Page 6 of Trust Me

Chapter 3

Oliver

“Come on,” I growled. Pulling my lip between my teeth, I tightened my grip. “Just a little more. Almost there. Yes! That’s right. Suck my dick, you fugly bastard.”

“How did you even manage that?” Carson asked, his voice loud in my headset after how hard I’d been concentrating.

“He’s Oli,” Remi said. “Always has lady luck on his side.”

I snorted and collapsed backward on the couch. I stretched out my fingers, which ached from how hard I’d been holding onto the controller. We’d been at this for hours, and after stocking shelves all day and counting inventory, I’d given my hands a workout.

“I’m not lucky,” I argued.

“You leveled up right before he attacked, otherwise you’d be dead. You always manage to land yourself right where you need to be in the nick of time.”

“All of you went down in his last attack, and I had to finish him off with no healer, bro. Level up or not, that’s skill right there.”

“How much health you got left?”

I snickered as I looked at it. “Five.”

“Five! Uh-uh, man, that’s luck. At least a little bit of it.”

“I think you’re kinda jealous. I got the cuirass you wanted.”

“Bastard,” Remi grumbled. “Let’s go again. I’m gonna sacrifice you to it this time.”

“I should probably get off. I have class in the morning.”

He said something, but my phone vibrated beside me, so I picked it up. I was a little surprised, then I realized it was a mass text.

Brooks: Hey, fellow humans. I’m sending this to everyone I know on campus. Hopefully someone will come through. There’s a guy looking for a room to rent. He’s cool and has my stamp of approval. If you fuck him over, I’ll probably have you assassinated. You’ve been warned.

That was a funny threat to make. Coming from Brooks, at least. I wanted to steal it, but I didn’t know if it would land right.

“Oli?”

“Just load it up,” I replied after I checked the time. Class was in a couple of hours anyway, so I’d already screwed myself by staying up this long. I didn’t work until the evening shift, which meant I could come home after school and take a nap. Easy as pie.

As I ran through the dungeon, I looked at my phone again, then at the closed bedroom door. It was sitting there, unused. If someone needed a room, I had one, but did I want a roommate? I wasn’t opposed, really. It might be nice to have another person around, plus it would help me save some money. There was this One Piece Lego set I was dying to get my hands on.

Me: I have a room

Brooks: Wait, for real?

Me: Yeah. Why are you shocked?

Brooks: Not shocked. Excited.

Me: Ok. Have him text me

Brooks: Will do. You’re a godsend, Oli.

Chuckling, I tossed the phone to the side and focused on the game. There was sunlight coming in through the curtains, and I was already regretting that I hadn’t slept. I had to stop doing this eventually, but it was pointless to dwell on now.

Remi leapt out of the way just as a creature attacked him, which gave it a direct line to me. The thing took out a quarter of my health in one go, and as soon as I was out of its jaws, I ran up to Remi’s character and swung at him.

“So touchy,” he teased.