Gamers Pt. 02

About a week later, I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I answered.

- "Hey, Dean. This is Trisha. How are you?"

- "I'm sorry - who?"

- "Patricia? Kasia's friend? Remember - you came and gamed with us?" she said. Now I recognized her voice.

- "Patricia. Hi. Sorry about that - you threw me off when you said 'Trisha'. Is that the name you prefer?"

- "I'm trying it on." she said.

- "OK, Trisha." I said. "What can I do for you?"

- "Do you have time for a coffee? I'm at the student union." she said.

I had been headed for the library, but it wasn't urgent. "Sure - I can be there in less than ten minutes."

- "Great." she said. "See you then."

The coffee at the student union was terrible, but the location was central, and everything was cheaper. It attracted older, more serious students, for the most part, so it was quieter. When I arrived, I spotted Patricia - Trisha - seated with a dark-skinned girl, who turned out to be Jazz.

- "Hi Trisha. Hey Jazz. I didn't know you were a student here."

- "I'm not." she said.

- "Thanks for coming." said Trisha. There was something unusual about her.

- "Did you change your hair?" I asked. "You look different."

She positively beamed at me. "You noticed? I'm on a new diet and exercise routine. I've lost 12 pounds."

- "That's great." I told her. I didn't mention that she probably had 40 or 50 more to go. But I couldn't help thinking it.

Jazz got straight to the point. "We asked you to come here so that we could apologize. For Kasia. Because she's too chickenshit to do it herself."

- "You don't have to." I said.

- "Yeah, we do, because we knew what she was doing, and we didn't tell you. We were hoping that she would do the right thing, but she was out of control by then."

- "Out of control?"

Trisha made a face. "Kasia has ... had, I mean...."

Jazz cut her off. "The bitch has issues."

- "Jazz!" protested Trisha.

- "She does. You know it. We all know it. Only Dean doesn't. Look, Dean - what we tell you here isn't meant to be shared with your guy friends. Especially not her brother."

I nodded, slowly, not sure where this was headed. Jazz didn't sugarcoat it. "Kasia was supposedly saving her cherry for her wedding night. But she gave it up in the first month here. Then she turned into ... I don't know, she was like freakin' Galileo or something - like she invented sex. She couldn't get enough. She was fucking some guy on the soccer team, then a teammate of his, and then she hooked up with another guy, some engineer."

"He lasted a couple of weeks. She never stopped banging the soccer guys. Then she met up with this Marco - the one you met. She kept telling us it was love, that it was serious this time, but we think it was just that he had an apartment where they could go fuck."

"If it makes you feel any better, she didn't cheat on you. She cheated on him, with you."

- "You make it sound so awful." said Trisha.

- "Because it is." said Jazz. "She lied to a perfectly nice guy, just because he didn't have a car or an apartment. Sorry, Dean, but that's what she told us. She used us, too. We were her cover story for her family whenever she was off shagging some guy. During reading week, she used Trisha's placeevery fucking night.She says she washed the sheets, but still ..."

- "Eew, thanks for that thought." said Trisha.

- "I think I need a coffee." I said. Standing up, and other mechanical acts like ordering a coffee, adding milk and sugar, and stirring them in ... I could do those. What I couldn't do was wrap my head around what Jazz was telling me. Was I that much of an idiot? Kasia was sleeping with a different guy every night? She wouldn't go out on a date with me because she was too busy having sex?

When I rejoined their table, Trisha put her hand on my arm. "You alright?" she asked.

- "You want to hear the rest?" asked Jazz. She had that scornful look on her face, but I realized then that it wasn't for me. It was for Kasia.

- "Go ahead."

- "Kash didn't want to hurt your feelings, but she didn't want to go out in public with you, in case she ran into Marco or one of the soccer guys. If it makes you feel any better, she always said she really liked you."

- "She did - that's true." said Trisha.

- "She also said you were great in the sack." added Jazz. "And out of it."

I blushed all over.

- "Too much information." said Trisha, shaking her head.

- "You were there when she told us, Missy - don't play innocent." said Jazz. "Besides, he should hearsomethinggood coming out of this. Where was I? Oh, yeah - Kasia was using us as cover with her family. So one night she told one of the soccer guys that she was with us, while she was really over at Marco's. Soccer Guy knew about Trisha's place by then, so he drops over to see if he can convince Kasia to go for a ride. He was pretty pissed off when he found out she wasn't there."

"So then Mr. Jealous goes and waits for her outside her house - just down the street, because she never let him take her to the door. Told him she had crazy over-protective parents."

I just nodded. Been there, got told that.

- "Kasia was just unlucky. But I have to say she deserved it." said Jazz. "Soccer Guy and Marco ended up meeting just down the street from her house. With her in the middle. Things got heated, and loud. Apparently they put on quite a show for the neighbours."

- "So her parents know." I said.

- "Hell yeah." said Jazz. "She's grounded until she turns 30."

- "I'm so sorry." said Patricia. "You seemed to really be into her."

I had to laugh at that one. Was I the only one that caught the double entendre there? Apparently not.

Jazz smacked Trisha on the arm. "Girl - that'ssodirty! I love it!" It took Trisha a few moments to figure out what she'd said, and then it was her turn to blush. She couldn't look at me after that.

But Jazz could. She was studying me, as if trying to figure out how I was taking it. The whole story was a shock, of course, but now that I had heard it, I began to recognize all of Kasia's little evasions, the little lies. She had used me - that was indisputable - but I had little to complain about. I had come out of it with two nights of unforgettable sex.

She had broken my heart, too. But now that I could see her pattern of lies, I realized that I could never have loved her. If she had ever agreed to go out with me, to be my girlfriend, then she would have broken my heart even worse later on. So really, the only loss here was that awesome sex with Kasia was a thing of the past. Well, that, and the fact that I felt like an idiot.

- "Chalk it up to experience, and move on." said Jazz.

- "If you want to talk about it, if you need somebody to talk to ..." volunteered Trisha.

They were really nice about it all. Trisha was so very sympathetic, and Jazz was completely direct - the combination went a long way towards making me feel better.

- "On a related subject - " said Jazz. "We did ask you here for another reason. Would you still be interested in playing games with us? No Kasia, of course, but Trisha, me, Angie, Lucy and Vee."

- "We had a good time with you, Dean," said Trisha, "and we all agreed that we would like to continue - if you're up for it."

- "Geez, Trisha!" said Jazz. "Are you being dirty again?"

- "What? What did I say?"

I had to laugh, especially when Jazz explained. Poor Trisha was mortified.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about their offer. There were several good reasons for accepting. I love gaming, of course. I had also been working on a game of my own invention, specifically for the girls, intending to show it to Kasia as a gift. Playing games with these girls would not be a hardship.

- "Well?" said Jazz, looking me right in the eye. "Areyou up for it?"

Add one more reason.

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I went to a clinic the next day, to get myself tested. Then I sweated it out, until the results came back: negative.