Just Friends: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Page 21

  “How did you survive that anyways?” Danielle asked.

  “That’s for people who actually survive in this game to know,” I said.

  It was simple enough. I’d taken the time to set up a couple of shielding spells that took the brunt of the damage when that fireball went off. Of course that also had the unintended consequence of deflecting and amplifying most of the damage from said fireball onto my friends’ characters killing them instantly, but that was as much their fault for not bothering with their own protection as it was mine for picking something that put the people surrounding me in more danger than usual.

  Still, I knew she wasn’t going to let up until I told her how I survived, and I wasn’t going to go into it with her. The last thing I wanted was to get into another spirited discussion about her and Trevor’s habit of ignoring basic fundamentals. So instead I pulled up my spells and cast one that brought her character back into the realm of the living, though with a lot less health than she’d usually have if she was ready for a fight.

  The resurrection sound piped from the game on her phone. She looked down with a smile that quickly turned to a frown.

  “You used a low level rez spell on me? Seriously?”

  “Think of it as a lesson in being more prepared. I can’t protect the two of you all the time, you know,” I said.

  Danielle sighed and then groaned in frustration. “Fine mom. Anything else?”

  “Go take care of Trevor and then we’ll head out. And make sure to get a receipt so we can comp ARealms for this.”

  “Sure thing,” Danielle said. “You’re not coming?”

  “I’m going to hang out here for a few and run guard duty. Make sure nothing else crazy happens while we’re trying to pull together.”

  “Would be easier if you gave me a full resurrection instead of this halfassed stuff,” Danielle muttered as she went back into the diner.

  I ignored her. She had no way of knowing there was no real threat out there. Just the hope on my part that the specter of a real threat might be enough to whip her and Trevor out of the complacency they’d developed from their years in the royal entourage.

  Instead I moved over to the front entrance and looked out. They weren’t out there. I’m not sure what I was expecting considering how quickly they’d been trying to get away from me. Maybe she was afraid I was going to try and retaliate instead of just being impressed that someone had a pair big enough to take a shot at me. Not to mention being distracted by the sexy, but that was neither here nor there.

  I really hoped I’d run into that girl at the Gathering. Sexy and confident. It seemed like an interesting combination. If she was interested in girls, something that seemed like a definite possibility considering the way she bit her lip when she looked at me, then it would be yahtzee all around.

  “We’ll have to be on our guard at the Gathering,” Danielle said, coming up behind me and distracting me from thoughts of my sexy virtual assailant. It pleased me that Danielle was already thinking in terms of being careful.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw Trevor standing beside her with a properly embarrassed look on his face. No words were necessary with him either. He sighed and rolled his eyes when I looked at him. Yeah, he knew he’d screwed up. It had been so long since anyone attacked us that they just assumed it couldn’t happen. They were overconfident and needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

  I could do without the peg knocking, of course. The girl hadn’t managed to off my character despite trying with a pretty damn powerful spell.

  “Just make sure you aren’t letting your guard down in the future,” I said. “That’s how you get offed. I just hope word of this doesn’t spread. Other people might get the idea that it’s open season on the Alternate Realms royalty.”

  Trevor and Danielle exchanged wordless glances, though I didn’t need them to say anything. I knew exactly what was going on. They’d probably already been messaging their friends telling them all about what just happened and now they were trying to figure out if they should tell me or not.

  “So are we ready to go?” I asked. “We need to get there early enough that I can go around to all the camps and give the pre-Gathering royal buffs.”

  “Yeah, getting out of here sounds like a good idea,” Trevor said, seizing on the lifeline he didn’t know I was throwing him.

  A few minutes later we were back on the open road and I had my phone out and my custom glasses on scanning the road. She was out there somewhere. A little voice told me that the girl was probably speeding well ahead of us to avoid any chance of us catching up and exacting revenge. That same little voice also whispered that someone that confident wouldn’t log out of the game.

  Still, there was the chance that one of the many dots showing up on my map display when I cast a spell to reveal players could be her. I could hope. And if they weren’t then I could have a little fun with target practice to pass the time until we got to the Gathering.

  A Gathering that I was truly looking forward to for the first time in years. That girl was going to be there somewhere, and I had to travel to each of the camps to give the queen’s blessing, an area of effect buff that had a very small radius which necessitated the queen traveling to most of the campfires at the Gathering.

  Most years it was exhausting and just one more reason why I didn’t look forward to another live Alternate Realms event, but this year it meant I’d have the perfect opportunity to track down that mysterious girl.

  I couldn’t wait to see her again.

  6: First Night

  “So you see the queen, the most powerful player in the whole damn game, at a random truck stop diner.”

  “Yup.”

  “Surrounded by a couple of her friends who are also presumably pretty damn powerful.”

  “You’d think.”

  “And your first inclination is to attack them? What the hell were you thinking?”

  “To be fair, I did manage to kill two out of three.”

  “And to be fair the only reason we’re still alive is because I peeled out of that truck stop faster than the law allows!”

