SWNOVELS Chapter 3 Game On
I'm pretty lucky to have my best friends Riley and Zach still. We've been friends since we were little little kids, and we're still in touch even though we go to different colleges. Riley has long brown hair and a goatee, and he's into the same band as me, Green Day. He goes to the University of Iowa. Zach has black hair but is balding slowly and is one of the nicest people I know. Seriously, no comment about him or his receding hair, doesn’t even phase him and he goes to Michigan State University. You can talk to him about anything, and he always has the answers and never judges. I'm glad I have them in my life, especially since I'm stuck in Illinois with only my girlfriend and a few of her friends, who I'm not really close with, by my side to keep me company.
Like every friend group, we have our differences, but we always seem to talk and work through them somehow. Like this long-distance relationship. But it's never gone as far as the predicament Josh and Ben are currently going through. So why did the fog put me here now? Where I have zero experience. ZERO! What can I even do to help? Putting my troubling thoughts and concerns aside for the time being, I picked my character and figured now was a good time to ask the elephant in the room,
“Did you by any chance tell Ally how you felt about this?”
“Remember what we had planned to do after lunch.” Where I of course nodded. “Well, I told her exactly how I felt since YOU”, emphasizing that word, causing me to laugh and rub the back of my head awkwardly as he continued saying, “thought it would be a good idea to go to the bathroom. I’m sorry for not waiting for you, amigo, like I promised but you know me I can’t hold my anger for that long. Especially when our friendship is in jeopardy!”
I SIGHED heavily in that moment and just asked,
“What happened next?”
“I did what you asked me to and told her how we felt but just as I suspected, she brushed it off saying something about putting my words into your mouth and get this, she even accused me of being jealous of them.” He huffed and puffed and said, “Can you believe that? Me.” Josh befuddled. “Me. Jealous. Of them? Ha! In her dreams.” He laughed maniacally out loud. “When she started to walk away, I called her out on choosing them over us. She got pretty angry at me with that I think and now refuses to talk or even look at me.”
Yikes. Forget I asked. I tried to calm him down. "Look, Josh, you know Ally as… well as I do. She's our best friend. She didn't mean it. I bet by Monday she'll—"
"No, she won't." Josh interrupted me, his voice cold. I trembled. "You weren't there, amigo. You weren't there. Let's face it, our best friend Ally won't be our friend for much longer." He scoffed. "This is only the beginning before she forgets us and moves on to be with her newfound besties."
I was fed up with Josh's venting. I got up and started to leave the room, but he stopped me. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"
I turned around and looked him in the eye. "Home."
“Home?” Josh asked confused, “Why? You just got here.”
“I thought we were here to play Goldeneye 007, not talk about Ally.”
Josh stood there for a moment, stunned. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop talking about her. I don’t want to lose you too.”
With that, I genuinely smiled as I knew I got through to him. So I sat back down to where I originally sat, which was on the gray shag carpeted floor in front of his small TV and I don’t know why but I said,
“Aww. Who knew under that tough persona you are just a big softie.”
He grunted and said, “Ha. Ha. Very funny. You won't be laughing for much longer when I kick your butt in a few minutes.“
“We’ll see about that. I'm sure.” I replied, giving him a cocky smirk.
With that out of the way, we finally got the game started with no interruptions. I figured out the controls rather quickly and just kind of walked around trying my best to find him and fired the first “warning” shot, but I didn’t last that long as I died immediately after. Josh, who was gloating said,
“What was that about kicking my butt earlier?”
My mouth was wide open the entire time because I couldn’t believe how he beat me so quickly. While he was busy celebrating, I suddenly got an idea on how to beat him. I was going to use the oldest trick in the book by using his own cockiness against him. I gave an evil smile as I said the words I knew he wanted to hear.
“I want a rematch. That shot was lucky and you know it. So let’s make things a little interesting.”
Josh put his controller down and said,
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Let's do a best out of five, winner takes all, deal?”
“Alright, I can handle that… but on one condition.” Josh answered with a smirk.
“And that is what exactly?” I curiously asked.
“We can’t be the same character and use the same weapon more than once.” He answered, grinning through his teeth.
“Nooooo.... come on dude, I just got used to this character.” I pleaded as Josh then grinned, as I knew he would by saying,
“Sorry, Ben. Can’t do it unless you're up for the little challenge.”
“Oh, I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I, but whatever, you are so goin down.”
“Ha! Now we're talkin. You get the honors of being the first pick, amigo. Good luck.”
Great just my luck, I just got used to the controls and now I get to battle him in a best of five. What in the hell was I thinking? Going against a naturally gifted N64 gamer.
Now I hear what you're saying about me being “scared” or is this really necessary. Well, it is and you’ll see why video games matter later. So with that out of the way, here is what happened during our best of five: Josh beat me pretty good in the first two, not gonna lie, but I did return the favor in the next two rounds and he wasn't very happy. Then came the excruciating finale. If I wasn't sweating in the first two battling him… now I was. You could just feel the tension in the room. Time flew by and it was now the final match. I hadn't been hit yet and somehow won by catching Josh off guard and getting a clean headshot. I couldn't help but do a little victory dance and gloat a bit. "In your face! This is the best day ever!"
Josh just said, "That was lucky."
"Yeah, totally," I replied. "But it doesn't matter anymore." I ate a chip and savored the moment.
After that intense battle, Josh asked, "You down to play some Mario Kart next?"
"Hell yeah!" I said. "Can this day get any better?"
Just as Josh blew on the cartridge and the Mario Kart music started to play, we heard a knock at the door. Josh said, "Come in."
