Filed to story: Outplayed Story (Brooklyn & Ethan) Book PDF Free
‘We made it.’ Blaze sat up. ‘Good job back there.’
‘Well, you too.’ She sat up too. ‘Obviously.’
‘It was pretty close for a minute there,’ he said. ‘I thought one of us was going to run out of health for sure. As challenges go, that was tight.’ He wasn’t looking at her.
Brook realised he was talking to his followers, not her.
There was a soft whoosh and the interviewer’s avatar appeared. Blaze got to his feet. He held out a hand to help Brook up. She stared at it for a millisecond. He was giving her his hand? She took it and he pulled her to her feet. She was holding Blaze’s hand.
She was holding his hand.
He looked down at where she was gripping his hand. Oh. Right. She let go, hot with embarrassment now.
‘Blaze! Bravura! How was that?’
‘Brutal,’ said Blaze. ‘But we made it. Right, Bravura?’ He clapped her on the shoulder. ‘You have to hand it to Bravura. She was the real star of the quest.’
Brook glowed. She nodded, too overcome to speak.
‘How did you think you did?’
‘We made it to the end and in pretty good time, so we might be in with a chance.’
‘Possibly, possibly. I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you that we lost three teams to the health potion trap.’
‘That was a low blow,’ said Blaze. ‘If Bravura hadn’t given me her last small health potion, I’d have died.’
Brook’s heart raced anew. She had saved him. He had noticed her and, for once, not because she was terrible at the game. The people commenting on his videos would have to stop hating her now.
Their time came up on the display above them. Less than an hour. Surely, that was good.
‘Well, good luck.’ The interviewer beamed and disappeared.
‘I’m going to take a small break,’ Blaze said to her. ‘Well played, Bravura.’
‘Thank you. You too. You were amazing.’
He gave a theatrical shrug. ‘All in a day’s work.’Brook took her headset off and made sure the mic was not on before she let out the squeal that had been building up inside her.
Niro grinned at her.
‘Did you see that? He gave me his hand. Did you see?’ said Brook.
Niro looked surprised. ‘I … yes, yes he did.’
‘You must have noticed.’
‘Well, yes. He helped you up. In a friendly kind of way. That was such a ridiculously fast-paced round, I’m just surprised that was the main thing you took from it.’
Brook waved a hand. ‘Oh, yeah, yeah. I didn’t get to try out my fighting skills. But I wasn’t crap. And I think I’m making progress getting to know him. He was all friendly and he said nice things about me.’
‘He said nice things about your playing …’ Niro said, carefully.
‘Same thing.’ Why was Niro being such a downer? ‘Things are finally going right,’ Brook said. ‘Can’t you be happy for me?’
‘I am. I am. I just think … you know, you shouldn’t read too much into-‘
Brook frowned. ‘I don’t think I am. Anyway. I’m going to go grab a drink and then go back in to see if we made it into round three.’Ethan took his headset off and swivelled his chair round to look at Pete. ‘And that, mate, is how it’s done,’ he said, still in character.
‘Wow,’ Pete said. ‘I mean, actually … wow. That was such a tense round.’
Ethan nodded. ‘Wasn’t it just? Bravura might be a rubbish fighter, but she’s got agility and thinking nailed.’
‘You were being very nice to her, I noticed,’ Pete said.
‘She was doing a good job. Credit where credit’s due.’ He was still feeling bad about how he’d behaved in the last round. To start with, he had been trying to make amends. But Bravura really had done well this time. ‘And she gave me her last health potion, even though she could have done with it herself. That’s …’ He frowned. It meant something.
‘Teamwork?’ said Pete. ‘Is that the word you’re looking for?’
Ethan smiled. ‘Yeah. That’ll be it.’ He reached for the bottle of water he kept on the shelf – far back, so that he didn’t accidentally knock it over. It was thirsty business keeping up a running commentary the whole time. As he drank, he considered how strange it felt to be part of a team. He didn’t object to it.
‘Besides,’ he said. ‘If I’m being friendly towards her, maybe it’ll tone down some of the nastier elements I’ve seen in the comments.’
Pete grimaced. ‘I saw that. I also saw you’d been wielding your moderating powers on your channel.’
‘Damn right. I’m not having that kind of toxic nonsense on my patch.’
‘Good. I hope Bravura isn’t too upset by it. Is she?’
‘She’s not mentioned it.’ Mind you, he hadn’t asked. ‘She doesn’t seem to have any social media presence, apart from a few comments on my videos. But I guess that just means she isn’t using the name Bravura. I didn’t want to bring it up in case that made things worse.’
‘Fair enough, I suppose.’
Ethan had some more water and put the lid back on the bottle.