love game

I spend much of the evening lying around staring at my bedroom ceiling without much to do, trying to organize my thoughts a bit before it's time to go out. Maybe it's eight o'clock at night, I'd like to go out for a while, though I also wanted to stay here all night playing and become one with the universe when I got sleepy. I sit up in bed trying to shake off the laziness, but the b***h keeps me lying in my extremely comfortable bed all day. Finally, I get up somewhat reluctantly, but if I don't get up now I won't move again until tomorrow. I'm supposed to be in the mood for going out, but I'm pretty sure I'll be taken to a bar and I don't drink. I'm not good either, flirting and sure, if you go to a bar with super friends they will end up flirting and you sitting there like a drunken bluff or in my case a bona fide bluff who always ends up driving around with everyone doing weird stuff in the same car, thank goodness it's not mine and I don't have to clean anything up. But at least hanging out with friends for the first four hours is okay. He took a deep breath. Now dressed, I leave my room and head to the living room, down the stairs and run into my roommate, lying there on the couch staring at his hand with electric blue painted fingernails. Vincent is nice, when he's not up to his ass in pain killers, he's the most harmless thing in the world, but, it's really weird when he's like this. -Do you think electric blue is the same color as electricity or is electric blue made of electricity? I start putting the plugs in the sockets and hide the blender, knives, forks and spoons, I leave plastic cutlery and plastic cups. -No, the electric blue is that way because its creator put it that way, it's a very bright color and that's why it looks electrifying, don't try anything weird and if I come back early I'll cook you something. He starts to say "that's good, blue, that's good" rather slowly. If only he wasn't like that, his grades in medicine would be perfect. But the worrying thing is that he is a future neurologist. -Sometimes I want to know what you would do without me. He settles down on the couch, leaning his face against the fluffy armrest. -I would have been sad, you are my good and reliable friend, I couldn't have asked for a better companion. Another effect of his tranquilizers is that his filter instantly goes to hell, and he drops little gems like that. Who would see him when he's sober, as cold and sadistic as only he knows how. - I know Vincent, now get up and go to your room your neck will hurt if you stay there. He gets up awkwardly and slowly climbing the stairs sitting down. One by one the steps. Why? When I hear the sound of his door, then I go out and close the front door and then leave more quietly. This is how I start almost every weekend since I entered the university. I walk down the hallway of the residence hall and taking the stairs, this time I go down to the top floor, I leave the building and the cold night wind hits me. It's almost nine o'clock, it's more than clear to me that this Saturday night will be just a good time with friends and then I'll lose them completely, since I'm totally and completely sure that we'll go to a bar at the end of the night and I'll have to drive back. With cell phone in hand I intend to call any of them to find out if they are already around or something. A slight bump on the back of my head startles me and I look around and find someone I've known for over two years. Kassandra Aysel Empire. I take a deep breath as I feel the weight of her bat on my shoulder and out of the corner of my eye I see her name etched into the aluminum of it. - Good evening, Dr. Edevane, are you planning to go out or are you just wandering around here to see who's suing you. He asks with some mockery as he rests his weight on my back. The pale white, glossy black-tinged ponytail falls over my shoulder along with the bat. -I plan to leave, so if you'll excuse me, they'll be right by. I say with the intention of leaving. It has never hurt me in any way, but it tends to annoy me to the point of absurdity, it's a kind of "affectionate" abuse as some say. What kind of rude and abusive affection is hers, I don't know what I could expect from someone with her character and personality, it should be noted that she doesn't lack strength, attitude and pride either, that is in excess in her being of one meter and ninety-eight. She is a baseball player that sends the ball flying to who knows where the hell, she is in the men's college team, home runs are her addiction and she hits like she hates that poor and innocent ball, I also know she practices kickboxing and jiu jitsu, why else, with one slap she sends her teammates to San Pedro. - Hey Hey Hey Hey, calm down a little, I'm not going to bite you. She