Chasing_Faith

Just under my nose, misty ice escaped from my lips as my breathing danced to the sound of my pedaling. Even though I was on my own, I did feel a little content with the weather. Everything seemed so…calm. Besides the sound of cars passing by, it was silent for the most part. The sight of snowfall in front of me sort of put me at ease.

That project with Naomi wasn't the last time I spent more than a few minutes with her. I had asked her out for some coffee too shortly after. Anyone other than her might've taken it as a 'date', but I considered it more of a…get-together. Even so, she had refused at the time. However, all hope wasn't lost because she had also decided she might just be up for it should she have any free time in the future.

And so, there was a time we did hang out, but it wasn’t for long. As proposed, we did get our coffee, but it wasn’t exactly the way I had intended.

This had taken place one afternoon not too long ago. It would have been nice if it had turned out to be a vivid memory worth engraving in my mind. But there was nothing noteworthy about it. Long story short, we got our coffee, sat at a booth inside, and that was it. I was looking to at least get to know her a little better, but she didn't bother sharing much about herself. Instead, it was just as if we had been in class. All she did was crack open a book and begin reading from there.

Of course, I didn't give up. I tried asking her short and presumably simple questions to answer. In return, she only answered with brief and direct responses. It was like she wasn't interested in having an engaging conversation with me. I only had so much patience, and it was only a matter of time before I did end up throwing the towel. I called it quits when all I had left was to drink my beverage in absolute silence.

She thanked me for the time spent just before she took off, but I wasn't sure if it was right to take it with a grain of salt. We didn’t do anything I'd consider real friends would do, so I felt as if her thanks was out of place. I couldn't lie and say that it didn't feel nice getting closer to her than anyone else bothered to do. At the same time, I still wanted more. Friends laugh and talk with each other when they're together, not just sit in total silence. In the end, I still had my doubts about whether I was actually her friend or not.

That being said, I'd try and look at it from a different perspective as well.

She wasn’t like everyone else. That was for sure. It was obvious she was more of a bookworm than a social butterfly. A lot of people had their own way of seeing others as friends. To fit in her own definition of what she considered a friend was still possible. That's what I aimed to convince myself with, after all.

Minuscule particles of ice shortly flew alongside my breath before spreading out like confetti.

After a long and drawn-out sigh, there was a sudden vibration in my right pocket. I came to a stop on the sidewalk and dug my hand into that pocket. Pulling out my phone, I immediately noticed a blinking blue light in the top left corner. Someone had sent me a message.

Naomi immediately came to mind.

Maybe she changed her mind about making plans for us to hang out? It's not like she had to study for the entirety of winter, right?

Pressing my finger against the thin button on the right side of my phone, I lit up the screen. That was where my uncalled hope disappeared in a flash.

Well, it wasn’t all that bad.

I just got home, and I’m glad it’s finally winter break… I really need the time off… Can you get online?

The sender had been someone under the alias "Chasing_Faith".

I knew who this person had been. She was actually a good friend of mine, but there was a reason why her name on my contact list remained just as an alias. I didn't know her real name. In fact, the two of us have never even met.

I stared at the message for a moment.

I didn't spend the time looking for something to respond with. Instead, I pondered about the unexpected vibe I was getting from her. I knew it was just reading words on a screen, but for some reason…she seemed different. She usually used expressive emoticons with her messages, but she wasn't this time around. It's not like that alone was enough to warrant concern, but something about her message was still off. I wanted to ask her about it, but I figured it would be best to wait until I got home.

Yeah. I’m about to get home myself. I’ll see you online in a few.

After hitting send, I shut off the screen and buried the phone back in my pocket. I continued pushing both my feet against the pedals they stood on. It wasn't long before I'd be in the comfort of my own home.

I watched the streets with a blank mind as I pedaled the rest of the way. At some point, any lingering thoughts of Naomi disappeared from my mind. For a minute or two, I repeated the last message I read in my head. Then, I began to recollect certain events that led her to her spot on my phone.

My online companion.

During the summer break before this past fall, I had spent most of my time playing video games. I know. Even I can recognize saying that made me sound like a loser. Either way, I didn't have much to do besides chores and basic crap around the house.

