Chapter 11

Amber felt the dew from the grass permeate her canvas pumps as she walked across the sprawling lawn outside the Rec Center. She looked up from her wet, grass-covered shoes to see Greg and Lucas were already waiting by the entrance. The pair were leaning on the smooth metal bike rack, talking about something funny if their laughter was anything to go by.

Her heart pounded as she looked at Greg’s smile, sending a flourish of adrenaline that rushed to unlock the cages of butterflies in her tummy. This happened every time she saw him without fail, even if he'd only left the room for minutes. Seeing him was like a drug.

The pair stopped laughing as they shifted, getting up to meet the girls.

"Come on, let's get a space before they fill up," Greg said, leading them through the automatic double doors.

Amber felt Tom's eyes on her as soon as she entered the computer room, filled with the hum of computers and the smell of furniture polish. The room was immaculate, every wire neatly tucked away and every surface spotless. A huge sign warned against bringing food and drinks into the area, but despite that some people still had open cola cans on their desks.

Seeing Tom filled her with a feeling of mild disgust and nothing more. He was officially dead to her. Glancing over at Ruby, she could tell her friend felt the same way.

'I can't believe I almost let you come between us,' Amber thought.

As the group walked past Tom's station Greg stopped to say hi. He leaned over the table, taking Tom's mouse and clicking about the screen.

"You should place one point in dark control," Greg said. "Your minion's damage increase gives a passive buff."

"I did that before, but my damage went down," Tom replied.

"Then you're playing it wrong," Greg said and shrugged.

Tom's new girlfriend appeared at his side with a handful of snacks. She screwed up her face and tutted. "What do you know?"

Greg ignored her, taking the computer to his left. There was one other machine free.

"Amber, take this one," Greg demanded. "I want to watch you play."

He looked amused as Amber slipped into the seat and logged into the online game. She felt an odd mixture of shyness and pride as she brought up her favorite avatar—a pretty little elf girl dwarfed by two giant axes.

"Dual wielding," Greg said and nodded. "Nice."

"Dual wield isn't viable for warriors," Tom interrupted, overhearing.

'Nosy dick,' Amber thought.

Greg made a scoffing sound. "It is if you have two DragonsBane Axes."

"How on Earth did she get those?" Tom asked.

Amber didn't bother to reply. Everyone knew that the Axes dropped from the DragonLord. The only better Axe in the game came from the play versus player reward for getting champion rated. Sadly, there was zero hope of her getting one of those.

As the competition started, Lucas and Ruby decided to hang out in the cafeteria. Neither of them had much interest in gaming and they probably wanted to spend time alone together away from Greg's watchful eyes. It hadn’t escaped her notice that they had been sneakily flirting behind his back.

The conversation slowed as the players concentrated on the game. Every so often Greg would give Tom little titbits of advice—advice that wasn't particularly well received.

Eventually, Tom's girlfriend got annoyed.

"Why make out like you know it all when you're doing rather shit," she challenged.

Greg laughed softly. "Just trying to help."

"Why don't you help yourself?" the girl continued. Amber felt like picking up her keyboard and smashing over her stupid face.

"This is my first time playing a healer," Greg said in a calm voice. He didn't seem anywhere near as annoyed as Amber felt.

'I want to kill her,' she thought as the girl leaned over Greg, pressing her chest against his back.

"It's my friend's account," Greg went on.

"Why would you not play on your own account?" Amber asked him. She flashed the girl a look, warning her to get the hell away from her man.

"Then I couldn't join the tournament," Greg said.

"Hah!" Tom cried. "You got banned?"

“Hmm,” Greg muttered.

"You aren't winning this thing," Greg said, looking over at Tom's screen. "It's probably a good thing. They say you shouldn't meet your idols."

"Why did you bother then?" Tom asked, sounding deflated.

"I wanted to see if Amber was a better player than you," Greg said, grinning widely.

Amber felt herself glow. She didn't think she was better than Tom, but if Greg said so it probably meant he liked her.

Greg didn't say anything more on the subject. When Tom pressed him, he craftily changed the subject.

"What would you say to King Cold if you did meet him?" he asked.

"I love you, Your Majesty," Dylan chimed in using a silly high-pitched voice when he overheard the question. He'd been quiet up until now, concentrating on scrolling through his social media. "Please let me suck on your—"

Tom punched his friend in the arm, quieting him.

"I told you, King Cold is secretly a girl," Tom said.

"He's not," Greg said, smiling.

"How the heck would you know? Have you met him?" Tom asked as he rolled his eyes. He was losing patience with Greg, probably because he wasn't doing as well in the game as he hoped to. Tom would always turn moody whenever he failed at something... as if it were everyone else's fault he sucked.

"Look," Greg said, turning his screen to face the boy next to him.

Tom frowned for a moment and smiled.

"How did you do that?" he asked. "Is it a, erm, what the hell?"

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Amber got up from her chair to check out his screen.

The ice mage King Cold jumped about his screen, performing buffs and hopping from post to post outside the auction house.

"What the fuck?" she uttered. At first, she figured he had somehow given his character the same name—some hack or trick with special characters. Then he brought up his achievements tab.

"Champion Dragon Master" sat at the top of his achievements list. His crowning glory.

"You're him," Amber muttered. She couldn't quite believe it. As her mind wandered back to the video she'd shown him—the one where he told her off for standing in the fire—she felt her cheeks turn red.

"Ha!" Tom's new girlfriend cried. "That's you're theory out the window. I told you he's not a girl."

Tom flashed her an evil look before backing out of his chair, knocking it over as he fled the room.

"Oh, thanks," the girl said and tutted. "Now he's gonna be pissed at me for pointing out the obvious."

"No, he'll be pissed at you for gloating," Amber said, giving the girl one of her 'queen of the bitches' looks.

The girl ignored her, turning her attention to Greg. She took a crouching position by his feet and smiled up at him.

"So, you're a famous streamer?" she said.

Amber had the urge to kick her straight in her chest, launching her skanky ass across the computer room.

"Hah," Greg said, looking up at Amber. "My girl is looking like she wants to missile dropkick you into the corridor."

'His girl?' Amber thought. 'I'm his girl?'

Thinking about it, he probably wasn't going to come out and refer to her as his slave... but still.

'His girl,' Amber smiled to herself.

"We should go after him," Dylan said, looking at Tom's girlfriend as if he wanted to kick her too.

When they left, Greg told Amber to sit in his lap.

"You'll get kicked out," someone warned. Amber didn't care. She could feel the hardness of him pressing against her bare thighs as she wiggled to get comfortable.

She'd decided to wear a tartan skirt with knee socks, thinking Greg would like this look. To be fair, most males liked this look.

When the guy in charge of the computer center—a youngish and nerdy looking man—came over to reprimand them he was distracted by the name on the screen. Getting overexcited, he called over everyone in the room, and Greg had to sit there and answer a hundred questions from overexcited nerds who were practically falling over themselves to talk to him.

He answered their questions with patience and goodwill. Every so often he would run his fingers up and down the exposed skin on her leg or gently squeeze her leg, but nobody seemed to notice.

As he showed them the staff he'd won in last season’s rankings, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "I like this skirt."

She smiled as he added, "I'm going to bend you over, push your panties aside and fuck you."