Page 52 of Saving the Halfback

I rolled over to my computer, shaking the mouse and waking the screen up. The RPG game I played with Chase was already up and loaded. Chase didn’t know it was me he played against, but when I saw his screen name—a name he used for all his games since we were kids—and heard his voice, I knew right away it was my best friend. So many times over the years, I had come close to telling him, but it had gone on for so long, I didn’t think I could ever come clean. This was the only way I could be a part of his life, so I had to take it.

He was currently offline, but I opened the chat, anyway, and sent him a message.Online, need to blow off some steam.I knew the chat message would go to his phone.

As I waited, I added a couple upgrades to my character and searched for a quest. It wasn’t too long before Chase, or rather GreySeeker, replied to me.I’m in, be there in ten.

It was less than ten when I got the notification he had logged on.

“Hey, GreySeeker,” I said into the mic.

“Hey. Where are we going today? I need the fuck out of here.”

Maybe it was the weed, maybe not, but the moment I heard Chase’s voice, I felt my body sink into my chair. “Oh, you too? What were you doing?”

There was a pause before he said, “Swimming.”

I teleported to Chase’s character online, and it wasn’t long before the two of us settled into a quest and fell into our normal banter.

Two quests and many hours later, I leaned back and stretched. My phone pinged, and I looked to see Bailey had texted back. It was nearly one a.m.

Bailey:Hey.

“You still there?”Chase asked.

“Yeah, I’m here. Remember the friend I told you about before?”

“Which one, the silent asshole or the girl you were making up with?”

Oh yeah, I forgot I had vented to him about Ethan. Even though Chase didn’t know who I was—for all he knew, I could be on the other side of the world—I remained vague about my personal life. I didn’t want to give myself away. “The second. Seems she may have an ex bothering her.”

“What?” He seemed pissed, though I wasn’t sure why. I narrowed my eyes at the computer. No…he didn’t know who I was. If he did, he would’ve chewed me out, the same way he did Bailey in the parking lot. Chase can’t stay quiet worth shit. “Bothering her how?”

I shrugged but knew he wouldn’t have seen it. “She didn’t go into details.”

“Ask her.” Chase was impatient.

“There’s a thing called boundaries. And she drew them today—no talking about the cowboy.”

“Cowboy?”

“Never mind.” I typed out a message to Bailey and sent it.

“Are you talking to her right now?”

I chuckled.

“Tell her to tell you his name, and we will make him disappear.”

“And how do you propose you do that? You don’t know where we are.”

There was a curse.

I sighed. “Enough about this. I needed to get this out of my mind.” I lit my joint, opening my window to allow the smoke to drift away.

“Right, fine. There’s a horde of—”

My phone pinged, and then there was silence. I flipped it over and read her message.

Bailey:I’m okay.

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