Even gaming got tiring at times because…it all felt too repetitive. I didn't exactly have an income, and there weren't many ways to make money considering my age. Because of this, my selection of games was pretty limited.

I usually found myself turning on my system to a yearly title. It was a first-person shooter that supported both offline and online content. But, in reality, there was only one thing left to do once the campaign on the disc was completed. And, that was taking the game online and matching up against other people all over the world.

Having online content sounds like a great way to stretch the lifespan of a particular game. Who wouldn't think that playing with others could inspire teamwork and bonds? Yeah, no. Not when a lot of those people you get paired with tend to take that game way too seriously than they should. If you weren't getting along with others, then all you did was kill fictional soldiers over and over. And, only shooting other people dead online did have its annoyances.

Like the majority of those who played the game, I had my own headset. I remembered getting the game along with it with some of the cash I had earned through hard and physical labor. I believed I would be able to "hear everything" and "defeat everyone" as advertised. I was so hyped when I finally had them. I thought I would be entering a whole new and insane world.

Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong and disappointed in my life.

There was no slithering around the battlefield like a snake and keeping an ear out for enemies. There were no flying choppers and giving some hardcore overwatch. There was no coordinating with your squad for some serious tactical gameplay. Instead, all that there was to hear and experience was the complete opposite. Instead of bullets, belittling insults and swears shot across the field.

Oh, and you can't forget about the obnoxiously loud music in the background of someone's mic. Or, the "girl gamers" that infested every match with the obvious goal to seek attention. If that wasn't enough, there was also the dropping of every guy's pants that soon followed suit.

After hearing enough about how my or other people's skill was crap, I was done. I had stopped looking for what I had expected this game to be and just accepted it. I didn't bother uttering one word knowing that there was always someone who'd chastise you for it. I kept to myself and only killed others and died in return, rinse and repeat.

If I spent any of my time playing the game online, I usually spent it in a certain game mode. It was a mode that removed the "spawn and die" repetition of the game.

You couldn't respawn, so if you died, that was it.

I always liked the slim chance of being the hero when everyone on your team was out. But my teammates tended to leave me hanging with a full enemy team. That, or they'd go at it hardcore and kill them all before I got a chance to. Nothing surprising.

Not having what I had been pretty much promised, everything about it was just bland to me. I had been on the verge of calling it quits with the game until I came across a certain interesting match.

Teams spawn in at opposite sides. Another player on my side screams that he's about to "wreck some shit". Match starts. Everyone runs out. The kill feed is soon littered with a bunch of names.

This was nothing new, and I remembered particularly shaking my head at the stupidity of it. I was expecting to go in and get destroyed over the many that remained in the opposite team. But, this time, things played a little differently.

I decided to run to a corner of a building and "camp", hoping I'd be able to pick them off one by one. To my surprise, I came across someone else that had been hiding there with me. Even though the rest of the team had gone out and gotten themselves killed, this person was still alive. The next thing I realized, we were watching each other's backs, keeping tabs on both openings in front of us.

The somewhat ironic thing about this was that we hadn't even spoken a word to each other over the mic.

This guy must be a noob. He has to be. No average player actually sticks together with their team. He probably doesn't even know how the game works.

That was what I thought.

At any point, I didn't want to let this opportunity go to waste. Since everyone else was dead, I decided to turn on my microphone in hopes that we'd be able to coordinate for once.

“So, you didn’t rush out like everyone else, huh?” I asked, a tone of annoyance still lingering in my voice.

I didn’t receive an answer though.

I assumed this person didn’t have a microphone because they continued to remain silent. It was understandable. Not everyone online had a microphone to speak into. Even so, I knew that if we were to have any chance of winning, we had to use some sort of communication. First off, I wanted to see if the other person could even hear me, so I decided to put it to the test.

“Can you hear me?” I asked another question.

The in-game character model awkwardly turned to me. He then stood up from his crouched position and then crouched back down in a swift manner. His default serious facial expression made it funny to look at.

