Return of the Friendship

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 18]

My school day began with me sitting down by Kyle there in the back of Literature class. “My dad got us DSL,” I said. I was definitely bragging. I wanted to brag about the DSL internet specifically. Then I remembered about how Jakey’s dad didn’t live with them and that made me feel a little bit bad.

“I heard,” Kyle said back. My bragging didn’t do anything to him. “I hear my mom on the phone with your mom. They’re like total friends now. Them calling all the time would be impossible if you still had dial-up and were using up the phone line playing Rune Quest.”

“I told you forever ago that we had two phone lines,” I said louder than normal. Mrs. Carpenter was still doing her first-period organization stuff, and I hoped she didn’t hear me.

“That’s not a thing,” Kyle sneered.

“It is, you freak!”

“You two back there. That’s enough!” The teacher was suddenly calling at both of us from the front of the room. “If you’re not paying attention during attendance, then you will be marked absent and your parents will be called.”

Before that, I had almost been ready to ask Kyle about him coming over for a sleepover. When the end of Literature came around, I didn’t want to at all. I imagined that it would be at least another week before I would stop being mad enough to bring up the idea.

I don’t think Kyle understood what it meant to feel upset. Not in the way I did. Even though I didn’t want to talk to him, he thought that continuing the conversation from earlier was the thing to do.

“Max got an Xbox for his birthday,” he said as we were standing up to go to our next classes. He was bragging about something someone else got.

“I don’t know who Max is,” I said

“He’s one of the people I play football with. If you played with us, you would know him.”

Kyle already knew my answer from way back when he had told me about his football games at lunch. “So what?”

“Well, you can connect up to four controllers on an Xbox. It’s more fun than a stupid computer that way.”

I wanted to brag back, and I spat out the only thing I could think of. “Well, I guess you can have a sleepover at Max’s house then and not come to mine.”

“What the heck, man?” He huffed and pushed at my shoulder. “I want to come.”

“I don’t have an Xbox though, so it might be stupid,” I said, taunting him. If I asked about a sleepover and he said no, then I wouldn’t have to worry about it ever again.

“What else do you do when you have a sleepover?” Kyle asked.

I shrugged. I had only had one or two. My first one was with an old friend way back in elementary school. That friend had moved away and gone to a different middle school. The other was with Jakey at my house that last summer. We had watched the Lord of the Rings when it came to DVD and ate pizza.

“Have you never gone to a sleepover?” I asked smugly. I had one thing over Kyle. “We eat food and maybe have some ice cream. And we can stay up and play games until it gets really late. But I only have Rune Quest and some board games, which probably aren’t as fun as an Xbox. I was just going ask Jakey, anyways.”

Kyle stopped and stomped his foot. He glanced around and realized that I was going in the direction of my next class, away from his. “Dang it! I’m coming to the computer lab today so you can tell me more!”

The Big Plan

Sometimes sleepovers just happen, like when you’ve been hanging out with a person at their house all day. It just gets late and turns into one. (You do have to call home for those, of course.)

Sometimes sleepovers are planned, like when you have a birthday party. I think those are better because you (and your parents) can think about what you’re going to do and eat and where you’re going to sleep.

That was what my sleepover with Kyle was going to be. Planning it actually went really easily since my mom and his mom were talking a lot.

It started on a Friday. Kyle came home with me on the bus. His backpack was more full than regular because he had his pajamas and a toothbrush and stuff inside.

Jakey was on the bus, too, of course. I had asked him that week if he wanted to come. My mom was okay with it. I didn’t expect him to, and he said no anyway. I think he was still not ready to be friendly with Kyle, and I can understand why.

Kyle didn’t actually say anything to Jakey on the way to our neighborhood. Maybe he was practicing that thing where if you don’t have anything nice to say, you don’t say anything at all. Instead, It was mostly just me and him talking about how fast the internet was, and about what sort of games that Max kid had on his Xbox.

We were almost back to my house when I thought about the last time Kyle had come to play. We had only really played Rune Quest, using the computer one at a time and switching between our two accounts. If that was all we were going to do, it was going to be a long night.

My mom was already at home. I was expecting that.

“Welcome back, Kyle,” she said as we came through the door. “Make yourself at home.”

“Thank you Mrs. Shepherd,” he said. He had finally remembered my last name.

