Mending The Broken

Part One

About four minutes later, Elizabeth began to calm down, and they began to speak like more civilized people once again.

“So, about the plan.” She began.

“Do you want to start right now, or would you rather wait for the pizza to get here?" He asked. She shrugged her shoulders as her answer and took a deep breath. "Well, personally, I can't think on an empty stomach. Guess we'll wait." he said, looking over at his computer and realizing he had left the game up and running. “Oh, shit.” He said, running over to the keyboard and pressing a few keys. Elizabeth tilted her head to the side as if she were a confused cat and plopped herself down beside him, curious as usual. Angelo pat her head before going back to his game, onto another server. "Maybe this time we'll get a team with some ACTUAL f*****g SKILLS." he continued, sneering.

She grinned at his enthusiasm. "What game are you playing, if I may ask?"

"You don't seem like the gamer type, I doubt you've heard of it." he casually said.

She frowned. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She placed her hands on her hips.

"It means exactly what it sounds like. You don't seem to me like the kind of person that plays video games, especially not PC exclusives." He shrugged.

She folded her arms across her small chest, but then uncrossed them after a minute or so. "Well, I AM. I AM a gamer. I DO play video games, and I've got a tattoo to prove it." She rolled up both of her sleeves to show him the permanently inked images engraved onto her skin of a controller on her left forearm and the names 'Rachel', ‘Charlotte’ and 'Tara Rose' down her left arm then, further on down, stitches surrounding a star in the center on her left wrist, and several raised cross-marked scars trail from the inside of both wrists stopping midway to the inside of her elbows, almost like laces. She pointed to the game controller. "See?"

Angelo patronizingly clapped "Ooooooh, you've got a tattoo of a video game controller on your arm. I'm so impressed. Too MLG for me." He mocked, grinning. "Well, whatever, if you must know, I'm playing Team Fortress Two." he said.

"Oh. I see." She frowned and yanked down her sleeves once more, annoyed by his sarcastic reaction. However, She got over it quickly and began watching the screen. It didn't matter if he didn't believe her.

He was playing a game of Payload. Apparently he played Medic most. In summary, throughout the entire game, he died a grand total of two times, and got about fifteen kills, a recent low, according to him. It was unsure as to whether or not he was embellishing this claim. though his team still lost, but in his own words, "If everyone on my team were halfway decent at this game then we would've steamrolled them!" Honestly, Elizabeth had never really played a game like Team Fortress Two before. She watched her friend play with a peaked interest. Every so often she would chime in with questions or words of her own, "Whoa!'s" and "Did he really just?"

"Nagh, f**k this! Four matches in a row! Four! Matches! And I lose because my team's a bunch of Sniper wannabes who don't know how to play a f*****g objective!" He shouted. Realizing that instant that he was ignoring his guest, he suddenly turned to Elizabeth. "f**k, you need something to do while ya wait?" He asked her.

She looked back at him, shaking her head, as she was entertained simply by watching. "That's alright. I don't mind."

"Well, I'm done with this game, anyway. For today, at least." Angelo scoffed again at his teammates' supposed ineptitude. Elizabeth leaned back a bit, watching her friend intently. "Anything else you wanna do?" She asked him.

"f**k, I don't know...uhm...Ever played.. let's see...Postal Two?" Angelo replied.

"No, actually, I haven't, but I've seen it around a lot lately." She shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, does the idea of killing someone with a cow head, then pissing on their corpse appeal to you?" he asked her.

"Surprisingly, yes, it does." She smiled back at him.

"Then this is definitely the game for you!" He grinned back as he handed her the USB keyboard and showed her the basic functions of the strange game.

She chuckled. "Alright, so, how do I get the cow head?"

"Get farther in the game, or cheat if you want it right here and now." Angelo replied.

She raised an eyebrow. "I tend not to use cheats unless I finish a game normally." She fiddled with the controls. "Or if there's an Easter egg."

"Yeah, I don't mind cheating if it's just for screwing about and not actually accomplishing much with them. Plus, the cheats are so demeaning for this game. You type in 'sissy' to turn them on, and the cheat that would give you the cow head is 'iamsolame'. It likes to humiliate you." he continued. "Also, you might want to stay away from the dogs. They WILL attack you, and you basically HAVE to kill them if they do."

"Really? But dogs are so nice." She teased.

"Yeah, but your character is an asshole in cannon.”

"This character and I have that in common." She replied. “I guess dogs in this game have a thing against assholes?"

"You're not as bad as this guy, Elizabeth, trust me. This is the guy who kicks dogs, cuts their legs off with a hedge trimmer, then sets them on fire. I think he's got you a bit outclassed." Angelo chuckled at his grim knowledge of the game.

"I can see that.” Elizabeth watched with only a hint of disgust in her southern voice as she made the character relieve himself yet again all along the sides of a tunnel. “Does he have like a never-ending bladder, or something?" 

"It's a videogame, bro. Just accept it."