Normally, people in this game use crouching to insult other players they've killed. In this case, I was guessing that this person did it to stay hidden. Jumping would have given the other team a better chance to notice it by both sight and sound. Maybe this guy wasn't such a noob after all? To be honest, I was still in a state of disbelief to see this guy keeping close and listening. I was kind of expecting him to just run off and die at some point.

“Well, if we want any chance of winning, we’re going to have to stick together,” I mentioned.

The person’s character only continued staring at me with its idle animation.

I looked at the time that counted down at the bottom corner of the screen. There was only about a minute left, so we didn’t have much time. We were at a point where it was two of us and four of the other team. Even if we were still alive the moment the timer hit zero, it was still possible to lose by default. This wasn't because the team had numbers. Rather, we had objectives that we needed to do.

For this round, we were defending the objectives, so there was only one thing to do. We needed to stop the enemy team from planting their bomb. If they did plant it, we needed to defuse it before it went off.

The games I played usually ended in a matter of seconds from team eliminations. In this case, we were the only two alive, so it wasn't a surprise when we got a notification that a bomb had been planted. I assumed they wanted to drive us out of our hiding spots anyway.

Like anyone, I didn't want to lose, so I decided to take charge and offer a plan of action to my only teammate. As I snuck my way towards the marked objective, I spoke to the player following behind me.

"Here's what I'm thinking. The other team is expecting us, and they've got numbers over us. So, we can't just rush in and defuse the bomb. I get the feeling that a part of the team is watching the bomb and the other one or two is scouting the map for us."

I stopped behind a barrier that was full of junk like scrap metal and wooden plywood. I was hoping the enemy team wouldn't see us, but time was literally ticking in our ears. I tried to give my directions as fast as I could.

"I'm pretty sure they think they're going to win, so I'm going to throw a smoke grenade at where the bomb is. If I'm right, they'll think we'll be using the smoke as cover and rush in to kill us. As soon as we see them, we fire. Then, as soon as they drop, I'll run in and defuse it while you look out and watch my back."

There was no way that the other player could have objected to my plan at the moment. All I could do was assume that they were good to run with it. Having no time to spare, I watched as my character's hand pulled the pin of the smoke grenade. He then threw it towards the bomb site shortly after. As soon as we saw the smoke pour out and flood the scene, we stayed back and kept an eye out to see if they would bite our bait.

There was a sudden explosion at the site, but it wasn't the bomb we needed to defuse. It was a remote charge that they had placed in hopes of killing any defuser from afar. I guess it was a good thing we didn't rush in.

We didn't see anyone run to the site soon after, so I figured now was the best time to defuse as any. There was no doubt the other team was on their way, and we had no time whatsoever to wait for them to rush in.

In a matter of seconds, I made a quick change to our already-altered plans.

“Hey, go defuse! I’ll cover it!” I exclaimed.

He immediately ran into the smoke to get to defusing. I didn't know if I'd be able to give this person complete coverage, but I was willing to try. I gave a constant scan around the area, never looking away once. I could feel my trigger finger spazzing out as I expected someone to show up at any second.

The disarming was close to completion. Just before I could take a breath, something heavy landed just by the bomb, close to the person defusing. If I wasn't mistaken, it was a grenade, and it was likely the result of a last-resort kill. They knew they weren't going to make it in time, but they still had a chance to win this. If I didn't do anything now, my partner would no doubt die.

At that point, I did the first thing that came to mind.

Stumbling over to the grenade, I panicked and picked it up. I could feel my own arms flailing around as my character moved his to toss the lethal weapon away. I didn't think I was going to make it, but the explosion of shrapnel was just barely far enough to live through.

The defusal was complete, and the round ended. I was able to breathe again.

We had won the round, but we still had the rest of the game to go.

As if the last round was proof enough to trust me, the same person stuck by my side for the rest of the game. For the first time, I was actually having a pretty damn fun time with the game.

Our run wasn't entirely perfect, but we did manage to win a few more rounds. It wasn't as hard when you were shooting enemies that were too busy chasing the other guys. Despite that, we did have our share of losses. It wasn't until the moment I saw "OVERTIME" on the screen that my hands began feeling clammy.

