For the first time during the whole tournament, my hands weren’t shaking. I wasn’t covered in a layer of sweat; my mind felt sharper than at any other point that whole night. It was like exchanging my body and mind for a new one.

“Everyone, welcome to the main event, the finals! We bring you this epic matchup this evening, Dayzees and his team versus Amaya and her team. Could this be any more dramatic? I think not!” Tommy Gotobed hollered throughout the stadium.

The eight of us were planted in front of the screen, ready to go like a fleet of race cars before the checkered flag started waving. The first map was selected after we picked our characters and the match was underway.

I targeted KitCats and didn’t focus on any other aspect of the battle except for his movements only. His Mad-Cat clawed and swiped away at me, but I dodged and blasted him away with a barrage of arrows. All the sparks from Mad-Cat’s body exploded into hundreds of bolts, lighting him up like a Christmas tree. Mad-Cat clawed me once with an extending lunge and landed a vicious combo that I was having a hard time recovering from. I quickly backed away and ducked under a swipe and launched one last arrow to Mad-Cat’s head. I stood victorious over him with 30% of my health bar left.

Darren was still in a tango with Dayzees. Both were at 40% health, and Wyatt and Amaya were both at 50%, with a slight lead over their opponents. I hopped behind Darren’s Aqua-Axe and rifled off some perfectly timed arrows, piercing Dayzees’ Rabid-Savage, allowing Darren to swipe wildly with his massive axe.

Game one was conquered easier than any other matches we played that day.

Games two and three were practically scripted the same as game one.

We had swept Dayzees in the first set.

The three of us all gazed at each other with our eyebrows arched high, and our jaws dropped. The crowd was roaring Amaya’s name.

“What an amazing shutout, the first one we’ve seen this year at the Miami Invitational!” Tommy Gotobed yelled over the speakers. “One last set, folks! The one that will determine the winner of the million-dollar prize!”

“Goddammit, you guys! What the fuck? I’ve been trying to carry us this whole goddamn tournament. Can you guys pick up the slack?” Dayzees shouted at his teammates.

I grinned, wanting to nudge Darren or Wyatt for a laugh, but I decided against it. A moderator came up to us and asked if we wanted a break; if a single person did, we were obliged to take it to use the bathroom or even take a drink. All of us were ready to go to the next round without a break, but Dayzees decided he needed one.

Of course, he did, the prima donna.

“That’s a good chess move on his part. We were riding high on momentum there. This gives his team a chance to regroup and figure things out,” Amaya whispered as we huddled together in our chairs. “There’s nothing I have to say to you guys except to keep going with the plan we came up with earlier. I’m sure they’re going to change things up but let’s do our best to thwart that.”

After the break was over and we plugged back in, they picked up on our battle plan and returned with their own. We shuffled between who we were fighting. Dayzees picked up on our strategy and kept KitCats as far away from me as possible. Not only was he the weakest link, but his Mad-Cat style had a slight advantage over Wyatt’s Toxic-Javelin. This made things increasingly difficult for Wyatt as he was the one that was targeted first instead of Amaya.

The matches went back and forth. Amaya clutched the first victory for us after Darren, Wyatt, and I fell like dominos. Dayzees retaliated with a win in the second game. We stole a third, and they took the fourth.

In the last three matches, I crashed and burned as Golden-Bow. I felt out of sync. The arrows were mistimed or they missed the targets completely.

Why is this happening now?

The natural feel was detached, and I had to improvise.

Gordie, you know it all and have the tools you need. There’s nothing left I can do. Just trust in yourself, man. A voice rang in my ear that sounded so familiar I was almost moved to tears for a split second.

Everyone had already selected their character. They were just waiting for me, no one had changed, but I drifted my marker towards a different fighter.

I selected my trusty old friend, Obsidian-Golem.

Darren, Wyatt, and Amaya glanced over at me as if I had just pulled down my pants on stage, but I stared at them in the eye as stern of a face as I could muster.

We focused on the screen, and the last stage we performed on was The Star’s Edge. It felt like a good omen.

The shaking and the sweat came back for the last match, or maybe it had always been there, and I just didn’t realize it, but I was back in my own skin. The original strategy that Amaya put together wasn’t working. Wyatt and Darren were taking dollops of combos, but I crushed Mad-Cat with my obsidian boulder. Sparks and shrapnel erupted over the screen like a volcano.

4 vs. 3

Dayzees took out Wyatt with a sideswiping combo after blasting away Darren for a moment and capitalizing on an opportunity. Benjamin and Jacob jumped in and Jacob’s Galactic-Reaper beheaded Toxic-Javelin with a swipe from his massive scythe.

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3 vs. 3

Darren chased back after Dayzees, but Darren’s health was down to 30%, and Dayzees was at 60%. I made the mistake of trying to help Darren while Amaya was taking on Benjamin and Jacob. Dayzees could destroy Darren away even though I knocked him down 10%. Dayzees was just too fast. Rabid-Savage stole Aqua-Axe’s axe, and used it to slice him in half.

2 vs. 3

Amaya took out Benjamin, but she was hanging on the thread of just 5%, and so was Jacob. Dayzees and I stood at 50% both.

2 vs. 2

Jacob’s Galactic-Reaper cut Star-Power in half, bolts of electricity scattered from the body. Amaya was out.

1 vs. 2

But he only had 5% health left, and one simple obsidian rock toss took care of that.

1 vs. 1

I was at 50% health. Dayzees was at 50% as well.

You have got to be shitting me? $1 million all rests on my shoulders? This isn’t fair. This is an insane amount of pressure for a teenager to handle. I’m still in high school and have the most enormous sum of money dangling in my face I’ll ever see. And I have to go up against the best player in the world and prove my worth?

This is…

Precisely what I wanted.

