people. Let alone an elf and a catgirl."

I was surprised he knew what Gwen was, since with her ears hidden she looked more or less human. I did the introductions though, "This is Gwyneth, and that's Chelsea. Gwen, Chels, this is my sometimes boss, Frank Capello."

"So where'd the laptop really come from Frank?" I asked as I focused on him again. "And who's this Annie you just mentioned? What do you mean she was right about me?"

Frank looked over my partners again as he had another long sip of his coffee. Then he gave me a wary look and asked, "Did they both agree to all those changes? You never struck me as the dangerous type, but I know power can do funny things to people."

"Gwen and I did this to ourselves," Chels stated. Her ears were angled forward while her tail twitched back and forth in irritation as she gave Frank a hard look. "Lisa spent half the weekend worrying about us and double-checking that we were both sure we wanted this, and that we were happy. So you better not be implying she's done anything wrong."

My boss raised an eyebrow as he stared at the little catgirl. Then he glanced at my best friend, who just nodded once in agreement. Frank finally looked at me again and asked, "So it's 'Lisa' now, is it?"

"Yeah," I shrugged, although I could feel my cheeks heating up a little. "Fits better than my old name. And it's better than being called 'kid'."

I didn't want to admit I just went with the name in the laptop, but I had a feeling he already knew that was the case. So I forced myself back on topic and asked again, "You haven't answered my questions yet. Where did you get that laptop? What do you know about it? And who's Annie, what's she got to do with all this?"

Frank stared at me for a few more seconds while he took another long sip of his coffee. I was all but ignoring my iced tea, I left it on the counter for now. And it seemed like both Gwen and Chels were too focused on the conversation to enjoy their drinks either.

I had a hard time gauging my boss's mood by that point. Now that he'd got past the surprise he seemed sort of chill and quiet. Actually I realized he almost seemed sad, or maybe a bit melancholy.

After another gulp of coffee he finally replied, "I got the laptop from Annie. She brought it in here Friday afternoon and told me it was time. She asked me to make sure it left here with you, she said you'd figure out what to do with it."

"Let me guess," I said with a frown, "Annie is short for Annalise?"

Frank gave me a sad smile, "Got it in one. No points though, since I assume your name's also short for Annalise."

The way he said it left me feeling a little uneasy. I asked, "What does it mean? Who is she? Why did she want me to have her laptop?"

"I don't know how much you've figured out so far kid," my boss replied in that same melancholy tone, "But Annie's not from around here. She called herself a troubleshooter. Sort of like a top-tier field support tech worker, the sort of person they'd send to do hands-on work for really big sensitive installations."

His tone got a little more distant as he continued, "She and I first met almost thirty years ago, back when I was your age. We hit it off, became good friends, and before long we were pretty close. She had to move around a lot because of her work, but whenever she had some down-time she'd come back here so we could hang out together."

Frank paused there, but my mind was already racing. The 'not from around here' comment made me wonder if Annie came from another Realm. Or if she was one of the people who set all this up in the first place. Either way, the thing about moving around because of her job certainly made it sound like she travelled to different Realms. And 'troubleshooter' was obviously a euphemism for SysAdmin. Except all that information only led to even more questions.

"Why though?" I gulped. "Why did she want to give me her laptop? And what does it mean, about it being time?"

My boss slowly shook his head, "Sorry kid, I don't have those answers. Annie's always been mysterious, even back in the day she wouldn't tell me everything."

"If I had to guess though," he added slowly, "I think she meant it was time for her to retire."

I frowned, "Is there some way I could speak with her myself then? Do you know where she is, or where I could find her?"

Frank sighed and his expression got even more melancholy, "She didn't say it, but the way she was acting on Friday I got the feeling I wasn't going to see her again. I don't think she's going to be coming around here anymore."

Hearing that left my emotions all over the place. I was frustrated and confused at the situation, it felt like I'd come so close to finding real answers only to have them yanked away again. I also felt sad for Frank, since he clearly had strong feelings for Annie, and now it seemed like he might never see her again.

Chelsea obviously picked up on that too. She gave him a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry Mr. Capello. I hope that's not the case, I hope you hear from your friend again soon."

"Thanks," Frank replied with a sad smile.

We were all quiet for a a few seconds after that, until my boss finally spoke up again. He looked to me and said, "Don't look so disappointed kid. Annie might be mysterious but she's not stupid. Far from it. She'll have left you whatever information you need, somewhere inside that laptop of hers. It won't be obvious though, you're not going to find your answers in a 'Readme' file or anything like that."

"I know she could do something like emails or direct messaging on there," he suggested. "So she might have left instructions for you in there. Or maybe you could even use that to contact her? Think outside the box though. Like I said, it won't be too obvious. It won't be impossible either, she's mysterious but she's not nasty."

After another pause he added, "As for why she did all this? It's just a guess, but if she had to retire then maybe she picked you as her successor. She definitely saw something in you, or she wouldn't have wanted you to have her laptop."

My shoulders slumped and my emotions were still all over the place as I tried to process all that. It didn't make sense though, especially the bit about being her successor. I didn't understand how I was supposed to take over for her when I didn't know anything about her job or who she worked for. Would her employers even be ok with her just handing her responsibilities over to some random college student? I knew that wasn't how jobs worked, nobody got hired like that.

"Alright Frank," I finally responded. "Thanks anyways. I'm sorry about Annie, I hope you get to see her again."

I picked up my iced tea and said, "We'd better get going. Gwen and Chels and I have some other stuff we need to do this afternoon."

He just nodded, "Take care kid. And thanks for the coffee."

"Bye Mr. Capello," Gwen said as she and I started for the door. "Nice to meet you."

Chelsea hesitated a moment before telling my boss, "Thank you for being here for Lisa. Thanks for giving her a safe place to hang out, when she didn't feel safe spending time at home."

Frank gave her another sad smile, "Don't worry about it. Annie's not the only one who saw something in Lisa. You girls take care of yourselves, look after each other."