walks next to me, the streetlights next to her makes her shadow cover me almost completely, she is quite tall, with an arrogant smile and a pretty cute face, that calm look in her golden eyes and the way she always speaks without much trouble, the calm tone in her voice with a slight accent that I don't recognize, this time she has dyed her hair from the middle to the tip black leaving everything else pale white, who would say that this is her natural hair color, it contrasts quite a lot with the caramel color of her skin. - You have a bat, that's a warning to me. She sighs and puts it in her backpack, leaving the handle of the bat wrapped in a black leather strap sticking out. - See, I'm not going to do anything, I've never done it before, or are you going to tell me I broke your legs or something? - You have a bat, that's a warning to me. She sighs and puts it in her backpack, leaving the handle of the bat wrapped in a black leather strap sticking out. - See, I'm not going to do anything, I've never done it before, or are you going to tell me I broke your legs or something? She puts her arm around my shoulders, pulling me with her. -You're not lacking in desire. -That was very cruel, I can, but I don't want to, you're what entertains me from time to time, Kenner, besides, I'm not that bad. She chuckles, her tone is what worries me, the calmness with which she speaks and the intimidating of her presence and stature confuse me a lot, I'm not saying that she is bad in general, she has her moments when she is even very sweet, she is a very complicated woman. -Kassandra, I'm leaving, I don't have time for this today, if you want when it's my turn to explain you the homework you can do whatever you want, but it's the weekend. She lets me go without complaining or anything, normally she would have carried me on her shoulder while saying no and takes me to a random place only for me to have to walk back to where I had to go in the first place. - Okay, I get it, but since you've given me permission to do whatever I want when you're explaining laguna matter to me, then it could be used as a decoy for the cakes I'm making, now if it wants to be you go to your thing, but, just remember one thing. She lightly pulls my hair and makes me look her in the eyes. -You, you're mine. I'm under her shadow and looking into her eyes, the most beautiful eyes there are hers and she knows it, but, I'm never going to say it out loud, the serious and determined look in hers makes me keep quiet. Are you serious? -Are you serious? -Yes. She lets go of me and as soon as I hear my cell phone ringing in my hand it takes me out of the strange moment of a second ago. -Anyway, I have things to do, try not to stay up too late, tomorrow it's your turn to explain me some physics. Oh, yeah right, he's in his third year and he's doing terrible with calculus 3 and physics 2. And who's good at that and has some free time. This bastard right here. We have a certain history the two of us, which is easily summarized in that at the beginning of the first year of college in the middle of a dispute we ended up fighting and almost blew my teeth with that same bat, I could not tell if I was angry or just crying because I had no arguments I do not remember why was the fight but indirectly involved me, the thing is that from that day we imposed the punishment of working together until we solve our problems, and with each fight the punishment was increased by a month .... now I have to be with her every so often marking pass for the next forty years, obviously it will only last until the end of college but, in concise calculations... it is forty-seven years of sentence in maximum punishment. - Yeah... I think so, at the usual time I guess. I say ignoring what he said so seriously. - Yeah... I don't think so... maybe seven o'clock... it's just that I have things to do and if I take too long it will be worse. I ended up learning more about his life than anything else in these two years. Maybe that's why I don't dislike her so much, sometimes she's just annoying, sometimes I find her quite annoying, but, in general, she's nothing more than a spoiled child annoying me a little bit. -At half past six I won't be in until half past eleven explaining homework to her. She rolls her eyes. -Okay, six o'clock, but if you get stuff strewn around the place don't blame me. I shrug my shoulders. - You'll see what you'll do. Did you get your bimonthly exam grades yet? -They'll give them in a while, they've already arrived for you. I nod silently and she just waves goodbye and walks away. I put my cell phone away and get into the car. -Will they let me live today or do I have to expect the worst? I say with a slight smile. -Definitely, you will die today, since we know you hate human contact from strangers and