Falling Hard

Games

"Would you turn that off and go to sleep?" Brandon whined, pulling the blanket over his head. It was almost three in the morning and I was still up playing video games. Brandon had gone to bed around midnight, obviously tired from try-outs. I had so much pent up rage that I didn't feel like sleeping. I just felt like killing things.

"I'm not tired."

"Some of us are."

I muted the TV then went back to the game, jumping my character onto the roof of a building. "There."

Brandon huffed and said no more.

It wasn't until five that I started to get tired. I shut the game off and yawned before I crawled onto the other side of the bed.

Both of us slept until noon. Until his mom came into the room and forced both of us awake.

"You're going to waste your day if you keep sleeping."

"Mom, go away." Brandon mumbled, his face buried in his pillow.

"Get up and go do something. Practice basketball in the backyard."

Brandon glared at his mom and I knew he was quietly trying to tell her I 'didn't make the team so don't talk about it.'

"I'll be back up in ten minutes. You two better be up." She said before leaving. She left the door open behind her.

Brandon got out of bed and stretched his arms over his head. "Are you feeling any better?"

I shrugged as I sat up. "A little."

He pulled a sweatshirt over his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's do something today. Get your mind off of everything."

"I don't feel like doing anything or going anywhere."

He sighed and pulled the blanket off the bed. "Come on."

"No."

He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. "Yes. You need to stop being so depressed."

"Let go of me or I'm punching you."

"You wouldn't punch me."

I clenched my fingers into a fist, drew my arm back, and hit him right on his cheek. He let go of me but didn't grab his face like I thought he would. Be barely reacted to being punched.

"I can't believe you punched me."

I left the room and went across the hall to the bathroom. I slammed the door in his face. "Let me be depressed in peace."

"I guess I'll sit here and wait for you to come out."

"Then I'm not coming out."

Brandon sighed and twisted the door knob. When the door opened, he looked at me, confused. "Come on, Angelo. Let's go do something for a little bit. Then you can brood all you want."

I glared at him. "I'm not brooding."

"Well you're mad and it's seriously killing the mood."

"Fine. Then let's do something so you'll shut up and leave me alone." I said as I shoved past him. I went back into his room and put on one of his shirts, knowing there was a possibility it was actually mine. The amount of times we'd stayed at each others' houses was astounding.

"What do you want to do?"

I groaned. "I hate you, B."

- - -

The arcade was busy. It was a Saturday morning and all the kids weren't in school so they had money to spend and nothing better to do. Just like Brandon and I.

After several hours of playing games, we settled down for pizza.

Brandon nudged me and nodded his head at two kids at one of the games. A girl was playing a game though she was too short to reach most of the controls. A tall guy was standing beside her, getting the tall controls for her.

I sighed. "Why are you showing me this?"

"Because you're gay and I knew it wouldn't be quite as bad as seeing Derek and Laken here."

Walking in the doors were Derek and Laken. They weren't holding hands or being gross but their shoulders were touching and they were laughing.

I let my head hit the table. "Why does this always happen to me?"

"Because we have bad taste in guys."

"We?"

"Well I picked him for you. And we see how that turned out."

"It doesn't matter. I was just destined to be alone forever."

"That's not true, Angelo."

"I'm not good at anything."

"You're good at plenty of things."

"Like what?"

"You're smart and you care about people and you're really freaking good at COD."

"So are a lot of people."

"Not me. I can't play for shit. But you can and that's really awesome."

"Brandon-"

"If he can't see that then screw him."

Derek caught sight of us and headed our way. Brandon noticed, too, and turned to face me. Without another word, he kissed me, putting his hand on the back of my neck so I couldn't pull away.

I was stunned. What the hell was going on? Why was he kissing me? Why was he a good kisser? Why was I awful?

He pulled back and winked at me before he stood up. He'd grabbed my hand in his and pulled me to my feet with him.

"Didn't expect to see you two here." Derek said, his eyes staying on Brandon, as if I wasn't there.

Brandon shrugged. "We wanted to get out of the house and do something fun."

He nodded. "Right. And hey, congrats on making the team."

"Right back at you." He grabbed the pizza box off the table. "Anyway, good seeing you guys."

"See you Monday."

Brandon rolled his eyes as they walked away and tossed the box in the garbage. "Let's get out of here."