My head is brick heavy as I open my eyes. But when I touch my head, I feel cold glass.

That's when I realize I'm wearing a space helmet. My baffled gaze shifts to my hands and a shriek escapes from my lips.  My arms aren't this sickly thin. And I remember wearing the orange cardigan Bow hates, not this tight green polyester suit.

My vision goes hazy once I begin to notice my surroundings. It's all pink - control panels, seats, ladders, floor, wall - with a hexagonal glass paned window in front, showing a levitating pink castle in space.

This is definitely not my dorm room.

Where the hell am I?

"Lover Mu!" a quivering voice calls.

"Who's there?" I manage to say, craning my neck at every direction.

"Hey, can you hear me?" the same voice asks. "It's Dr. Hopsy-Flopsy. Lovers HQ's been breached. Get this spaceship out of here!"

Breached? Lovers HQ? And what is that, Hopsy-Flopsy? This is not a dream. I'm not this dumb.

A loud bang causes me to shout. I find myself on the plush alien floor. Did this room shake just now?

My wavering gaze falls on the window again. This room, no, this spaceship, is moving away from the pink castle, or what's left of it. It's completely destroyed on its left, the right barely hanging on.

"That ship's not ready to fly just yet. Work together to open your Shield pod..here it comes!" the panicky voice of Dr. Hopsy Flopsy cries.

Work together? There's someone else?

I turn over my back, my eyes widened. There is someone. An dwarf alien in a green spacesuit; a swaying antenna on the top of its head. They're standing before a small red control panel, their hunched back facing me, their right foot tapping rapidly against the floor.

But it's not rapidly. They tap according to a beat. Two toe three heel.

I know only one person can do that. Annoyingly.

"B-Bow," I say, immediately jumping to my feet. My last memory slams into my head the moment the alien turns toward me, the familiar stare of 'I don't give a damn' reflected in their white dot-like eyes.

The empty fridge. And the mold in our closets. Yeah, I forgot to get the groceries or call the cleaning company. But I am extremely busy, unlike my lazy roommate, completing courses and working three part-time jobs to pay this rent, which again Bow thinks she should pay less.

I latch onto the nearest seat when the ship trembles again. A huge force field chamber approaches, encasing a levitating blue machine. 

"That's the Shield pod," Hopsy's disembodied voice says. "Shoot the buttons on the top and bottom, to get the pod."

"How?" I mutter. I watch Bow clack something on the control panel, which aims a gun attached on the outside, at the top button. I flinch when large laser beams eject out of the gun.

So that's what the control panel does.

I flick my gaze to the control panel I'd seen earlier. This also operates a laser gun. But pointing at the opposite direction.

"Um, how can I shoot from here?" I ask, completely clueless. The argument we've just had is still ringing in my ears. Misunderstandings. Curses. Throwing stuff around. We've never fought like this. We were the best of friends.

Did this all begin this year when I switched majors (Bow and I decided on Psychology before I shifted to Business)? Or last year, when we decided to live as roommates?

My eyes widen, my jaw dropping when I see three huge neon green bumblebees approach toward the window, gnarling with its pointing teeth.

Seriously, how did we get stuck in whatever this this? A game? I don't remember playing this at all.

The ship shakes when the bees shoot their fiery cannonballs at us, sending me tumbling down the staircase. I wince in pain when I land with a thud.

"Cas!" I hear Bow's voice and see the yellow alien climb down the stairs and rush toward me. I cast a small smile. It's been a long time since Bow's been worried about me. (And the first time I've seen this on an alien. Which is kind of cute, since the bob of her yellow antenna literally goes blue).

"You're supposed to hold on!" she says, smacking my shoulder.

"Ow!" I cry. "I didn't know, okay! I don't know what this place is. I don't know what and how we're stuck in this game."

The ship shakes again, making Bow fall on me this time. We both wince as our heads smack into each other.

"You have to be careful, Lover Mu and Lover Nu!" Hopsy's voice calls, more terrified than ever before. "You don't have much time."

My gaze falls on my hands, and then on an upset Bow (the straight line for a mouth on her black-screen face breaks into a pixelated grim). We're both glitching. Does this mean we've lost a life because of the bees attack?

"Everything's being explained," Bow says, pointing to the ceiling. "All you have to do is follow the fricking orders. It's not that that hard."

"I'm panicking, Bow!" I snap. My breathing has never been this shallow. And my heartbeat's never gone this fast, even during the sprint event I participated in freshman year. "You're not answering me...I really don't know what's going on." I feel a tear rolling down my cheek.

Bow takes in a deep, frustrated sigh. The sigh of 'I give up. You're alien to me.' Ouch.

"Right now, can we concentrate on getting out please?"

"No," I say, my voice cracking. I can't take this anymore. "I want to know what you have against me. Like, what in the hell I did to you that you're treating me like crap."

"Seriously, you want to do this now!" she shouts. She's about to say something pretty nasty when her antenna flashes a bright white. For a moment I lost my vision.

Blinking my eyes, I shift my gaze to the window. The green bees are gone. But a larger, angrier one is approaching us. The fireball brewing in its mouth will surely destroy this ship.