We had played this round defensively, somehow leaving us at a standstill at an even two versus two. Checking the scoreboard, I found something worthwhile to keep in mind. For this last fight, the remaining two enemy players had actually been part of the four from our first round. It was a safe bet that they learned a few things from the last time.

For this round, we had two options: Kill the entire team or plant the bomb and don't let anyone defuse it. Going straight for the last two and killing them to immediately win the round was possible, but that was also risky. I figured planting the bomb and luring them out was a better idea. We just had to play smart.

"I've got an idea," I shared as we hid behind a barrier and watched one of the objectives on the left side of the map. "Stay here while I go to the other bomb site. I'm going to throw a smoke over there and hope that they think that’s where we’re planting. After you hear the smoke pop, wait a few seconds and then start planting at this one, got it? I'll come straight back over here to cover you."

Unable to respond in any other manner, their character model aimed their gun up and down as a form of nodding.

“Okay,” I offered through my mic and began to proceed as planned.

I raced over to the bomb site serving as the decoy by taking the back roads, which were the edges of the map. I threw myself behind cover and made sure I was not out in the open for anyone to see. Next, I pulled the pin from my smoke grenade. Soon after, I stood up from my crouched position and threw it out towards the site. For extra emphasis, I pulled out my secondary weapon and shot in random directions. I was hoping it wasn't too obvious since my weapon didn't have a silencer. I wanted them to know someone was there, but I also didn't want them to realize it was just bait. Whether they would take it or not, I raced back over to my partner.

As soon as I saw our bomb thrown to the ground, I immediately raised my weapon and aimed down the sights. There was still a lengthy amount of time to wait for the bomb to go off. If my idea worked, it would have only bought us a few seconds before the team would run straight back over here. Even so, every second counted, so it was still better than nothing.

Pulling out the claymores I had on hand, I planted them in various spots they needed to pass through to get to the bomb. I then trusted my partner to watch one area while I watched the other.

It was about ten seconds until the first sign of trouble came. I heard my claymore go off, but I didn’t receive any notification that anyone had died from it. I rushed over to that area since my partner had been covering another side of the same spot. I raised my weapon and prepared to fire as soon as I found the person who set the claymore off. But I didn’t see anyone where it used to be.

I knew I couldn’t stay aiming at a single spot for too long. My feet stomped back to the area I was keeping watch at until light flooded my screen. A high-pitched ringing ambushed my ears. There was no doubt about it. A flashbang had blinded me.

Having no other choice, I fired my gun without having any sense of direction. I imagined bullets flailing and ricocheting all over the place as I hoped for the flash effect to wear off. At the first sign of color, I noticed someone straight ahead of me. Before I could do anything about it, his gun showered me with lead. I fell to the floor as he proceeded to run past me.

To my advantage, my character had a specific perk that many in the community grew a hatred of. It was an ability that allowed me to have a sort of “last stand” anytime someone incapacitated me. I didn't die right away as I should have. Instead, I fell to the floor and pulled out my secondary. Even though I was bleeding out, I was free to shoot.

I guessed that the one who brought me down was too pressured by the bomb to finish me off. Feeling the corner of my lips stretch into a smirk, I pointed my gun at him and pulled the trigger several times. His body fell to the floor before he knew it. Even with one less enemy player, I was still dying. Someone else had to come to pick me back up if I wanted to live.

Doing the one thing that no other player has ever bothered to do before, my partner noticed me and rushed to my aid. As he worked to bring me back up, I continued to look around to cover my partner as much as I could.

Sticking a morphine shot into my arm, I noticed the last person on the other team come into sight and raise his gun at us. Without thinking, I had a sudden urge to do something I believed I'd never be able to do again. I slid a knife out of my pocket, planning to get a satisfying kill. If the other team was able to hear us, I would have loved to share some cheesy one-liner. With a flick of my wrist, the knife escaped from my hand and towards the remaining enemy. For a second or two, I watched in anticipation as the knife twirled straight into the opponent’s eye.

The moment was far too quick, but that made it even more satisfying to see in slow motion at the end of the round. It was finally over. We had won.

