Chapter One
It seemed like it was an average Sunday at first. But as our young protagonists will soon learn, there would be nothing average about the week they had ahead of them. For this, dear reader, is a tale of surprises, twists and turns, shock, confusion, competition, passion, and the metamorphosis of a close friendship into something profound and soulful. Let's begin, shall we?
It all started with an exchange between two 20-somethings over text messages.
D: You looking forward to tonight?
A: You bet. I can't wait to beat your ass in Smash face to face
D: I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you. I hosed you pretty good last time
A: Man you know I lost cause of lag
D: Yeah yeah, we'll see about that tonight
Don't forget to bring a controller
A: On it. Still meeting at the park right?
D: Sure thing
This is Dave and his friend Alex. Dave had met Alex over a game of Team Fortress 2, where Alex had repeatedly challenged his competence as a Scout by dominating him while playing Heavy. Over the course of a couple hours of play they started to establish a friendly rivalry banter with each other, and by the end of the night they were fast friends. Later they acquired each other's Steam tags and bonded over shared frustrations with Valve's mismanagement of the bot issue, amongst other random topics of conversation.
For about eight months they'd been playing games with each other multiple times a week whenever they both had a bit of spare time. Dave hadn't known Alex for long, but he felt like already their bond was as strong as the ones he had with friends he had known since childhood. Alex was funny, quick-witted and competent when it came to gaming, which made him a great teammate and an even better rival to bring out Dave's competitive side when they were on opposing teams.
In a recent call they'd gotten into, the topic of Nintendo had come up, and the ensuing conversation revealed to the duo a couple pertinent pieces of info.
1: That both owned a Switch and a fully decked out copy of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate with all the DLC.
2: That by some stroke of fate they not only lived in the same county of the same state, but that their residences were within walking distance of each other.
After reflecting on this and mustering up a little courage, Dave had decided to invite Alex over to his apartment to play Smash. He told himself it was because all his other friends were out of town or busy that weekend, but he really was excited to meet Alex in person and get to know him better, albeit not without a bit of trepidation; part of him worried that this would change their friendship somehow, and he didn't want to make things weird.
All the same though, he and Alex agreed to meet up at a park that was about equal distance between their homes, so at about 6:00 PM he set out into the city to meet up with his good friend.
He had no idea what he was in for.
Chapter Two
After a brisk walk Dave made his way over to the rough area where they'd agreed to meet up, and before even catching sight of his friend he was made aware of Alex's presence by a gruff "HEY MCFLY!"
A recurring inside joke (born from a night they spent up late watching the entire Back to the Future trilogy) was all the confirmation Dave needed that this person was indeed the friend he was looking for. The way Alex excitedly ran up to meet with him didn't hurt either.
"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Alex said with a toothy, impish grin. This was the first thing Dave noticed upon getting an assessment of Alex's appearance. The look he wore suited the personality Dave had become familiar with over the past few months, but this wasn't the only thing he noticed about his friend.
His bronzed complexion and tousled black hair were suggestive of an athletic, active guy, but his features had an odd softness to them. Dave couldn't assess too much though, because A: It'd make him seem like a weirdo, and B: The cold weather necessitated that Alex wear a thick, padded jacket, so Dave couldn't really assess how tough Alex was.
"You didn't tell me how TALL you were, dude! How's the weather up there?"
This trademark corny Alex joke snapped Dave out of his thoughts, though it also made him notice for the first time the difference in height between them. They seemed to be about the same torso-wise, but Dave had taller, lankier legs.
"Yeah, well, at least I can reach the top shelf for the cookie jar."
"Oooh, big man. How many times did your mom catch you for that one?"
"My lawyer has advised me not to give too many details."
"Yeah yeah, just show me the way to your place, yeah? I'm freezing my balls off out here."
"Just one thing before we head off. You got your controller, right?"
Alex took out a Switch Pro Controller styled in black and silver with the pattern of the Smash logo.
"What is an artist without his brush?"
"Excellent. Let's get back there, Leonardo."
Chapter Three
On the walk back to Dave's apartment, they enjoyed much of the same banter that he'd become familiar with in the online space. Dave was glad that he and Alex were getting along so well. So far, there didn't seem to be any discomfort about them, and it seemed that being in person changed nothing about how they talked to each other. They still talked to each other with that same sense of casualness and an unspoken trust, like they could talk about whatever weird thing they wanted to each other and the other person would get it.
Nevertheless, Dave couldn't quite shake the odd feeling in the back of his mind that Alex wasn't quite what he expected him to be. That there was something about Alex that he hadn't picked up on. Dave didn't know what to make of these feelings, so he tried his best to just ignore them for now and figure it didn't matter much, cause he was still having a good time being with his friend, and he had nothing better to do this Sunday night.
After a walk that was slower back than there on account of obnoxious traffic, they made it to the complex in which Dave's apartment was nestled, on the third floor of the building. Alex immediately picked up on the state of Dave's residence.
"Gee, look at Mister Rich Guy over here living it up in his luxury apartment building!"
"it's not...
luxury!
", Dave replied sheepishly, a little red in his cheeks.
The truth was, Dave had come from a penny-pinching family, and though he was sometimes embarassed of their habits like coupon-cutting, his parents' understanding of finance allowed them to help him work out a decent plan that allowed him to put some money from his job away and save up for a nice apartment whilst also attending college in the most min-max-y way possible. Maximum possible amount of quality education for minimum spending.
"Easy for you to say. I wish I could get a place this nice!"
"Well we're not actually
in
my apartment yet, so don't call it too early. For all you know it could be a total dump." Dave said, tapping his index finger to his forehead as if to make a point.
"Knowing you, it wouldn't surprise me." Alex retorted with a grin. Dave mirrored the expressin but immediately afterward got that strange feeling again. He tried to just brush past it as they ascended the stairs to get to the third floor of the building, half-racing to see who could make it there first.
Alex reached the third floor first, barely even having broke a sweat whilst Dave was panting and wheezing. Dave was in pretty good shape, but even in spite of this stairs remained his arch-enemy. Alex's breezy climb reinforced his suspicions that he was pretty athletic in spite of also being an avid gamer like Dave.
