Michael and Sarah go back inside the store, and join the others. Once the commotion dies down, and they get things organized, they sit down to play out the next round. Being that it’s semi-finals, from this point on, all matches are first to five.

It’s Michael vs Ted, and Sarah vs Scott. What’s left of the crowd gather behind them, and watch both games at once. Each of the four players select their characters, and begin.

Michael and Ted play together all the time, and are very attuned to each other’s play styles. They are about evenly matched, and either one of them could win. But Sarah on the other hand, has only played average level opponents in the tournament, and now faces one of the best players in town.

Her game starts, and Scott jumps right into action. He charges straight at her, full-force, but then he instantly stops, and stands right in front of her. Sarah walks right into his trap, and kicks, expecting to hit him, but instead he is just perfectly our of reach, and her attack hits nothing but air. Scott steps in the moment that the damage area from her foot leaves, and he smashes her, hard.

“Ooohhh!!” the crowd cringes.

She goes flying across the stage, and lands just shy of the edge. She quickly stands back up only to get slammed again, sending her over the side. This normally wouldn’t be a huge deal, but Scott doesn’t let up for even a second. He follows her off the side, and stomps her down, while jumping back up at the same time. Not even ten seconds have gone by since the match began, and she was already down one life. She now realizes the true extent of how difficult someone, who has really mastered the game, can be.

“Pphhff! Wow, nice try, cunt! You almost had me,” Scott remarks. Michael sits just a foot a away, playing his own match, and overhears Scott’s insult to his sister. It strikes his nerves a bit, but he just snuffs it off as harmless gaming banter.

Sarah respawns, and takes a deep breath, trying not to lose her focus. She has a few tricks up her sleeve also, and goes to set up a trap of her own. She approaches Scott, but keeps her distance. Once he’s exactly where she wants him, she jumps up and throws shurikens. As expected he dodge them, taking a step back. Then, attempting a glitch in the game, she performs her vanish at the exact moment she touches back down on the ground, and it causes her to reappear all the way onto the other side of the stage. She goes to do this, but before the technique even finishes, Scott turns around and starts to charge a powerful attack.

“Oh no…” she says to herself. Before it even happens, she knows what’s about to go down. Right when she pops up on the other side, Scott releases his attack, and deals a massive critical blow. She goes flying way off the side, and can’t possibly make it back.

“Tphh! Dumb bitch! Actually trying that lame trick on me?! I’m insulted! HA!! Wow! You’re so terrible at this game!” Scott is relentless with his verbal assaults. And again, Michael overhears this, and cringes with anger.

Sarah respawns, and at this point she doesn’t know what to do. If he knows about that glitch, then surely he must know about every game mechanic. It’s just going to have to come down to perfect timing and straight up combat.

Meanwhile, right beside them, Michael and Ted have been combating their own match. They’ve each taken a life, and continue to play on even ground. Being that they know each other so well, it’s difficult for either one of them to get any kind of major lead. Michael fires off several lasers, slowly pushing Ted towards the edge. Once he has no more room to move, Michael leaps into action, and approaches whilst firing one more laser, timing, so that it hits at the exact moment he gets there, giving him a free hit.

Then he hears Scott’s voice again. “You’re fucking garbage, just quit already, you stupid cunt!” Michael’s fingers slip on his controller, and he messes up the combo. Ted immediately reacts and punishes Michael for his error, and gets another kill.

“Jesus fuck!” Michael exclaims. “Hey buddy! That’s my sister you’re talking to!”

“Fuck off, asshole! Mind your own fucking match!” Scortt responds. This makes Michael so furious, that his hands start to shake.

Meanwhile Scott has Sarah on the ropes, and she struggles just to even defend herself. He has her up in the air, and won’t even let her die gracefully. Her damage is already at maximum, and he can kill her at any moment, but instead he just toys with her, keeping her alive for his own entertainment. Eventually she gets tired of it, and just sets her game controller down on the floor, and folds her arms.