Aaah. I feel accomplished.

“Great work, man!” I told my partner with gusto. I never thought I'd come across someone who was actually willing to work with me in a game. I was so pumped up. I was willing to keep the party going, even if the rest of the games turned out to be losses.

Unfortunately, I watched that same person leave the game. Seeing that notification, my excitement tore apart and disappeared. Sure, they were just a stranger, but they were an amazing team player. It was hard to let that go...

With that, I decided I had my fill and exited the game. My finger glided towards the power button until another notification flashed on my screen. Freezing my finger in place, I studied the words that appeared on the top left of my screen.

Chasing_Faith has invited you to a party.

My brow furrowed in confusion for a second. It took me a moment to realize that this had been the same person I had been playing with before they left. Kicking hesitation out the door, I hammed through the options to accept the invitation. Soon, a screen consisting of a lobby with only two players greeted me. The two players were me and the host who invited me.

Remembering that this person hadn't talked in our match at all, I wasn't sure what were we going to do.

How was he going to talk back? Send text messages?

A symbol unexpectedly lit up by their name. It was the symbol indicating whether or not a person had a mic, and it was lit up just like mine...

Hold on a second. Does that mean...?

To make sure the guy didn't just have a soft voice, I turned down the game volume and raised the chat volume. I focused all my attention on my hearing, and that was when I finally heard some kind of noise. It sounded like scuffling, but it was too faint to tell for sure. Even so, the microphone indicator belted out bars as if it was catching the person's voice.

At some point, the noise stopped. My eyes darted side to side, but my mind focused on what I heard instead of what I saw. Patience was wearing thin as I waited in torturing suspense. If this person does have a mic, why did they wait until now to talk?!

The indicator next to their name lit up again, and I could hear the same faint noise from before. Then, I heard what sounded like a quick clear of a throat. I continued to sit completely still as I waited for the voice behind the screen to speak up already.

“…hey…”

The voice was soft and almost inaudible. If I hadn't turned down all of the other sounds besides the voice chat, I was sure I wouldn't have heard it. Despite the volume, one thing was clear.

“Ah…!” I almost jumped from shock. This person’s voice made such an impact on me. It wasn't just because I was finally able to speak with my dedicated partner. It was...because...

IT WAS A GIRL!

I zipped my mouth shut and felt unable to open it back up.

Why was I freaking out about this?! It was just a girl, so what?!

In a slow motion, I uncovered my mouth and managed to calm myself down a bit to think.

I supposed I just hadn't been expecting to hear a girl's voice is all. It didn't help that she was one of the few girls who didn't jump into a game as if she were an angel falling from heaven. I had been so used to hearing the typical over-effeminate voice. It wasn't like that this time. It was all just a mind-blowing surprise...

“You there…?” I heard. It was still a little hard to tell, but her voice sounded a little wobbly.

Was she nervous? Maybe that's the reason why she had it off in the first place.

“O-oh… Sorry…” I answered similarly, still recouping from the discovery. “You kind of surprised me. I didn’t think you had a mic.”

“Sorry…” she apologized. “Talking online is kind of a hassle for me.”

I kind of had an answer to that and judging from her behavior, it seemed like the right one.

“Let me guess,” I began. “It’s other online players, right?”

“Yeah…”

I gave her extra time to continue, but that was all she seemed to want to say. Out of curiosity, I decided to ask her the next question that popped into my head. “If you don’t mind me asking…why are you talking with me then?”

“Ah… Well…” She paused for a moment as if hesitation had been keeping her back. “I guess…I kind of thought you were…cool?”

“Cool?” I was pretty surprised to hear that.

“Y-yeah, I mean…” she proceeded to explain. “I’m pretty sure you’ve played this long enough to see how other players usually are on this game. When we were the only ones during the match, I thought it was so cool when we were working together and stuff.” A timid laugh escaped between her words. “It was actually the first time I’ve ever played a game like that.”

“Same here. I never thought anyone would ever actually listen to me if something like that happened. I usually just get trash-talked if it’s someone with a mic.”

“Heh heh…” she returned an anxious yet content giggle. “So…you want to keep playing?”

