Just Friends: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Page 19

  It was time to work hard for a couple of days, then play hard for a week!

  3: Dread

  “That’s it. I’m not going this year.”

  “What? You can’t just not go!” Trevor said.

  I fixed him with my best glare. It rolled over him like it was nothing. Obviously the terror of showing up at the Gathering and not being in the retinue of Queen Erin the great and powerful, the ever victorious, the perpetually bored, was far more of a threat to him than one of my glares.

  I sighed. “The game is so boring! This is going to be like the fourth year.”

  “Fifth, actually,” Danielle said. “You took the throne in the first year, and you’ve defended it for three years running.”

  I slammed my hand down on the table. Everyone looked up in surprise, suddenly paying attention. It irritated me to no end that they just treated this like it was a gravy train that was going to keep rolling on forever. It irritated me even more that they didn’t seem to care whether or not I was having fun as long as the gravy train was chugging down the tracks. Wasn’t the whole damn point of playing a game like this having fun?

  Well Alternate Realms hadn’t been much fun for me in awhile. Show up at an event. Give everyone a special blessing that only the queen could bestow. Deal with some court intrigue, but not much because everyone in all the factions were so terrified of crossing me and losing favor that they never bothered to make a move against me, and pack it all up at the end of the event.

  At least ARealms was nice enough to pay for us to go to all of these events. They’d also been nice enough to schedule the next Gathering, the biggest they’d ever hosted, just a few short hours from my home city. Everyone else in the group was stoked.

  I wish I could feel the same way.

  “Give me one good reason why I should go to this thing,” I said.

  “If you don’t then ARealms will give the crown to someone else and we’ll have to start paying to attend these events again,” Trevor pointed out.

  “I’m failing to see how that’s my problem,” I said.

  “You’re also sort of contractually obligated to show up at those things as long as you’re the queen and they’re paying us to come out,” Danielle said. “If you agreed to come to one of their things and then didn’t show they could probably sue you for breach of contract or something.”

  I buried my head in my hands and started massaging at my temples. I wanted to play a new game. Sure Alternate Realms had been fucking awesome when it came out. Combining live action role-playing with a phone app that tracked all your statistics for you and updated them live and on the fly? I could kiss the genius son-of-a-bitch who came up with that idea. Actually I had kissed half of the duo that came up with the initial idea. I kissed her quite thoroughly and all over at Gathering 2 or 3. They were all starting to run together. Hot and rich? I was all about that until she also turned out to be dreadfully boring when talking about anything other than this game.

  This damn game. I happened to get in early, take over, and now I couldn’t get anyone to attack me and make things interesting. I was like a mafia don who everyone was afraid to approach, and it was making everything so dull. The idea of going to one more of these Gatherings had all the appeal of getting a tooth drilled without any anesthetic, only less fun.

  “What if I just fake a sickness to get out of it?” I asked.

  “Why are you so intent about getting out of it anyways?” Trevor asked.

  “Because there are no new worlds to conquer! I’m at the top of the game and there’s nothing else to do but look pretty and wave. I’m less useful than the Queen of fucking England. I’m a pretty ornament the company trots out talking about how great it is, but it sucks because no one ever comes at me.”

  “So? It’s a pretty sweet gig you’ve got! Top player in the best AR game out there!” Danielle said.

  I poked a finger at her and sent some of my fries spilling. I grimaced and wondered what all those players who stared at me when we were at ARealms events would think if they saw us sitting here in a fast food place talking about the game. Not that I should even be eating fries like that. They went straight to a couple parts of my body that meant I had to spend a lot of extra time in the gym keeping them under control.

  “It’s a pretty sweet gig for you two, you mean. You show up and get to have all the fun of swishing around with the royal party, and then you get to go off and have your intrigues and your role-playing fun while I’m stuck in the palace waiting for other faction leaders to stop by and tell me how wonderful I am.”

  “What about the groupies?” Trevor asked.

  “You’ve never pulled a groupie in your life, Trev.”

  I giggled and reached out to slap the hand Danielle offered for a high five. That burn was some seriously low hanging fruit, but it felt good. I was in a mood where I needed to snap at something. Needed to sink my claws in. Trevor just happened to be handy. The poor guy.

  He retaliated by sticking his tongue out at me. Okay, not the classiest of moves, but then again it’s not like insulting his masculinity right out the gate was the classiest move on my part.

  “I’m talking about you. If you don’t go to this thing then you’re going to miss out on all that primo fangirl tail you pull at these things every year.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes. “Yeah right Trevor. Like appealing to her horniness is going to work.”

  I stroked my chin for a moment and thought about that. A smile came to my face as I thought of some of the fun I’d had over the years. ARealms always put together a castle at the center of their playing field for me to hang out in, and ever since my dalliance with one of the co-founders, that had to be year two, there’d conveniently been a room in those castles that contained a little cot that was just big enough for two people. I figured that was a lasting “thank you” from Darla for all the fun we’d had that week two or three years ago.

