Pt 2 - 16

‘Real love shouldn’t hurt,’ a generic Facebook post informed Alissa.



“Bollocks,” she whispered to herself. Love hurt. Love was pain. Alissa struggled to imagine loving someone who made her feel safe and happy. The pain and waiting heightened the lust. The tragedy created the opportunity for triumph. From the beginning, Andy had made it clear that an ordinary loving relationship would never be in their future. He wasn’t like other guys. He’d spend sleepless nights worrying he might be sociopathic and wished he could feel something for Alissa. If he could feel something—anything—it would be for her.



Stories like Romeo and Juliet had always resonated with Alissa. She craved the difficulties; the torture of being ignored and the ecstasy of winning his affections. Mostly, the drama resided in her head, and her actual time was spent refreshing messengers to see if he had bothered to grace her with a reply.



The day Alissa dared bring up the subject of Prom, Andy had promised to think about it. A flat out no would have been kinder—but why would he be kind when cruelty was more fun? At least she could deal with the disappointment and move on to asking some other sap.



Going with a different guy would make her feel like a cheat, even though Andy insisted that an official relationship between them would probably never happen. Now that Matty and all of her other male friends had fallen out with her she wouldn’t have anyone to ask anyway, so even more was riding on Andy saying yes.



Logging into her Day of Dragons account, Alissa’s fingertips tapped loudly on her clunky black keyboard. Her computer was old, slow and ugly but it was also a magical box of wonders with the power to connect Alissa with the love of her life. It chugged and whirred with strained effort as her other life loaded up and her tall, ethereal elf spun onto the screen with a flourish of green healing light. If Andy would not speak to her in the real world, maybe she could track him down in the realm of heroes and dragons that dominated most of his time.



Andy’s character, a gruff looking humanoid bear with dual wielding axes, stood in his usual spot just outside of the elf city. This was where he battled all who challenged him and won ninety percent of the time. Currently, he was battling a member of his 5v5 team and losing.



Alissa used the /wave function to greet Andy in a non-imposing way.



“Busy. Doing 5v5,” he said in a whisper, and Alissa knew better than to pester him when he was doing team stuff. He’d blocked her for weeks the last time she’d made that mistake.



“Hi Alissa,” a character said in group chat. Softy—the streamer? Andy talked about him a lot, even going as far as calling him his ‘man-crush.’



‘How does he know my name? Does Andy talk about me?’ Alissa thought with a smile. Her lips felt odd, stretched. It had been a while since her last smile.



“Hi Softy,” Alissa replied, not sure what to say to him. She felt redness blooming over her cheeks even though he had no way of seeing her.



The male elf laughed before typing, “You can call me Zach, you know.”



‘Zach? ‘Alissa thought. ‘No. No.’ She shook her head mouthing the word ‘No’ before alt-tabbing out of the game. Andy had sent her pictures of his last meet up with the members of his team. Alissa remembered that in one of them Softy had been carrying Andy on his shoulders, but she had only focused on Andy.



“Shit.”



Zach smiled back from the image on the screen, his face small and pixilated but unmistakable. How was it possible? People always said it was a small world, but this was freaking ridiculous. It hadn’t been Zach in the picture before now, Alissa was certain of it. How could it just be a coincidence that the person ruining her school life was the same guy her boyfriend hero worshipped? In her mind the matter was settled; Zach did have some sort of magic powers. He was a monster or a demon or something and he was determined to ruin her life.



Alissa did not want to tab back into the game. Her skin tingled cold and hot at the same time as she scrolled through the text to see if he had spoken again. He hadn’t.



“How did you know it was me?” Alissa typed the sentence, deleted it, retyped and almost didn’t dare enter. Was the answer going to tear what remained of her life to shreds?



“I logged on as you when you asked Raven to do your dailies,” Zach typed back in a whisper.



‘Why didn’t I think of that? He even told me he was 2600 rated. I am so stupid.’



‘Maybe he won’t say anything to Andy about me.’ Tears welled up in Alissa’s eyes. ‘Yeah right. And maybe pigs will fly out of my arse.’



“I need to tell you something...” Alissa whispered to Andy. An involuntary cry of anguish escaped her as the chat system promptly informed her that Andy was ignoring her. She kicked out at the circular grey button on her PC, switching off the system and almost breaking the plastic outer case.



Hyperventilating, she backed into the wall of her small bedroom and sank to her bottom against the radiator. She had managed to keep back the tears since the night of the party and the horrible incident at school, but the floodgates could only hold back so much. Tears racked her small frame as sobs became howls and howls became screams.



She must have been crying louder than her music because her older brother Lee burst into the room and was by her side, frantically asking ‘what’s wrong?’ Alissa couldn’t speak through the sobs. Lee put his arms around her, stroking her back and hair. It had been a long time since the pair had made actual physical contact, but Alissa was beyond feeling awkward. He picked up her hand, turning over her wrist before grabbing the other and doing the same.



“Who did this? Who did this to you?” Lee asked, face red with fury.



Alissa tried to slow her breathing. To concentrate on the air leaving her lungs, letting it pass smoothly without the stuttered sobs.



“Somebody hurt you, didn’t they?” Lee persisted. “Who was it?”



…



Alissa blinked away the final few tears.



“Zach.”