“Yeah, sure!” I almost exclaimed from excitement. “You should add me first.”

“Yeah, okay…!” She seemed to like the idea of playing together too. Within a few seconds, I had received a friend request that I accepted with a few swift presses of a button. "StarChaser... That's funny."

She brought up my screen name all of a sudden.

"Huh? What's funny about it?" I asked.

"It's just that you and I both have similar names, I guess. Hehe. Sorry, I'm probably just being weird for noticing something like that."

"Oh, no. Don't worry about it. I didn't even notice it until you brought it up."

It was true. Despite our names being right next to each other on the party screen, I had been too busy to compare the two.

We ended up deciding to play a few more games in the same mode we had met each other in. Now that she had started talking to me, I figured we'd have an easier time getting some wins.

“You can just stick around me and watch my back. Is that okay?” I asked as the game loaded into the map.

“Yeah!” she returned, reacting much more expressively than she had been when she first spoke up. “It's way better than being by myself.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover you as much as I can. Just let me know if you spot anyone.”

“Got it.”

We continued to exchange words about different kinds of information when it came to the game. During rounds, we'd come up with tactics to pull against the other team. Just as I had been going through equipment and attachments that would work best, I was cut off.

"There's an attachment that makes the enemy's footsteps louder, if you use that, you can—"

“Shut the fuck up,” some player whose name consisted of capital letters and dollar signs intervened.

“The hell is your problem?” I answered, my blood coming to a boil. “We're talking about something here.”

“You ain’t talking to no one, bitch,” he said from the other end.

What's with this guy? Bad day?

Just before I could come up with something else to say, her voice spoke up.

“Star…” I heard her use a part of my online ID to call me. “I sort of…have everyone muted except you.”

“O-oh, you do?” I responded before bringing up the scoreboard and muting everyone else but her too.

“Yeah. What did the guy who was talking to you say?” she asked out of curiosity.

“Um…” I wasn’t too sure about repeating exactly what came out of his mouth. “He told me to shut up and then called me a bitch…”

“Yeah…” she answered back as if it wasn't a surprise. “That’s pretty much the exact reason why I mute everyone else, heh…”

“Oh,” I responded until I realized something strange about her statement. “Wait…then doesn’t that mean you had me muted the first game we played?”

“When I have my mic off, I only mute annoying people. Since I have my mic on to talk with you, I mute everybody else because I kind of don’t want them to hear me,” she responded with a reasonable answer.

“Oh, I get you…!” I grasped and proceeded to play the game with her.

Throughout summer break, the two of us would group up together online as soon as we had both been free. As we spent more time with each other, she continued to warm up to me. At some point, we were talking to each other as if we had been the best of friends. Our friendship even went beyond the realm of video games. Sometimes, we'd open up a stream together and watch movies or simple videos. Granted, it wasn't the same as if we had been with each other in person. Yet, to hear another voice besides mine was more than welcome.

"Star! Star!" her voice nearly shrieked in excitement one day. "Hear me out!"

"What? What?" My ears were on the verge of ringing from how high her voice had been.

"You've got to get the new zombie mode that just came out! We get to work together to kill endless hordes of zombies! I've only played by myself, but I know it'll be so much more fun with you!"

“That sounds cool!” Her excitement began to infect me as well. “Is it a free update?"

“You go to the online store and buy it from there! It's under the Add-ons, I think."

“Ah…” Disappointment hit me like a brick. “…how much is it?”

“Fifteen dollars…?” she tried to recall to the best of her knowledge. “It's kind of pricey, but it's because it comes with extra maps for multiplayer.”

“Well, damn," I slipped.

She caught on to that right away.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m…kind of broke,” I admitted. “If I had the money, I could go run to the nearest store and get a prepaid card, but I’d have to at least spend twenty bucks. I don’t have a lot to spend right now, and it might be a while before I can start making some cash. It sucks...”