Even though it was just Dayzees and myself both at 50% of health, I thought we might do a re-creation of Amaya and 75K from earlier. Maybe we could hug and the audience could applaud, but there was no theatrics. Dayzees chased right at me, wasting no time. I wanted to savor every moment of the battle. I was a vastly improved player since we had last met. And now we met again in far different circumstances. He was more or less the same player, but I was far different.

I narrowly skipped past his Rabid-Savage’s mauling attempt and crushed him with one hit-two hit- wait, it should have been over six - hit. What just happened? Fifteen - hit. I let go of the controller, for I finally beat Dayzees because of a miraculous combo. It had to have been a glitch.

Time felt like it froze forever, yet the whole moment was over in the blink of an eye. Dayzees didn’t even touch me. I had bested him. Somehow I destroyed him with a combo filled with jagged obsidian rocks, raining over his Rabid-Savage.

“Told you, I knew you could do it. You never needed me to win,” that familiar voice in my head said again. My jaw slacked open as I stood there drunk on adrenaline and burnt out from hand fatigue, shaking, and sweating.

Bullshit. I needed you. You were right here with me. I’ll need you forever. If it wasn’t for you. The tears started to spill. I wouldn’t be here.

I looked at Wyatt, Darren, and Amaya. All three of them had glassy eyes, and time slowed down. I’ll never forget the look of astonished glory on their faces. Smiling so bright, they outshined the sun. They leaped by my side and bound me to a hug I could never escape. All of us cried and trembled. The crowd thundered like gods with the shouts of “A-my-uh! A-my-uh!”

“We did it, you magnificent bastard, we did it,” Darren said.

“It will never be enough no matter how many times I say it. I love you, Gordie. I really love you, man,” Wyatt said.

“Gordie. I’m speechless. Utterly speechless. I love you too, and congratulations on a job well done,” Amaya said.

“And there you have it, folks! What a thrilling conclusion to the end of the magnificent Miami invitational!” Tommy Gotobed hollered into his microphone.

Confetti rained down from the sky. Everyone was standing up, clapping their hearts out, as the four of us stood on stage, tears spilling all over the place. Tommy approached Amaya as we unraveled from our group hug.

“Would you like to say a few words, Amaya?” Tommy asked, pulling away from the microphone.

“Sure.” She shrugged and chuckled. Taking the mic, she looked at us, and nodded. “I couldn’t be happier to be here. I’m unsure what to say other than thanking everyone who believed and supported us. I feel like we’re on top of the world. Darren, thank you for being a calm voice of reason. Wyatt, for being one incredibly tough person who didn’t let anything bring him down and for his sobriety in life.”

The crowd burst into applause, cheers, and whistles. Wyatt’s cheeks became rosy, and he also cracked up. Tears were still fresh on his face.

“And Gordie, thank you for believing in this dream and being part of this team. He’s one of the mentally strongest people I know, and here he is at eighteen winning the last match for us.” Amaya started snickering again but pulled the microphone away. “I’m so sorry. I wish I had a speech prepared, but to be honest, I didn’t think we’d get this far, so it’s truly something… amazing. Thank you all for your support! Love to our families as well. Up next, I need to get a singles first-place crown! But for now, I will be celebrating this for a while. As I’m sure, my best friends here will too.”

The crowd popped with more applause.

In the sea of faces, I saw him. Even though I couldn’t distinguish a single person, I knew he was there. Michael was in the crowd. He was one of those that whistled a shriek in the audience that stood out like an audible sore thumb. Michael had the best seat in the house. Thank you, everyone, for your support. I was an unknown player until today, but I owe all my credit to my mentor and best friend, Michael. Love you, pal.

I clapped and grinned so powerfully that my face felt numb. Looking over at Wyatt, Darren, and Amaya, we all stared at each other, laughed, then screamed. Confetti still rained. That moment should have lasted forever. It would probably be the last thing I’d want to remember before dying.

I was so happy surrounded by my best friends, I was about to grow wings and fly with them all on my back. We’d shoot through the roof and escape into an outer space endorphin-fueled paradise of eye-popping colors filled with pure bliss, like the ending to an ‘epic’ song that looped forever. That’s what that moment felt like. Weightless with joy, for the first time in my life.

That night I couldn’t fall asleep back at the hotel. I was so wired from winning that I stayed up all night with Darren, Wyatt, and Amaya. The four of us just stood around the hotel room, screaming about the victory and telling each other how much we loved each other and how our lives would change.

That night I had a dream. I ended up sneaking in a 30-minute nap because the exhaustion finally hit me like a ton of bricks at seven in the morning.

I was back in Michaels’ bedroom, and he was sitting across from me, both of us had a controller in hand, and we had just finished up a match of Elite Crushers. The sun was glowing in from the window. Impossible to tell if it was a sunrise or sunset. Either way, the golden light was picturesque.

“You finally beat me,” Michael said with a wink.

“What are you talking about? I’ve never beat you.”

“Proud of you, Gordie. I really am.”

“You’re not going to leave again, are you?”

He smiled, but not happily. “You know I can’t stay. I have to leave here in a moment.”

I could feel myself getting choked up. “No, you don’t. Why can’t you stay?”

“Gordie, you know the rules. It’s the way they are.”

“Don’t you love me, though?”

Michael laughed. “That’s not fair to say. Of course, I love you. I love you so much that I had to tell you something immediately.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“Don’t stop here, man. Outer space is the limit. Keep going. You’ll be happy you did.” He stood up. “Come give me a hug. I gotta go.”

I leaped off the seat and into his arms. I couldn’t control my emotions in the dream, but everything I did and said would have been real if it actually happened. The warmth of his arms filled me with peace, acceptance, and some closure.

“Outer space is the limit.”

The End