Ice Flower Path of ice

Chapter 6

"See the front of the controller, bottom right is fire, top right grenade, bottom left is melee, top left is secondary grenade. Joystick is to move, and the other is to look around, push down on the left one to run." Brock nods in understanding but his face says otherwise, unless he already knew how to play and is just going to bluff until he ends up winning the game. And with the look he has in his eyes I wouldn't be surprised, or do his eyes always look like that? The look of passion and excitement behind them, I could stare at them for hours. Wait no what am I saying. I decide to look at the game which appears to have already started, well it has, I've died. My small screen has gone red with the black lettering saying 'dead' I press A to respawn and move around in the game trying to get used to the controls, then two gunshots go off and I see a character run past me, I know it's Haven because of the slight smirk that quickly moves onto his face before vanishing just as quickly. I press A again this time making my character move to a hiding spot that I think is safe. In the bottom of the screen is small lettering telling me to press A to climb over something that I don't see. I press the A button anyway hoping to get lucky. There's a small animation of my character climbing ladders onto the roof before the camera moves back into first person mode. I hear another two gun shots and my character dies again this time falling over the edge of the roof before the screen goes black. Another few gunshots come through the speakers and I Brock laughs, it's nice, hearing him laugh like that, if only I could hear him genuinely laughing more often.

"Damn Brock you're pretty good." Haven's words snap me back to reality and I press the A button again moving my character around mostly trying to avoid both Brock's and Haven's characters. More gunshots, I expect my screen to turn red but it doesn't, instead my character keeps moving, at least my character isn't dead again yet. This time I see what I recognise as Haven's character run round the corner, no gunshots, he just makes his character keep running and something happens, I'm not sure what but my screen goes red and the lettering shows up again., I suddenly remember what Haven said about there being a melee button, though I myself have forgotten what the button is itself. Fuck I'm hopeless when it comes to videogames. I can see the points in the bottom corner, each character's face is displayed next to the points, Haven is currently winning with Brock just two points behind, I on the other hand, have zero points, I literally have no chance of winning and I still haven't figured out the damn controls. Not that I would be any good if I figured them out anyway, at least not anywhere near the same level as Brock... And Haven. The red screen and the lettering appears again, okstop thiinking about Brock, concentrate on the game- that I have no chance of winning. I make my character move behind a barrel and the lettering telling me to press A turns up at the bottom of the screen again. This time I ignore it and stay hidden. This time when I hear the gunshots I don't die, either they missed me, Haven died or even Brock. Still I stay hidden behind the barrel waiting. Brocks character and I break cover aiming and pressing what I remember to be the fire button. I hold it down and multiple gun shots fill the air and Brock's character dies.

"Yes I finally got a kill."

"No fair I didn't know you were there." Brock frowns but I hear Haven laughing.

"I seriously ship you two." Haven keeps laughing while my character dies again, I don't notice, I'm too busy concentrating on the reddening of my cheeks to care. I manage to press the A button again but I don't do anything to make my character move. The game seems to go by quickly and the whole time I don't move after what Haven said I don't like what my mind is drifting to, it will do things that should not happen in public. Ok ok just stop thinking about Brock.

"Ok right let's play again, but this time-" Haven trails off and goes onto the character menu screen, he gives both himself and Brock various disadvantages like speed decrease along with no explosive weapons and a few others. On the other hand he gives me more advantages, most of which centers around increased health and speed.