“You’re okay.” His free hand swept her hair off her shoulders. “Think of this as a first date. I want to take you out.”
She should have been flattered. Her gut twisted in so many knots that she didn’t know what to think. He quietly took a seat next to her, plugged himself in, and reached for her hand.
“I am in control of this virtual. I am the main user and you are set up as a participating spectator. You can always get out on your own, but I can force you out at any time. You’ll be safe.”
Ari swallowed once and nodded.
He put pressure on her hand. “The real question is: do you trust me?”
She hadn’t known Garrett long, but at that moment she was drowning in school and he was the only life preserver. She gripped his hand in return.
Squeezing her eyes shut amid the darkness, she focused on Garrett’s hand to keep her grounded.
“Open up, Ari. Come on,” Garret’s playful voice drifted around her, carried on a cool breeze.
A warm light greeted her. Blinking several times, it took a minute for her vision to adjust. The smell of salt water carried past her on a cool breeze. She glanced down. Garrett’s grip remained tight, tethering her to reality.
“Look, Ari.” He tugged her forward like a little kid anxious for a surprise.
Lifting her gaze, an endless expanse of water filled her view. The ocean, but nothing like the ocean she saw before with its cold gray waves. Instead, an exquisite aquamarine sea rose and fell, lapping towards flawless white sand. Palms trees stood to her side, with a netted hammock hanging in between them. Down the beach, a small white house stood with open windows. She turned to find more palm trees and green plants dotting the landscape.
Its perfect beauty pricked against her neck, where her port should be. “Where are we?”
He pulled her into the ocean. Garrett had on gray trunks that fell low on his hips, and his chest was bare with lean muscles built into his thin frame. “A small island. I can’t remember the name anymore.”
The warm water lapped at her ankles, her feet melting into the cool sand. “Wait, I’m not dressed for the—” Before she could finish, she glanced down, and realized she wore a short white sundress with a teal bikini underneath.
She shivered at the idea of the VR accessing her subconscious to dress her appropriately. Most VRs had a program that allowed the player to choose or change their attire. Pushing down the frantic voice in the back of her mind, she continued to let Garrett guide her out to sea.
“Did you make this virtual?”
“No, just an upperclassman I know. I’m only the techie who gets to play with all the fun toys.”
The warm waves crept up her legs. Despite the beauty, her nerves unsettled her. She pulled her hand free and crossed her arms.
He stepped closer. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, everything, this place ... it’s so real, so perfect. Don’t you ever worry that one day you won’t be able to tell reality from fiction? That one day you’ll wake up but not be really sure if you’re awake?”
“This virtual isn’t that good.” He glanced at Ari. “You must have covered it in your classes, the errors in programming? You have to see them?”
Ari remembered visiting the carnival with her brother, and how the clown glitched, static covering its face. “I haven’t stayed in one long enough to get a good look.”
“Well, look.” He pointed to the fish. “See the fish and how they swim, so symmetrical and perfectly timed. Step into their path.”
As she stepped forward, the fish blinked out of existence for a brief moment, with a short burst of static, then appeared again and continued along their path past her leg.
He stepped closer to her, blocking the path to several others. “See?”
She watched for several moments the fish blinking in and out of existence. It was so bizarre when considering they looked so genuine. Reaching down, she stirred the water, watching the fish scatter and the program restart in the same spot.
“With the obvious errors in this cheap VR, I don’t think you could ever get lost in it.” He rubbed a hand through his hair which stood on end. “Granted, it’s a bit of a buzzkill when I focus on those things. Most of us want to get lost here and be oblivious.”
A nervous chuckle escaped her lips as she turned in a slow circle, searching deeper into the program. The trees swayed, but the corresponding shadows in the sand didn’t move. The clouds had a similar precision, timed with a warm breeze. Even the sand where they once stood on the beach was smoothed over as if with an air brush. A student must have written this, and not as a sightseeing program.
With every error, a bit of the stress and anxiety peeled off. She still itched to get out of her virtual skin and take a real breath, but it helped to look at things differently. She had never lasted more than a few minutes in the VR and nobody really cared to help her work through it. One of the disadvantages of attending a poor school had been that her problem was brushed under the rug. With every error, she realized she couldn’t get lost in this fabricated reality. And wasn’t this what her teacher wanted her to do, find the errors?
She turned to asked Garrett another question. But before she could say anything, he splashed her, soaking the front of her dress. She sucked in a breath, and then lowered her brows, giving him a narrow glare. “You started a war, buddy.” She slapped the water and nailed him right in the face.
It was on. For a few moments, Ari forgot about the fear and panic and just enjoyed being with Garrett. They ran and played in the low waves. At one point, Garrett picked her up,