“Yeah, that’s right, bitch, you just lay back while I finish raping the shit of you. You useless… little… p–” His words gets cut short as Michael’s fist slams into the side of Scott’s head. Everyone in the room gasps, and then they all start yelling. Michael and Scott both grab onto each other’s shirt, and swing hard punches into each other’s face. The whole place becomes totally chaotic with everyone screaming, and jumping around. The store owner has to come over, and yell at them.

“HAAY!! ENOUGH!! HEY!! THE TWO OF YOU — GET THE FUCK OUT!! RIGHT NOW!!” He comes in and breaks them up, and tells everyone to shut up. He grabs Michael by the arm, and pulls him away towards the door. And he looks back at Scott and points for him to come. “You too!! Let’s go!! Get out!! Both of you!! There’ll be no fighting in this store!!” They both get disqualified from the tournament and are banned from the store. Most of the people watching just continue to chatter noisily, laughing, and going on about what had just happened.

Both Ted and Sarah are freaked out; they’ve never seen Michael like this before. So Sarah runs after him. “Michael,” she shrieks, as she comes outside. Scott walks off up the street, in the other direction, while Michael stands just a few feet down from the door, holding his face. “Oh my god, Michael, are you alright?”

“I’m fine… just… really freakin’… pissed,” he says. His whole body shakes violently as adrenaline pulses through his veins. He could barely feel anything, only noticing that his lip was numb, and that he was bleeding. Sarah herself was shaking too, being terrified and confused.

“Whoa!” Ted shouts, as he steps outside. “That looks painful…” He grabs onto Mike’s hand, and pulls it away from his face, revealing the damage dealt. Michael’s lip was busted up pretty bad, and his left brow was bruised. “Holy shit, man! That was crazy!! You just went ballistic! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Michael was still shaking, and couldn’t control his nerves. “Heh… yeah. Fuck!! Did you hear what that guy was saying to my sister?”

“I heard it… I told you that guy was a dick.”

Michael just looks up at Ted and groans a bit as he flicks his eyes. The pain was starting to set in, and his face and hand were stinging pretty bad.

“Oh my gosh, Michael, you need to go to the hospital. C’mon…” Sarah says, really upset. She takes his hand, and starts to walk with him.

“Wait, Sarah…” Ted shouts. “Don’t you want to play me for the finals? You and me got automatically advanced, you know…”

“No, I don’t care. I’m taking my brother to get help.”

“So I win?”

Sarah ignores him, and walks away with Mike. They get about a block away when she realizes that she doesn’t know which way to go.

“Err, Mike! Where do we go?”

“Umm… let’s see.” He was a little bit dizzy, and couldn’t really focus too well. “Umm, I think it’s on 3rd Avenue… that’s way the hell over that way.”

It was going to take way too long to walk there, so Sarah waves down a taxi instead, and they get inside. The driver takes them straight there, and even drops them off at the emergency entrance, so that they could go straight inside. Sarah goes to pay the driver, but he tells her not to worry about it. “Really? Oh thank you, so much!”

By now, Michael was feeling a bit less dizzy, and he’d calmed down, and could think clearly again. They go inside and Michael registers with his health card, and takes a seat in the waiting area.

“Hey, Sarah, could you call home and let someone know we’re here?” Michael points at the pay-phones over by the entrance.

“Yep, be right back.”

About five minutes later, she comes back over. “I talked to Dad, and he said he’s on his way.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“No, thank you, Michael,” she says, cuddling against his arm.

Twenty-two minutes go by, and Michael gets called up by one of the nurses. He follows her down the hall, and then returns about forty-five minutes later all stitched up, and with a few bandages on his hand. By that time, Darren had already showed up at the hospital, and was waiting there with Sarah.

“Oh-hoh! Look at you!” his dad teases. “That’s ma’ boy! Gettin’ into tussles.” Michael just makes a stern face, and doesn’t say anything. Darren heard about everything that happened from Sarah, and he was especially proud when he heard that Michael stood up for his little sister like that. He pats Michael on the back, then they all walk out together, and head home.