  “I think you’re looking at this whole thing the wrong way Colin,” I said.

  “Yeah? Because it’s looking like you’re starting off the Gathering by doing something that’s stupid and likely to get us killed before we even get there!”

  “It’s not like it matters,” I said. “The campsite is an out of character zone and everyone gets resurrected the next morning anyways.”

  “That’s beside the point!”

  “Then what is the point?”

  Colin sighed. I glanced over and noticed he was holding the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip. I decided it might be time to make a peace offering. I didn’t want him stressed out while he was steering a giant hulk of metal that was hurtling down the interstate at seventy miles per hour.

  “Come on Colin. We weren’t ever in any danger and everything worked out.”

  “That’s what you always say. You do something stupid and you say that it’ll work out.”

  “To be fair it always does.”

  Colin sighed. “You’re going to be like this all weekend, aren’t you?”

  “Probably.”

  He shook his head and a grin spread across his face. “It’s certainly never a dull moment when you’re around, and even though I’m worried for my character’s future I have a sneaking suspicion it’s everyone else at the Gathering who needs to watch out.”

  “Probably,” I said with a grin of my own.

  I felt the car slow as we moved towards an exit with a big sign welcoming Alternate Realms players to the annual Gathering. It said we were still a couple of miles away from the Gathering, but I felt my skin prickling. I glanced down at my area map and it was lousy with bright dots indicating players. There were so many that the phone started to stutter from overload, something that never happened before.

  I blinked. That was interesting. I had a fairly new phone with s
ome decent power under the hood. It had never stuttered for anything. Thankfully after a moment everything loaded and then the dots were moving around. I marveled at the feat of engineering required for ARealms to get that many people to show up on the game screen at the same time. No one ever appreciated just how hard that had been, but as a coder myself I always felt those magnificent bastards deserved every cent they earned on this audacious and addicting game.

  “Do you think we should log out? Gonna be dangerous as we get closer,” Colin said.

  Only no sooner had he said that than all the dots on my screen turned from the angry red of potential threats to a happy green color that indicated everyone in the area was a friendly. I looked out the window. We weren’t even halfway down the offramp and there was no convenient location for people to snipe at players getting off the offramp. There were even a couple of cop cars with lights flashing as though to drive home the point that there would be no funny business tolerated that could potentially snarl traffic.

  It seemed that ARealms had thought of everything.

  “Looks like we’re already in the safe zone,” I said.

  “Good. Means I don’t have to worry about you going crazy and pissing people off before we get to the camp.”

  The camp ended up being a sprawling affair that looked like something straight out of an old civil war picture of a war camp. Except there were far fewer heavily bearded men sporting guns and the tents were a variety of colors and sizes instead of the uniform white you saw in those old black and white photos.

  “Looks like we’re here,” Colin said.

  We parked and got our own tent out. The campground was set up in a series of circles. Each circle had a massive bonfire in the middle, a wider circle of hay bales for people to sit on, and then bare spots for tents. At least in theory there were supposed to be bare spots.

  “Damn. We’re going to have trouble finding a spot,” I said.

  “And we got here early!” Colin said.

  “Not early enough. We need to get our asses in gear unless you want to room with some stranger.”

  Spots were being snatched up and fights were breaking up before security people showed up to break them up. I saw one shouting match break out where a woman was jumping from spot to spot saying they were saved for her friends who were showing up in a couple of hours. She got a sour look on her face when a security person showed up and told her all the spots were first come first serve.

  We eventually found a bare spot in a circle of people who were smiling and seemed to be having a good time. As we pitched the tent a girl and guy who looked to be a few years older than us came over. The guy stuck his hand out to Colin.

  “Nice to meet you! I’m Dave and this is my wife Jessica.”

  “Good to meet you too,” Colin said, shaking the guy’s hand and looking slightly uncomfortable about the contact. I wondered how long it would take for him to surreptitiously pull out the hand sanitizer I knew he had in his pocket and give his hands a once over.

  “So have the two of you been to a Gathering before?” Jessica asked. She was pretty enough with a nice smile, though she didn’t have anything on Erin. My thoughts drifted to the queen and whether she was even here yet.

  “We’ve been to regional events, but never the big shebang,” I said. “Too expensive to travel until it was in our back yard.”

  “Aww, how sweet! I still remember the first time Dave and I went to our first Gathering together. It was right after we got married!”

  “Any wedding bells in the future for you two? Not seeing any rings on those fingers,” Dave said with a chuckle.

  Colin and I glanced at each other. Locked eyes. The smiles came first, but a moment later both of us were nearly doubled over laughing. It wasn’t the first time a breeder couple had mistaken us for fellow travelers when it came to enjoying a nice dish of wieners and clams, but it had been awhile.

  “Was it something I said?” Dave asked.

  “Sort of. Definitely no plans to get married. The supreme court finally granted me that right recently, took the fuckers long enough, but if I do get hitched it’s definitely not going to be to this ladykiller here.”