“Oh…” Her reaction seemed to match mine to a T. “Gosh… That's super lame.” There was no doubt that she had been looking forward to playing that new mode with me. As a result, I felt guilt press down on the already heavy weight of disappointment on top of me. Unfortunately, I didn't get an allowance as some other kids did. I either had to wait for some special occasion or find some kind of work around to do. Either way, I didn't know when I'd have the chance to play with her.

A heavy sigh escaped from her microphone. “Too bad there isn't a way to just share it with you. I wouldn't mind at least letting you borrow it.”

An idea clicked in my mind as soon as I heard the word "share". There was still a chance the two of us could get what we wanted. At the same time, it wasn't going to be easy.

This idea of mine required an extreme and maybe even absurd amount of trust. We had been practically playing every day since we met, but it wasn't like we had known each other for so much as a year. As much as I was willing to believe that she wouldn't go for it, I decided to bring it up to her anyway.

“Actually, there is a way you could technically do that."

"Huh?" The pitch of her voice raised a bit as if her interest had been peaked.

“There’s this thing called ‘gamesharing’," I explained. "It’s sort of a method that other people use to share their games and DLC.”

“‘Gamesharing’?” She questioned. It sounded like she had never heard of the term before. “So, you’re saying that I can share the DLC with you? We would be able to play together?”

“Yeah. There’s just a catch…”

“What’s that…?” The sound of her voice now grew a bit worried as if it had been hanging on a thread of suspense.

I began to hesitate, pause, and even almost stumble with my words as I explained the next part to her. I didn't want her to think I was actually some kind of con artist who was out to steal her things.

"The thing is...I'd have to log in to your account to download it. And, to log in to your account, I would, of course, need your...you know."

“You're talking about my email and password?” She clarified.

“Yeah…” I replied. “B-but it’s cool if you don’t want to. I'm not expecting you to do something like that to someone you only know online. We can still wait until I get the money to buy it. It just might take a while.”

She remained silent for a moment, and I found myself hoping that I didn't give her the wrong idea. I was fine if she didn't want to do it, but at the same time, I felt a little uneasy about getting rejected. In any case, it wasn't like we knew each other in real life.

“Okay. Let’s do it.” she suddenly said.

My eyes shot open in response. It was another surprise, just like when I first heard her voice.

“What?! Really?!” I almost lurched forward toward the TV.

“Yeah! If that means we can play together today, then why not?”

I was almost at a loss for words.

“It's just I don't want you to feel pressured or anything. Like I said, it's completely fine if you don't want to.”

"I know, I know. But...I want to do this." Her voice grew soft. “I hope you don’t think this is weird…but I feel like you’re someone I can trust. I know this must sound crazy coming from someone you only know over the internet. But it's been really fun hanging out with you on here. Actually, I feel like I don't have anything to worry about. After all, believe it or not, you're the only person I've ever really talked to like this.” She returned what sounded like a giggle bathed in embarrassment. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think you’d be stupid enough to sacrifice all that for a dumb account or game. It's not like you'll be able to get my system anyway,” she teased me at the end with a nonchalant sing-song voice.

As embarrassing as it was to admit, I felt touched by her words. Any fear of rejection left my mind almost immediately. It took me a while until I was able to open my mouth, and when I did, I released a silent sigh.

"Yeah, you're right. I feel the same. No way I'd want to do anything that ends up driving us apart. You're my co-op partner for life."

Her laugh this time was much more expressive as if she had genuinely found my last comment amusing to hear.

"And, as your partner, I am obligated to share my stuff with you. A team can't win if one hoards all the ammo, after all."

Her words caused the corners of my lips to lift softly and gently. In fact, they alone were enough to make me forget about a lot of things. Things that I couldn't exactly put behind me.

“Is there another way I can give you the information?" she asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I’m not sure if it's a good idea to put it here.”

“Oh! Um…” I thought and looked around my room for a bit. My hand pressed against the solid bump in my right pocket. Without thinking much at first, I slid my hand inside and pulled it out. Then, I observed the phone that came out for a good while. “Do you have a phone?”

“Yeah. Do you want me to text it to you?” she volunteered.

“Y-yeah, sure! If it’s alright with you.” I wasn't expecting her to suggest something like a text at all. I was thinking more about an email or something like that. Yet, she went on ahead and offered something just a little more personal.