They arrive back at the house, and Ericka was already home and had just found the note that Darren had left, explaining what had happened. The moment that Michael steps inside the front door, she grills him.

“What were you thinking getting into a fight? You know better than this, Michael…”

“Honey, relax, it was just a little outlash.” Darren says. “Cut the man some slack.” He gives Michael a little nod, letting him off the hook. Michael takes his shoes off and then heads upstairs.

“Oh, by the way — Mike,” his dad continues. “That girl came by again, while you were out. She left something for you. It’s right there.” He points to a large bag at the bottom of the staircase, filled with what looked like clothing.

So Michael takes the bag up to his room, and closes the door. He brings the bag over to his bed, and opens it up. He pulls out some folded up shirts and pants, and also a small note.

“Some more clothes that you can have. – xoxo Maria.” the note reads.

Michael smiles, and then puts the clothes away. He sits down at his desk, and stares at the clock. It reads 4:14 PM, and he feels a bit sad that he wasn’t home when Maria stopped by. He wonders if maybe she would have fooled around with him again. She is very unpredictable, and Michael liked that about her. He starts to think about when they had sex, and how much fun it was. He just sits there, and rests his elbows on his desk for a minute. His eyes begin to glaze, and he drifts away into a trance, thinking about her. Then suddenly he hears a knock at the door.

“Michael?” his sister calls. He quickly snaps back into reality.

“Uh… yep!”

The door squeaks opens and Sarah quietly walks in. “Hey, umm, could I possibly get Steve’s number from you?”

Michael looks away for a second, and then back over to Sarah. “Yeah, it’s right here.” He grabs a little notepad off his desk, and hands it over to her. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Sarah starts to walk away, but then she stops and turns back around. “Is everything okay?”

Michael stares blankly for a moment. “Yeah…”

“Riiight…” she says, not believing him. She then walks right over to him, and wraps her arms around him. They hug each other, then Sarah releases him, shooting him a gentle smile as she turns back around. “You know you can talk to me, Michael…” She walks out, and once the door shuts, Michael lets out a sigh, and collapses back down into his chair. He couldn’t explain to his sister that he was having feelings for a girl. He needed to know something, and he couldn’t wait another moment without finding out.

Michael stands up, and walks out of his room. He heads downstairs towards the door, and quickly slips his shoes on. He checks to make sure that he has his house key, and then heads out.

***

Sarah takes Michael’s notepad to her room, and flips through it. It has some random notes, and then a page with a list of people’s names and numbers. She find’s Steven’s number and calls it.

The phone rings twice. “Hello?” a kind voice answers.

“Yes, hello — ummm, is Steven there?”

“Yes, he is, but I’m afraid he’s not feeling very well. Whome may I ask is calling?”

“This is Sarah — his girlfriend…”

She hears a loud gasp. “WHAT?! My Stevey has a girlfriend?!” Then a short pause of silence, and some commotion in the background. Sarah can’t help but smile. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was again?”

“It’s Sarah.”

“That’s a lovely name, dear. Oh my — I’m so happy to hear that he’s met a girl; he’s so very quiet, after all. — Oh, by the way, my name’s Clara, I’m Steven’s mom.”

“Hello, it’s very nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, honey — I wonder why he hasn’t ever mentioned you before?”

“Oh, well, we just started going out actually. I was with him earlier today, and I was just wondering if he was feeling alright.”

“He is feeling a bit under the weather, but seems to be doing alright. Awww, sweetie, you seem so nice!”

“Oh thank you!” Sarah laughs.

“Alright, just one moment. I’ll get Steven for you.”

Sarah flops back onto her bed, and moves the phone to her other ear. She waits for a few seconds, and then hears the sound of the phone being picked up on the other end.

“Yo!”

