Level Me Up (Gamer Boy #1)

by Lauren Helms

  The next morning, Dex texted me to ask what kind of drinks we preferred. Ruby put in a request for margaritas, so we decided to take a cab to Dex's since we’d be drinking. One of us could have been the DD, but I think we all wanted to enjoy the night and not have to worry about getting home or leaving a car behind.

  We live about twenty minutes from Dex. It turns out he lives pretty close to the arcade we went to the other night. I point it out to the girls as we pass it. Just seeing the neon sign makes me think of Dex. And pizza, the best pizza I've ever had.

  "Are you more nervous or excited? I can't tell," asks Ruby.

  "Nervous," Gia says at the same time I say, “Excited!”

  I look back from the window to Gia, sitting between Ruby and me in the cab. I thought Ruby was talking to me, but I guess Gia thought the same. Whereas I sounded genuinely excited, Gia replied with more of a grunt. She has been a bit off all day.

  "Whoa, ok Gia. Let's discuss," Ruby says, concerned.

  "Yeah, you didn't have to come with us tonight if you were that worried about seeing Simon," I add.

  With a sigh, she says, "No, I wanted to come. I want to get to know Dex, and I really do want to see Simon again, but we didn't leave on the best of terms."

  "So, what happened between you two?" Ruby prompts.

  "Ah, well to make a long story short, we grew up together, hung out a lot. You know, high school stuff. We may have been a little more than friends before my family moved. I haven’t seen him since."

  Uh. Wow. Poor Simon. Poor Gia.

  "Ouch," said Ruby.

  "Yeah, Gia, this is going to be awkward, isn't it?" I asked

  "Well, it depends. Did you tell Dex that I know Simon?"

  "Uh, no. It never came up. Did you want me to tell him?”

  "I really don't know. What's less awkward? If he was aware that I was coming, and he had time to prepare, or him seeing me for the first time in eight years when I walk into his apartment?"

  I look at her apologetically; I should have mentioned it to Dex.

  This is so unlike Gia to be nervous and tense. She doesn't talk about her past...ever, so this is throwing me off a bit. When we first became friends, I had asked her about her friends back home. She literally just brushed it off by saying she missed them and told me a little about them. When I asked her about a boyfriend she may be left behind, her whole body tensed. “Yeah, I don’t really want to talk about that. It didn’t end well,” she replied. Topic dropped. Sore subject noted.

  "Well, it looks like it's time to get this party started because we are here," Ruby says.

  We climb out of the cab. I pay the fare and join the girls on the sidewalk. I stare up in awe of the high-rise in the West Loop that Dex calls home.

  “Shit,” says Gia. “I didn’t realize this is where they lived. Please tell me they don’t live in the penthouse.”

  “They must make some hella good money playing video games all day,” states Ruby.

  “No, umm…” I look at my phone to confirm, “Dex lives on the seventh floor.”

  “Alright girls, let’s go hang out with some gamer boys. Do you think we will play any video games?”

  “God, I hope not,” says Gia. “I’m not a fan.”

  I give her a look; she isn’t herself tonight. I wonder if there is more to the story she isn’t sharing.

  We head through the revolving doors and are greeted to our right by a nice-sized concierge desk. To the left, is a large, modern looking set of leather chairs and a couple end tables and a massive fireplace. One of the men behind the desk smiles politely and asks my name. I tell him who I am and who we are here to see, and he checks the list in front of him. With a nod, he says we can head on up.

  “Wow, this place is so fancy-schmancy, Morgan. Not where I expect them to live,” Ruby says taking in the niceness of the elevator.

  “Yeah, I know. And I thought our apartment was one of the nice ones. This place makes ours look like a dump.”

  “No way. This one just makes your apartment look more loved and more lived in,” says Ruby.

  Minutes later we are in front of Dex’s apartment. I knock, and within seconds, Link answers the door. “Well hello, ladies. Welcome to our humble abode.” He bows dramatically and swipes his arm across his chest and into the apartment.

