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“They want your lucky ranked clover,” she said quickly and all of a sudden her anger vanished. “Of course they can’t be that sexist, all fifty of them, right? Even if they were, at least one of them must be confident enough to think they can keep me out of Challenger fairly—by winning every match they play against me. Especially if I’m as unworthy as they seem to think I am.”
I laughed because I could see she was making fun of them and of the situation. She was trying to play it off as something other than blatant sexist bullying. I could see she was clearly still mad at me for hiding this from her but there was a fire in her eyes that had lit up and I wanted to see where it took us.
Then as Emma continued playing on stream she got into a game with her first Challenger. It had been within the hour from my accusation. She finally got to play against a Challenger but sadly she didn’t win the game. She deflated almost instantly after the loss screen flashed up on the monitor, but that didn’t stop her.
In her next game there was another Challenger and that game she did win. From that point on there was a Challenger in every single one of her games. They must’ve been watching or were sent our accusations in the form of clips and maybe me saying something publicly finally got the point across. The lower ranked Challengers were back to playing and Emma had gotten quite fired up.
At midnight, after over ten games played for the day, Emma's achievement screen flashed up on the screen showing she had reached Challenger. Her username appeared on the leaderboard at number 298 in the server. The joy on her face was indescribable, her eyes teared up, her smile was wide, and her cheeks were flushed. We both jumped out of our chairs and hugged.
In that moment, overtaken by pride, I almost leaned in to kiss her but at the last second I played it off as a whisper in her ear. “I’m so proud of you, Em.”
She wasn’t the first woman to ever get to Challenger but she was one of the three women currently in the top three hundred players on this server. Yup, for every ninety-nine men on the leaderboard there was now one woman.
When we calmed down and sat back down to talk to the chat, Ryan called in to congratulate her.
“Oracle, let me officially welcome you to the Challenger Support Players Support Group! I sent you an invite to the group chat.”
Emma rubbed her cheeks, her smile never dwindling. “Fuck, I actually feel so happy I made it,” she mumbled. “Thank you so much for the invite, Pango, I would love to connect with you guys!”
Then Lauren called us on stream and told us she had prepared something for us. I opened my inbox and my latest email was from her and attached were two videos: one which was a compilation of every genius play Emma had executed in the last month, and a second one which contained every time Emma didn’t listen to my directions and it turned out disastrous.
We watched both on stream and laughed our asses off at the clips. Then we signed off and ended the stream. It was past two A.M. at that point but neither me nor Emma were sleepy, still reeling from the rush of her getting to Challenger.
I couldn't keep my hands off her any longer so as soon as the camera was off, I picked Emma up with both of my hands, and hugged her tightly. “I am so, so proud of you, Em!”
Emma laughed, but when I put her down her expression was serious. “Why didn’t you tell me they were blocking me?”
“I wanted to deal with it privately. There’s no point in exposing you to even more of the toxicity, you get enough flack just existing in this space,” I said truthfully. “I’m sorry for lying to you, I thought I was protecting you.”
“Don’t try to be a knight in shining armor for me again. I can handle it,” she said, still serious. “I need to be able to trust you to tell me these things. I can handle it,” she repeated.
“I promise I won’t hide anything from you anymore,” I nodded and reached for her hand.
She let me take it and I held it in both of mine tightly, pulling her to me before kissing her lips.
“We need to get some sleep, we have to start moving you in tomorrow,” I whispered when I broke off the kiss.
She pulled me to the bed, but we didn’t fall asleep until the sun was already peeking over the horizon.
Chapter 15
Emma
I wokeup feeling a dull ache in my back and ribs. It was the kind of soreness that came from a mix of sitting hunched over a keyboard and being wrapped up in Alex’s arms all night. His steady breath was still tickling the back of my neck, while his body was plastered to my back.
I didn’t know how I got so lucky. He made me feel good, wanted, and secure, despite the fact I’ve only known him for a month. I’ve never had anyone so dependable in my life. I felt like he was an open book. He convinced my heart to give him a chance.
I turned in his arms and scanned his face, it was so rare I saw him at peace. There was always a thought occupying his mind and his feelings about it were mirrored clearly on his face. I softly pressed my lips to his forehead, then his cheek, and finally his lips. He stirred, his eyes fluttering open, and a slow, lazy smile spread across his face.
“Morning,” he murmured, his voice thick with sleep.
“Morning,” I echoed, feeling my cheeks warm up. When his voice was like this it woke up a primal want within me.
I pulled him into another brief kiss before wrapping my armsaround his neck and staring into his deep brown eyes. We both reluctantly got out of bed a few minutes later when Alex’s alarm went off.
I slipped on one of his shirts, which hung loosely over my body and barely covered my underwear. As we walked into the kitchen I could feel Alex’s eyes on me, scanning every inch of skin I was showing. His gaze created an almost physical pressure wherever he looked and it made my heart race.
“You're staring,” I teased, glancing over my shoulder at him.
