16 Nerd Fight
1681 Words
“Yeaaaah! Nerd Fiiiiight!” one of the crowd members screamed as Max and the other student bickered over the relevance of hex encryption.
“It’s the future of cybersecurity!” yelled the student as he pushed against Max.
“It’s flimsy and antiquated!!” Max yelled as he pushed back.
The crowd started chanting “fight” as the two continued to wrestle with each other. Everything became even more unruly as more people started to gather around the two students locked in a drunken brawl. This caught the attention of two frat boys who came over to see what all the ruckus was about.
“Boys, boys! What’s goin’ on here! This is a party, we should all be having fuuun!” he said, calming the crowd down.
The frat boy looked at Max and recognized him instantly.
“Oh! Keg boy number 2! What’s happening here man?”
Max started complaining about incredibly complex terminology and directed it at the frat boy, who knew nothing about what he was saying. The other student yelled even more complex terminology, which just went right over the frat boy’s head.
“Alright alright! There's only one way to settle this, boys!” he said, as he looked to the crowd. “Beer pong!”
The crowd cheered loudly, as they anticipated the competition between these two technological wizards. Max looked around at the audience, who cheered him on and gave him pats on the back. He turned his drunken gaze back to the other student, who was also being cheered on by the crowd. They were still staring daggers at each other, as they both approached the table. With that, the frat boy called out to the crowd again.
“Alright! So these guys have the beef to settle! One thinks that… errr… hex codes are cool! And this other guy thinks that hex codes suck! Whoever wins this battle proves that their side is better! There will be no swatting and no blowing! Just skill! The winner will also have the loser do whatever they want as punishment! How does that sound?”
The crowd cheered in delight and grew louder and louder.
“Alright start whenever you want boys!” he said, before turning back to the crowd. “I’ll be taking bets!”
The two stood on opposite sides of the table as the beers were expertly placed by some other frat members. One of them handed two ping pong balls to Max. With that, he dropped one of them into the cleaning cup, and aimed at the nearest cup. He knew that he had no experience when it came to these kinds of games, but in the moment, this was the most important thing that he had to do. In a desperate attempt to win, he threw the ball to the front cup. The ball seemed to fly through the air in slow motion, as cheers from the crowd echoed through Max’s ears. The ball landed on the lip of the cup and rolled around before eventually falling in.
“Wooooo!” Max said, as he high fived the people that surrounded him.
Suddenly, he heard a clink in one of his cups. When he looked, he saw that the front cup as well had a ping pong ball in it. As he looked back up, he looked at the smug expression of the other student at the far side of the table.
“Hex is the future baby!”
“Hell no!”
With nine cups left in the triangle, Max knew that his quarrel with this other student had just begun.
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The two had used up all of their cups in a completely neck and neck competition of beer pong. All of the cups except one on each side had been used up. The two were absolutely wrecked by the alcohol, as they desperately tried to stay on their feet. The other student was wobbling due to the alcohol but proceeded to take his turn. He threw the ball carelessly as it flew way over the mark, landing just near Max’s feet.
“f**k!” he said, as he pounded the table.
At this point, both Max and Jules had found their way to the competition and were cheering Max on as well. They were both incredibly drunk as well and probably had forgotten their original goal.
“Come on babe! H-hit the home run!” Jules screamed at Max, completely forgetting that they haven’t reached that point in their relationship yet.
“Max, shoot it good!” yelled Trae, pounding on Max’s back in a heavy-handed manner.
Max channeled his inner bar games master and took a deep exhale. He looked over at the lone cup on the other side of the table, which looked as if it was blurred completely. After a moment of hesitation, he threw the ball gently with a subtle flick of his wrist. The ball traveled through the air, with the eyes of the entire crowd following its trajectory. It hit the rim of the cup and bounced back up into the air. The entire crowd held its breath, as the ball fell back down. With a quick bounce and a little roll, the match was decided. It counted.
“Yeaaaaaah!!” Max screamed as the crowd followed along with him.