“Hi Steve!! How are you feeling?”

“Not too terrible, thankfully,” he laughs. “I’m glad you called. I missed you. How did your game go, by the way?”

“Oh, I’ve missed you too. And um… yeah, wow, ummm… crazy story actually.”

“Really? Tell me.”

***

Michael walks all the way to Maria’s house, and then waits nervously on her doorstep, trying to think of what to say. He feels really uncomfortable about all this, but at the same time, he can’t go on not knowing the truth. He was willing to accept what she told him before, but he needed to know the whole story. There must be a deeper meaning to why she would do all this, he thought. He just can’t accept that she would do all of this randomly.

He takes a deep breath, and then knocks on the door. His fingertips tingle from anxiety, and it’s only now, that it’s too late, that he starts having second thoughts. The door opens.

“Michael…? What are you do–” Maria gasps. “Oh my god! What happened?!”

Michael had completely forgotten that he was all bruised up. He was so distracted by why he came there in the first place, that it didn’t even cross his mind that Maria was going to be freaked out when she saw him.

“Oh, uh, yeah, hey Maria, sorry to show up randomly like this. I was just wondering if I could talk to you about something?”

“Okay…” She gestures for him to follow her.

They head inside, and Maria shows him into the living room. He takes a seat on the sofa and Maria sits down beside him. “So… what happened?”

Michael explains everything about how he was at the tournament, and how Scott berated his little sister, and that he just couldn’t stand by and take it. So he got into a fist fight with him, and ended up getting hit pretty hard in the face.

“… And so I had to get stitches. And then my dad was waiting for me when I came back out. And then I just got back home not too long ago. And… uhh yeah — that’s about it. But uh… anyway, the real reason that I’m here, is because I needed t–mmph.”

Michael’s words are cut short when Maria presses her lips against his. This takes him by total surprise, but he immediately gives in, and grabs onto her. Maria slowly pushes him onto his back, and moves herself over top of him. She then slides her hand down into his pants, and gently grips his cock, and starts to stroke him. Michael loves the way her fingers feels as they wrap firmly around his dick.

“AH! Owww…” Michael cringes. His lip starts to sting really badly. He quickly moves his hand over it, covering it up.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry, Michael!” Maria had accidentally pressed too hard against his bruise when she kissed him. “I wasn’t paying attention. I’m so sorry.”

“No — no — that’s okay, Maria.”

They both sit back up, and Michael looks over at Maria. She looks so beautiful, and sexy, and nothing would please him more than to fuck her right now. But at the same time he can’t stop wondering.

“Hey, Maria… I need to ask you…”

“Yes…? What is it…?”

He pauses for a moment before continuing. “Why are you doing all of this? I know you said before that you just wanted to help me out. But it just doesn’t make any sense.” He looks her straight in the eye. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Maria looks down at the floor, and then takes a deep breath. “Well… first of all… I wasn’t lying when I said that I just wanted to help you out.” She looks over to him, and then back down at the floor. “Michael… I’m… going to be moving away soon.”

Michael’s eyes go wide for a moment, then he turns his head away. “…Oh… I see…” he says sadly. “So… do you… have any feelings for me..?”

“No.”

“Oh… okay.” His voice is a bit shaky.

“But…” she adds. “I do think you’re an amazing guy. You’re not like everyone else. Everyone else I know is just out for themselves, trying to be better than everyone, or be the most cool, or whatever… But you’re the first person I’ve met that just — is happy, normally; if that makes any sense. You know what I mean? You’re not trying to get anyone’s approval. You’re just doing what you like, and being — you! — Yet others walk all over you for it, and make you out as some kind of loser. But you’re not, Michael. You’re just genuine is all. At least from what I’ve seen. That’s why I chose you. Someone like you deserves to be happy. Guys hit on me all the time, and it’s pathetic how far they’re willing to go, just to try and fuck me. Why? Because of the way I look? You have more self-respect than they do. I just want to help boost you up to where you should be. You should be walking around with your chin up, and not hanging your head down.”