Josh's mom popped her head in and said, "Hey, Ben, your sister is here to pick you up."
"She is... ugh, fine, tell her I'll be right there."
I sighed and got up. "Guess the fun has to end sometime." I replied, looking down in disappointment.
Josh's mom nodded, left the room, and closed the door. As soon as she did, Josh started laughing his butt off.
"Still your best day ever?" he asked. God, this kid is such a smart aleck. I can see why Ben is best friends with him.
"Oh, shut up," I said. "It's not funny. Ugh, why does she have to ruin everything? Well, it's been fun. We should totally hang out again, this time at my place next Saturday at around 2pm. Maybe. Does that sound good to you?"
"Yeah, maybe," Josh said. "I'll ask my parents first. I'll let you know. See you later, Ben!"
As I got up to leave his room, he stopped me and "reminded" me to do this weird secret but super easy handshake before leaving. All it was was bumping our elbows then fist bumping each other. That's it. I walked downstairs and saw Ben's older sister Megan leaning by the front door. Damn, Josh was right, she was gorgeous. She had brown hair like Ben's, but it was now a dirty blonde with distinct curly waves. She was wearing a long-sleeved dark green butterfly shirt with her belly button showing, but she had a bleached jean jacket over it along with bleached jeans and tan shoes. Such a weird combo. But then again, this era was basically the 90s part two, so I guess it made sense.
But there was something around her neck that I actually recognized and was drawn to. Around Megan's neck was a black chain choker necklace that was... oddly the same one that my girlfriend Emily Stewart wore the last I saw her. I wished I could get a hold of that necklace somehow. It would be a nice reminder of her. I shook my head as my new "older sister" called out to me in an embarrassing baby voice, "Hey there, knucklehead! Get down here, chop chop. Don't want your Sloppy Joes to get cold, do you?"
She paused and turned to Mrs. Martinez. "Well, it's been great catching up with you again, Mrs. Martinez. I hope you have a great night, and be sure to tell Joshie I said hi." Then she looked back at me, annoyed that I had only made it down one step. "Ben, for the love of God, start walking down those steps a bit faster. Don't make me come up there and drag you down. We really have to be home."
I rolled my eyes and started walking down the steps, grumbling to myself. "Whatever you say, sis."
I barely got down to the last step when she, true to her word, grabbed me by my right arm and dragged me out the door before I even had a chance to say or wave goodbye to Mrs. Martinez. Once we were a good distance away from them and were now walking towards a car, she just had to ask,
“So how was your little hangout with Joshie?” with a bright smile. I was embarrassed because she just had to do that right in front of Josh’s mom, so I replied coldly.
“It went great, Megan.”
She gave a sympathetic look and sighed,
“I didn’t embarrass you too bad back there, okay. So please save the complaints you are holding till we’re home and just so you know, it's not my fault that you didn't walk down those steps a bit faster. I did warn you.”
Suddenly she stopped walking and looked down at me and with a sincere serious tone asked me,
“Why did you give me that look earlier?”
“What look? This one.” I asked, giving her an evil glance.
“Noooo, silly, that one doesn't bother me. I'm talking about the one you gave when you first saw me. It looked like you didn't know me or had a clue that I was serious about picking you up. Seriously, what's wrong with you?” She then paused for a second as if she had an idea and said, “Oh wait a minute, what am I thinking, I know why.”
“You do?” I asked with a raised eyebrow looking at the rearview mirror seeing Ben’s reflection.
“Mhmm let me guess, Josh had just beaten you again at Mario Kart and you didn't have the opportunity to go for a rematch cause I showed up.” She answered.
How’d she know? It wasn’t Mario Kart like she said but it was close. But that’s scary how well she knows Ben. That right there could be a problem. But first let's just see how good she is with this one.
So I said,
“Noooo.”
Megan continued to stare down at me as if I had the plague and knew I was clearly lying. I then sighed in defeat and admitted,
“Yesss…” as I looked down then looked back at her and saw this slight smile peeking out. I then clarified that,
“It was Goldeneye 007 this time, not Mario Kart. We didn’t have time to do Mario Kart cause you showed up, but I did beat him by a best of five though.”
Megan looked surprised and said,
“Wow… that’s a first. Nice job.”
When I saw the rusty old red minivan parked in the driveway, I couldn't help but say, "That's the car you drove here?"
Megan rolled her eyes. "Well, at least I didn't have to bike here like you. And besides, the minivan was the only one that could fit your stupid old BMX bike. So get in now, before I change my mind and make you walk home. I already did you a favor and put it in the trunk."
"Mountain bike," I corrected.
"Whatever," Megan snapped. "Just get in."
I opened the passenger door and she shoved me inside. Geez, someone was in a crabby mood. I watched her skip happily to the driver's side and get in.
As I buckled my seatbelt, she asked, "Are you done being a little smartass, Short Round?"
I shrugged.
"You're lucky you're getting this car when I go to my dream college," she then started to say in an annoying sing-song voice. "You know how bad the winters get here. And just so you know, I can still change my mind about the car anytime I wa-n-n-n t-t-t."
Ahhh, I was almost starting to forget the downside of being the younger sibling. Thanks for the lovely reminder, Megan.
I didn't say anything to her, just rolled my eyes and looked out the passenger window at the unfamiliar neighborhood. As we drove away from his house, I had no idea where I was. I would've figured it out by now, but there were no landmarks or anything to help me orient myself. Not even a license plate.
I guess the fog is not making this easy for me.