  The inside of the apartment looks exactly like I expected a bachelor pad to look and nothing like the rest of the fancy apartment building. We walk into a short entryway to the living room. The room features an overstuffed leather couch and chair. The lighting isn’t great, but there seems to be plenty throughout the room.

  On the opposite wall from the couch, there is an enormous TV and entertainment center that houses a lot of gaming stuff. There is no dining room table, but there is a large bar that faces the kitchen. It has four tall leather stools pushed up to it. That has to be where they eat, if not in front of the TV. We passed the kitchen as we walked in. It is small, but upon first sight, looks clean. I wonder which of them is the cleaner and which of them is messy.

  By the time we come to a complete stop in the living room, Dex is coming out of what I guess is his room. Simon is sitting on the couch. Link asks on his way back to the kitchen, in an overly feminine voice, “I’m making margaritas! Who wants one?” Ruby and I both raise our hands.

  “Hi,” Dex says as he comes over to me and leans in to kiss my cheek.

  “Hi.” I try not to sound breathless, but that’s how I feel. Taking him in, he is just as handsome tonight as was two days ago.

  “Did you guys find us ok?”

  “Yeah, we took a cab so… easy-peasy,” I say with a smile.

  “Great.”

  Gia is standing almost behind me, like she is hiding, which is so not like her. Dex notices and says, “Hi Gia, glad you guys could make it. You met Link, and that is Simon over on the couch.” Simon unfolds himself from the couch and walks over to shake Gia’s hand. It's not until she accepts his hand when he truly sees her. I can tell because of the look that crosses his face, is one of confusion mixed with recollection. Next to me, I swear I can hear her gulp.

  “Hi, Simon. Been a while, yeah?” She forces a smile.

  “Umm. Uh. Yeah…you could say that,” he says as he drops her hand as if it burned him.

  “What? You guys know each other? How?” Dex asks with curiosity as Simon walks back to the couch.

  “Link, can you grab me a beer?” Simon's tone is clipped.

  Honestly, I thought he would be happier to see her. Now I know she didn’t tell us the whole story, before. After this exchange, I'm almost positive Simon is the unnamed boyfriend that she refused to talk about all those years ago.

  Gia shrinks back into the group, trying to hide. Gia might seem a little stand-offish, reserved when people first meet her, but she isn't shy. She's a great person. She is the friend you want in your corner. She isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, but she knows when you need love and support and not just the cold hard truth. I really can’t see anyone not liking her. And I hate seeing her like this. Ruby passes us and hands him a beer. She then retreats to the bar stool she has claimed to watch the events unfold. I bet it’s also to keep an eye on Link, who’s making her margarita. She is usually the bartender.

  Simon takes a swig of his beer and replies to Dex’s question, “Yeah. We grew up together, but Gia moved away in high school. Never saw or talked to her again. Until now.” Well. That didn’t sound bitter or anything.

  Gia turns to Dex and adds, “Yeah, we had to move. Rather abruptly. I lost contact with everyone back home.”

  “Ok. Well, this has gotten off to a great start. Here you go, Morgan.” Link hands me a strawberry margarita, and I see that Ruby is already drinking one. He gives Gia and Dex each a beer and retreats to the kitchen to get another beer for himself. Dex grabs my hand and pulls me to the couch, and Gia sits in the chair.

  “I thought we could order some Chinese, but I didn’t know what you girls liked. The menu is up on th
e bar, Ruby.”

  Ruby starts looking at the menu. The three of us always order the same thing, so we’ve got our ordering down to a science. Dex leans back and puts his arm round the back of the couch. There seems to be a slight awkwardness between us, which is normal in new relationships. I want to snuggle back into him and get all up in personal in his space, but this is technically only our second date. Ruby corrected me earlier that it is our third, but I’m not so sure the Visionwave party counts.

  I do know that you can cut the tension with a knife. Simon looks ticked off, and Gia looks so uncomfortable. I lean over to Dex and whisper in his ear, “We’ve got to do something or this night is going to go down in history as the worst ‘friends meet the friend’s night’ ever. “He chuckles in agreement.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Morgan

  Before we have a chance to break the awkward tension in the room, someone knocks on the door, and Bernadette lets herself into the guys’ apartment.