loud parties, we thought a middle ground would be good, this weekend we will do something simple and chill. Relief instantly coursed through my body upon hearing that. -What are we going to do? -Easy, there's a small gathering near Red point, we're going to kill some time playing at my place, talking and leaving the usual mess and maybe if the gathering doesn't get messy we'll stop by. Kilian says wanting to convince me not to get off and leave them without a designated driver, but, on the other hand, I can stay and take over their games. -I can handle that, if I get paired up with a random woman again, I'm out. They nod and look with a certain "we're watching you" aura at Kilian. Yes, he left me with a random woman one night. In my life I had never felt so uncomfortable having a woman around, not because of her per se, but because of how "insistent" she was. -Okay fine, this time I won't try to get this man to have a girlfriend. I roll my eyes while mumbling. - Kenner... Was that Kassandra? -Yes, just dropping by to annoy me and remind me that tomorrow I have to tutor her again, otherwise I'm aware that I'd fail the subject again. And to top it off, if she fails most likely the reprimand will be for me for "failing to follow instructions and not imparting my tutoring role correctly" we both get screwed out of this. - And you haven't thought about anything with her, she's cute. Maybe a little tall but she's cute. -No, no thanks, I don't want to die from irreparable pelvic bone fracture, besides, trouble is what that woman brings me. No thanks. I'm not going to lie, if it wasn't for the chain of stupid things we committed until we got tied up like this, maybe, just maybe, I would like to make her smile, she has a nice smile, Kassandra is not ugly at all, on the contrary, I find her quite attractive, the problem is that she lives only to f**k up my day, she doesn't do anything more than that. She may be attractive, tall and quite interesting, but it's that detail that gets on my nerves. I don't know what she wants with that, but she enjoys annoying me. -Have you tried her before? Here we go. -Kilian, stop it. Kent demands Kent to stop talking nonsense. -Okay, fine, I'll let him be asexual all his life. -Whatever you say. I don't want to get into arguments today, it's been a while since I've gone out alone to play or talk quietly, God, I need that. The few times I play is with Kassandra and only because she refuses to do some task and wants me to do it, it's always the challenge of "if I beat you 3 times you do the task, if you beat me 3 times I do it" we play almost anything, it's quite entertaining and so I get her to do the task, reluctantly, but she does it, while I keep doing my stuff and taking over her console all the time. We stay for a while in Killian's Kasa playing, talking and of course, swallowing like animals when he gets absent-minded, his mom cooks incredibly well. After a couple of hours we sit down Kilian and Kent to play to see who gets the last slice of pizza and Aaron and me to talk, James fainted a while ago for eating so much. -How do you not keep fighting with Kassandra when they always got along so badly? You see each other four times a week, compulsorily. Thinking about it from a totally objective point of view, Kassandra has lightened her bad attitude, in two years she has not threatened me again with the bat, on the contrary, once she told me that if I wanted she would teach me how to bat so I wouldn't be beaten to death one day. I refused because I don't look for trouble with anyone and if I tried a swing he smashed my waist, abdomen and ankle at the same time. -I got used to her way of acting, maybe I understand her attitude a little more, I'm not saying EU I love being with her, but, it's just a cheerful attitude and like dogs, it's a tough love so to speak, she's a girl in a team of pure men, they are rough and so is she by adaptability, but, I noticed that alone she is quite calmer and I can even say, that if she looks like a girl, one day I saw her doing braids and she had a red bow. Aaron looks at me as if that last one was a bit weird. -Kassandra Aysel Empire had a red ribbon, she usually puts black ribbons on people. I chuckle, as the image of Kassandra with her bat around town putting an end to a lot of people seems like some weird game. -I don't like her very much, but, she behaves when she has to? I pause. -But? -Then her bastard boyfriend shows up to bother her, and Kassandra may not be my favorite person by a long shot, but the guy treats her very badly. -To talk about Bruce. Yeah... the guy is weird with her. She says looking away. -He doesn't take her for anything, he uses her apartment as he pleases, he belittles her between the lines, he's always telling her what to do and what not to do... Did