In that moment of victory, Trae hoisted Max onto his shoulders, as Jules jumped for joy just beside him. The crowd surrounded Max, as he pumped his fist atop Trae’s shoulders. The other student sighed and then smiled over at Max, as he conceded and gave his own applause.
“Would you look at this sportsmanship, you guys? Come on boys, and shake hands,” said one frat member as he pushed the other student over to Max.
With that, the other student stuck out his hand and offered it to Max.
“You d-did good freshman!” the student said.
Max returned the gesture and gripped the student’s hand firmly.
“Thanks, man, you too!” he replied.
“What’s your name?” the student asked.
“M-max! Max Burner! What about you?”
The student shook Max’s hand, and let go after a bit.
“My name is Charlie Landers!”
Suddenly, Max’s eyes widened as his blurry drunk vision cleared for a brief moment. It was then that Charlie’s face started to align with the pictures that were taken and put into the document that he had back in the dorms. With that, he shook his head and smiled at Charlie.
“It’s good to meet you, man!” Max said, patting him on the shoulder. “Listen I’m sorry about the whole hex code thing, it’s just, I know better than that,”
“Oh yeah? Then please enlighten me, freshman! But before that, you got punishment for me?”
Max only remembered that he was allowed to command Charlie to do whatever he wanted, as a punishment for losing. At this point, however, all the alcohol was starting to take a toll on Max, as nausea began to take over. Suddenly, it was hard for him to stand as he began leaning on Jules, who was reeling from the alcohol herself.
“Well?” Charlie asked.
“I-I’m gonna make you… urp… I’m gonna make you… make-”
Max felt his bile start to build up at the back of his throat. He heaved as he tried to hold back the chunks that felt as if they were clawing their way up Max’s esophagus. His eyes started to tear up, as he tried to hold his breath to keep the blowout from happening. But at this point, it was too late. With a final heave, Max bent over and puked his guts out all over the floor. All the students stood back, in awe, and then cheered again for Max, who was too far gone already. After expelling all of his dinners onto the floor, he blacked out.
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Max woke up with the most savage headache that anyone could ever have. It was dark in the mansion that they partied in. When he checked his watch, the time showed that it was four in the morning. When he turned his head, he saw Jules leaning on him, completely passed out. Trae, for some reason, had fallen off the couch and lay on the floor. As he stood to get up, he lay Jules down gently as he went to look around. The whole house was filled with sleeping Fratmen and sorority girls, as they almost sprawled the floors of the mansion. Some were laying in the living room, some slept in the bathroom and some even slept on the front lawn. Still dizzy from the entire experience, he walked up to the balcony, hoping to get some cold air to clear his head.
When he got there, he saw a familiar figure, who was having a smoke in the cold autumn air. The figure turned toward Max and squinted at him.
“Are you… Max?”
Max nodded his head.
“Some game last night huh? I bet you’re completely hungover,” he said as he turned back to the balcony.
“Are you, Charlie?”
“Yup!”
Max walked up next to him and leaned on the railings of the balcony for support. After letting his nausea settle for a little bit, they started talking again.
“So, you said you’d tell me about why hex codes are antiquated?” Charlie said as he smoked on his cigarette.
He offered one of his cigarettes to Max, but Max declined.
“Sorry, I don’t smoke.”
Putting his cigarette back in the box, Charlie smiled back.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “So… have you thought of a punishment for me?”
“Punishment?”
Max racked his brain trying to remember what Charlie meant by punishment. The hangover completely incapacitated his ability to remember anything that happened the previous night. To this, Charlie chuckled lightly and continued.
“You won the beer pong match, so you get me to do anything you want,” he said.
“Anything?” Max asked.
“Yup! Within reason of course haha,”
Max looked Charlie dead in his eyes and took a moment to find the words. Before long, he put in all his effort in speaking toward his potential business partner, hoping that Charlie would reciprocate.
“I want you… to start a company with me and my friends!”
- Writer