“Sure! Just give me your number.”

“Okay.” Believing I had nothing to lose, I gave it to her as clearly as I could over the microphone. She repeated the numbers every once in a while as I heard certain taps against a hard surface. Within a few minutes, a vibration erupted from my phone. For some weird reason, my palms began to feel sweaty. Anxious fingers hovered over the phone for a solid moment. Finally, they moved forward and unlocked the touchscreen that lit up.

There was a new message that had come from a mix of unfamiliar digits. Tapping my screen a few times, I opened the message up. There, I saw an email and presumably the password that went along with it.

“Just delete it straight after you put it in,” she mentioned next. “I don’t know if anyone you know goes through your phone. I wouldn’t want someone else getting into my account. Hehe.”

“Yeah, of course!” I agreed. I didn't think anyone ever really went through my phone in the first place. Even so, she revealed her tremendous amount of trust in me by doing this. There was no reason to refuse the short and small favor she asked of me. “I’ll go ahead and get on right now. It should only take me a couple of minutes. It’ll kick you out when I log in though. I’ll text you and let you know when I’m done, alright?”

“Alright!” she replied enthusiastically.

I didn't think of anything else as I entered the information she gave me. Once I was in, I did exactly what I needed to do and logged back out. Nothing else. I was determined to show her that her trust in me wasn't misplaced.

I texted her as soon as I logged back out. I logged back onto my account and watched the extra content for the game download into my system. Shortly after sending the text, her screen name popped up on the top left of the screen. She was back online.

“So, did it work?” she asked once we reconvened in a party.

“Yeah, I think so,” I responded as I continued to notice the download progress. “It’ll probably take a while to finish downloading though.”

“It’s fine!” she expressed her feelings on the matter. “I’m just glad we can play today.”

“Yeah.” I shared the same enthusiasm she seemed to be feeling. A second later, I pulled back my excitement for what I was about to say next. “Hey, Faith…” I called her by her ID name as she did for me. “Thanks a lot for sharing this with me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem!” her voice chirped. “Playing by yourself gets so old after a while. You're also doing me a favor by being the one person who keeps me company when I'm bored.”

My eyes drifted to the floor as my lips stretched into a warm smile.

This girl was really something else. It was a shame we hadn't known each other in real life. Thinking about that, my gaze wandered over to the screen of my phone. There was something I wanted to ask her, and it had to do with the phone number that she had given me.

"Hey, um..." I paused for a second to swallow a small lump in my throat. "You know how we're always just on here talking to each other all the time?"

“Yeah?”

“Well, I was wondering…” I stopped myself to make sure I had my words lined up cohesively. “Like I said, don't feel pressured to do this. If you don't want to, just tell me and I'll be fine with it. But, what do you think about keeping in touch on the phone too?”

“On the phone?” she sounded like she didn't fully understand what I had been proposing.

“Yeah,” I answered back. “We've got each other's numbers. With that, we don't have to wait to get online to talk to each other. We could be away from home and still chat when something comes up. But I also understand that it's a little more personal to talk on the phone. If you don't want to do it, it's fine.”

There was a short silence before she gave me her answer.

“Sure. That sounds like a lot of fun. I can have a reason to be on my phone out in public now. Haha, JK. Just let me know if I’m too much for you.”

I laughed along with her, finding her high spirits welcoming.

It was almost hard to believe. When I first met her, she was just so quiet and shy. After spending the time to get to know her, it was like she was the most talkative and energetic girl to walk the Earth. And, that was still because I only knew her online. Imagining how she must have been in real life was something entirely else.

Since then, our friendship only continued to grow throughout the summer. In fact, she even got to convince me to get a virtual reality headset. There was a legitimate reason behind this though. Another game had surfaced from the confines of development that sounded way too good to pass up. Actually, it was more of a social hangout space than a game.

Using virtual reality, it would be the closest way to being there with her. Honestly, the idea of it excited me. It was this that led me to work my ass off for the rest of summer break and then some to get the money to buy it.

If it made me forget about the real world, for the time being, I thought it was worth every penny.