February 2019

It was a Tuesday evening, and Levi Cranston came over to his friend, Kevin Maggliardi’s, apartment in Cambridge, MA. Everyone else was busy, so it was nice for just the two of them.

Kevin was reading a book, and Levi walked in with tears in his eyes and his face all red.

“Hi Levi, what’s wrong?” Kevin greeted his “big brother.” They’re not related; they are so close that they could pass up as being related.
“Bad day at work. A coworker screamed at me,” Levi replied to his “baby brother.”
“Same lady as before?”
“Yeah, same admin lady.”
“Sorry to hear that. Want a hug?”
“That’d be nice.”

Levi climbed onto the couch with his friend and wrapped his arms around him. Not thinking twice about it, he lay his head against Kevin’s chest so that he could hear his heart beating. Kevin wrapped his left arm around Levi’s shoulder.

“This is the first time I’ve heard your heartbeat,” Levi remarked, in between sniffles.

Kevin drew in a deep breath and gave Levi a pat on the back. Their platonic relationship does not mean they don’t have to be this close. In a few minutes, they both fell asleep.

Like around June 2018

Levi Cranston (The Magic Video Game) and his girlfriend, Mackenzie Burbanks, were out and about on the mean streets of Boston. Jack Andrews and Asad Prejesh were in their apartment playing video games for the evening. Their new friends, Jing Hao and Kevin Maggliardi, invited them all to play video games, but everyone else declined. Especially since Levi and Mackenzie had a date, and Jack and Asad just simply did not feel like playing tennis.

It was around 6 pm, and Jing and Kevin walked over to the nearby tennis courts, where they all practice. They were planning to stay for at least three to four hours.

“Should we run around the track first?” Jing asked.
“We always do, so I think that answers your question,” Kevin replied.
“Okay, so let’s do it.”
“We need to leave around 9:30, because Levi wanted to chat around that time.”
“I think we’ll be done by then,” Jing said.
“Usually, we are,” Kevin remarked.
“When is Sheridan coming to the States?”
“Next week. He is stopping in Dublin first.”
“To do what?”
“To party there, I think.”

Sheridan is Kevin’s oldest brother, who is 32 years old and lives in London to pursue his doctorate degree in biomedical engineering. He has another brother, Graham, who is 29, and lives in New York City for work, as he works in IT. His only sister, Addison, is going to be 27 years old in a couple weeks, and she lives in Chicago for graduate school. Kevin just turned 25 years old, and Jack, Asad, and Levi view him as their little brother. Kevin is originally from Cranston, Rhode Island, pretty close to Levi’s motherland.

Levi and Kevin met at their tennis coaching job. Levi works in IT for one company in Boston, and Kevin works in IT for another company in the same building, so they very often commute to work together.

Levi, Mackenzie, Jack, and Asad share an apartment in the Allston neighborhood, while Jing and Kevin have a place in Cambridge. It is either a fifteen minute commute by bus, or a thirty minute commute by foot.

Jing is from Garden City, a suburb of New York City. He is 25 years old, and has a younger sister, Amanda, who is 23 years old. He and Kevin met when they went to college in Boston. Jing also works in IT, and he is looking to go into grad school pretty soon.

“This weather is pretty nice,” Jing remarked after a couple laps around the track.
“Yes, it is,” Kevin responded. “What time is it?”
“Time for you to get a watch.”
“I have never heard that one before!”
“No?” Jing asked, taking things a bit literally.
“Nope,” Kevin rolled his eyes and smiled.
“Time for tennis?”
“Time for tennis. We have a few hours.”
“We agreed 9:30, right?”
“Yup.”

Tennis practice was a complete blur. By the time they got on the tennis courts, it was already 7 o’clock in the evening. They had a couple hours before they’d have their phone chat with Levi, Jack, Mackenzie, and Asad later tonight.

A couple hours later, Jing and Kevin were really tired, sore, and sweaty. They headed back to their apartment in Cambridge, where they would get ready for the night. It was Thursday evening, so one more day before the weekend.

That’s why they all needed to chat.

When they got into the apartment, Jing beat Kevin to the shower, kinda pissing Kevin off.

Oh well.

Kevin used this time to lie on his bed to stretch his back out a little, and to throw a tennis ball against the ceiling. He decided that now was a good time to call Levi, and so he did.

“Hey Kevin, I have you on speaker,” Levi answered on his end. He and everyone else must have been out in the common area.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Kevin asked.
“Well, Mackenzie and I are back from our little date. We ventured out on the harbor walk and the North End.”
“Very nice. We’re all gonna check out the harbor walk again this weekend, right?”
“I wouldn’t mind doing that. We could also go out to Cambridge, whatever works for you,” Levi said.
“Well, I’m totally open. Jing is taking his sweet little time in the shower,” Kevin replied.
“I figured as much.”
“What is everyone else doing?”
“Well, Mackenzie is in our room. I think she’s on a phone chat with her family. Jack and Asad are in the kitchen heating up some leftovers from the night before.”
“That’s great.”

