"Hey, Damien, wait up!"
The said boy turned around, only to have someone crash into him, sending the other person sprawling on the floor as his increased stats ensured that he didn't lose his footing nor budge an inch. His smug grin quickly dropped as he hurried to help them up once he had a better look.
"Oh, shit, Sarah?! Are you ok?"
He lifted her up easily enough, considering she only weighed about 100 pounds wet. Green eyes peered at him beneath blond lashes in curiosity. Their intensity only magnified all the more behind the thick glasses she wore. Her nose was red from the impact and he had to hold back a wince from the guilt.
Way to go, Damien, all that talk about speed and reflexes and you couldn't manage to move out of the way in time. You're definitely ready to face whatever monster X will have you fighting soon. Idiot!
He barely managed to stumble through an apology when she stopped him.
"Have you been working out? That felt like running into a brick wall!"
There was no heat behind her words as she stared at him, a soft teasing grin on her face as she made a show of knocking her small fists against his abdomen. They both shared a laugh and walked side by side.
"Maybe its just because you're so short? I bet a gush of wind could've knocked you over."
She was a petite thing after all, only around 5'1 compared to his 5'9. She apparently took offense to that as she promptly jumped onto his back, hanging off his neck like some deranged koala as she ruffled his hair.
"I'm not short, I'm the perfectly normal height for a girl my age. Maybe you're just freakishly tall? Huh? Did ya ever think of that?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I guess that just means that about 80% of the population is "Freakishly" tall then. My bad~!" He made exaggerated hand motions, not forgetting ot make air quotations for her to see.
"So, what've you been up too lately? You've been completely ignoring me and Jason lately and booking it directly after class," Suddenly her eyes widened before a wide grin took up half her face "Did ya finally get a girlfriend, Mr. I'mTooBusyToDate?"
"Wha? Pfft, no, of course not!"
"Oh? And why the hasty denial~?... Wait don't tell me the rumors were actually true? You're gay?"
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Her eyes were wide as she covered her mouth with her right hand looking positively scandalous.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that!" She made sure to clarify, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she kept rambling about "Love is beautiful" and "LGBTQ was totally hip" and how he "didn't need to hide it"
"Sarah... Sa-... Sarah... SARAH!" He had to shout to knock the girl out of her episode "First of all, I'm not gay. That was just a stupid dare. Secondly, I've just been... Busy. Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you guys. Were is Jason anyways? Let's get some food, my treat, to make up for everything."
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Sarah refused to get off his back, so Damien had to deal with carrying her all the way to McDonald's to meet up with his other best friend, Jason Witten. Thankfully, he was already there waiting for them with a table.
He gave a lazy wave as Sarah finally crawled down from his back so they could order. A couple of minutes later and the trio finally sat down with their food.
"So, Ian, what've you been up to all week?"
For a moment Damien wondered how to reply. The two in front of him were his oldest friends and he would hate to lie to them. They've known each other since elementary school and he trusted them. They were also smart, smarter than him if he were, to be honest, and could probably provide some great insight or ideas he wouldn't think of. On the other hand, he didn't really want to drag them into this mess. He still wasn't certain there wasn't some shadowy organization out to get him, or what the seemingly omnipotent X was up too.
No, it was too risky until he understood his situation, better safe than sorry.
"Nothing much, school is boring, and work has been a pain. I did find a few new hobbies. So far I like parkour and judo the most, but I'm also trying out other martial arts like taekwondo."
There we go. Nice and simple, and not a lie. After all, not mentioning that he had possibly entered into a death game involving reality-bending powers and might possibly be on a hit list was not a lie, right?
"Taekwondo? That's cool, know any cool tricks you could show us yet?" How that man wiggled his eyebrows so well was a mystery. A genetic mutation, perhaps, because there was no way that was normal. Still, he conceded and had some fun showing off his "mad kung fu skills" by breaking a few boards and doing some fancy flips. Not that difficult considering his balance was probably better than any circus performer or acrobat at this point. It was fun to just hang out with friends and relax for a change instead of preparing for some unknown threat or doing some obscure quest X had him running around to do.
It's too bad that Quests seemed to have been drying up. Now he only had one or two a day instead of five like he used too, and the rewards have dropped to only giving one or two each. Just as he started performing a series of spinning kicks and other tricks his phone buzzed. His eyes widened in shock as his hands shook slightly while reading.
New Quest!
Kick Sarah by "accident"
Reward: Dicex6
New Quest!
Kick Sarah
Reward Dicex12
New Quest!
Break Jason's glasses
Reward: Dicex12
...
A series of quest ended the dry spell, but the words he had been looking forward to seemed to be stained in red.