Curtain Call (Jake Sims)

Chapter 20

When we got inside, neither one of us were as tired as we thought, so we decided to play video games. "What do you want to play?" He asked as he tossed me a controller. "Do you have Call of Duty? I've heard a lot about it and I want to try it." I suggested. "Is advanced warfare ok?" He looked at me. "Uhh, do I have to be an advanced player?" I asked. "No." He chuckled. "Then yeah, that works." I smiled and waited for him to put the game in the Xbox. Once it was in, he sat down next to me on the bed and he did a whole bunch of random stuff that I didn't understand. I think he had to sign in, and choose a flash drive to play, or something along those lines. I zoned out after a couple of seconds. When the game finally came on, I focused on the TV again. "Ok, so we're gonna play team death match. The object here is basically for us to kill any bad guys we come into contact with. The more people we kill, the higher our score." He said. "Sounds easy enough. But what do I press to shoot? And walk. And aim. And jump." I smiled sheepishly. "You're adorable." He smiled and pointed to each button, while explaining what they did. "Got it?" He asked after my 15 second lesson was complete. "I guess we're about to find out." We both chuckled and then the screen changed from the menu, to two different screens. "Which one am I?" I asked. "You're the bottom screen." He answered, and began moving on the screen. "Wait for me!" I yelled and began walking after him. It was so strange, the graphics were so real it was like I was legitimately transported to the middle of the desert to hunt terrorists. Suddenly Jake began shooting and I thought I was gonna die, so I ran to the side of a building and hid behind a random wooden box. "What are you doing?" He asked when he realized I wasn't shooting. "I'm hiding." I stated and watched as he continued to shoot at people that I could barely see. "You do realize it's just a game and you won't actually die, right?" He asked while diving to the side of the bulding next to me to reload his gun. "I'm aware. But I see no reason to willingly put myself in front of gun fire when I have you to protect me." I stated matter of factly. "Well this protector is leaving you." He said and I watched as his character began running towards the bullets. "Don't leave me!" I gasped and quickly followed him. I made sure to stand directly behind him that way if they shot at us he would go down first. "Are you...are you using me as a shield?" He looked at me and I couldn't help but start cracking up. "You're a terrible teammate. We've only been playing for like two minutes and I already hate playing with you." He shook his head at me. He looked back at the screen and continued to play. I continued to hide every chance I got. Eventually there came a time where a huge convoy of bad guys came out of nowhere and Jake began firing aimlessly at the bodies. "Shannon, start shooting!" He yelled. "They'll kill me!" I yelled back. "They're gonna kill me, and then you'll be by yourself if you don't shoot!" He was still yelling. "Fine!" I came out of my hiding spot and began randomly firing my gun. "Wait, no! Don't--" His screen suddenly went red and I became so distracted by the change that when I looked at his screen, mine went red just seconds later. "What just happened?" I asked. "You killed me, and then you died." He answered. "How did that happen? Doesn't this game have that setting where you can't kill the good guys?" I looked at him. "No, this game has the setting where you can kill anything you shoot." He answered. "Even goats?" I asked. He stared blankly at me. "Why would you want to kill a goat?" He asked. "I don't know. So we could cook it and eat it." I shrugged my shoulders. "You don't-- ugh, nevermind." He shook his head disapprovingly. "Let's watch a m--" "JAKE! ERICK'S HERE!" Sydney yelled from the other side of the door, cutting me off. I gave Jake a worried look. "Don't worry. I'll be right back." He said, and then opened his door and left the room. He came back about a minute later. "That was fast." I said. "Actually, he wants to talk to you." He replied slowly. "Oh. Uhh, ok." I answered and stood up from the bed. "I'll be back. Go ahead and pick a movie." I gave him a reassuring smile. When I walked to the front door, Erick was sitting on the same steps me and Jake were sitting on just an hour ago. "Hey." I greeted him and shut the door behind me and sat down next to him. "Hey." He answered with a smile. "What's up?" I asked after he didn't say anything else. "I came to apologize to you. I acted like a dick the other day and you didn't deserve that." He said. "Oh. There's really no need to apologize, but thank you." I smiled. "You're welcome. The truth is, I was just embarrassed. I was gonna ask you if you wanted to be exclusive but I could tell you weren't into me as much as I was into you." He said. "I'm sorry. I really did like you." I replied. "It's ok. I just came here to see if we could be friends again. I can't stand the thought of not being friends." He said. "Of course we can be friends." I smiled. "Good." He returned my smile. "Wait, how did you know I was here?" I looked at him. "Oh, I went by your house but your mom said you were 'at your friend Jake's house' so I just took a guess and I was right." He answered. "Oh." Was all I said. "Yeah." He nodded his head, and we fell into a semi-awkward silence. "Well, I should probably get back inside." I said after about a minute. "Yeah, I should get going too." He said, and we both stood up. "I'll uhh, I'll see you Monday?" He asked. "Bright and early." I smiled. "Great. Well, I'll see you then." He smiled back and then walked down the steps to his car. I quietly went back inside and into Jakes room. "Everything ok?" He asked once I shut the door. "Actually, yes. He just wanted to apologize for the other day." I sighed. "Is that it?" He looked at me questioningly. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm just really tired suddenly." I answered. "Alright well I'll go so you can get some sleep." He said, standing up from the bed. "No, you don't have to go." I stopped him. "I thought you said you were tired?" He asked. "I am. I'm saying...you don't have to sleep on the couch. You can sleep in here. With me." I said quietly. "You're sure?" He examined my face, looking for any sign of nerves. "I'm sure. No funny business though." I grinned. "No promises." He winked and got back into bed. I rolled my eyes and got in next to him. "Night." I whispered. "Night." He replied, and then shut the light off and we both drifted off to sleep.

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SO, I HAD TO ASK MY 9 YEAR OLD BROTHER A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS ABOUT CALL OF DUTY FOR THIS CHAPTER. HE LAUGHED AT ME. ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU LIKED IT! xx