The Human Mate

1. On Death and Punishment

Avril's POV

"You can't just walk into them," I growled, risking two seconds to rap Louis on the side of the head. "Are you stupid? Are you? You're support. You need to be behind, supporting."

Louis bared his teeth at me as he watched his death countdown for his regeneraton. "Of course I know that, dumbass. I'm lagging, I can't help it."

"You're always lagging," I muttered as I methodically dispatched the fighter opposing me with my ultimate. "You do know that my house has WiFi, right?"

"Shut up," he growled back.

Don't worry, folks. We were in a Mobile Legends game, and it often made us hot headed. After another ten minutes or so, we won by a narrow margin and I threw my phone down.

"Phew," I said. "That was a close one."

"Yeah," Louis breathed out and he dumped his phone next to mine and laid back on my bed. "I'm done. We played more than ten games back to back and my eyes are crossing now."

"Yeah," I agreed wholeheartedly as the room began spinning. I sometimes forgot to breathe when I get too focused and the lack of oxygen to my brain showed. "What're you doing after this?"

Louis shrugged in a non-committed manner. "Hang around for a bit then I have a party to get to tonight."

My stomach roiled in protest at the idea of his parties. It always involved people getting overtly drunk and getting into fights. And Louis was usually the peacekeeper of those fights, which meant he took the brunt of the hits. And also delivered a lot of them. I frowned at him but he had already closed his eyes, throwing an arm over his head to block the bright early evening light out from my window.

I sighed. "Do you absolutely have to go?"

He groaned. "Not this again. It's Anton's birthday tonight and Winson just got dumped. They're in the mood to get shitfaced drunk and wasted off the floor."

"And be turned into a bloody pile of mush," I muttered under my breath. But out loud, I said "Fine, whatever. Bring back some shawarma."

The place they frequented was an entire part of town filled with pubs and clubs and whatnot. That means plenty of street vendor foods and live music and tourists. It would be great if there weren't also rich underaged girls targeting their next catch to make them feel alive for a night and druggies and gangsters.

I should probably introduce us properly. Louis is like an adopted little brother to me, two years my junior and the most dependable person...well, ever. My best friend Alix is my soulmate, my other half, the kind of friendship that made us more like twins than friends. Alix is the same age as me, but older beyond her years and also falls in love with guys like it's the last thing she did. The two of us adopted Louis into the fold when we were sixteen and the three of us have been inseparable ever since.

"Don't you want to go?" He asked me. "They've been asking after you."

"Me?" I was honestly surprised. I wasn't close with any of Louis's friends but we weren't strangers either. "Why me?"

He grinned under his arm, I could feel it. "You're the prettiest girl there whenever you go, and the most mature one since you're at least older than us by two years. It's refreshing for those losers." He cleared his throat. "And you used to be the life of the party, too."

Ugh, don't remind me. "Those days are way behind me," I groaned. "I'm too old for that shit."

That line was actually stolen from Alix. She'd gotten over her getting-drunk-every-night phase since she'd started three years before me, and when I finally grew out of my sheltered youth, she'd been in her last bout of rebellion. I'd continued for another three months or so until one of the guys I'd gotten close to left to work in the Philippines. Then the whole group I'd hung out with kind of disbanded and I didn't feel like going anymore.