The sun rose over the city and the morning bustle of pedestrians, cars, and dogs walking their masters along the sidewalks brought with it the usual amount of chaos. With the city now open for business, the crowds of people walking along pavements and in the streets meandered off to their respective destinations and places of work.
Michael woke up in his bed, still wearing the same clothes from the evening before. The orange light from the sun resting on his bedside table bathed the room in an unusually long, extended morning glow. He gently untangled himself from the sheets and blankets that had gathered around him as he laid there all night, and he walked over to the bathroom for a shower.
On most days, this would be the last thing Michael would want to do, but not today. Today he was excited, and a strange feeling was coursing through his body. After stepping into the cold shower and closing the door, he turned on the water and put his hands on the tiles, letting the cold water fall on his head, awakening him. As he stood in the shower, he began to run through the day's events in his mind. He liked to do this whenever he woke up in the morning, so that everything he needed to do for the day was fresh in his mind.
Around 11:30 A.M. he would go to the gym to meet up with some friends he hadn't seen in a while. Then around 2 or 3 he would go to the mall to meet up with some of his other friends there. After that, somewhere between 8 and 9 P.M., he would go to his friend's house to watch his favorite band play live on stage.
Michael wasn't a big fan of rock music, but he liked this band. He didn't go to see the band play live very often, since they played a show almost every weekend, but whenever he had the chance, he would make time for them.
Michael stood in the shower, letting the water run over his body for about fifteen minutes. The sensation of the cold water running down his head and embracing his entire body was filling his mind with a massive burst of energy, as if something was about to happen.
He turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist before going downstairs. He grabbed a piece of bread and slid back into the couch, settling in for the rest of the day's activities.
Michael turned on the TV, and then he set it on the special cable channel he liked to watch on days like these. While the opening guitar part of "I'm Down" came on, he jumped up from the couch and closed the blinds on the windows so the light from the sun wouldn't bother him anymore. He sat back down on the couch, eating the bread while listening to the rest of the song.
After the song ended, Michael set the bread down on the table, and then he opened a window, letting a cool breeze from the outside fill his room with a chill. He switched off the TV and got to his feet, walking over to the nightstand where he kept his gun.
He picked up the gun, putting it in his waistband and then sitting back down on the couch. He grabbed a blanket and draped it over his shoulders and the couch. The feeling of sitting in the cool air feeling free and relaxed was one that he'd had many times before. However, what made him feel this way on these days, instead of any other times, was the fact that a new person was about to be uploaded into his brain.
Countless numbers of those new people had uploaded into the millions, but this one was the first person Michael had ever had upload into his very own mind, and thus he was infinitely nervous. But this was only normal. This man was a friend to Michael. The woman he had been thinking about, the one who made him so crazy, was his first love.
Although he didn't realize it at the time, he had gone through a form of heartbreak. He had been in love. He had been infatuated. He even considered her his soulmate. And then, after a slight misunderstanding, their relationship was over.
From that time on, whenever Michael saw her in the metro, he would send her cold glares. He did this for nine months straight. One day, as he was sitting in the metro, he thought to himself, "Why is she still riding the metro? I never see her anymore. Just go home already. Where does she live?" That's when Michael realized that he had been sending her hurtful glares for half a year.
That was the moment he realized that this was something he didn't want to do anymore. He didn't want to send her hurtful glares, so he stopped. He remembered that the last time he saw her, she said she liked him, and he began wondering why she switched her mind to another person. He had thought about it for a while, figuring it out in his own way. Then he realized that no matter what he did, whether he hurt her or not, it would be the same outcome.
Then there came a time which Michael dreaded to think about more than anything. At that time, as Michael was starring blankly at the wall while waiting in the metro, a thought appeared in his mind: "I need to do this." And with that, Michael began passing her without sending her glares.
After that night, Michael kept passing her. He tried passing her on the bus, he tried going through the metro, but he couldn't pass her anywhere. Her presence was everywhere in his mind. She was his shadow.
One night, Michael began passing her on the metro again, and just like every other time, he began thinking about her, wondering why he was doing this.
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