Video Game Girlfriend

Chapter 3

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. The incessant screeching of my phone's alarm blares loudly, pulling me quickly from my slumber. I squint my eyes as they are not yet accustomed to the bright morning sun streaming through the cracks of my curtains. Pulling my phone out from under my pillow, I turn off my alarm, ceasing the overbearing sound, before burying my face into the pillow and groaning. I hate school and it’s ungodly hours of operation, who in their right mind would willingly get up this early every day to go to school. I slowly swing my legs over the edge of the bed and stretch, hearing the bones in my shoulders and a few in my back pop as I move around. Standing, I walk downstairs and into the kitchen, the smell of fresh toast and eggs drawing me there. Walking into the kitchen I see Alexa scraping a heap of eggs onto a plate before grabbing the slice of toast out of the toaster and slathering on some avocado spread.

“Did you make enough for yourself too?” I say, sweeping the pre-made plate off the counter and carrying it with me to the table.

“Hey give that back,” Alexa screeches, chasing me to the table and quickly snatching her plate back from me. “You’ll have to make your own breakfast, I’m in a hurry.” She states, sauntering over to the other side of the table, she takes a seat and begins eating her food, scrolling through her phone as she does so.

“Where do you have to be this early in the morning?” I reply, standing back up and making my way to the fridge. I open it and stare at its contents, deciding I’m not really in the mood to cook, I pull out the milk before turning to the pantry. I open the door and grab a box of my favorite cereal, then turn to grab a bowl out of the cabinet. “School starts at the same time for both of us, and last I checked the girls don’t practice in the mornings.” I say, finishing making my bowl of cereal. I place the milk back into the fridge, before grabbing my overfull bowl and carrying it back to the table with me.

“We don’t, but because I was late to my meeting yesterday, due to you not doing your big brother duties and helping me with my homework. I have to go in this morning and meet with Hailey to go over everything.” She says, not looking up from her phone. My ears perk up at the mention of Hailey, if she’s at school this early then maybe I can go in too and try and “accidentally” run into her.

“Oh right, you know now that you mention it, I have some stuff I need to do in the computer lab this morning too.” I say, wolfing down my cereal so I can still shower before heading in.

“Right, sure you do.” Alexas says, looking up at me from her phone with a knowing look. “You’ve had a crush on her since before you could walk, and she still has yet to give you the time of day, give it up already Blair. A girl like Hailey is never going to be into someone like you.” With that, Alexa stands up, placing her now empty plate into the sink, she turns around and looks at me, shaking her head and singing before walking off to her room.

I ignore her, even if she is right and Hailey never gives me so much as a second glance, it doesn’t hurt to try. I hurriedly finish my cereal, tossing the bowl into the sink and rushing to the bathrooms. I turn on the water, letting it warm up as I get undressed. I look at myself in the mirror, letting my eyes critique me as they travel across my body. I have thick dark brown hair, and bright ocean blue eyes. My face is thin and long, like a skinny oval. I’m six feet on a good day, and while seemingly lanky at first glance, do have some muscle due to helping my dad out in the ag barn. My chest and abs are toned enough to show a little, and as for everything down stairs, let's just say I don’t think anyone would be disappointed.

I turn from the mirror and step into the shower, closing the curtain behind me. I sigh as the hot water cascades over my body, normally I would take my time, slowly washing everything and maybe even taking a few minutes to rub one out before heading up to school, however today I quickly scrub my body and my hair so I can make it to the school before it starts. Jumping out of the shower I grab a towel and run it over my body, drying myself off. I wrap the towel around my waist before walking across the hall to my room. Shutting the door behind me I let the towel drop to the floor, I walk over to my dresser and grab a clean set of boxers, socks, and some shorts. Throwing them all on I head over to my closet, grab a t-shirt, slide it over my head, grab my backpack off the ground, and rush out the door.

A few minutes later I arrived at the school. It’s almost creepy being up here this early, all the lights are still off, the normally loud bustling hallways are dead silent. It seems wrong to come in and disturb the peace like this. I head straight to Mr. Harris’s classroom, wanting to actually get some club stuff done since I’m here. Walking in I flip on the lights, illuminating the empty classroom. I head towards my usual computer and take a seat, powering on the monitor, I lean back in my seat and pull out my phone waiting for it to wake up. I look at the time, groaning at the realization that it’s only 6:30 and at how dumb I am for coming in this early to see a girl who doesn’t even know I exist. Glancing up I see the monitor is now on, I lean forward, grabbing my mouse and typing in my password to gain access to the computer.

