He nods his head enthusiastically, his eyes a little too bright and excited. “Eat.”
“So bossy,” I say before a first bite, but I chew fast to ask my next question. “Are you allowed to eat pizza?” I’ll be the first to admit my knowledge of sports players is lacking, but I’ve always believed they follow strict diets. Sausage and mushroom pizza can’t be on any approved foods list.
Ryland laughs. “Not really, but since I’m not on a team at the moment I’m enjoying the freedom.”
“You can’t let go too much or else what will happen when you go back?”
He responds with a shrug that isn’t an answer at all. When I stare at him waiting for more, he laughs. “Don’t worry, Mom, I had my vegetables for lunch."
**
“Marissa! You can’t sneak up behind someone and kill them.” Ryland yells at me from his position on the couch and his Dragons Reborn player runs in the opposite direction fleeing an attacking PC — a character created by the game and not controlled by a human.
“Why not? We’re trying to win aren’t we?” My sword slashes through another opponent sent by the game to help defend the treasure chest we’re fighting for.
His fingers stop pressing buttons on his controller as he turns to me. “It’s not good game play.”
“I need to upgrade my sword. The one you gave me takes three strikes to kill a PC player.” Clashes of iron against iron fill the room as I attack the last guard. Ryland holds his character back while mine jogs forward to inspect the contents of the chest we fought valiantly for.
“You’re so violent for someone so small.”
I add a few pieces of iron from the chest to my inventory. They’ll help with my upgraded sword. “I told you. I’m not small. I'm average. You’re too tall. It’s not normal.”
Ryland approaches the chest when I walk away to see what spoils of war I’ve left him — not much. “Small. Average. Either way I'm scared of you.”
I laugh at him and then continue on deeper into the cave we picked to explore for treasures. Aspen never told me you kill bad guys in Dragons Reborn. She talked about big castles and dragons. Simone’s no better, she’s under the delusion she's a fashion designer in the game. No one mentioned swords and treasure chests.
Forty minutes ago when we sat down to play, Ryland created a new character for me and outfitted it with armor and a sword. It was all I needed. We started by killing small rats at the base of a cave, but I’ve quickly progressed to bigger objectives. I have Aspen to build me a castle and Simone to create my character a better wardrobe. I'll take care of our assassin needs.
The Dragons Reborn graphics are simple in nature — even a little pixelated. I haven’t played many video games in my lifetime, but graphics have advanced from the types of images on the screen now. Yet, somehow it works.
“Don’t you think we should break and give you time to fix your armor?” Ryland asks.
“No time. Let’s do one more chest and then count our loot.” I lead our characters through a small opening in the cave. The good finds are always down a small hole. "How do I make my character eat again?” I’ll at least feed the virtual me before I put her back in harm’s way.
Ryland closes the small distance between us on the couch and leans over to show me which buttons I need to pull food from my inventory. His body presses against my side and I freeze from the closeness. I’m hyper aware of every movement he makes. With each button pressed, his elbow pushes against my exposed skin.
“Thanks.” Excited to continue with our quest, I turn my head to him expecting empty space between us, but there isn’t.
Ryland’s face is mere inches from me. Even sitting he’s taller, so my eyes meet his chin. But when I raise them, he stares down at me with fascination.
“Marissa,” he smooths the sounds of my name out like honey.
I struggle to think of a witty comeback, but Ryland lowers his head in one swoop and captures my lips in his. It’s gentle and exploring until he opens his mouth and my lips follow, allowing his tongue access. My hands reach up to wrap around his neck, the controller falling to the floor. A heart beats erratically as our kiss turns more forceful. Is it his or mine? Ryland shuffles closer and closer until I’m thrown off balance and forced to lean back on the couch with an arm to brace myself on a cushion.
His body follows me until he rips his lips from mine, both of us panting heavily. “Fuck.” He stares at me wide-eyed. “I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
His rejection bites and I tense, my good feeling from seconds before draining away. “It’s okay. It was nothing.” I turn back to the television and blindly grab for my controller to try and bring my breathing under control. Who kisses a woman and then apologizes? Well, screw him. If the kiss meant nothing to him, it meant double nothing to me.
“We should get back to the next chest, right?” Ryland asks while repositioning himself on the leather couch.
A small part of me screams to tell him yes. To go back to the stupid game and pretend my heart isn’t cracking a little more every moment I sit here. Dragons Reborn has lost the excitement it held a few moments ago.
I need to get out of here and back to the safety of my apartment. “Um, it’s late,” I lie. It’s ten to nine on a Friday night. “I should head home.”
“Right.”
My crutches lay on the floor in front of the couch. I grab them and walk to the door on mushy, uneasy legs. Crutches make it easy to pretend my unsteadiness is their fault rather than the lingering feelings from Ryland’s lips on mine.