  “Oh,” Dave said. Then he was laughing too right along with his wife. “Sorry. Saw the two of you together and just assumed.”

  “No worries,” Colin said. “We get that a lot. I guess I’m her fag-hag, or whatever the male version of that is.”

  Dave and Jessica looked scandalized. “Colin! I don’t think we’re supposed to be using that word anymore.”

  “Right. Is that one that I can’t say but you can, or is it one that’s only for gay guys? I’m not getting these memos y’know.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned to Dave and Jessica who still looked a little uncomfortable. Though I suppose I should be happy that their discomfort was from Colin using a potential no-no word and not because they weren’t happy with the idea of sharing their campsite with a lesbian. It never ceased to amaze me how drastically things could change in just a few short years.

  “Honestly. I can’t take you anywhere,” I said.

  “Yeah? Well remember you need me as bait so you can lay traps with those big sp…”

  I smacked him on the shoulder and he clammed up real good and quick. I turned and favored our new campsite buddies with a smile that I hoped communicated that we did this sort of thing all the time. Even if the way Colin was rubbing his shoulder and swearing under his breath put the lie to that.

  I smacked my hands together, looking for a subject to change to. The bonfire was raging behind us and already a few people had food of some sort. Food that looked too well done to be something they pulled out of a cooler.

  “So where can we get some eats around here?”

  Jessica pointed to a building off in the distance that was set up on the edge of a forest. It was nicer than any of the tents set up, but it had the look of a place that had been thrown up pretty damn quickly.

  “You go get your badge registration at the main building, and then there’s a few tents off to the side where they’ve got a cafeteria of sorts running all hours as long as you have your badge.”

  “Free food? Those bastards didn’t mention anything about that online! C’mon Colin. Let’s go get our badges and get some grub!”

  Colin was still muttering as we walked off into the sprawling encampment of geeks looking forward to several days of virtual reality fantasy wargaming.

  When we got back to the camp, burgers and fries in hand, more people had gathered and our moderately sized circle of tents were full. People were laughing and chatting, and we went over to take a seat by Dave and Jessica who were already in conversation with another couple.

  “Are you serious? Someone just attacked her?” Dave said.

  “That takes some serious balls pulling something like that. Whoever did it got away?” Jessica continued.

  My skin prickled. I don’t know why, but I knew they were talking about me and the attack at the gas station earlier in the day. I leaned in and listened, suddenly very interested in this conversation.

  “Yup,” some guy on the other side said. He leaned in and whispered, though it was a stage whisper that was obviously meant to be heard by anyone nearby, myself included. “Whoever it was got in, killed a couple of the queen’s friends, and ran.”

  “Amazing,” Dave said. “I wouldn’t want to run into the person who pulled something like that in an empty alley! At least not while the two of us were flagged to play.”

  “You can say that again,” Jessica said with a shiver.

  I took a bite of my hamburger. I didn’t want any of the people to see the huge smile on my face. Chances are they wouldn’t see it and put two and two together, but you never knew when there was going to be an armchair Sherlock in the crowd. By the time I was done chewing the smile was mostly gone.

  “What are they talking about?” Colin asked before taking a bite of his own burger.

  “Seems someone tried to assassin
ate the queen today,” I said, a little louder than was strictly necessary. I wanted to make sure they heard me talking about this like it was some huge scandalous mystery. “I can’t imagine who would do something that foolish!”

  Colin started coughing and spluttering as a bit of his burger went down the wrong hole. I gave his back a couple of good whacks and a piece of partially masticated cow flew out of his mouth. When I turned back around everyone was staring.

  “Sorry. Choked on my food,” Colin said.

  “So what were you talking about? Someone attacked someone?”

  I was trying to strike the right balance between innocence, ignorance, and interest. I also wasn’t sure how well I was pulling it off, or if it was even necessary in the first place. It’s not like they were going to associate me with the dangerous person who tried to pull off a hit on queeny earlier today.

  “Steve here was telling us that someone attacked the queen and a couple of her friends on the road. Took out her friends but didn’t manage to get her,” Dave said.

  “Cowardly if you ask me,” Steve said. “Attacking someone when they’re not expecting it!”

  “I think it’s impressive,” Jessica shot right back. “If you’re not in a safe zone and you’re logged into the game and flagged for play then whatever happens is your own fault. That’s the whole point of the game.”

  “Have to agree with the wife on that one,” Dave said, patting Jessica on the knee. “I don’t know if the person who attacked her was brave or stupid or both, but whatever they are they definitely aren’t a coward for pulling a stunt like that!”

  “That’s terrible!” I said. “Who would do something like that?”

  Steve leaned forward so I could see him. “They’re saying it’s a faction moving against the queen, but of course all the factions are either saying they didn’t have anything to do with it or they aren’t saying anything at all. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a huge clusterfuck when everyone gets out into the field tomorrow!”

  “So what faction are you two in?” Jessica asked.

  “We’re not in a faction,” Colin said. His voice was flat. Annoyed.