“You can put your things in the back room and get comfortable,” she directed. “Mike and you can figure out the snack situation, I’m sure.”

To my surprise, the den had already been set up with a collection of things not usually seen there. The DVD player from the living room had been brought back and hooked into the old den TV set. There was a stack of DVD cases beside it. Not far away was a pile of board games in their bulky boxes; Life, Battleship, and Monopoly to name a few.

Shoved into the far corner behind the computer desk were the sleeping bags. I guess that sleepovers can get noisy and stay noisy into the late hours of the night. If we were upstairs in my room, my sister and my parents definitely would be kept awake. I only had a little single bed in my room, anyway.

Hanging out with Kyle wasn’t actually that bad if there was something to do. After getting snacks, I wanted to show off the new DSL internet. “Look at how fast it is,” Kyle said watching Rune Quest load. “No more waiting around.”

“Do you want to get on your character?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you online for a while.”

Even though I didn’t always play with other people, sometimes getting to share the same thing with others was fun. Even if Kyle didn’t play the same way me and Jakey did, I thought again that having a three-man party could be fun.

Kyle shrugged. “I got bored after I took down the Goblin King.”

“That’s because you don’t do any of the crafting and gathering stuff,” I said back. “I’ve put so many hours grinding all the stuff to make new gear. There are all these mines in far-off places you have to get the materials at. It won’t be long before I can craft my own Mythril stuff. The Goblin King would be a piece of cake then.”

“You don’t need Mythril for him, you’ve just got to take him down fast enough so you don’t die,” Kyle explained. “Having other people online to help you is also good.

I glanced at the login page for the game. It was waiting for one of us to enter. An idea popped into my head. “Friday is the day where the most people are online. Jakey should be online too. Care to be our guide to take him down?”

Kyle grinned and nodded. “Yo! I’m so down, dude!”

We high-fived and I entered my username and password.

“So here’s the deal,” I began telling Kyle of my game-plan. “First we tell Jakey. Then we gather up all the stuff we need, and by that time dinner should be ready. Then after eating, we’ll have all night to take on the Stronghold…”

Into the Night

Dinner was Pizza. That’s why I said it was cool when sleepovers were planned ahead of time- you don’t have to eat regular home-cooked food. There were two big pizzas between the five of us. Oh yeah, Jess was there and she got to meet Kyle for the first time. He was nice and proper to everyone. Even though we drank down a ton of root beer from one of those huge two liter bottles, he didn’t even let out a single big burp.

We returned to Rune Quest after dinner. Jakey agreed to join me and Kyle together to take on the Goblin Stronghold once more. Since the failed attempt almost a month before, we hadn’t stepped foot back into their territory. However, both of us had jumped up a few levels. I equipped the best gear I owned, and my inventory was full of healing food. The cherry on top was Kyle as our guide, telling us how to make our moves.

It was a journey itself to return to the gates of the Goblin King’s home. I remembered it perfectly; it was the place where I had been defeated the last time. The King himself had not respawned yet, so that meant waiting Waiting meant fighting. Fighting meant eating up food to keep us healthy for the final fight.

“There’s a safe space up here where not many guards spawn,” Kyle told me. He was standing behind the computer chair, jumping up and down with excitement. I typed to Jakey to tell him of the strategy.

IcyMike203: come

IcyMike203: safe space

IcyMike203: we wait

My fingers were shaking and I could barely type the words. I think Jakey understood anyway. We finished off the last of the guards who followed us, then hid away. After a short time, the screen flashed with a giant message sent to the entire area.

The Goblin King has awoken from his slumber!

“This is it,” Kyle said, slapping the back of the chair. “Get inside. Just don’t be the first to get his attention, or he’ll just smack you in the face.”

Jakey and I were soon among the other adventurers, taking on the giant, ugly boss of the area. He was big, lumpy and green and had a big hammer. When it hit you, it took down half your health or more (if you had enough to start with.) Luckily, he only hit one person at a time.

I was using my new bow to send arrows at the big guy. Jakey was up front, slashing away with his sword. The other players were fighting the best they could as well. I saw some get smashed, their quest coming to an end. The Goblin King, even while running low on health, kept fighting.

The fight continued on for minutes. My hands were sweaty from holding the mouse tight and clicking furiously. Just when I was nearly out of food for healing and arrows for my bow, he fell. Brave Adventurers have slain the Goblin King, protecting the land once more! The message of success played for everyone in the area.

