Chapter 22

"Please, Greg," Ruby cried for the millionth time as she followed Greg about the kitchen. She held out her hands, fingers curled up like talons as if trying to pull her desired response from his lips.

Again, he ignored her, barely glancing in her direction to deign her with a derisive scowl.

"Don't be like this," she pleaded.

He turned his back to her, pulling open the cupboard to fetch the sugar and closing it with unnecessary force. Grains of sugar scattered across the work surface as he prepared a cup of tea, chucking the ingredients into the cup in quick, sharp movements.

Since that horrible moment on the doorstep, he hadn't said a word to her. He'd had plenty of words with Lucas, however, who had graced her with a short and not so sweet message to convey his regret that he'd no longer be seeing her.

"What you're doing isn't fair," she cried, becoming increasingly frustrated with his refusal to discuss the matter. "Why does it matter to you who I sleep with? You don't have the right to tell people what to do."

"And yet," he said, voice laced with sarcasm.

"Please, Greg. Don't keep us apart. Please, please, I'm begging you," she cried, spurred on by the fact he'd spoken.

She dropped to her knees, remembering it had worked before. This time, she was even more desperate, knowing her heart would wither and die if she couldn't see Lucas again.

"Please I'm begging you, Greg," she beseeched, staring up with the saddest eyes she could manage. “Please, please, please.”

Her mother chose this unfortunate moment to walk into the kitchen and turned to stare at them with wide eyes.

"What the hell?" Mum asked.

"We're rehearsing for a play," Ruby uttered, thinking fast on her feet.

Her Mum stared at them for another second before asking which one.

'Damn it, what plays are there?' Ruby said, trying to rack her brain. She wasn't one of the drama kids and never participated in the school plays—a fact her mother knew well.

"Erm, the... the ones with all the cats," Ruby said.

"You mean... Cats?" her mother asked, frowning.

Ruby nodded as Greg looked down at her with disdain, rolling his eyes.

"I don't remember this scene," Mum said, but luckily, she wasn't into plays or drama either, so she would have no way of knowing.

"Greg, can I have a word with you in private?" Mum asked.

'Damn it,' Ruby sighed to herself, hoping her mother wasn't going to make a big thing about if and anger Greg even further.

She slunk from the kitchen, tempted to dither by the door and eavesdrop on their conversation. Being smart about it, she stomped away and then snuck quietly back into position, crouching by the door like some sort of gremlin. Her mother was asking Greg why he'd told Lucas to stay away from Ruby, and Greg was feeding her the same lies he'd told Ruby.

Her hands balled into fists and her mouth puckered as she listened, wishing she could stomp in there and set him straight. She knew Lucas wasn't a womanizing creep, and Greg wasn't banning their relationship out of concern.

'So why is he doing this?' she wondered. She knew he was treating Amber like garbage so maybe the answer was he simply enjoyed hurting people.

It made so little sense to her. Why wouldn't he want his stepsister and his friend to be happy. At this rate, they would both end up resenting him.

'That or Lucas doesn't care for me,' Ruby thought, yet again dwelling over the fact he'd chosen Greg over her.

She desperately wanted to see him. To know what was going on in his head. But he wouldn't agree to it.

When she heard her mother’s footsteps nearing, Ruby shot on to the sofa, trying to look inconspicuous by pulling out her phone and loading up her profile.

As soon as Greg followed her out Ruby resumed her barrage of pleas and arguments.

"You lied when you said he uses girls for sex, so what's the real reason you don't want him to date me?" Ruby asked.

"Did I lie? Or did he?" Greg asked with a smug grin. "I guess you'll never know now."

"Why are you doing this?" Ruby blurted. "You're just being cruel and unfair."

He made a scoffing sound but said nothing.

"I hate you," Ruby scathed.

He looked like he was about to respond when a knock at the door interrupted him. Ruby frowned as she sat up and looked out of the window to the back door and saw Tom standing there.

"Oh God, what does he want?" she thought out loud.

"He's here for me, not you," Greg said, getting up to answer the door.

'Why is Tom hanging out with Greg?' she wondered.

###

Tom felt weird seeing Ruby. He nodded and muttered a half-hearted hello before following Greg to his tiny bedroom.

He felt both nervous and excited as Greg closed the door and locked it behind them, wondering what he'd be forced to do this time.

'Whatever it is, it's worth it,' Tom reasoned.

He had come to terms with the fact he was never going to get out of the platinum league on Day of Dragons. It wasn't that he was bad or under-geared, he just couldn't find a teammate good enough to boost him on his journey to Diamond. He didn't think it would ever happen... until he met Greg.

Greg logged on and played his character, boosted by his champion ranked friend, playing his 5 daily games, and winning every single one with ease. In return, all Tom had to do was follow Greg's orders—orders that he found weird, bordering on creepy.

The first time, Greg had asked for a foot massage and had laughed at Tom's insistence that this was a foreplay act.

"People are allowed to touch each other without it being sexual," Greg had pointed out, using massage parlors as an example.

