Page 8 of sWitch

“Hey, I thought you were going to bed?” Fauna said in a chat bubble above her hip-swooshing character.

“Couldn’t sleep, thought I’d play some more,” I answered. “How are you?”

I dared to ask. It could have seemed redundant if they’d just been hanging out, but I couldn’t help myself. I had to know she was okay.

Her avatar blew a big pink bubblegum bubble. “Still kind of shaken up from the other night. Thanks for helping, though.”

Oh no. Oh no, no, no. Was she talking aboutme? About what happened at the movies? I felt like Trev wouldn’t have casually handed me my controller if so. He would have fucking punched me.

I swallowed, regaining my composure, resolved to get more information. “Yeah…what?—“

“What up, ass hats?” a dude’s voice trilled through my headphones.

Another answered. “Yo, Trevor, you actually hanging with us past your bedtime?”

“Hi, Fauna,” the first voice crooned.

Her giggle lit up my chest when she replied, “Hi, Chet. Hi, Josh. Are we going to chitchat about the weather or go defeat some titan monsters?”

Their character ran up to her—armored-out mercenaries, just like Trevor’s character. Fauna’s avatar whipped out a broom and flitted above us. “You guys fight, I’ll heal. Then, I’ll finally have the HP to make it past this god-awful level.”

“You got it, baby,” Chet answered.

That got me annoyed. “Hey, shut the fuck up.”

I recognized these guys. They both went to high school with me and my brother; Chet played ball with Trevor. Sometimes, all of us lifted weights together. Typical bone headed idiots. They were likely harmless, but that didn’t stop my protective instinct in telling them to lay off my girl. I mean, Trevor’s girl. Luckily, we both had lower voices, and they couldn’t tell the difference in digital game land. Hell, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in real life if I wasn’t tattooed and pierced to the gods. Trev and I were identical in being six foot tall, muscular, and lean, with black hair and green eyes. Only, you know, I was a girl and he was a dude. Thankfully, we’d always gone after the opposite kinds of women. Until now, that is.

“Yeah, yeah, I won’t flirt with your girlfriend,” Chet complained. “I’ll slaughter a titan for her, though.”

“You challenging me, ass hat?” I settled into my seat, working the controls to learn in five minutes flat every combat combo and weaponry assist there was in this game. Because like hell I was going to lose to a guy namedChetin front of the girl I wanted to impress.

Fauna giggled. “Can you boys stop dick measuring, please?”

I answered, “No dick measuring here, sweetheart.” Literally. Jokes on them—I didn’t have a dick. I didn’t need one, though, not with how good I was with my tongue, my hands…everything.

I smiled at the sound of her voice and her cute as fuck little avatar flying through the starry sky.

Why was she in a party with these dumbasses? Maybe they were the only mercenaries in the game she knew. Suddenly, I had the urge to learn everything I could about V for Valin. I’d only casually played but knew it had a large fandom. It seemed like the kind of game Fauna would like.

The guys chatted about soccer and overall just shit talked as we took down a few titans. They were big, hairy, ugly monsters with a high hit point. Fauna flew around us, healing whoever needed an assist. Interesting—she chose to be a healer in this game. Healers were vulnerable to attack and could not receive aid, only give. Most non-combat fans chose to be magicians instead— but not her. I wondered why.

The third beast’s health meter was at half strength. We were getting our asses kicked and wouldn’t have survived without Fauna’s healing. Suddenly, she squealed into the headset. “Turnip! Stop!”

The boys laughed as I stabbed the titan in the eye.

Fauna answered, sounding flustered. “My kitten, Turnip, is clawing at the window screen. I have to go. I’m sorry!”

Without time to protest, her little witch avatar blipped into oblivion. Gone. My heart sank. At least I got to hear her voice and know she was okay. But what had she been shaken up about? I stayed with the party as the last monster fell, and we recouped. The least I could do was leave my brother’s character’s health restored and strength points higher. I was about to end the game when Chet spoke.

“So, Trevor. Fauna, huh? She finally let you hit it yet?”

Josh chuckled, his avatar drinking a potion and tossing the bottle into a bush.

“Why do you ask?” I lowered my tone a bit to mirror my brother.

Chet scoffed. “Well, you know I liked her first. If it were me, I would have fucked her by now. But last I heard, you two hadn’t done shit.”

Anger mixed with satisfaction behind my ribs. My brother and his girlfriend hadn’t had sex? Interesting. I was beyond pleased, but also beyond pissed these assholes even cared. “Don’t ask me questions like that. Don’t even think about her like that. It’s none of your fucking business.”

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