James won the ranked match the third time in a row. 'That was kind of easy', James thought. The boy, whose name was Andy, however, was genuinely surprised. "Wow, you are a fast learner and a born player. Are you sure that you haven't played this game before?" he asked curiously.
"No, I haven't. This is my first time playing it, and the game is not actually my thing though." James handed the smartphone over to him, which he collected and stared at James with interest.
Andy looked at his screen ad beamed at James. "You've upgraded my rank, to Veteran IX, so I owe you. I'm going to head over and get you a drink as a way of saying thanks to you." The boy said and stood up to get a drink. "No, Andy. You really don't have to—"
Andy interrupted James when he was speaking. "No, James, you don't understand. I have been trying to upgrade my rank for a very long time, which had been unsuccessful by the way, but you upgraded it, and it was two ranks, and this was your first time playing. How awesome was that!" Andy exclaimed with his eye wide open and ran off into the house where the birthday was ongoing.
'What a sweet kid.' James thought and continued coding on his screen. This was finally it, the moment he had been waiting for. He cleaned up his codes and rechecked them again for any errors. When everything was cleared, he heaved a deep sigh and closed his eye.
"I hope this works, and I hope my computer doesn't freeze" James prayed in his heart. He did not know how much resources this updated program would eat. He had almost tapped the run button when someone slapped his smartphone away, and his phone flew and dropped five meters away from him.
"Oh, look who it is, the dork." Josh sneered. James stared at Josh, along with three of his friends behind him. "What are you doing talking with Andy? Andy is a cool person, and he is not fit hanging out with a stupid nerd like you." Josh added to his insult.
James looked at Josh and smiled weakly, angering Josh the more. "I didn't invite him to talk to me. He spoke to me first, and besides, you don't have the right to stop me in here Josh." James gently retorted. He did not have the mood to talk to anybody at the moment, not when he was on the brink of making something innovative.
"Oh, is that so, what were you people talking about, I hope you didn't bore him to death about your nerdy stuff, huh?" Josh mocked, and one of his friends coughed and said "good one".
If it was anyone, James would've just closed his eye and waited for the bully to roughen him up, but this was his half-brother trying to bully him, and he's only twelve. He could not accept it.
"Alright, I will not talk to your Andy anymore, just stay away from me okay?" James said and stood up and picked up his smartphone. Josh stared at James with disgust and smirked. "You better. Andy is out of your league, so stay in your league, the nerdy league. Come on guys, let's get outta here, so we don't get infected with nerd disease, and let's beat a team in COD yo!" Josh said and high-fived his three friends.
Okay this guy says 'nerd' a lot, James looked at him with indifference sat on his seat and booted up his smartphone. As if on a cue, Andy walked out of the house and came over and sat opposite James. "Here, take this. I also brought you a cake. It has lots of icing topped on it" Henry smiled and handed it over to James.
James opened his mouth to say something, but Andy continued. "Since you haven't played any game before, and obviously you are good in Call of Duty, come on and install the game and join my team, it'll be fun!" Andy said with great enthusiasm.
The way Andy said it was enough to move anyone to do what he says, but James was different. It was not that he doesn't like games, he even created one for a client a month ago. It was just that he did not have the time to play it. All the time he had was dedicated to either working as a freelancer, or building his AI project, and the remaining time was either going to school or doing other activities. Sometimes there was no time to even take a break.
"Look, Andy, I would love to play this game with you, however, I don't have the time to play it. You see, my schedule is very full, so I can't squeeze the time to play the game with you" James said with one breath, but Andy was unfazed.
"Alright, no problem, but you are free on Saturday, right?" Andy smiled and nudged him playfully. James sighed and wanted to decline again, but this guy's face, it was so hard to say no to it. James did not know what was happening to him. He normally does not care about stuff like this.
His situation had painted strangers as cold and indifferent, so he chose to ignore them. Over time, his emotions became numb to people that approach him, even if it was with the right intentions. But now, James was feeling warmth in his chest, something he has never felt before for strangers.
James smiled and nodded. "Alright, I'll join your team." Andy raised his hand up in jubilation. "Yes! Yes! You would really enjoy it I promise" Andy gushed and took James' smartphone and immediately downloaded the game from the app store.
Andy and James continued their conversation for a while before Josh approached their table and coldly glared at James. "Andy, I've been looking for you all over, and you were here?" Josh asked angrily. Andy expression changed drastically. "Oh no I'm sorry, but why didn't you call me? I was here with James, my new friend. James, this is Josh, one of my teammates in COD."
This could not get any worse, James thought. Josh looked at Andy as if he was stupid. "Yeah, I know him. We're half-brothers, but not by blood at all, different skin, by the way," Josh tried to deny James as one of his family. Andy did not sense the tensing atmosphere, so he continued talking enthusiastically. "That's awesome! James would be able to fit in as our fourth person of our teammates."