Chapter 1
Chapter 1
College. A place for learning, for becoming a well performing member of the adult population. Not a place for drinking cheap beer and watching your drunken collegiates writhe around on a small dancefloor in the middle of a shitty house, in the humble opinion of one Matthew Cooper.
The pounding music worked its way up through the floor and vibrated all the way up Matty’s body, making his heart in his chest cavity feel like it was being shaken out of its natural rhythm. Leaning over, he shouted into his best friend’s ear. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into coming here tonight!”
Ethan grinned back at him in response, raising his red solo cup in a salute. “It’s your birthday, dude! I was not going to let you fester away in front of your computer screen tonight of all nights.”
It was the second year of college, and it was only the second time Ethan had managed to drag Matty out of their shared dorm room and out to a college party. He was much more comfortable surrounded by pixels and the disembodied voices of virtual friends. Taking a deep gulp of the tepid, half-flat beer with a grimace, the main reason he avoided coming out steps into the centre of the room.
“Great. Here comes the fucking show.” Ethan rolled his eyes as the ‘show’ in question starts to perform. He was a big a fan of Skye Hart as Matthew was, which was to say not a fan at all. Although the two of them seemed to be in the minority amongst their fellow male students.
Dressed in a dress so short it could barely be called a dress, with her perky breasts pushed up towards her chin, Skye whipped her long blonde hair around as she danced to the dirty song blaring through the speakers. She knew all eyes were on her, just the way she liked it, as she pulled out her best stripper moves. This was her sirens call, and she knew the inevitable stampede of delicious boys would follow when her hips stopped gyrating to the beat. Every night she got the pick of the crop of sexy jocks, the broody bad boys, the selflessly giving geeks. She didn’t discriminate, as long as the guy was good looking and made her reach the big O, she was happy.
She was the embodiment of everything Matty wanted to avoid during not only his time at college, but ideally his entire life. “Who is that?” he shouted over the loud hollers and shouts of the rapidly intoxicated crowd, pointing at the greasy looking guy who had positioned himself directly in front of Skye, ensuring every flash of her underwear was just for him.
“No idea, dude,” Ethan shrugged. “But it looks like he’s got some competition for that W.A.P.”
“Dude!” Matty choked on the mouthful of beer he’d just taken. “That’s so fucking gross!”
A tanned, blond jock, with the usual muscles upon muscles, had also inserted himself into the eyeline of Skye. As one song merges into another, he held out a hand for her, helping her get down from the coffee table she’d claimed as a podium. In his other hand, he gave her a fresh drink, which she knocked back in one go with a devilish smile. Matty and Ethan watched her lead the chosen one through the crowd and up the stairs. “Guess the party is almost over if the slutty girl has gone to get laid.” Ethan drained his cup and slapped a hand down on Matty’s shoulder. “C’mon, Coop. Let’s get you back to the neon glow of your computer screen, I think you’ve fulfilled your birthday obligations for another year.”
***
The dawn chorus finds Matthew still sitting in front of his large bank of monitors, a half-drunk mug of black coffee at his elbow. The multi-player online campaign had lasted a lot longer than he’d first thought, and his eyes burned slightly from staring at the flickering screens for hours on end. Knocking off the hated black plastic spectacles he had been prescribed due to his astigmatism, Matty ran a weary hand over his eyes before stretching all the noisy kinks out of his back and pushing up to his feet.
The rising sun cast an orange hue over the neighbourhood, the early morning mist still lingering above the grass, the shadows still lurking around the trees and buildings. He paused, his hand on the edge of the hideous plaid curtains he’d picked up for fifty cents at a goodwill shop, as one shadow detaches itself and staggers into the light. Even from this distance, Matty could see the tangled mess of blonde hair belonging to Skye.
Her sorority house was on the same block as Matty’s, much to his chagrin, and it wasn’t the first time he had witnessed her walk of shame on a Saturday morning. And usually a Sunday morning. And quite often the odd weekday morning too. The girl was bound to be a walking petri dish of STD’s by now, he thinks as he watched her stumble up the street towards her building.
Shuffling to the bathroom, he relieved his extremely full bladder – there were no toilet breaks when you were in the middle of a campaign, you’d get ostracized by your teammates if you ducked out to take a piss! A quick glance at his wristwatch tells him it’s nearly five am, which means he can easily get four hours sleep and still stumble into work for nine thirty if he foregoes a shower. A quick sniff of his pits and he decides he’ll last for another day.
One benefit of staying up so late – or early, if you look at it that way – is that Matty generally was asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow. His dreams were usually full of computer characters. He’d spent many nights behind closed eyelids running around fantasy landscapes with weird and wonderful monsters and demons, but tonight they were haunted by Skye. Skye, with her long blonde hair streaming over her exposed shoulders as she ran away from him, her giggles chiming out in the ethereal land like the peal of musical bells. Skye, wearing very little, her breasts a little larger than in real life, heaving with every breath she took.
When his alarm broke through, Matty was wrapped in slightly sweaty sheets, and really wished he did have time for that shower after all.
