4 College Kids

Marmalade

Chapter 10

Dirk had no idea why he agreed to play laser tag with Jake.
His legs were sore, and all he wanted to do was to go home, take off his shirt and sit in front of the AC and either continue expanding his mini-robot collection or watch shitty anime. That was his original plan, but unfortunately for him it was ruined by a problem known as Jake. Wasn't he exhausted? Was this guy seriously 19 or was a fucking 6 year old boy? Sometimes, and by sometimes he meant all the time, he couldn't tell at all.

JAKE: Arent you excited about this?
JAKE: It wouldnt hurt to show a little enthusiasm you know...
DIRK: No, it wouldn't.
DIRK: But it also wouldn't hurt for you to stop being over- enthusiastic.
JAKE: Oh dont be like that. Laser tag is ace!

Dirk took note of the fact that there were kids standing behind them, watching Jake 'inspect' the guns as if they were real and it could shoot actual bullets.
Damn, now he really did look like a baby sitter or an older brother. He was really starting to regret agreeing to this shit. Dirk wasn't even good with guns whatsoever. He didn't fancy guns, he didn't enjoy them, nor was he ever interested in holding guns.
Never. Ever.
Dirk was more of a sword guy. He was a lot better at wielding a sword. He liked the shape, its sharp tip, but most of all he liked the idea of either slashing or hacking with it. Even the damned handle of a sword, he loved it.
He would rather buy a 1000$ katana than buy a pair of free guns. Was it even buying if it was free? Dirk didn't really care.

Actually, Dirk had once written a long-winded as fuck essay just to explain to his college teacher how or why he fancied swords over anything else but you would probably think he was weird if he shared it-not that you don't already think he was weird in the first place, that is.
So let's get back to reality.

JAKE: Good god strider could you PLEASE stop fannying around!
JAKE: We dont have forever to wait outside the laser tag area you know!
DIRK: We have a lot of time, English.
DIRK: There is absolutely no need for you to feel like you have to drag me places.
DIRK: I know my way around the arcade, thank you very much.

Eventually though, the duo finally got into their own round of laser tag. Jake threw him one of the vests and one of the courtesy laser belts, where they were supposed to put their laser/guns.
Jake already had two strapped to his.

DIRK: Isn't having more than one gun not allowed?
JAKE: Well nobody really seems to care.
JAKE: Have you SEEN the type of laser guns they have here?
DIRK: But Jake.
JAKE: Frankly i dont think me having two guns is going to bother them.
JAKE: Besides its just us playing this round.
DIRK: Fair enough.

Jake spun his fake guns out of their belt holsters as they entered, turning to face Dirk.
He mimed shooting Dirk's heart with both of them, winking and giving him a stupid grin. Dirk rose an eyebrow, skeptical.

JAKE: I call that one 'double pistols and a wink'.
DIRK: You..name your moves?
DIRK: Your flirtation techniques?
JAKE: Flirtation techniques?
JAKE: Oh ho ho no no youve got it mixed up pal.
JAKE: THAT was my death move. My killing blow!
DIRK: Sure.

Maybe Dirk should start researching guns after this.

Once they were inside the room, the little lights on the center of their vests lit up and gave a small ding.
When that happened Jake immediately rushed off, doing some..really weird parkour tricks on the blocks and obstacles that helped provide shelter for people playing.

DIRK: Is this even a game for him?
DIRK: Sure doesn't look like it.

Even though he had no confidence and he didn't believe in himself because of the fact that he was playing with this stupid gun and not a sword, he still decided to play along with Jake. If he was gonna take this seriously, then Dirk would too.
His gaze swept over the perimeter to check for any sign of the British asshole and when he felt like he was in the clear, he decided to forge ahead and start looking for Jake to shoot him in his stupid face, his hand on the handle of his laser-gun thing. He was safe - until he wasn't.
A laser light whizzed past his face and he ducked to the side, pulling his gun out of the holster and spinning around to aim it at where the light had come from.

But Jake was already gone.
That son of a bitch.
Dirk wasted no time in running in that direction, but making sure he was being careful to not get ambushed from behind. Another laser light came his way but this time he reacted fast enough and fired one back, very narrowly missing Jake's arm.

JAKE: Wow, youre pretty good at this strider!
DIRK: Don't flatter me, English.
DIRK: I'm still very ecstatic about the opportunity to completely fucking obliterate you.
DIRK: At laser tag.

Dirk heard the sneaky bastard laugh a little.

JAKE: Then by all means be my guest and 'obliterate' me!

Dirk fired another shot in the direction of his voice, but as he expected Jake had already rolled off somewhere else in the laser tag 'arena'.
He felt something hit his back and he didn't really have the chance to process what was going on when he realized that sly motherfucker had thrown one of his guns at him before he stumbled forward, whipping his head to the direction of where it had come from.
Very big mistake.

DIRK: What the fuck?
DIRK: You're supposed to use them, not throw them you -

He was cut off when the light on his vest pinged and turned red, signifying that he had just died.
Jake hopped down from one of the blocks above him, giving Dirk another one of his "double pistols and a wink".

JAKE: And that was my finishing blow.
DIRK: Throwing a gun at your enemy is not a good move, English.
JAKE: No need to be so bitter over a game of laser tag, chum!
JAKE: I still won in the end.
DIRK: You won because you cheated.

Dirk let him use two guns because he thought he would use them. Use the both of them, not fucking throw one of the guns to trick him. (To be fair, Dirk thought, he did use both of them to shoot but his point still stood)
But their match was over which meant he couldn't do anything about that anymore. He expected to lose at this game, considering how he didn't know jack shit about how guns worked but part of him didn't want to accept that he lost.

JAKE: Well now thats hardly fair. I won through my brilliant trickery.
DIRK: Yeah, yeah. You won.
DIRK: Now let's buy some ice cream and get out of here.
DIRK: And a rematch. I'm demanding a rematch.
JAKE: Well im not saying no to that!
JAKE: The rematch and the ice cream.
DIRK: Good.

As it turned out Jake had won enough tickets from the arcade games to get himself a bunch of free coupons and coincidentally enough he had ones for ice cream, so they both ended up not only eating ice cream going home, but FREE ice cream. Which, Dirk had to admit, was fucking cool. Not that he'd say that out loud, but still.

Maybe NOT sitting in front of the AC watching shitty anime hadn't been the worst idea in the world, after all.