Bow rushes to the control panel, chiming on several buttons. She aims the laser gun at the angry bee, who's surprisingly not attacked yet.

What can I do? I can't just keep sitting there. I glance up at the ceiling, spotting a control panel there, and...a cannon?

"That's the Yamato Cannon prototype!" Hopsy's voice bursts in. "It's not actually approved for field use yet, but um..."

Yes! I can use that to shoot at the bee, as well as get the Shield Pod. I spring to my feet, wincing when my right ankle hurts. I limp toward the stairs, more like a ladder, and climb to the top floor. 

"What are you doing?" Bow says, while shooting at the angry bee. The creature just grows bigger and bigger.

"We're supposed to do this together," I say, munching random buttons on the control panel.

"Do you even know how to operate-"

Bow stops right then. The angry bee's about to attack when it blasts into nothing. Thanks to the Yamato Cannon.

"You were saying?" I ask, targeting the cannon to the other side at the Shield pod. "Come help with the Shield pod. Shoot the bottom one."

The scurrying of steps makes me grin. We'd be at each other's throats by now. If not being stuck in this game.

"Ready?" I ask, my target locked on the top button.

Bow responds by shooting at her target. That's an answer as well.

My wide grin collapses the moment the cannon drops its head.

"The Yamato Cannon is very powerful," Hopsy says. "But you have to time it just right."

"You got to be kidding me!" I snap, punching every button on the control panel. "What the hell!"

A pair of hands pull me away as I break every pink device on the damn panel. These shiny objects are worthless!

"Let me go!" I say, tugging out of the grip. I end up collapsing on the floor, my gaze on the bees approaching this ship from every corner. There are both the small, green ones and the large, purple ones.

We're doomed, aren't we?

"You want to know why I treat you like crap, right?" Bow's voice makes me turn. She's squatted down, the bob of her antenna now a neon blue.

"Bow, you're right," I say, using the limited energy I have in getting up. "Let's get out of here and then talk."

"No," she says, pulling me back to the floor. She brings me closer to her robotic face, her antenna now an orange.

"You don't remember do you?"

I feel something than my brows crinkle. My avatar must have double brows or something- not the point. I stare at her, trying to find another meaning of what she's just asked. What don't I remember?

A soft rattle escapes Bow's lips. "You've forgotten everything again."

"What do you mean-"

"We've been stuck here for five hours!" Bow snaps.

"What!" I shout back. The ship wobbles again, and I'm about to again topple off this floor when  Bow holds my hand, anchoring her other one to something on the floor. A latch, maybe.

"Initially we did bite each other's heads off," she says, tightening her grip on my hand and pulling me back. "But I'm dead sure we won the previous three times."

"Then how are we stuck here?" I ask, trying to pull myself to the top as well.

"I don't know!"

I manage to come on the top floor without toppling over again. Trying to get my breathing under control with deep breaths, I sit beside Bow.

"I'm mad at you for ditching me that time," she says, looking at her small, gloved fingers.

I manage to take in a breath without choking. "You mean, not telling about my major change?" I move closer to her, our shoulders slightly brushing off each other now.

She shakes her head. "Not that. I knew you started to hate psychology. I'm talking about the Year-end party."

My mind goes blank. What did I do?

"I told you I wasn't interested but you dragged me there anyways. Then you left me alone with a bunch of weird geeks." 

It hits me. The summer party. Yeah, at the end of junior year....Lana was hosting it at her mansion...she's the heir of Tulkens Co., the world's oldest and most successful conglomerate. I wanted to learn...

"I'm sorry," I say, glancing at her. "I didn't mean to. Lana kicked me out."

Bow glances at me. If her avatar had brows, they would be over her forehead by now. 

"Seriously," I say. But still, I could've called. I bite my lower lip. "Actually, I have no excuse. I know you hated the party and I should've called when I was leaving."

Bow sighs after a long moment of silence. "Also, Cas. I'm beyond furious when I heard you're engaged."

My eyes widen. "What?! Who told you that?"

"You did, obviously!" she says, crossing her arms. "You even gave a cheap invite card."

"Heck, Bow! I'm not engaged. When did I-" I stop, the faint memory appearing before my eyes.

Bow shifts in her seat when I burst into laughter. How is she so naive?

"How could you believe that?" I manage to say. "It was a stupid prank to make you pay half of the rent."

"Crap," Bow says, looking away. I laugh even more, bending back. I don't care how shreiky my laughs are, I can't believe Rainbow Kekoa fell for that.

My watering eyes land on the glass window, and I lose my laughter. My jaw drops when I see several bees smiling. Even the big, grumpy ones.

"Bow," I call, patting her shoulder, my gaze fixated on the numerous bees. So, that's why this ship didn't blast into bits again.

"Auē!" she says. I know right, oh my god!

"Good job, both of you!" a voice says. It's Dr. Hopsy again, but their voice's more cheerful. "Always clear misunderstandings between loved ones!"

We both look up. "What-" 

Everything goes black.