There was suddenly gold all over the area. I rushed to pick up what I could.

“Sometimes there’s armor or weapons in the piles,” Kyle said, voice loud and rushed. “Get it, go faster!”

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We did it! I’m so freaking rich!” I’m sure my voice was reaching the entire ground floor of the house.

MakeMeJake88: nice

That’s all Jakey said over the game chat. I’m sure he was celebrating as well.

I heard footsteps from the dark hallway outside the room. “Hey, boys,” my mom said lowly. She was in her pajamas. “Your dad and I are going to bed now. I know you’re having fun, but just keep it down. And please go to bed at a decent time,”

“Okay,” I said first.

“Sure thing, Mrs. Shepherd,” Kyle said nicely.

Me and Jakey escaped the Goblin Stronghold with all of our riches. I rushed immediately to go and put it in storage for safekeeping.

MakeMeJake88: mom is making me get off

MakeMeJake88: good fight

MakeMeJake88: good night

I sighed and leaned back in the chair as Jakey went offline. Kyle had slumped down on the couch, probably just as tired as me. “I told you guys it wasn’t that hard,” he said with a laugh.

“You didn’t say any of that!” I said back, laughing a little bit too. “Lets change into pajamas. I think I saw some ice cream in the freezer, too!”

“Heck yeah!”

I changed first, then Kyle went off to the bathroom to put on his pajamas next. I decided to flop the pair of sleeping bags on the floor and start unrolling them. When Kyle came back, he helped me. He rolled around on them and tried to make a fort by bunching them up and hiding beneath. It didn’t work, but it was fun to try.

We got ice cream from the freezer a little bit after. We tried our best to be quiet. We ended up giggling a whole lot, thinking about how sneaky we were being.

Back in the den, we decided to turn on a movie. We chose a DVD at random, one I didn’t remember watching before. Whatever it was, about twenty minutes after eating our ice cream, we both decided it was boring and that we were getting sleepy. Nothing was as exciting as the Rune Quest adventure.

It must have been after midnight then. That was almost the latest I had ever stayed up. We even forgot to brush our teeth. Obviously, you should brush your teeth every night, especially after having something like ice cream. Sleepovers can end up being so much fun that you forget that stuff.

We were still talking about taking down the Goblin King while we crawled into the sleeping bags, side by side there on the floor of the den.

“I’ll give you some of the gold we got from him,” I said to Kyle sleepily. “Because you helped us out.”

“Really? Thanks,” he said back.

“Then we can get you some tools so you can try out a crafting skill,” I added, kind of as a joke.

“Sure, I guess.”

I can’t remember when I fell asleep. That happens a lot when you wait until you’re really tired to go to bed.

I do remember waking up, though. The DSL Internet Modem box was in the den as well. It had all these flashing green lights with different symbols. Those lights were flashing right in my face. I had gotten just enough sleep to wake up again.

I heard the clacking of the keyboard and the clicking of the mouse. I stuck my head up and tried to figure out what time it was. The light outside the window told me it was barely morning. Kyle was already up, though.

He was in the computer chair. His face was lit up by the screen, and he probably didn’t notice me wake up right away. I guess he felt weird sleeping at another person’s house for the first time. That can make it hard to sleep.

I let out a groan to let him know I was awake. He glanced down at me. “Good morning,” he said.

“What time is it?” I asked. My voice barely worked.

“7:12,” he said. The computer had its own clock.

I unzipped the sleeping bag and stood up. It was kind of cold. I stood behind Kyle to look at what he was doing.

He was on Rune Quest, of course. I looked at the screen the best I could with my tired eyes. He was playing with my character. “How did you get on my account?” I asked.

Kyle shrugged. “We forgot to log off last night. So I just hopped back on.”

I thought I remembered that the game would log you out if you just stood around for a long time. Maybe something weird had happened? I guess my sleepy brain was easy to convince. I pulled up the second chair and watched what Kyle was doing. I figured he hadn’t been on long enough to do anything weird with my character.

My parents woke up not long later. My mom stepped in and sighed when she saw us on the computer again. I guess she saw the used sleeping bags which told her we hadn’t been awake all night.

<– Previous Chapter | Next Chapter –>