Life Without

A Harmless Game

     "No! I said stop it! Please!" you scream fighting back angry tears. "How could you take advantage of me like that!?"

     "Oh come on.. You were an easy mark.." you hear a voice in your ear. "Besides, I had too. You were so tight in that space thinking you couldn't be touched. It was too tempting.."

     "I hate you! I'll kill you!" you scream angrily then turn your head hearing a loud knock on the door. You set down your controller and take off your headset then get up quickly walking to the door. When you open it, you see your mother in her bathrobe looking at you with a yawn. "O-oh.. S-sorry for waking you.." you say as you look at her.

     "It's okay, [your name]," she says in a sleepy and exhausted voice. "Just keep it down please.." she said then walked back to her room down the hall. You quickly shut the door then rush back over to your Xbox placing the headset back on your head and taking the controller back into your hands.

     "Sorry, Jason. I accidentally woke my mom up.." you say into the headset and begin to kill alien creatures with a smirk watching the television screen carefully.

     "Why are you apologizing to me, [y/n]?" he asks, and you shrug as you fight and kill aliens and protect your partner.

     "Dunno.. I thought I might since I left you hanging." you say, and you can hear him chuckle through your headset.

     "It's not the first time you've done it," he teases, and your eyes roll.

     "Whatever, you devil of a man!" you say, and he laughs at you as you both begin to kill swarms of aliens.

     You watched his character in his custom Halo battle suit run right into the middle of the swarm while you hang back in the same corner he had killed you in "by accident". Jason and you would spend every Friday at 10 o'clock P.M. sharp playing Halo until roughly between 3 and 4 o'clock A.M. It was your favorite time of the week even if you had the worst week possible. You shot aliens down by the handfuls and smirked watching Jason need backup. That was your routine, and very very rarely did that ever change.

     "Hey! Watch out for that grenade!" you holler into the headset as a grenade landed next to him, but it was too late. The grenade exploded, and he was killed on contact. "Dammit!" you scream, and he laughs at your bad sportsmanship.

     "I think you get too passionate about this game.." he joked then laughed, and you laughed with him.

     "Maybe.. But I can't help it so get off my back." you say with a laugh then hear your notification sound go off. "Hey, it looks like someone wants to join in on our game. Want to add a player?"

     "Sure. It looks like it's a male, so we can prove that men are superior to women!" he jokes, and you laugh and smirk pressing the accept button.

     "Welcome, VampireBadBoy18, to the endless show of yelling, bad sportsmanship, and the proof why women rule!" you say, but you hear the new player scoff.

     "No girl is ever going to beat me, GamerGirl101," he says in a joking yet aggressive tone that sent chills down your spine.

     "Perfect! We're going to show you, [y/n], why men are superior! High five, BadBoy!" Jason says with an air of arrogant confidence in his voice.

     "Let the games begin," you say as you set up the next mission then began to play.

     You begin to play quickly racking up points faster than the two boys could combined, and through your headset, you could hear subtle curse words and the confidence in the way they talked begin to diminish. It made you smirk knowing that you were winning and showing up the boys at the same time, and after a while, you heard the sounds of victory on the screen when you reached the desired score to win. Controllers hitting the ground could be heard through your headset and you began to brag about your victory.

     "Good game, GamerGirl," you heard BadBoy say through your headset, and you nodded in agreement.

     "Yup, good game, BadBoy.. You should come play again with us. It'll be fun!" you say, and he replies with a yes and a friend invite which you happily accept.

     "Where are you from, BadBoy? Perhaps we could hang out soon.." Jason says as he picks his controller up off the floor.

     "I'm from [your hometown] near [your street]," BadBoy says with something that sounded like interest in his voice.

     "Hey! GamerGirl and I live near there too! What a lucky coincidence!" Jason exclaimed, but you felt unnerved by it.

     "Oh really? There's a nice coffee and donut shop on that street. I assume you've been there or at least seen it? How about we meet up there?" BadBoy asked.

     "That's our favorite hang out spot! We always hang out there on the weekdays around 12:oo.. How about you meet us there?" Jason asks, and you can almost hear the grin on his face.

     "Sounds great.. I'll see you then," BadBoy says then exits out of the game leaving you and Jason alone again.

     "I can't wait to meet this guy! He seems so cool.." Jason exclaimed happily.

     "Yeah, I guess.. Can't believe he lives so close. Well, I guess we'll meet him later.. Night, Jason.." you say still a little nervous about the situation.

     "Night, [y/n]," Jason says before logging off.

     You log off then stand up turning off your Xbox and trudging off to bed. Little did you know, your life was about to change for the worse.