19

Sienna felt the dew from the grass permeate her canvas pumps as she walked across the sprawling lawn outside the Rec Centre. She looked up from her sodden, grass-covered shoes to see Adrian and Riley were already waiting by the entrance. The pair were leaning on the smooth metal bike rack, talking about something funny if their laughter was anything to go by.

Her heart pounded as she looked at Adrian’s smile, sending a flourish of adrenaline that rushed to unlock the cages of butterflies in her tummy. This happened every time she saw him without fail, even if he'd only left the room for minutes. Seeing him was like a drug.

The pair stopped laughing as they shifted, getting up to meet the girls.

"Come on, let's get a space before they fill up," Adrian said, leading them through the automatic double doors.

Sienna felt Tom's eyes on her as soon as she entered the computer room, filled with the hum of computers and the smell of furniture polish. The room was immaculate, every wire neatly tucked away and every surface spotless. A huge sign warned against bringing food and drinks into the area, but despite that some people still had open cola cans on their desks.

Seeing Tom filled her with a feeling of mild disgust and nothing more. He was officially dead to her. Glancing over at Scarlett, she could tell her friend felt the same way.

'I can't believe I almost let you come between us,' Sienna thought.

As the group walked past Tom's station Adrian stopped to say hi. He leaned over the table, taking Tom's mouse in his hand and clicking about the screen.

"You should place one point in dark control," Adrian said. "Your minion's damage increase gives a passive buff."

"I did that before, but my damage went down," Tom replied.

"Then you're playing it wrong," Adrian said with certainty and shrugged.

Tom's new girlfriend appeared at his side with a handful of snacks. She screwed up her face and tutted. "What do you know?"

Adrian ignored her completely, taking the computer to his left. There was one other machine free.

"Sienna, take this one," Adrian demanded. "I want to watch you play."

He looked amused as Sienna slipped into the seat and logged into the online game. She felt an odd mixture of shyness and pride as she brought up her favourite avatar—a pretty little elf girl dwarfed by two giant axes.

"Dual wielding," Adrian said and nodded. "Nice."

"Dual wield isn't viable for warriors," Tom interrupted, overhearing.

'Nosy dick,' Sienna thought.

Adrian made a scoffing sound. "It is if you have two DragonsBane Axes."

Tom frowned, looking almost angry.

"How on Earth did she get those?" He asked, voice laced with envy.

Sienna didn't bother to reply. Everyone knew that the Axes dropped from the DragonLord. The only better Axe in the game came from the play versus player reward for getting champion rated. Sadly, there was zero hope of her getting one of those.

As the competition started, Riley and Scarlett decided to hang out in the cafeteria. Neither of them had much interest in gaming and they probably wanted to spend time alone together away from Adrian's watchful eyes. It hadn’t escaped her notice that they had been sneakily flirting behind his back.

The conversation slowed as the players concentrated on the game. Every so often Adrian would give Tom little titbits of advice—advice that wasn't particularly well received. Adrian had to realise he was annoying the other player but continued to do so regardless.

Tom didn’t dare say anything, but eventually, Tom's girlfriend became too annoyed to keep her mouth shut.

"Why make out like you know it all when you're doing rather shit," she challenged.

Adrian laughed softly. "Just trying to help."

"Why don't you help yourself?" the girl continued. Sienna felt like picking up her keyboard and smashing over her stupid face.

"This is my first time playing a healer," Adrian said in a calm voice. He didn't seem anywhere near as annoyed as Sienna felt.

'I want to kill her,' she thought as the girl leaned over Adrian, pressing her chest against his back.

"It's my friend's account," Adrian went on.

"Why would you not play on your own account?" Sienna asked him. She flashed the girl a look, warning her to get the hell away from her man.

"Then I couldn't join the tournament," Adrian said.

"Hah!" Tom cried. "You got banned?"

“Hmm,” Adrian muttered.

"You aren't winning this thing," Adrian said, looking over at Tom's screen. "It's probably a good thing. They say you shouldn't meet your idols."

"Why did you bother then?" Tom asked, sounding deflated.

"I wanted to see if Sienna was a better player than you," Adrian said, grinning widely.

Sienna felt herself glow. She didn't think she was better than Tom, but if Adrian said so it probably meant he liked her.

Adrian didn't say anything more on the subject. When Tom pressed him, he craftily changed the subject.

"What would you say to King Cold if you did meet him?" he asked.

"I love you, Your Majesty," Dylan chimed in using a silly high-pitched voice when he overheard the question. He'd been quiet up until now, concentrating on scrolling through his social media. "Please let me suck on your—"

Tom punched his friend in the arm, quieting him.

"I told you, King Cold is secretly a girl," Tom said.

"He's not," Adrian said, smiling.

"How the heck would you know? Have you ever seen him?" Tom asked as he rolled his eyes. He was losing patience with Adrian, probably because he wasn't doing as well in the game as he hoped to. Tom would always turn moody whenever he failed at something... as if it were everyone else's fault he sucked.

"Look," Adrian said, turning his screen to face the boy next to him.

Tom frowned for a moment and smiled.

"How did you do that?" he asked. "Is it a, erm, what the hell?"

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Sienna got up from her chair to check out his screen.

The ice mage King Cold jumped about his screen, performing buffs and hopping from post to post outside the auction house.

"What the fuck?" she uttered. At first, she figured he had somehow given his character the same name—some hack or trick with special characters. Then he brought up his achievements tab.

"Champion Dragon Master" sat at the top of his achievements list. His crowning glory.

"You're him," Sienna muttered. She couldn't quite believe it. As her mind wandered back to the video she'd shown him—the one where he told her off for standing in the fire—she felt her cheeks turn bright red.

"Ha!" Tom's new girlfriend cried. "That's you're theory out the window. I told you he's not a girl."

Tom flashed her an evil look before backing out of his chair, knocking it over as he fled the room.

"Oh, thanks," the girl said and tutted. "Now he's gonna be pissed at me for pointing out the obvious."

"No, he'll be pissed at you for gloating," Sienna said, giving the girl one of her 'queen of the bitches' looks.

The girl ignored her, turning her attention to Adrian. She took a crouching position by his feet and smiled up at him.

"So you're a famous streamer?" she said.

Sienna had the urge to kick her straight in her chest, launching her skanky ass across the computer room.

"Hah," Adrian said, looking up at Sienna. "My girl is looking like she wants to missile dropkick you into the corridor."

'His girl?' Sienna thought. 'I'm his girl?'

Thinking about it, he probably wasn't going to come out and refer to her as his slave... but still.

'His girl,' Sienna smiled to herself.

"We should go after him," Dylan said, looking at Tom's girlfriend as if he wanted to kick her too.

When they left, Adrian told Sienna to sit in his lap.

"You'll get kicked out," someone warned. Sienna didn't care. She could feel the hardness of him pressing against her bare thighs as she wiggled to get comfortable.

She'd decided to wear a tartan skirt with knee socks, thinking Adrian would like this look. To be fair, most males liked this look.

When the guy in charge of the computer centre—a youngish and nerdy looking man—came over to reprimand them he was distracted by the name on the screen. Getting overexcited, he called over everyone in the room, and Adrian had to sit there and answer a hundred questions from overexcited nerds who were practically falling over themselves to talk to him.

He answered their questions with patience and goodwill. Every so often he would run his fingers up and down the exposed skin on her leg or gently squeeze her leg, but nobody seemed to notice.

As he showed them the staff he'd won in last season’s rankings, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "I like this skirt."

She smiled as he added, "I'm going to bend you over, push your panties aside and fuck you."