  “Hi! Morgan, Ruby, you’re here already!”

  “Yeah Bern, you’re late,” said Link.

  From the couch, I say, “Hey Bernadette, this is my roomie, Gia.” Gia waves.

  “Oh, please call me Bernie,” she replies. “So, when will the food be here? I’m starved.”

  Link chimes in, “I just ordered it. So, in about thirty minutes.”

  “Wonderful. What are we doing tonight?” she asks, looking at Dex and me.

  “Ah, well. We could watch a movie or find something else on Netflix. Anyone have any ideas?”

  “What? You guys are professional video game players; you aren’t going to show us your skills?” I ask, leaning away from Dex.

  “Well, I didn’t know if you’d be interested in that,” he says, surprised.

  “Hey, I plan on giving you a complete tour of my book collection, so you might as well show us the way of the video game.”

  “Ha, ok, sure,” he replies. I really don’t think he expected me to be interested, but I am.

  “Do you guys only have, like, one type of game, as in the game you guys play professionally, or do you consider yourself general video game connoisseurs?” Ruby asks, thoughtfully. I know what she’s trying to find out. She wants to show off her old-school video game skills.

  This time, Link, who is sitting next to her on at the bar, says, “Oh, we have it all. But they specifically play CoB.”

  Ruby rolls her eyes “Yes, I know they play Call of Battle.” I’m sure she says this to point out she does know a little bit about video games. Like me, I think she has done a bit of research on professional gaming and video gaming in general since we went out with them in California, but her reaction to Link is pretty entertaining.

  “Ooo. Someone is a smarty pants, I see,” he replies. “Ok, do you play video games?”

  “I like the old-school stuff. I kick butt at anything Mario,” she says proudly.

  Then Bernie squeals, “Yes! Mario tournament! This is going to be so fun. Who’s in? I’m in, obviously so is Ruby and Link…” She looks over to us, and I’m nodding my head before I realize it, but I’m laughing because of Bernie’s excitement, and I can see the competitive look on both Ruby and Link’s faces.

  Dex, behind me, says, “Heck yeah!” And that just leaves Gia and Simon.

  Gia shoots a look to Simon, then back to Ruby and says, “Sure, I’m in.” Simon nods his agreement. He must really be bent out of shape with her here because I remember him being super nice and friendly back in California.

  I peel my gaze off them and look back to Bernie as she says, “I’m going to go get the Wii. It has all the old-school Mario games on it.” With that, she scurries back out of the apartment. Then I remember Dex telling me that she lives in the building, too.

  Dex leans forward and asks, “You want to see the rest of the apartment?” I nod, and we stand up. I want to be alone with Dex, but I refuse to leave Gia in this room by herself with a sulking Simon. As we walk by the chair, I reach down and grab her arm and pull her up. “C’mon. Dex is giving us a tour.”

  She stands up as Dex walks to the opening in the kitchen and waves a hand. “This is the kitchen,” he says. “You can see it’s clean. We take turns cleaning it, but Link is the slacker of the group.”

  I hear Simon mutter, “In more ways than one.”

  We then head back to the living room and across the room with the couch. Dex opens the door and says, “This is Link’s room. See, it’s a mess.”

  We peak in, and the first thing I notice…

  “Oh my God. You have a bunk bed? How old are you? Eight?” says Ruby, who seemed to magically appear next to me.

  Yup, that’s what I noticed first, but in his defense, it is a loft bed. Underneath the bed is an ultimate gaming center. There is a desk that holds two large computer screens, a computer, and a lot of other equipment that I am entirely unfamiliar with. It’s a pretty small room, so it doesn’t surprise me that having a loft bed works out best for him.

  “Um, excuse me. It’s not a bunk bed. It’s a loft,” Link says, moving his way into his room to stand his ground and defend his space.

  “What do girls think when they see they have to climb a ladder to get to your bed?” she counters.

