Short Story #79: Addiction

Lance was never an early riser and his addiction to video games could have contributed to that. It was normal for him to start plugging in the PS4 and play games for 7 hours straight till he slept at midnight. So, it was unsurprising that he lacked sleep.

It was the school holidays finally and his parents would not want him to waste all thirty days just by playing games.

Last week, Lance's parents had instructed him to clean the entire house since they would be away on a business trip for three days. Lance may or may not have heard his parents' instructions because his eyes were glued to the huge television screen when they said it.

To his parents' disappointment, they returned to a very messy house with empty bottles and dirty plates littered all over the floor. As they had expected, the only thing occupying Lance's mind was his beloved video games. They had tolerated this unhealthy behaviour for years so they did what responsible parents should do.

Destroy the PS4.

Well, not in the literal sense since it was bought with Lance's own hard-earned money and also, they are not that evil. So, they gave the game system to their neighbours for safekeeping. This was a great idea since their friendly neighbours owned a pitbull and Lance had a phobia of dogs after a stray dog ferociously chased after him when he innocently tried to feed it food. It was an unfortunate incident since Lance happened to be only two years old at that time.

With the PS4 out of the way, his parents set up a routine for Lance to follow closely throughout the remaining days left in his school holiday. This included having an adequate amount of sleep and waking up early. Also, it was compulsory for him to leave the house every day so that he would get exposed to plenty of sunlight and breathe in the fresh air outside. All the hours he spent being addicted to his games had led to him looking haggard and malnourished, worrying his parents greatly. With their close supervision, they made their only son adhere to their newly-set rules.

Of course, at first, Lance found it hard to follow but with support and determination, he gradually got used to the routine and in a matter of a week, he had grown to be quite alert and grown more productive. It worked so well that it seemed that Lance had totally forgotten that he owned a PS4.