  “Actually the man might have a point. I do tend to have a lot of fun at those events,” I said.

  Honestly it was starting to feel like my only love life came at these events. Not that it was surprising since it seemed like every other weekend I was being dragged to an event thanks to ARealms trying to expand their video gaming empire.

  “You can’t be serious,” Danielle said.

  “Hey, these things are my only social outlet since it’s the only thing we ever do. Give me a break!”

  “I’ve got an even better reason for you to go to this thing. Better than any fangirl groupie you might run into who wants a roll in the hay with the queen just to say she did,” Danielle said.

  I cocked an eyebrow. “What on earth could possibly be better than having a roll in the hay with some newbie who’s a little star struck? Because I’ve got a shortlist in my mind and none of it is really coming out on top.”

  “Yeah? Well think about it. This is the biggest one of these things ARealms has ever put on. They’re flying in their best players from around the world. This isn’t the nationals. This thing is going to be international.”

  “So?”

  “So think about it! You’re not just going up against the best this country has to offer. You’ve beat all of them before. You’re going up against the best the world has to offer! You’ll be able to say you’re the best player in the whole world!”

  “But I already am the best player in the whole world…”

  “You sure about that?” Trevor asked. “We’ve never been to one of the international events before. Figures ARealms started footing the bill for international travel right when their big event is in our backyard. You don’t know that there isn’t someone lurking out there from another country who isn’t better than you.

  I knew when I was being manipulated. As I looked at the smiles on both their faces I knew they were trying to pull a fast one on me. They were trying to get me to give in by appealing to my ego and vanity, and much to my annoyance it was working.

  “You two are fucking devious. I wa
nt you to know that.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Danielle said.

  “You’re trying to make this thing seem like it’ll actually be a challenge.”

  “But it will be a challenge!” Danielle said. “Plus we’ll get to see all our friends…”

  “You mean you’ll get to see that queen’s guard you shacked up with in the back room of the castle the last time we were at one of these events?”

  Danielle’s face went pale. “You knew about that?”

  Trevor barked out a laugh. “Dani dear, everyone knew about that! Those walls aren’t exactly soundproof, you know.”

  Danielle’s face went from pale to bright red as she realized belatedly just how public her love life had become. Whoops. Not that I could blame her. We all hooked up at those things.

  “I still don’t want to go.”

  Both of them looked stunned. I almost wanted to smile. It was obvious the two of them had been expecting something like this so they’d worked up that routine between the two of them. Seeing the looks on their faces when they realized I was onto their bullshit and I wasn’t falling for it was classic.

  “But we have to go!” Danielle whined. “I don’t care if you heard. I need another go with Ivan!”

  “Ivan?” Trevor laughed again. “The guy’s name is Ivan? Seriously?”

  “Shut up Trevor,” Danielle said. “You’re just mad that no guys ever hit on you.”

  “Oh I don’t know about that. Let’s just say that a certain someone stole my heart when I was out negotiating with the thieves’ camp last year…”

  “You slut! I had no idea he was gay!”

  “Well Nathan isn’t, but his second in command Dave sure as hell is! It was a lot of fun playing the thief king and the captive royal messenger,” he said.

  I rubbed my fingers against my temples. Once again I could see what they were doing, and it looked like we’d come full circle back to their initial attempt to entice me. If they weren’t going to lure me out there with the promise of fighting off some of the best players from around the world then they were going to try and remind me of the promise of knocking boots with some of the numerous attractive, and usually kinky and into role-playing, individuals who populated these events.

  “Guys, the two of you really aren’t helping your case here.”

  Both turned and looked at me with that same annoyed expression again. Both blinked in unison. Again it almost would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so damn irritating.

  “It isn’t?”

  “You’re just reminding me of all the creepers who come up and start hitting on me,” I said.

  “So?” Danielle countered. “There might be lots of guys who creep on you, but eventually they figure out they’re barking up the wrong tree and you always find some pretty little thing to cuddle up with at night.”

  I sighed. “You two aren’t going to give up on this until I give in, are you?”

  Danielle leaned forward over the table, stabbing a ketchup covered fry in my direction and nearly causing some of that ketchup to go flying onto my shirt.

  “Look at it this way, Erin. You know deep down you’re not going to give this up. The challenge, the groupies, all of that’s nice but it isn’t why you go to these things.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “Nope, it isn’t,” Trevor said. “You know it. We know it. You’re going to be in that car when it’s time to go out to the big event.”

  “And why is that?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “Because you’re not going to give this up. It’s the one time of year when a poor grad student becomes a star overnight complete with huge corporations paying you to show up and groupies throwing themselves at you. You’re addicted to that small slice of the good life, and you’re not going to give it up just because you’re bored with the game.”

  I flipped Danielle the bird. She smiled and returned the gesture. At the end of the day my friends knew me far too well. They knew just how to manipulate me.

  “I hate you. Now how early are we leaving?”