  “No one has ever complained. Why? You want to try it out?”

  She rolls her eyes. “Moving on.” She waves a dismissive hand and walks out of the room. Gia and I laugh. We can’t help it, though. Ruby is so flustered by Link. She always does that eye roll when she is.

  We move through to the next room, which belongs to Simon. He does not have a loft bed, but there is an entertainment center with a TV and video game system and other accessories scattered about. Other than that, there is a dresser and a…beanbag chair. I hold in a giggle.

  I try to catch Gia or Ruby’s eye to make sure the beanbag chair doesn’t go unnoticed, and see Ruby staring right at it, smiling. That’s when I notice Gia didn’t come in but stands just outside the door. I really don’t like what is going on with her.

  We leave and turn down a short hall and walk into what is obviously a master suite. “This is my room,” Dex announces. The bedroom itself looks to be the same size as Simon’s, but he has a walk-in-closet and his own bathroom.

  Dex’s room holds the basics: a bed, dresser, bookshelf, TV and a small desk where a laptop sits. There is a small table under the TV, which is hanging on the wall, with a gaming system on it, but he doesn’t have nearly as much gaming stuff in his room as the other guys. Or maybe he just has it all put away.

  I walk in a bit further and take in the tall but skinny bookshelf, and scan the books. Of course, I’ve not read any of them, but some of them I’ve heard of. There are several strategy guides to games with which I am both familiar and unfamiliar and some art books. When I look back at the room, I notice that it’s just Dex and me in the room. I didn’t even hear the others leave. He is leaning against the wall and in that moment, I want to take a picture, but then I remember that we are alone in his room, and it smells like him. Once again, I have the urge to just bury my face in his neck and breathe him in. The thought makes me blush, though. He smiles like he knows what I’m thinking.

  “So you don’t have a lot of video game stuff in here,” I say.

  “No, I kind of need my room to be a game-free zone. I have a system in here, mostly so I can watch Netflix. Sometimes, I’ll play something mindless, but I really wanted my room to be a place I could come when I need to take a break.” I nod in understanding and sit down on his desk chair.

  “Do you guys practice here? There doesn’t seem to be a lot of extra space, and you do practice as a team, right?”

  “Yeah, actually, our team rents out four apartments here in the building. I mentioned Bernie lives next door below Ben and Chuck. They live upstairs, and then above us is our game room. That’s where we practice. So all of the gaming stuff we have in here is just for personal use. Even though some days we practice ten hours a day, we still enjoy playing video games.
”

  “Well, that’s cool,” I say, thoughtfully. Wow, ten hours a day? “How many tournaments do you guys participate in?”

  “About eight to ten. Most of the tournaments are here in the U.S., but we travel to Europe at least once a year,” he says, taking a seat on his bed.

  “That’s cool. I’ve only been to, like five states. And going to California was my first time on an airplane,” I say.

  He looks surprised. “Wow, so you’re not a world traveler?” he jokes.

  “Haha, no. I’ve not had the opportunity to experience a lot of things,” I say blatantly.

  “So, you’re trying to experience new things now?”

  I laugh, “I wouldn’t say trying. I’m not going out of my way, but Ruby and Gia keep it entertaining. I’m kind of a homebody.”

  “Fair enough,” he says. Just then, I hear Link yell that the food’s here. Dex leans over and holds out his hand. “C’mon, let’s go eat and then we can level you up with what I’m sure will be an entertaining and unforgettable Mario Kart tournament.”

  I take his hand, and as I stand up, he pulls me into him and kisses me. It’s short and sweet, but it’s exactly want I wanted. We walk back into the living room, and everyone has gathered around the coffee table where several boxes of Chinese food sit.

  I take in the image before me: Dex and Ruby stand there laughing while Simon sets out all the food. Link, Gia, and Bernie gather plates, silverware, and napkins for our meal. My heart grows at the sight. This group of people before me could be the start of a new chapter in my life: a chapter that finally includes a family that I’ve been wanting. This is most definitely the start of something amazing.

  Chapter Seventeen