Sidelined: The QB and Me

Bonus chapter • Dray 7

The night Drayton explains his tattoo.

D R A Y S • P O V

"Switch to an AK man, your blades not earning enough kills."

Tapping of game controllers and hundreds of repetitive artificial gunshots blare throughout Maxon's basement. I check my cellphone for the seventh time, watching the hours of the night tick by before I slide it back into my hoodie pocket, leaving my hands inside.

It's Friday night and not unusually we've spontaneously gathered in Maxon's basement, which doesn't sound right for this room and never has. It's walls are painted a cream colour while the thick carpet is a deep rich red. Like the den at my place, there's a games and bar area with pool and a fridge that's always stocked with beverages. On the left side of the room is a floor to ceiling shelving unit which has almost every game under the sun on it. And on the back wall is a seventy two inch screen. Bucket seats sit beneath that for the game players to use, behind those seats is a coffee table and behind that is the large semi circle cream suede sofa.

James and Austin light up their second blunt while Maxon and Jed sat perched in their bucket seats, focused solely on the video game on the big screen television.

"Fuck man, if I had that rpg I woulda blown that cunt sky high." Maxon chortles. I absentmindedly watch the chaos on the screen. I've never been big on video games. I don't get the hype.

"Fuck sakes man!" Jed throws his arms open wide, the controller vibrating in his right hand. "How about next time you revive me instead of jerking yourself off!"

"Dray." Austin pulls my attention to the spot on the sofa beside me where he holds out his hand, offering the joint.

"Na," I decline, leaning back in the sofa and propping my feet on the coffee table which is littered with beer bottles, an ash tray full of cigarette butts and fast food rubbish. "I'm gonna head off in a bit."

"Where's Gray tonight?" Jed asks, tapping his thumb against his controller with his tongue half hanging out of his mouth.

"Ah ya prick!" Maxon shouts, dropping his own controller on to the floor with a huff.

"He's at home with his girlfriend."

"Spencer ae?" Maxon abandons the game, standing up with a stretch before he strides towards the coffee table and retrieves his beer. Which is probably warm by now.

"She's weird ae." Austin pipes in, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. His head leans back in the sofa beside me and I can't help but laugh at how red his eyes are.

"She's gotta hot body though." Jed doesn't break his attention from the game when he comments. He sets up a one person round and crosses his legs at the ankles. "Fucken seen her and Dallas at that club opening ages ago. She's all goooood."

"Dallas is more my type." Maxon wiggles his brows, falling back into the other side of the sofa with that dumbass look on his face.

"Shut the fuck up, Max." I murmur, staring at the ceiling so that I don't get up and punch him in the face. Last time we'd argued about her, I almost did.

"Told ya once, I'll tell ya again." Maxon shrugs his shoulders with a small grin as he brings the beer closer to his mouth. "As long as you're with Emily. She's fair game."