Addiction - Chapter 33
Saturday
"Hey, guys!" Rob said as we stepped off the elevator. "Why won't you die?"
I looked over at him. He was sitting on the couch with a videogame controller in his hand. Sitting right next to him was Brendan. God no. Why is Brendan in our apartment? I just had the most relaxing day with James. This was surely going to set him off. Why now?
"Boom, suck it!" Brendan stood up and made a rude gesture toward Rob.
Rob threw his game controller at him. "Suck that."
Brendan caught it in one hand and looked over at me. "Hey, Penny." He was smirking at me.
"Hi, Brendan." Stop smirking at me.
James tightened his grip around my waist.
Damn it.
"Oh yeah, Penny, I ran into your friend in the elevator," Rob said. "If I had known he was so good at this game I never would have asked him to play, though."
"You're such a sore loser." Brendan tossed both controllers down on the couch and walked over to James and me. "Hey, man. We haven't officially met, but I've certainly heard a lot about you." He put his hand out for James. "I'm Brendan."
James let go of my waist and shook his hand. "I think I owe you a thank you for taking Penny to the hospital the other day."
"No problem."
"I'm glad to see you're still alive," Brendan said to me. "I've been waiting for your call all week." He leaned down and hugged me.
"Sorry," I said and patted his back awkwardly.
"Yeah, I'm thankful for what you did." James put his hand on Brendan's shoulder. "But I don't appreciate the fact that you made out with my girlfriend."
Brendan released me from his hug and laughed. "Oh. You know about that? Well, she wasn't exactly your girlfriend when that happened. Either time."
"Either time?" James said.
Rob laughed and ran over to us. "Seriously? You hooked up with Penny? This is just too good. Anyone want a beer?"
"What do you mean either time?" James asked.
"The second time doesn't really count I guess," Brendan said and leaned against the kitchen counter. "I kissed her, she didn't kiss me back."
"When?" James turned to me.
"In the hospital," I said. I had already told James about the first time I had kissed Brendan. I barely even remembered being in the hospital. But I remembered that now. Brendan was right. I didn't kiss him back. I had already decided to be with James.
"Don't get mad at her. I'm pretty sure she was doped up on morphine and she still pushed me off. Clearly she chose you. I didn't even get a thank you for sending her flowers. I'm not used to losing. I'll have a beer," he said to Rob.
"You got it." Rob slid a beer down the counter and Brendan picked it up.
"I do really appreciate the fact that you were there when Penny fainted," James said. "But I think it's probably best if we don't make it a habit to hang out here."
"Calm down, James. Brendan's cool. He even apologized for hooking up with your girlfriend. That's a quality guy," Rob said. "Besides, you can't blame him for trying. That's the risk of having a hot girlfriend."
"I'm not sure I'm completely comfortable having two guys here hitting on her," James said.
"I'm not hitting on Penny," Rob said. "She's the one that clearly wants me." He winked at me. "Was she a good kisser, Brendan? I bet she was a good kisser."
"A great kisser." Brendan smiled at me.
"I knew it," Rob said.
"Okay," I said. This was so ridiculous. "Will you all just stop?
Stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here.
James, Brendan's just a friend. I told you that.
And actually, you should be thanking him because I talked to him that afternoon when I left your place confused.
And he told me to choose you. He was actually really nice and helpful. "
"That's true," Brendan said. "She told me you were a better lay than Tyler, so I told her she should choose you. I didn't even hit on her. Or wait. Maybe I did. I think I probably said that if she really wanted to know what a good lay was she should call me."
"I said stop talking. But yeah. See? He was just being a good friend. Despite that last part. And Rob," I said, turning to him. "I don't want to sleep with you. I'm in love with your brother. So please just stop saying super weird things to me. It's really inappropriate."
"I do like you," Rob said. "You're like a million times better than the troll. Feisty too. I like a girl that can stick up for herself."
"Oh my God. I asked you to stop."
Rob smiled at me. "Stopping." He pretended to lock his mouth and throw away the key. "And Brendan's not going to hit on Penny anymore either, right Brendan?"
I wasn't at all surprised that Rob had immediately started talking right after he had thrown away the key.
"Sure, I won't hit on her anymore," Brendan said. He took a sip of his beer.
"How about you two go hang out at Brendan's place?" James said.
"But I just set up the Xbox! Let's all play Golden Eye. We can shoot it out." Rob patted James' chest and walked back toward the living room. "Besides, Penny promised to school us."
"I doubt that," Brendan said and followed him back to the T.V.
"Of course Rob had to befriend Brendan," James whispered to me. "I don't like this at all. I want you all to myself."
I laughed. "James, they're just joking around. You do have me all to yourself."
"They're not joking around." He looked down at me and smiled. "Even three men flirting with you isn't enough to make you realize how beautiful you are."
He didn't seem as mad as I thought he would. Maybe he was finally understanding that all I wanted was him.
"You're the only man that makes me feel beautiful." I wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Hey, love birds! It's game time!" Rob called over to us.
James put his lips against my ear. "Let's take them down."
"Okay, partner." I reached down and squeezed his ass.
He laughed and grabbed my hand. "Rob is right. You are feisty. And all mine. I can't wait to move and have you all to myself again. There are so many things I'd rather be doing than playing videogames right now."
The way he was looking at me made me gulp.
He led me over to the couch and pulled me onto his lap as he sat down.
I laughed as he wrapped his arms around me.
"You guys can't seriously play like that. Come on, I need help killing Brendan." Rob handed us each a controller.
Instead of moving off of James' lap, I looked down at the controller. "Wait, why are there two joysticks?"
"This is going to be hilarious," Rob said and restarted the game.
"Wait, you have to tell me how to use this."
James kissed the side of my neck. "So, the right joystick lets you move your view up and down. And the left one lets you move your guy around."
