Chapter Thirty-three
Dex
Every tournament we’ve played this year has been leading up to the Call of Battle World Finals. We arrived a couple of days early to prepare and get a feel for the venue. My parents and Wade fly in for the last two days of the championship. We don't always have a personal fan group in the audience for every tournament, but we do this time. We seem to play better when we have our family and friends watching. It makes winning just a bit sweeter.
The tournament started with one hundred and twelve teams. Between open play and pool play on the first two days, only thirty-two teams remain for the championships. Our team, Nomad, has always done very well in this tournament but have yet to take home the championship win. We will this year, though. I just know it.
With a full house and hours upon hours of breezing through rounds, Simon, Ben, Bernie, and I find ourselves preparing for the championship game. We are up against another excellent team, but we are the better team. We've beaten them before. Where they excel in strategy, we outrank them in experience and teamwork. We can beat them.
To win the championship, we play the best out of seven games. Since there are several ways of playing CoB, we play two rounds of Hard Point and Uplink and three rounds of Search and Destroy. With my high K/D ratio, I dominate at Search and Destroy.
As a team, we enter our gaming box. It’s one of two rooms built on a stage where we sit and play. The walls are painted black, and the room is dark but lit only by the light from the screen. The rest of the light comes from the stage. A long table spans the bottom half of the wall, and the upper half is a long window so the crowd and cameras can watch us play. There are screens and gaming chairs set up down the length of the table, one for each of us. We take our seats as we prepare for the next seven games—fewer if we can lead in points early.
Almost ninety minutes later, we emerge from our gaming box as Call of Battle world champions. It was a tough and a very close win, but one we deserved. We won the game, 4-3. Because of my eleven kill streak, we earned a victory by more than a hundred points in the last Search and Destroy. That high K/D won me the MVP award. In total, we’re going to take home two trophies, including the MVP one, championship rings and $400,000 prize money, making this by far the most we've brought home from a tournament to date.
The last three days have been crazy, busy, and stressful but so much fun. But I just haven’t been able to shake that something was missing. Although, if I really let myself think about it, I know exactly what that something is.
It's the gorgeous brunette that broke my heart only weeks ago. She should be here with me. If we hadn’t broken up, I had actually planned on asking her to come to the world finals with me. She didn’t give us a chance, though. I like to pretend that she blindsided me with the breakup, but if I'm honest, I could feel it in my gut that it was going to happen. Ever since that first weekend we traveled. I fucked up, and I didn’t even realize it until it was too late.
Being without Morgan these past weeks has been really hard. I miss her so much. The first two weeks were the hardest, I was a shit to everyone. Link and I got into it over something stupid; I can't even remember what it was about. Link and I have always been like brothers, but we've never fought the way Wade and I did growing up. It wasn't until a couple days after our fight, Link and Simon sat my grumpy ass down and said that I needed to snap out of it, that Morgan was just another girl in a big sea of thousands. That I could have any other girl, I just needed to move on. But they didn't get it. I only wanted one girl, and that was Morgan. They didn't understand that in the short time we were together, I fell in love with her. It was going to take some time to get over her if it was even possible.
I had decided that since the World Finals were coming up, I needed to focus my time and energy on that. I would bide my time until I could approach Morgan and try to talk some sense into her. But attempting to do that while blindsiding her out at a bar, ended in a disaster. Not to mention, I almost punched some dickwad who was trying to hit on her.
So much for my chance to win her back.
~~~
We end up in the hotel restaurant for a late dinner with our families and friends that flew out for the tournament. I spend a lot of time thinking about Morgan and how she isn’t here tonight. It is starting to get to me. While I’m thrilled my family is here to celebrate such a huge night for us, I just want to escape to my hotel room and attempt to sleep.
Our group was so large that we have taken up several tables. It’s getting late, so the restaurant isn’t busy. Everyone is mingling and moving around the tables, while I'm sitting here, staring at my half-empty glass of beer. I’m sure I've got a grimace on my face, but it's not until someone sits down at my right and elbows me as I get whacked on the side of my head from my left.