Michael looks back at her, and feels his heart racing. No one has ever talked about him like this before. The things she’s described are exactly what he’s felt for so long.

“So you know what that means for you, Michael? Since I’m going to be moving soon, I figure I might as well have a bit of fun with you… I’ve decided that I’m going do you the favor of fucking your brains out, whenever you want.”

A warm, tingling feeling shoots through his body, and Michael cracks a smile.

“As long as that’s alright with you, of course. Is it?”

Michael doesn’t say a word; he just gently presses his lips against hers, and leans into her. Maria quickly wraps her arms around him, and pulls him back with her onto the sofa. Michael lies on top of her and then starts to slowly slide his hand along her thigh.

“Ohhh, Michael…” she moans. His hand moves up her leg, and into her skirt. Maria starts to blush when she feels his fingers touching her. “Mmmm yeah…” He starts to gently rub her pussy.

Maria’s hand finds its way to Michael’s crotch, and she runs her fingers all over his hardening bulge. The feeling tickled his ball sack, and it only made him want to fuck her that much more badly.

Michael then gently slides her panties over and slowly pushes his fingers up inside her. “Ohh fuck!!” Maria gasps. She grabs onto him, and Michael starts to thrust his fingers back and forth inside her. “Oh my god…!! … … F-f-f-fuuuuck!! M-m-m-m-yeahhh!!” She moans loudly. Maria lies all the way back, while Michael continues to finger fuck her.

“Oh my fucking god, Michael… fuck me…” Maria sits up, and grabs for his zipper. She unbuttons his pants, then reaches in and pulls out his throbbing cock. “Oh Michael, I’m going to make you feel so fucking good these next few weeks.”

She leans forward, sticking out her tongue, then very slowly licks the entire length of his shaft. “H-oh my god!” Michael moans. Maria smiles at him, and then crawls up, positioning herself over top of him. She guides his hardness to her moist slit, and then lowers herself down.

“Ohhh yeahhh…” he cries out in pleasure, as he feels his dick slide up inside of her. Maria then grabs onto Michael’s shirt, and she pulls herself into him, clenching her pussy tightly around his hard cock. “Holyyy… fuck!!” he yells. Maria starts to rock her hips back and forth, as she rides him harder and faster.

Michael lies back, and clenches the cushions as she moves her body ontop of him. The feeling is beyond amazing. He can’t take his eyes off her; she looks so incredibly hot. The way she moves, and the expression on her face, showing the pleasure she was having while fucking him. It was all so satisfying.

Michael grabs onto her thighs, and then starts to thrust up into her. “OH FFUCK!!” Maria screams. She leans forward, and then Michael wraps his arms around her and starts to pound the shit out of her.

“Oh fuck!! Yeah!! Harder Michael!! Ohhh my godddd!!” Their bodies slap together.

Michael starts to feel that ever-so wonderful — about to explode — feeling. “Oh fuck, Maria, I’m cumming!!”

“Mmmm, yeah baby!!”

Michael tightly grabs onto her ass, and thrusts as hard as he can. “OH FUCK!! OHHHH FFFF — UGGHHHHHHH!! — YESSSS!!” Michael bursts inside her, spewing his warm fluid deep within.

Maria quickly wraps her arms tightly around the back of his neck, and rocks her body hard on his cock. “Oh fuck!! Maria…!! It’s too much…!!” Michael squints his face.

“I’m so close, baby…!!” She moans. “MMMM!! YEAHH!! OHHHH–FFFFFUCKKKK!!” Her body shakes violently, and she moans a long and loud cry of pleasure, until finally collapsing down on top of him. They both exhale deep breaths and then completely relax their bodies.

“So Michael…? You never did answer my question…” Maria smiles. “Are you alright with this?”

“Gee, I dunno,” he laughs. “Lemme think about that… oh-alright.”

Maria laughs.

---