Tom guessed the guy was slightly into him, had some weird fetish or wanted to make him feel humiliated. Either way, he'd obliged, and the reward had made it worth the effort.

The next time he'd forced Tom to do push-ups for the entire time he was there. Again, he concluded that Greg was attracted to him, despite him insisting it wasn't anything to do with being 'gay.'

Having a decent amount of upper body strength, Tom had been able to do a hundred or so push-ups before his muscles started to shake and pucker under his weight. He'd ended up flat on his stomach, drenched in sweat and begging for a break. His muscles still ached now, he realized as he stretched and cricked his neck.

"Today we are going to do something a little more... exciting," Greg said and grinned.

Tom smiled a humorless grin in return, dreading to think what he meant by this.

"Since I'm going to push you into the diamond league today, I expect you to do something for me, right?" Greg pressed.

Tom nodded. "Of course. Anything."

Once his character was in the Diamond league, he would have access to a whole new set of gear—gear that was even better than the heroic raiding gear his friends had.

'It's going to blow their minds when they see me,' he thought. There was one girl, in particular, who he wished to impress—a gorgeous and flirty guildmate who didn't know he had a 'real life' girlfriend.

"Here." Greg passed him a couple of cigarette lighters. "I want you to hold down the flame for twenty seconds then hold it into your skin for twenty seconds. Make the burns wherever you like, but I suggest the lower back so you can hide them under your trousers."

Greg stared at the see-through purple and green lighters as the words sank in.

'Burns?' he questioned. 'How many does he expect me to do?'

"Start now and keep doing it until I say you can stop," Greg said as if reading his mind.

Tom fumbled with the lighter, igniting it and counting to twenty before lifting his shirt and pulling down his trousers.

"Ah," he let out a sharp hiss as the metal of the lighter seared his flesh. The pain shocked him more than it should have. It was hot metal. How was it not going to hurt?

Greg chuckled lightly and told him to alternate the lighters, so they didn't become too hot to handle.

He didn't want to do another after feeling the first burn mark sting, but as he watched Greg play for him, he couldn't just turn around and say no.

"Is there not something else I can do?" Tom asked, his voice whiny and pleading.

"No, get on with it," Greg ordered. "Or I quit."

Tom obeyed, turning the purpled lighter over in his hand before lighting it and counting again. This time he let out a moan of pain, which seemed to please his tormenter.

He wanted to ask why. Why did Greg wish to see him in pain and self-mutilating?

'Do I really want to know?' Tom wondered as he picked up the green lighter and repeated the painful process. As he added more of the angry red marks the surrounding skin became blotchy. The whole area burned like crazy, making him wonder if it was better to pick a new spot of skin and spread them out.

'I don't want this all over my body,' he realized. Tom took a lot of pride in his appearance. He knew he looked good naked and that girls appreciated his figure. Maybe Greg was jealous of him. It was either that, or he genuinely enjoyed seeing other people in pain.

When the pain got so bad his hands were shaking and he could barely spin the flint wheel he turned to Greg.

"Please... it really fucking hurts," he cried.

"Aww," Greg cooed. "Beg like a dog and I'll let you stop."

Tom wasn't exactly sure when he meant, never having had a dog to beg for anything. His Mum claimed to hate dogs for the exact reason they were always whining and pestering for food, yet she was always overjoyed to see a puppy in the street.

He crouched on his knees and raised his hands like paws, face filled with a mixture of confusion and pain.

"Make the whining sound," Greg demanded, looking down at him with a smirk.

As Tom did his best whiny dog impression Greg's smirk twisted into a satisfied smile. Then he leaned over and grabbed a jar of coop 59p salt from the windowsill.

"Put this on the burn," he said.

"Isn't that going to hurt?" Tom asked.

"Yes." Greg laughed. "But it will also stop it from blistering up."

Tom poured some of the salt into his palm and took a deep breath before leaning to the side and patting the salt-covered hand over the burns.

The pain was so unbearable he forgot all about the game. Panting in short breaths, he got up and walked in circles, bend over and trying to do anything to ease the searing agony in his side.

"When can I take this off?" he asked.

"When you leave," Greg replied. "And you can leave now if you like. I just won your fifth match."

"Oh my God, thank you!" Tom squealed, seeing the achievement pop up on his screen, forgetting about the pain for a fraction of a second.

"Go on," Greg said. "Go sort yourself out."

He didn't say goodbye, just shoved him from his bedroom and left him to find his own way out. It wasn't as if he hadn't been in this house before. He'd visited a lot when dating Ruby.

On his way out the house was clear, so he decided to grab some of the paper towels from the worktop and soak them in water to wipe the awful salt from the burns.

He had his trousers pulled down when Ruby emerged from the living room, frowning.

"What the hell?" she asked as he yanked up his trousers in a panic, chafing the burn. The wet paper towels fell to the floor with a splat as she stared in horror.

"S-sorry," he muttered, exiting the kitchen as fast as humanly possible.