“What the…” I grumble as I lift my head to see Bernie on my right and my brother to my left.
“Serves you right, little brother. You're a party pooper. At your own party,” Wade chuckles.
“Am not, I’m just tired,” I lie.
“Right,” he drags out the word.
“Leave him alone, Wade,” Bernie glares across the table at him. “Are you thinking about Morgan?” she asks pointedly.
I open my mouth to speak when Wade does it for me, “Tsk, tsk, Bern, of course, he is thinking about her. Are we even allowed to say her name? Or is it still ‘She-who-shall-not-be-named?” he offers, completely deadpan.
“Dick,” I mutter under my breath.
“Wade,” Bernie scolds him. She places her hand on my arm that is cradling my glass. “Dex, seriously, I think it’s been long enough, if you want to try talking to her again, you should.”
I take a deep breath, “I don’t know. She seemed really, really pissed off the last time I tried.”
“Well, maybe because she wasn’t expecting to see you on her first night out since you guys split,” she urges.
“Or, maybe it’s because you tried to beat up the guy she was trying to hook up with,” Wade jabs.
“Really, when did you become such an asshole, Wade?” I growl.
“Guys,” Bernie warns in a harsh, flat whisper.
“No, you’re right, my bad. I guess I became an asshole when you got your heart broken and stopped being yourself. It’s getting old.”
Bernie sucks in a sharp breath, I just glare at him.
“Wade, we came over here to cheer him up, not piss him off,” she hisses.
“I’m his brother, it's my right to tell him when he is being dramatic. Now, I’ve done my part, you can do yours,” he throws back.
“Fine,” she huffs. She shifts her gaze back to me and loses the annoyance from her tone. She and Wade have always gotten along, so I’m not surprised that they devised a plan. But he’s always doing the opposite of what she expects him to do, so while I’m pissed at him right now, I feel for her, she was trying to be helpful, and he ruined it by being an ass.
“Look, I just…we are worried about you, Dex,” her tone sad and concerned.
I try to compose my anger towards my brother and force a smile at Bernie. I take a moment to think about what I want to say so I can end this conversation and head to my room.
“I know you are, Bern, but I’ll be alright. I just got knocked off my axis when I lost her.”
“Do you love her?” she whispers.
I’m staring down at my beer again, warm in my hands from gripping the glass for so long.
“More than anything,” I croak.
“If you love her so much, why don’t you do something about it, little brother?” Wade asks as he clamps a reassuring hand on my shoulder. All trace of asshole gone.
“I’m scared. I’m scared I imagined the whole thing, and she never felt the same way for me.”
“Dex,” Bernie tisks. “She felt the same way, and that scared her. She didn’t handle it the right way, but she so totally felt the same way. And I’m willing to bet she still does. She’s a worse mess than you are, bud.”
And that rips my heart apart even more. Knowing that she is still hurting just as bad as I am, worse from the sound of it. I know Morgan is the one who ended it, but I can’t help but feel that I did this to her. I know I was moving too fast. I shouldn’t have taken her to meet my parents. I knew it was too soon. I knew she was struggling with the intensity of our relationship. I knew.
I sigh. “Thanks, guys. Really. I’m sorry I’ve been a such a downer. I’ll work on it.” I force a smile at Bernie. I finally let go of my glass, push my chair back, and stand. I clap a hand on Wade’s shoulder, “I’m heading to bed. Been a big day. Great day, but I’m wiped.”
After saying good night to my parents and the rest of the group, I head upstairs to my hotel room. I’m sharing it with Link, but he won’t be coming up anytime soon. I need to make a plan. I need to figure out what I’m going to do. I can’t keep going this way. If only because I’m going to drive my friends mad.
If Bernie was right about Morgan being miserable, maybe, just maybe I still have a chance.