“Yeah thats him. After you dropped out, me and him became good friends. Spent lots of time together our senior year. I even went to prom with his older sister.”
“Oh man he probably didn't like that much!” Milo chuckled, then sighed as he realized he missed his own prom.
“Aha, fortunately he didn't mind. He got a lot of crap for his sister being good looking. Anyway, I'll pick you up in an hour.”
“Sounds good, I'll be waiting.” Milo hung up the phone and went into his bedroom. His laptop was on the bedside table making a beeping sound. Milo knew exactly what it was as soon as he heard it. He had new video mail. Only thinking about the night to come, he pressed mute on the laptop and then picked out some nice underwear and socks from the bedside drawer. He then went into the bathroom, undressed, and climbed into the shower.
Twenty minutes later he got out, feeling refreshed and a lot less greasy, and put on the fresh underwear. Milo grabbed the pile of dirty clothes and put them next to the washer. Then he went into his closet, grabbed a $400, never worn Italian dress shirt and slipped it on. The smoothness and cleanliness of the shirt almost made him feel foreign in his own body. He knew that the shirt was perfect, but to Milo, the shirt did not feel like himself.
Instead he grabbed an old, but still in good condition, dress shirt hanging on one of the clothes racks and slipped it on. The shirt fit perfectly and Milo knew he had the perfect outfit. He then put on black slacks and some dress shoes, and got ready to leave. After shaving really quick, he went into the kitchen and made himself a light snack.
The buzzer sounded again. And this time Milo knew who it was. He went to the intercom near the door and scanned his finger once again. The video monitor came up and Jeff was standing on screen.
“Ill be in the car, try and hurry.”
“Be down in a few minutes.” Milo told his friend. Milo grabbed his wallet and his PDA and put them into his coat pockets. He then put on his coat and walked out of his apartment.
The door opened and Milo walked in. Tired and slightly drunk, he was very pleased that he had finally gone out with a friend. Something he had not done in a long time. He put his wallet and his PDA on the counter, and the plopped himself on his bed and fell asleep.
His dreams were filled with faces of the women he had met the night before. One step closer to making a family, Milo dreamed of all the possible outcomes of each and every relationship he could get in with any of the women he met. Milo was tuned to think this way, because this was the way he was thinking all his life as a computer programmer. He needed to think of every possible outcome in order for his products to run smoothly. And, he needed to think of every possible outcome of a relationship to make sure those would run smooth. To Milo, this wasn't obsessive compulsive, this was a necessity of life.
Milo's phone rang off the hook and woke him up from his dreams. He glanced at the clock and noticed it said 5:48 am. Milo then snatched the phone up off the night stand and said sleepily, “Hello, who is this?”.
“Milo, this is George. I've been trying to reach you all day, why haven't you been answering my video mail? We have sort of an emergency at the office. Think you can come in to work asap?”
“Yeah, sure, just let me wake up first.” Milo murmured. He climbed off his bed and threw on a pair of dirty sweats. Then he grabbed his laptop off the nightstand and headed into work.
When he arrived there almost everybody from the office was there.
“Whats going on?” Milo questioned the nearest employee.
She replied, “Something about stocks, another company is might be screwing us over.”
“How can this be??”
Before the lady had time to answer, George, Milo's business partner, came rushing up to the two of them and immediately told Milo to follow him. Milo followed George into his office and shut the door behind them.
“Things are bad Milo, really really bad.”
“But, what do you mean?”
“Lets just say our stock dropped thousands of points. A new company has just released a product that blows ours out of the water. And the worst of it is, our estimated net worth is exponentially dropping.”
“WHAT!?!!” Screamed Milo.
“You better sell while you still can, Chertura Corp is shutting down.”
“Oh... My... God....” Milo rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He then Called up his financial adviser and told her what was going on. She couldn't believe it either, and immediately tried to sell his stock.
“I have to go” Milo told George.
“Ill see you in the morning then?” Questioned George.
“We will see, this is the worst thing that can happen to me.” Milo left the office in complete disarray. He Got into his car and started driving home. Still slightly drunk, yet totally aware of his surroundings, he pulled out into the street from the parking garage when suddenly another car came flying around the corner.
Milo tried the dodge the car by making a hard right, but was unsuccessfully and the car clipped the side of his. Spinning in a whirlwind mass of metal and flames, the two cards spun until the collided with a pillar. Indistinguishable from each other, both cars lay in a heap of shrapnel. Both cars were fairly new, and each had an automatic emergency vehicle response mechanism which sends an emergency vehicle to the scene if there is ever trouble.
Ten minutes later the emergency vehicle arrived at the scene. Sirens sounding louder than ever and lights flashing to draw attention. Quickly the team of professionals found Milo lying in the drivers seat, smashed up pretty badly but still alive.
Milo could hear voices talking to him, but could not distinguish what they were staying. A blur of light was all that he could see, and no noticeable objects could be seen. Milo knew he was in trouble, because all he could move was his left side of his body. His right leg failed to move and he was completely stuck in the car.
The emergency response team pulled out the jaws of life, and were able to free Milo from the wreckage. It was too late for the other guy. They sped him to the hospital and took him into the ER.
Milo awoke to steady beeping and a very calm feeling enveloped him. Glancing around, he noticed a heart monitor, which was making the beeping, and several other medical instruments. A TV was hanging opposite him and a tablet was on the bedside table. He picked up the tablet and downloaded the newest paper. The headline read, “Millionaire Milo in car accident, Chertura Corp is dead.” Milo's stomach churned as he slowly regain consciousness of the night before.
The doctor walked into the room and asked how Milo was doing. He replied in a simple yet very meaningful word, “Shitty.” The doctor then checked some readings on the instruments of medicine and asked if Milo wanted anything. Milo shook his head and asked, “Has anyone come to see me?”.