you know that he's never been to one of her competitions or matches? Aaron looks at me with strangeness in his eyes. - Kenner, do you like Kassandra. -No, it's not that, it's just that I can recognize what a shitty relationship is and no matter how hateful she is, sometimes no woman deserves bad treatment like that, put things the other way around, let the bad one be her, is that okay with you? He was going to say something, but remained silent. -No, it's still ugly. -Seh. My cell phone rings and when I open the notification I find that Viese, the roommate in the apartment next to mine is texting me to tell me that Vincent has been taken to the infirmary again for smoking alcohol... Smoking alcohol, how the hell do you smoke alcohol? He tells me he's fine, just pretty drunk in his own way. -See again? I nod and show him the message with a picture of Vincent lying on a gurney crying. -...Did he stick his tongue in the socket...how do you smoke alcohol? He takes a deep breath and tries to process that. -I don't get it either. I say with complete honesty. -I DON'T GET IT EITHER," I SAY WITH COMPLETE HONESTY, "NOW YOU COLE YOUR i***t PART! Aaron and I look back as Kilian celebrates winning. -Well... let's go to the Giordano twins' meeting. He doesn't seem to be very interested either. After a while they carry me like a sack of flour to the car and off we go to a house that looks normal, except for the huge amount of people celebrating the birthday of these girls I don't know, how do I know it's a birthday party, because there's a huge sign that says "happy twenty-first" squared. I want to believe this won't go wrong. (...) It's four in the morning, I'm sick of everything and tired of Kilian. He f****d up my games all night, dragged me to a party so big that "mega" is an understatement for him, while I was with Kent, Aaron and James, he couldn't come up with a better idea than "Hey, look what I ran into over by the bar." I'm sitting quietly in a chair with my cell phone and of course I couldn't miss it, she also found one to be like gum with me. The girl got tired after a while and I could breathe easy. Finally, as always I was left alone with my bottle of beer and them there in pairs, Kent for my good luck was quite sober, he told me that if I wanted to leave so I would not always be having a hard time being there as a neon lamp with a face of disinterest. It feels awful, but, it's better than being there. I continue walking down the lonely lake street not far from the university. -It was him, that's who I found in the toilets! Looks like they're trying to accuse someone of something ugly. Poor guy. -Hey you! -You bastard! They'll beat him to death. Well, what an ugly night for some people. I continue on my way and suddenly I'm pulled to the side, my back hits a wall and I'm cornered by a burly, bad looking guy. -How do you have the balls to touch my girl?! ... What? -I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. I say looking around for a way to escape. -Now you don't know what I'm talking about. She keeps screaming right in my face and I'm starting to get more scared, as the girl keeps screaming that it was me, others are backing her up, an already quite large group of what seems to be her friends are insisting that I "mark their territory" and I'm afraid I think that means beating me to death. He avoided a couple of his punches, but in my desperation I lose one of his hands and with the keys to my apartment between my fingers I bury it in his eye and run away, he leaves me. I know they are after me, I know they are, it's unfair, holy father, save me, what did I do to you? I promise never again to complain about Kassandra, for her stupidities, I promise never to do it again, I swear I won't, I'm going to look down on Kilian and his promiscuity, I beg you to save me from this. My legs hurt and I fall face first to the ground, something lifts me off the ground by my hair, I feel the taste of blood on my lips. -Nothing will save you now. It's the same guy as before. I'm f****d. Again I kick his knee with all the strength I have and as if it's instantaneous a reflex of his soles me. In awe I keep running rather clumsily, almost falling at times. They are very close and it's just him and a few other guys. I crash into something and fall backwards to the ground. -You're okay, you look like you saw a ghost. I recognize his voice and the relief in my being is instantaneous, I take his hands and get up. -What happened to you, it looks like you kissed the floor too hard. She naturally mocks my bloody nose and busted lip. She is arriving at the college dorm just like me. She clutches me in her arms and I almost collapse from the exhaustion of running so much. -K-Kassandra... I'm short of breath. I look around in complete dread. She makes her