"Why did they make it more complicated? Aren't advancements in technology supposed to make things better, not worse?"
James laughed and kissed my neck again.
After we selected our characters, the screen split into four quadrants.
It took me a while to even realize which one was me.
Unfortunately, I was the one continuously running into a wall.
"Crap, why is this so hard?" I slid off James' lap and tried to focus.
I was stupidly good at N64. I was a huge nerd growing up and I loved sitting on the couch after school playing videogames.
And I even used to crush my boy neighbors in Golden Eye.
But this wasn't anything like N64. I was currently running around in circles staring at my feet.
"Speaking of hard," Rob said. "Penny sitting on your lap got you a little excited there, James."
"What?" James looked down at his pants. "I don't have..."
Rob snuck up behind him in the game and shot him in the back of the head.
"Asshole." He shoved Rob's arm. "Game on. I'm going to kill you next."
"I have a better idea," said Brendan. "Let's see who can kill Penny first."
"No! Just give me a second to figure this out." I had just tilted my head back up when blood filled my screen.
"Gotcha!" Brendan said.
"Damn it, Brendan!"
He started laughing as my girl came back from the dead. Rob immediately shot me in the face and started laughing too.
"What is wrong with you guys? Just give me a minute to learn what to do."
James had started laughing with them.
"Hey." I nudged his shoulder.
"I thought you said you were good at videogames," he said and smiled down at me.
"I am good at videogames! I don't know what this crap is." My girl reappeared on the screen again. James' character was standing there holding a gun to my face.
"Don't you dare, James."
He immediately shot me.
"James! You're supposed to be on my team!" I started laughing too. I really was terrible at this.
"What?!" Rob yelled. "You're both supposed to be helping me kill Brendan!"
"I can't kill anyone, this game is impossible." I fired my gun at the floor.
"Maybe we should all play a different game?" Rob said. "I know you're fond of pool, Penny."
I could feel my face turning red.
"You're good at pool?" Brendan asked. "We could play that instead. It's too easy to beat everyone in this anyway." He shot Rob in the chest.
"Shit," Rob mumbled.
"No. Actually, I kind of suck at pool," I said.
I had finally gotten my character to run in a straight line.
I hid behind a column. Someone's character was approaching me from the other side of the column.
I still wasn't sure what I was doing, but I was determined to kill whoever it was.
And he didn't seem to realize he was walking into a trap.
"Yeah, I guess not," Rob said. "If you were I wouldn't have found your underwear all over the pool table. James clearly demolished you."
Brendan started laughing. "Strip pool? Now that's a fun game."
I tried to ignore them talking and focused on the character approaching my hiding spot in the game. As soon as he walked past me, I fired my gun. My first shot missed, but my second shot hit him in the side of the head. "Yes!" I screamed and stood up. "I just killed someone!"
"Shit, you just killed Brendan!" Rob said.
"Nice," James said. He held up his hand and I high-fived him.
"See, I am good at videogames!" I high-fived Rob too.
"Yeah, I kind of thought you were lying. But you just killed the master himself," Rob said. "Why are you so good at videogames, Penny?"
"I was a very nerdy youth." I sat back down on the couch.
James wrapped his arm around my back. "You're ridiculously cute."
"I never would have guessed you were a nerd growing up," Rob said. "That probably explains why you're so kinky now though."
"Rob, come on," James said.
"Oh. Was that inappropriate too? I thought that was just a nice compliment. I guess I don't know where the line is."
"Obviously," James replied.
"Let's play a different map. I'm demanding a rematch," Brendan said. "I refuse to accept the fact that I just got beat by a girl who's never touched an Xbox before."
"You're just mad because she's touching an Xbox instead of you," Rob said and switched to a snowy mountainside.
Brendan laughed. "Fair enough."
"I'm so sorry," James whispered in my ear.
"It's fine." I smiled up at him. I liked hanging out with the guys. I was already desensitized to Rob's comments. And James seemed to really be enjoying himself.
***
After several rounds of Golden Eye, Brendan stood up and stretched. "I think I've redeemed myself."
"Yeah, whatever," I mumbled. I had only gotten one kill since our first game. And I was pretty sure James had let me kill him on purpose because he felt bad.
"Yeah," Rob said. "Clearly Penny just got lucky before. I think I'm done playing for the night. Who wants to go out?"
"I think I'm going to stay in tonight," James said and yawned.
"Stop being lame." Rob stood up and stretched too.
"You can go," I said. "Melissa asked me if I'd come over and help her get ready for the Sigma Pi formal."
"Are you sure?" He rubbed his hand along the side of my neck.
"Yeah, go have fun."
"Actually, I do have a few things I need to get done," James said.
Rob laughed. "Crap, do we have to go beat someone else up? That was fun and all, but I have some other things in mind for tonight."
"No, nothing like that." He gave me a mischievous smile.
"Why are you smiling like that? I'm with Rob on this one. Please stop beating people up."
James laughed. "I'm not going to beat anyone up. Do you want me to drop you off at your dorm?" Rob and Brendan had already started walking toward the elevator.
"No, I think I'd like some fresh air after sitting on the couch all day."
"Okay." He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
"Try to pace yourself tonight." I couldn't help but be a little worried about him.
It was my responsibility to look out for him now.
And I didn't know enough about addiction to be able to really help.
It made me a little nervous. The only knowledge I really had about addiction was how addicted I was to him.
Rob didn't seem to have James' best interests in mind.
I wanted James to be safe. At least there was a third person with him tonight that could help hold him back if he tried to assault Professor McCarty again.
"You don't need to worry about me." James winked at me.
"What on earth are you planning to do? Now I'm more worried than before."
"There's nothing to worry about tonight." He kissed my cheek and got up off the couch.