  4: To the Gathering

  “This weekend is going to be so fucking awesome!” Colin said.

  “You’re damn right it is!”

  My phone started buzzing. I looked down, half expecting a call, but it was just another warning. Colin glanced over and then into his rear view mirror when he realized what my phone was telling me. An area-of-effect ward that was attached to my character was going off which meant there was a potential hostile coming up on us in the game, and coming up on us fast.

  I flipped open the map portion of the game app. Out here on the open road it worked perfectly in a way that it just didn’t in enclosed buildings. Sure enough there was a red dot moving closer and closer. When I moved from the gameworld map overlay, a fantasyscape that bore absolutely no resemblance to the cornfields whizzing past outside, to the real world map it became even more obvious that this potential threat was coming up behind us rapidly and following the line of the Interstate.

  “Hostile?” Colin asked.

  “No way to know. I’m going to cloak us again.”

  Colin sighed, but didn’t protest. Sure there were stories online about epic battles taking place on the highways. There were also concerned articles from reporters who didn’t know anything about the game interviewing cops who didn’t know anything about video games at all. Talking about accidents that had been caused by people playing Alternate Realms instead of paying attention to the road.

  I didn’t see how playing Alternate Realms was any different than texting, but better to not get involved in one of those situations in the first place. I switched over to my spell screen and put up a cloaking spell that would keep us hidden from all but the highest level mages.

  “Y’know we could just deactivate our characters until we get off the road,” Colin said.

  “What would be the fun in that?” I asked. “If we do that then we don’t have people driving up on us thinking they’re getting easy pickings then seeing our characters disappear. Besides, this is the kind of fun we never get to enjoy back home. It’s a highway teeming with Alternate Realms players! How fun is that?”

  “It’s the kind of fun that could get our characters killed before we even make it to the Gathering. You know what happens then.”

  “Yeah, we have to wait until tomorrow to play unless someone can resurrect us. I don’t see what the big deal is there. The campground at the Gathering is a neutral zone where there’s no player versus player action, and we don’t go into the playing area until tomorrow morning anyways.”

  “I guess you have a point. Besides, with that invisibility spell they might just think we chickened out and logged out,” Colin said.

  “Not a chance. Our icons would show blue for a minute if we did that. This way we just disappear. This way they know there’s a shark swimming somewhere out there and they need to be careful.”

  “You’re having too much fun with this,” Colin said.

  “You know it!”

  I was having too much fun with this. Normally I’d run into a few people playing Alternate Realms outside the office. Maybe I’d frag a kid who thought he was hot shit in a mall food court or take out somebody at a traffic light. Driving out to the annual gathering, though, was something else entirely. The highway was lousy with people cruising towards the big event, and most of them kept their characters flagged on the road. It meant that I was quite literally riding shotgun making sure nobody took out our characters on our way to the Gathering, and it really had the adrenaline pumping even though it was just a video game.

  “Whoa, this asshole is coming up on us fast,” Colin said.

  “I know. It’s like they don’t even know I can see them,” I said. I was still looking at the screen and if anything it seemed like that red dot coming towards us had picked up speed since I went invisible.

  “What are you talking about?” Colin asked.

  I pointed to my screen. “Th
ose people who were coming up behind us with their characters flagged? They picked up speed when I went invisible.”

  “Yeah? I think they’re coming up behind us right now, and they’re not exactly obeying the rules of the road.”

  “Huh. Maybe we should teach them a lesson?”

  “No way Anna,” Colin said. “I don’t want to be a victim of Realms rage.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You don’t seriously believe that bullshit, do you?”

  “What about that guy out in Nevada?”

  “You mean the guy who slept with his best friend’s sister, got the crap kicked out of him for it, and then the parents blamed it on Alternate Realms after the fact?”

  “Oh. I didn’t hear the whole story.”

  “You never do. Now are you ready to teach these assholes a lesson?”

  Our conversation was interrupted by a frantic beeping from my phone. I looked down in time to see the game switch from the map view to the local grid. Basically a zoomed in map without all the detail that showed enemies and their spells coming at you. A fireball was streaking towards a car two cars back. Then the car jerked forward in the passing lane and another fireball streaked out towards the car right behind us.

  “Huh. Looks like they’re hitting every car in the right lane,” I said. “And risking causing an accident in the process, I might add.”

  “Makes sense. They can’t see us so they’re just attacking anything that moves because they know we’re out here somewhere.”

  “Should I be worried? Do I need to log out?”

  “Patience, Colin. Everyone who’s come by us on the road has been a scrub. I don’t see why these guys would be any different.”

  I looked at the fireball they were firing off. Either they were trying to disguise how powerful they really were, entirely possible, or they weren’t all that high a level in the first place. I grinned.

  “I don’t like that grin, Anna,” Colin said. “What are you up to?”

  “Those assholes should know that a minnow doesn’t go poking every fish in the ocean when one of them might turn out to be a great white.”