Jack and Asad had some Indian food from last night that they decided to heat up now, after spending at least two hours playing video games. They were being summoned into the living room to come up with some plans to hang out that weekend with Jing and Kevin.

“Hi Kevin,” Jack responded once he and Asad walked into the common area.
“Hey guys,” Kevin responded back.
“How was tennis?”
“It was pretty great. I beat Jing on all matches, so that was nice.”
“I wish we were there to witness it,” Jack said.
“I know! You missed out on a great evening,” Kevin exclaimed.
“Well, we were playing tennis on TV.”
“Not as fun.”
“Next time, we’ll play all of you.”
“Sounds like a plan. Well, Jing came in, and I’m going to shower. I’m disgusting.”
“Okay, you do you.”

July 2018

It was 12 pm in Boston, and Kevin Maggliardi just woke up. He and his friends, Jing Hao and Mike Wong, played video games until around 4 am.

Kevin was half-awake when he grabbed his phone from the night stand to check the time. When finding out that it was 12 pm, he saw 10 text messages from his girlfriend, Linda Matmatuan. They went on a date before he spent the evening with his friends, and he thought it was the best date yet. They had been together for six months.

He saw several photos of her at the bars hanging out with several guys and taking them home for a hot night. The photos were graphic. Kevin’s face turned red, and his heart started pounding.

Linda wrote a text that said, “Kevin, our relationship is over. I met a guy at a bar that is cuter than you.”

Kevin felt tears streaming from his eyes, and his hands and breathing were shaky. He sent a screenshot of all her messages to his best friend, Shanti Lee, who at the time lived in Los Angeles.

He lay in bed for the whole day. His now ex-girlfriend has cheated on him.

June 2019

“Do you remember that one time a couple years ago when I was really sick?” Kevin Maggliardi asked his roommate, Jing Hao. They were playing video games in their Cambridge, MA apartment.

“Yes, I do. Very interesting situation,” Jing replied.

“I was so out of it, I couldn’t work for three days. So I went back to my parents’ for that time so I could recover. It was just a really bad cold, but that was the worst I think I ever felt with just that.”

“Didn’t you like sleep for a day straight?”

“I slept for 16 hrs. Like I fell asleep at around 10 that night, according to my dad. Then I woke up at like 2 that following afternoon. And I felt so gross when I woke up, I sweat through my t-shirt and my hoodie. I remember my armpits smelled so bad that I was afraid to raise my arms,” Kevin remarked.

“That I don’t remember,” Jing said.

“It was my cat, Tuba, that woke me up. But I probably could’ve slept through the whole day.”

“I think a similar situation actually happened to me right before college actually. What brought this up?”
​
“David mentioned something.”

July 2020

Kevin Maggliardi and his girlfriend, Shanti Lee, lay in bed all morning. It was late Saturday morning, and they decided not to do much today.

“Did you realize that you slept on top of me last night?” Kevin asked his girlfriend of a year and a half.
“No,” Shanti replied. Her stomach gurgled very loudly, and her face turned red. Kevin hugged her and kissed her on the head.
“I could feel your heartbeat against my back. It was pumping so fast and hard. It was so cute.”

Shanti‘s face turned red, and she let out a very heavy sigh. She took Kevin’s hand and pressed it hard against her chest so that he could feel her heart beating. Kevin’s hand was moving up and down with her strong heartbeat, it was pounding so hard.

“Did you realize that I woke up to your stomach making loud noises?” Shanti asked her boyfriend.
“No,” Kevin replied. He let out a heavy sigh. He was on Cloud 9, since he was feeling his girlfriend’s naturally fast heartbeat.
“It was really cute, and I kissed your belly button.”

Kevin’s face turned red, and now his heart was pounding very hard in his chest.

June 2018

Kevin Maggliardi was spending the weekend with his family in Cranston, Rhode Island. It was around 11 am, and he woke up an hour ago. He fell asleep on the couch last night at around 3 am after watching goofy cartoons. After showering and getting ready for the day, he was still so sleepy for some reason. His cousin and her husband came over with their kids, Jeff and Rosie. After a few minutes, Rosie hopped up on the couch and lay on Kevin’s stomach. Rosie lay on top of him and put her hand on his right shoulder. Kevin gently took her hand and placed it on his chest, with two of his fingers over her small hand.

“Do you feel that, Rosie? That’s my heartbeat,” he said to his little cousin.