"I need you on my flank!"
"You don't have to scream, Y/N," Tom shot back. "I'm sitting right next to you."
"Yeah well, you're also supposed to be right next to me in here, and yet this stupid fell spirit is murdering me!"
Tom muttered to himself the way he always did when we played Lord of the Rings Online. I'd gotten him addicted to the virtual world a few months ago, and when he'd finally leveled up to me, we'd begun questing as a team. Sometimes I felt bad, as I became very competitive and rather forceful when we played. I never apologized though. I was too proud for that.
"There's too many of them!" Tom madly clicked his mouse and hit keys, hoping for some miracle to save him from the ghostly green monsters slaughtering his level twenty-two Elven warrior prince. "Y/N, help me!"
"So close..." I muttered, slaying another spirit and guiding my burglar Hobbit a step closer to the moss-covered shrine that was our goal.
"Y/N!" Tom shouted, cursing under his breath and then shoving his laptop away from him. "I'm dead! You chose the mission over me!"
"Yes!" I cheered as I reached the shrine, clicking on it and watching the swirling fireworks spiral around the screen as I levelled-up.
I suddenly found my computer being pulled out of my reach, and started out of my trance to meet Tom's annoyed glare. "You git! You left me to die!"
I huffed and rolled my eyes. "Don't be such a baby about it, Holland."
Tom sighed and exasperatedly pushed himself away from the table. "Jerk."
I laughed and reached for his wrist, stopping him from storming away the way he always did when I left him to die. "Come on." I pouted at him. "Are you really going to stay angry at me?"
"Yes." He stuck his tongue out and pulled away from me grasp, standing and sauntering down the hall. I sighed. He was a drama queen, but he was so pretty that I kept him anyways.
I pulled back my computer and signed out from the game, sensing that our questing was over for one day. I was hoping to spend the whole day with Tom, but knew that he'd need at least twenty minutes to grow his pride back. Closing the laptop, I stood and went to the spare bedroom to rummage through my candy stash. Levelling up as brilliantly as I just did meant that I certainly deserved a reward.
I rifled through the drawer, coming across a Crunchie bar and grabbing it to head back to the living room with. It was then that I saw something so horrifying that I could do nothing but fall backward against the wall and scream.
I immediately heard my boyfriend bumbling down the hall, running into the room, brown eyes wide. "Y/N!"
He saw me curled up in the corner and rushed over to me, kneeling down and brushing his hands over every visible part of me. "Y/N, are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened?"
I shuddered and pointed behind him. Tom whipped him head around and stopped. "What is it? I don't see-"
"On the ceiling!" I whisper-yelled conspiratorially.
Tom's eyes found the creature and he froze, large hands clenched around my wrists. "Oh God..."
The mother of all spiders seemed to sense we had found her. She was already the size of my palm, but Tom and I looked on in horror as she unfolded, becoming the size of a mouse. I wanted to cry a little bit.
"Kill it!" I squeaked, shoving Tom's shoulder. "Stomp on it. Brutally murder it. Do something dammit!"
Tom didn't move.