After about 10 minutes of scanning the gaming sites we’re subscribed to and adding a few new things into our online cart I close out of the computer and decide to start scouting out Lex and Hailey. As I walk out of Mr. H’s classroom though, I see a man and a woman standing in front of the office's door, talking to our school’s principal. Something about the couple seems familiar, however I can’t place where I would know them from. Shaking my head, I turn down the hallways leading towards the rest of the classrooms, I’m on a mission.

I find them in the volleyball sponsors room, looking at a pamphlet of uniforms. Walking in a clear my throat, “Hey Lex whatcha doing?” I say, trying to seem cool. Both of the girls look up at me from their spot in the pamphlet. Hailey stares in confusion at me before glancing over to Alexa, raising her eyebrows at her.

“What does it look like we’re doing weeb?” She responds sarcastically, waving her hand across the table at the spread out pamphlets. “What do you want?” She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms across her chest.

“I can’t come by to say hi to my favorite little sister” I say, leaning forward to lightly shove her shoulder. She sighs and rolls her eyes before looking over to Hailey.

“Hailey meet Blair, my extremely annoying older brother, he’s had a crush on you for what seems like forever but is too much of a wuss to say anything.” I feel my heart stop beating as my face heats up from the immense amount of blood rushing towards it. Did she really just put me like that? Hailey starts laughing and covers her mouth, looking me up and down as she does so.

“I..I..uhh, I don’t know what she’s talking about.” I sputter out, embarrassment heavy on my voice. “We’ve never even spoken, I just wanted to come say hi to Lex, I’m gonna go now.” I quickly turn around and speed walk out of the classroom. As I walk down the hallway I hear the girls burst out laughing. What the hell was she thinking saying that to Hailey? She really is an awful sister, I hope she knows the sheer amount of payback that’s headed her way when we get gone later. I get back to the front of the school and turn to head back to the computer lab when all of a sudden I crash into someone who was walking towards where I had just come.

“Oh I’m so sorry,” I say, stepping back from the girl in front of me. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s ok, I wasn’t paying attention either.” I instantly recognize the soft voice and lift my head. I’m instantly greeted with those same bright green eyes from yesterday. They seem to entrance me as I am once again at a loss for words. She stares back at me before letting out a small giggle, tilting her head back down to the floor. Breaking out of my trance I shake my head.

“Hey you're the girl that came into my work yesterday right?” I say, wanting to confirm it was her for sure.

“Yes that was me, my parents wanted to get something quick to eat before we went back home after running errands all day.” She says looking back up at me, the same mischievous grin that she had displayed last night back on her face.

“My name's Blair,” I say, extending my hand towards the girl. “Did you guys just move here?” I ask, curious since I’ve never seen her around before.

“Yeah, we got here a couple days ago, we’ve mostly just been unpacking and running around to get some stuff we weren’t able to bring with us in the move.” She says, reaching for my hand. “My name's Vanessa.” Her hand is so small and delicate compared to mine. I feel electricity where her skin is touching mine as I give it a small shake.

“Is today going to be your first day?” I ask her, still ever so intrigued by the girl standing in front of me. “What grade are you in?”

“I’m a senior, and yeah today’s my first day. I was actually just about to go walk around and try and find all my classes before school starts so I’m not wandering around looking lost throughout the day.” She says with a slight chuckle.

“Oh cool I’m a senior too, I can show you around if you’d like, what’s your schedule?” I ask her, eager to spend more time with her. I feel drawn to her on a level I’ve never felt before. Not even Hailey makes me feel this way. Vanessa reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She unfolds it and hands it to me. “Looks like you have Mrs. Hamilton first, that’s my first period too, it’s right down here.” I say, gesturing back down the hallway I had come from. “Here follow me, I’ll show you where it is.” She follows me down the hallway to our first period, and with that I had completely forgotten all about Hailey and Alexa, and what had happened just a few short moments before.