Chapter 9 - Too Friendly Fire

Gamer Vocabulary:

Friendly Fire: when you’re betrayed by your friends or team mates firing on you People are the same. No matter who they are or where one goes, always the same. Maggie glumly staring at the dark ceiling. Why in the world did she think that Tank would be any different? No, that man wasn't really any different than the many people who had briefly entered her life, she could only accredit him for holding most of his laughing and judging to himself. She wondered what she did that made him become so condemning all of the sudden.

Maggie figured she must have done something on that stupid walk yesterday because he started giving her odd looks during the walk and kept giving them to her for the rest of the day. Then Tank said that comment about her gaming that morning with that judgmental tone and criticizing look on his face. The exact same expression and tone everyone else had gotten when they found out that Maggie was a gamer.

As if that wasn't enough the rest of the day he barked and growled at her as if she was just some disgusting bug that he wished he could step on and be over with it. It hurt and she hated that he had that power over her. After the crap she suffered through high school, Maggie had sworn never to let anyone have that power over her. So Tank didn't like the way she lived her life. So what if he was just like everyone else. She didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone. Maggie liked her life and that was the only thing that mattered.

The next day Maggie got up deciding to no longer dwell on what happened yesterday. It took too much energy to be angry and offended the whole time. What was the point when Tank was who he was? Just as he couldn’t tell her how to be, Maggie couldn’t expect him to be different than who he was. Feeling in a much better mood, she sat at the kitchen table licking her lips eagerly. A large bowl of sugary cereal sat before her begging her to eat it.

Just as she shoved a large spoonful into her mouth, Tank entered in the kitchen. He gave her yet another odd look then mumbled good morning. She would have replied if it wasn't for the fact her mouth was full, so she simply nodded. Maggie kept her gaze on her cereal as if it was the most interesting thing in the world when he sat in front of her.

“Maggie, look I'm sorry about yesterday,” Tank started hesitantly.

Maggie shrugged and once her mouth was empty. “Nothing to be sorry about. You were right. I was over reacting. I get it. You think I’m a loser and I’m wasting my life. A lot of people think that and it’s no big deal,” she explained and meant it. Maggie shoved another large spoonful into her mouth.

He sighed loudly. “I don't think you're a loser, Maggie,” he started.

She looked up at him and gave him a hard look. “Yes you do and I’m serious. It’s okay. Hannah thought it, and I knew it. It didn’t change the fact we were friends. The only thing I can’t stand is when people lie about it.” With one final stare, she returned her attention to the cereal.

“Well I'm glad you look at it that way but I’m being honest Maggie. I don’t think that about you, I just…” he started then fell silent and it didn't look like he was going to finish that thought any time soon so with one last spoonful she shrugged getting up from the table.

“Whatever,” she said through her full mouth sounding more like “whafefer.”

He gave her a look of irritation like he still wanted to argue with her even more about it. Who was overreacting just a tad now! Geez, why was this man suddenly acting so weird. Wasn't fresh air supposed to be good for someone? Maggie was starting to think it all went to his head or maybe it was the sun. Maybe he was suffering from the heat; it was really hot these last couple of days.

Maggie rushed off to her room not giving Tank a chance to argue with her besides she wanted to grind some quests and get some more epic idols that she could turn in for her armor. She pulled her hair up messily clipping it back with her large hair clip as she sat down at her computer and logged on. A smile crossed her face as she immediately started to relax; with a sigh of contentment she started doing some quests. This was all she really needed in life!

It was nearing noon when the heat of room started to become suffocating and her stomach rumbled in a complaint of her lack of attention. So she pried the window open allowing a breeze to enter the room while she went to take a quick cool shower. She changed out of her usual sweats into a pair of calf length yoga pants and a gray tee with on it. Maggie went on the epic quest for lunch.

It was way too hot for any traditional food, so she looked for anything cold. She some random stuff and made herself a quick salad.

“Hello Maggie,” Tank said coming in the kitchen.

How did he manage to show up every time she left the room? Maggie was starting to think he was stalking her. She made the mix of a laugh and snort at that idea and how absurd it was which caused her to choke on a piece of lettuce.

“Are you, uh, okay?” he asked giving her a skeptical look.

She nodded still coughing then took a drink of water to help down the lettuce and held up her thumb.

He started to laugh shaking his head. “So what have you been doing,” he asked looking as if he was uncomfortable.

“What I do every day, Tank. I’m in the game,” she replied with a shrug and praying he wasn’t going to get weird on her again.

“How's that going?”

“Good I suppose,” she told him, wondering why he was asking. Seriously going on that walk was not good for him. Maggie vowed she’d never go on one again!

“What in the world is that on your shirt, is that something scientific or game related because I really don't get it,” he asked looking at her shirt with a confused expression.

She looked down at her chest where ‘1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d’ was written. Maggie burst out laughing, a really loud laughter that was echoing throughout the room. She was laughing for hard that tears were literally falling from her eyes. He was giving her a ‘what the hell’ look, obviously waiting for her to clue him in but like hell was she going to do that. It was way much more fun keeping him in the dark.

“It’s something you get or you don’t It could be said that it’s a good thing you don’t get it,” Maggie explained, brushing off the tears from her cheeks. If one knew how to read the mix of letters and numbers, it said, ‘If you can read this then you really need to get laid.’ Maggie was sure that applied perfectly well to the Tank.

“So basically you're just going to laugh at me then?” he asked with a slight frown that made her giggle quietly as she nodded.

Tank got up from the table shaking his head. “You're one of a kind Maggie,” he said, making it sound not exactly like an insult.

“Yep,” She admitted with a small smile and cleaned up her plate. Y

“Oh before I forget, the court date has been set. In two weeks you can testify against Chase and hopefully go back to your normal life,” he told her.

