The unmistakable neon glare is still just as strong as ever, even as I turn off the light in my little apartment, and I can't resist another look outside. Things have changed quite a bit ever since it became truly clear the world was going to end, but some things certainly stayed the same. Neon in green, pink, and other bright flavors hawking goods and services that nobody wants and yet everybody used to need since society was laid out around these gizmos and gadgets. Now they just seem quaint. But while the light pollution is still the same, the noise has gotten a lot less, even if it's still noticeable. I have heard that in other parts of the city, the streets have erupted in nonstop partying, but that seems to be rather centralized, so there's none of that here.
Honestly, I had no idea these streets outside my apartment could be this quiet, and it's only now that I really think about it that I realize just how much of it I've managed to tune out in the past. Well, I'll still have some time in the future to think about this sort of thing. I turn off the TV, which at this point is just governments and corporations desperately trying to cling to relevance anyway, and head out of my apartment, for I have somewhere I need to be. Because while I have given up on my job and such obligations, since I no longer see the point in them, I have spent quite some time thinking about what I actually want to spend our last months on this earth doing. And in the end, there was only one conclusion for me.
Riding the elevator up to the roof of the apartment complex, I take a deep breath. Just a few hours earlier, I arranged to meet my good friend ${FriendName} here on the rooftop, because the decision I've come to is that I now want to be together with ${FriendPro_HimHer} for the rest of our time. I'm not even all that sure just what it is I see in ${FriendPro_HimHer}, but out of all the people in my life, nobody makes me happy like ${FriendPro_HeShe} does. In fact, calling ${FriendPro_HimHer} just a friend doesn't come close to describing my feelings for ${FriendPro_HimHer}. I have no idea if it's romantic, or platonic, or what, but I know that it's special. And today, I'm going to confess my feelings and ask ${FriendPro_HimHer} to get together for good.
As I step out of the elevator and onto the rooftop, I take another deep breath. Definitely a lot nicer to be breathing the fresh air up here than the stuffy elevator air. It's so quiet up here now... used to be that the noise from the streets below would propagate all the way up here, but now that things have slowed down, what with the impending apocalypse and all, I can actually be alone with my thoughts now. No horns and loud advertisement vans anymore. I walk over to the two chairs I brought up here a while back when I started coming up here just to think and sit down. Only a few minutes now before ${FriendPro_HeShe} should show up. Will ${FriendPro_HeShe} accept my feelings? Will ${FriendPro_HeShe} reject me? God, it'd be horrible if I finally manage to say what I truly feel, only to get rejected. But I push those thoughts away. It's ${FriendName}. There's no way ${FriendPro_HeShe} will turn me down... right?
And so, with me marinating in my doubts, I don't even notice the elevator doors opening, only spotting ${FriendName} after I look to the side and find ${FriendPro_HimHer} sitting there. "Well, here I am, ${MCName}. You wanted to talk?"
The question comes out with that smile I love so much on ${FriendPro_HisHer} face. With a little sigh, I return the smile. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. You know our time here is running out as well as I do, I'm sure. And... I guess what I want to ask is...