attempt to calm me down and leads me as best she can into the dorm. She helps me inside and in the background I hear the guys yelling that they will kill me for touching a Michell. He leaves me sitting on the green grass at the entrance. - Were they following you? He asks as he wipes the blood and dirt from my face with something wet. Why is she so nice now? -I swear, I didn't touch her, I don't know who she is, I've never seen her before, I swear, I didn't do anything. I pulled the sleeves of her jacket. - I know you didn't, you're too snotty and uptight for that. She gets up, I notice she puts her black backpack on the floor next to me and takes out the bat with her name on it and a half-drunk bottle of water. -You need water. -For God's sake, don't go. It's one thing for her to be among the college crowd and have a certain respect and fear for her... but it's another thing for her to go with a bat to a bunch of big, bad-looking guys on the street. -Hey, it's not like I'm going to leave you like this all the time, it will only take a few minutes, I'm going to chat for a while, I'll be right back. He strokes my hair, his leaves with bat in hand, I hear as if he was hitting stones and moans of pain. I look up after emptying the bottle and I run into the scene of Kassandra doing a perfect swing to the head of the big guy who grabbed me first and how he fell to the ground on his back. The others would not be spared from blows to the legs, knees or back. I'm so tired, and I can't even stand up. -You're better, you look less pale. I nod with the same feeling of dizziness and heavy breathing. -Let's go to the infirmary, maybe you need a serum... Were you drinking, you smell like beer. I hate beer. For the first time I look at her face and I am grateful that she is the one who found me, that she is the one who is here. That it is her eyes that keep me conscious and her voice that makes my mind focus on something. -Kassandra... She helps me to get up. -Yes? -Thank you. With a hand on my chest I try to control the maddening beating of my heart. -There's no reason Kenner, I would never let you have a hard time like this by yourself. That's what you do when you appreciate someone, isn't it? Seeing that my legs are wobbly, this one carries me like it's easy to do. - You take it easy, I know you're not the most athletic guy in the world. How much current. -F-from red point to here. Everything goes black for a moment. I come back to life when I wake up lying on the gurney with something on my arm. I look to the side and notice the IV connected to a drip into my arm. -Don't try to move too much, shorty. -Good morning... I say without being able to look away from her, the light from the lamp behind Kassandra makes her look like a white aura or something, while her half-picked up hair looks too good on her. The sensation of the rapid beating of my heart suddenly returns. She looks at me with concern. -Good night, you mean. She chuckles mockingly. -I didn't know you were so lazy... Are you sure you're not a professional gamer? He puts his hand on my forehead without looking at me. -You're still very cold. Is this your normal temperature? The look of concern in his eyes is new to me. - I'm cold by nature. -I know shorty, you're as cold as a penguin's ass and as dry as a desert. But I'm still glad you're okay so you can see that the bad guy in the relationship is you, I'm super nice and kind to you, I even did my homework half way and it took me four hours longer than normal because I didn't know what to do, but I did it. So you rest and don't worry about anything, I can live doing my homework by myself-I see that you think better your words-please recover quickly, calculus is not my thing. Relationship? .... -What relationship? I ask undecided and quite curious, well, I guess we're just punishment partners or something. - Friends? Yes, I guess so, oh right. He changes the subject. He takes a few things out of his backpack. -He says, "Since your roommate isn't there and they were looking for you, they told me to give this to you, should I leave it in your apartment or take it with me? Ugh classes. -Then I see what it is, I'm going to me anyway..... I try to get up and my arms give way. -Hey Hey Hey Hey, easy shorty, they said you have to be at rest at least for the rest of the day, that what you have is muscle fatigue and you are over exercised, you got hit really hard, your nose and mouth, you had a slight contusion and a blow together on the crown of your head that looked like an egg. Don't move, you stupid midget. With his hand on my forehead he makes me lie down again and I stopped trying to get up. -My back hurts. -I don't know why, I just remember what I was told yesterday about your condition. I have no idea if your back is okay. I look at it lazily.