“Really,” she asked sounding excited and when he nodded, Maggie literally jumped for joy and pumped her fists into the air then did a little celebration dance, not caring that she probably looked like a total idiot. “That’s awesome,” she cheered and grabbed a tub of ice cream she found earlier in the freezer, it was time for celebration! Without getting a bowl, she grabbed a spoon and dug in.

“You know there are bowls for that sort of thing,” he said with a slightly disgusted look on his face.

Maggie smiled evilly. Looks like she found a weak spot in little ole Tank's armor. “I know, but if I did that then I’d have to share. This way, it’s all mine,” she told him. To prove her point she exaggeratedly licked the spoon and stabbed it back into the ice cream. Instead of getting a disgusted look like she hoped, he got that odd look on his face again. Ugh, what was wrong with him, she thought spooning out some more ice cream.

“That's playing dirty,” Tank complained Maggie breathed a sigh of relief seeing at least he wasn't acting odd. She shrugged with a sly smile then went to eat the ice cream, but he suddenly rushed up and clamped his mouth around the spoon before she could, eating her ice cream. Her jaw fell open as she gawked at him in horror. For a moment, she could just stare at him in shock. He ate her ice cream and even off her spoon that she had just licked on a moment ago…ew!

He pulled away from her spoon and swallowed.

“Hey!” She demanded with indignation. “That was mine. Now who’s playing dirty?”

Tank gave her a sly smile. “You started it,” he told her.

Maggie swallowed realizing just how close his face was to hers.

“I just finished it,” Tank replied with a teasing tone.

She swallowed again feeling as if her mouth had turned to cotton. “I wasn’t playing dirty. I was just telling you how it was. Her heart started to pound in her ears as he smiled.

“Yes and so did I,” he shot back Maggie looked at him confused. “No, not really. You just ate my ice cream from a spoon I licked on. That’s just gross,” she told him, fidgeting with her growing nervousness and looked at him confused.

Tank laughed a hearty laugh. “Well Maggie, truth is that I don't find you gross in any way.”

She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but he seemed to be leaning in closer to her.

“You can't push me away that easily,” he said.

Maggie then realized she didn't imagine things as he closed the gap between them as he kissed her. Her whole body froze and melted at the same time. Her heart was in serious danger of going into cardiac arrest and her stomach was clenching so hard it nearly hurt while little tingles of surprise and something else ran through her body. Her panic-stricken mind was wheeling in shock from the fact that Tank had just kissed, no correction was kissing her!

Even though all her senses were registering his lips on hers kissing her with a soft yet demanding kiss, she still couldn't believe it. Her charisma stat just wasn't high enough for that. The kiss finally ended and Maggie was breathing is if she had just run the marathon of her lifetime. Tank backed away ever so slightly looking at her with a hard penetrating gaze as if he was waiting for something.

Any woman at this moment probably would have flung themselves against Tank as they wrapped their arms around his neck and kissed him again for all she was worth. Yeah, Maggie knew that's what a normal woman would have done if she was in her place. Part of her actually did wish she was normal at that moment so she could do just that. Too bad Maggie was anything but normal.

She stared back at Tank for a few seconds then nervously mumbled the first thing that came to her mind. “The energy of photons is proportional to the frequency of the light. The constant is Planck's constant.”

Tank smiled at her then moved towards her again but this time she shoved the ice cream at his chest, not caring if he took a hold of it or not. With a mix of a shriek and a squeak, she bolted from the room at a sprinter's pace into her room. Maggie slammed the door leaning against it still breathing heavily. “What in the middle earth just happen,” she whispered as she slid down the door till she was sitting on the floor.

Her logical mind demanded an explanation, but she couldn’t come up with any. Maggie felt as if someone just cast a confusion spell on her. Tank kissed her and it looked like he was going to kiss her again if she didn't run, but that was impossible. It was like a pro gamer giving an epic dagger to a noob Rouge. It's nice to dream but never going to happen and quite honestly never ever should happen!

God, he must have gone delusional Maggie thought panicked because there was no real way in hell a man like him could honestly be attracted to her. He was a total epic drop and she was the level one leather jerkin that the rat dropped in the beginner zone, totally incompatible! Maggie took a deep breath trying to calm down. Maybe Tank got bitten by some exotic mosquito or something during the walk and now he was suffering from some rare disease that was causing him delusions and erratic behavior.

She licked her lips nervously tasting the exotic taste that lingered on them. God, it was a nice taste, she thought worriedly. Maggie touched her lips still feeling very nervous. They felt the same but at the same time they felt different. Oh God, she couldn't handle this. She had totally wandered into a newly mapped area that was way over her level and she had no idea how to get back! Never in her life had just a kiss caused such reactions in her like she was feeling now.

Maggie felt incredibly warm, she was light headed, her heart raced and she was practically shaking. Oh God, what if he had infected her with whatever disease he contracted from the mosquito and she was going to start suffering from delusions too. Maggie could just see it now; they were going to go crazy! Who knew what was next after the delusions, what if it turned them into Zombies and thanks to that kiss they were going to start an apocalypse now.

She couldn't handle being the cause of the end of the world; just going out amongst other people was enough to make her sick! Maggie would go down in history as the freak that destroyed the world! She never wanted to have attention drawn to her and destroying the world would make her the center of attention! Damn you, Hannah, see what you've done, Maggie swore silently. My bubble has been completely and utterly destroyed and it only cost you the entire world, she thought with a panic sob.

Why did she ever agree to take that stupid walk that caused Tank to go insane? Why the hell did she ever leave her house? Maggie didn’t save Hannah and all she got for her efforts was her life in shambles like her armor after a night of bad raids.