Theirs was a curious friendship. They would fight, call each other names (more often than not of the immature kind) and never hold it against one another, drink, spend long hours playing games or doing nothing. The fact Martha was a tomboy definitely helped. Sometimes Jake couldn’t help but wonder whether she was meant to be born a girl or whether there was a shipping error in God’s fulfilment centre. Whatever the case, he enjoyed spending the time with her, even if he’d never admit it. And, as far as he could tell, the feeling was mutual.

There had never been even a hint of any romantic notion between them, and Jake wondered about it as well. As far as he could remember, they were both in relationships when they first met. And both of their relationships didn’t work out. When Jake found a new girl a few weeks later, Martha remained single. Mere months later she tried to run him over with her car after a rather passionate dispute. He found himself single again, while Martha was dating a doctor. Whom she dumped soon after discovering he forgot telling her a minor detail of having a wife and a son in another country. Long story short, neither of them had much luck in romantic life and if there ever was to be a spark between the two (which he doubted), they were both too burnt out for produce one.

He sipped the cheap beer watching her play. She was clearly good at the game and he could tell his turn won’t come anytime soon. He took a glance at her profile. If there was one word he could describe her with, it would be ‘average’. She wasn’t close to a model, even if she had the height of one, nor was she close to a toad, even if she could sometimes have the same attitude to life. If he could add one more word, it would be ‘a bit too’. She was a bit too tall (for him, at least). Her eyes were a bit too big, and so was her nose. And her lips. And her size 10 feet. Not that he was the one to judge, with his average looks, his thin build, his unkempt dirty blond hair, his smooth face he could never grow a beard on and his narrow, light green eyes, which he was once told were somewhat unnerving. Fortunately, not by her.

“Fuck. I died” Martha said and Jake’s attention turned back to the screen, where big red letters were announcing that very fact. “Here, your turn” she added, handing him the controller. She spent the next few minutes instructing him on the basics: how to move, how to hit, what to hit, how to open the inventory, how to talk to in-game characters without accidentally hitting them and so on. Before long Jake was playing on his own while Martha sat and watched, but not before helping herself to the crisps he left at the coffee table.

“Remember to wipe your hands when you pass me the controller later on” he said.

“Uh-huh”

“You like the crisps?”

“Yeah. They’re my favourite”

“I know. Leave some for me”

“Uh-huh”

They sat in complete silence for a while, save for the sound coming from the game and the crunching noises coming from Martha. As it was often the case, it fell to Jake to break it.

“You still work at that lab?” he asked, remembering Martha’s current career in the chemistry field.

“Sadly, yes. We’re on the edge of a breakthrough, or so we’re told. Which means we’re all overworked” she took a sip “And underpaid”

“What kind of a breakthrough?”

“A molecule restructuration one”

“Sounds boring”

“It is. And technically I shouldn’t even be telling you about this. We were told not to chatter”

“I’m so gonna tell your superiors you talked. They will so fire you”

“God I hope so, I hate this job. I even have to bring it home. They tasked me with keeping a sample of a new compound in the fridge over the weekend. To test how it reacts to household temperatures or some shit”

“Don’t you have fridges at work?”

“That’s where the top brass keep their food. And besides… Oh. Oh! Kill that lizard!” she pointed to the screen, now in an agitated tone.

“What lizard?”

“The one with the spikes! See, there- To the left, I said left! See?”

Jake saw the lizard. Jake chased the lizard. Jake even swung at the lizard, but it ran off either way, sliding in between the rubble his armoured character was too big to fit through.

“Pity” Martha said “They carry some good stuff on them”

He played some more until finally being overrun by a dozen of slime monsters (“yeah, they spawn in here”) and passing the controller to Martha. In turn, she passed him another beer and so he was back to watching her play.

“Look at us” she said after a while “Two losers playing video games on a Friday night”

“Well, what else is there to do?”

“I don’t know. Meeting friends, going to parties, I guess?”

“You don’t like parties” Jake remarked, giving her a funny look. “And you don’t have any friends”

“Neither do you” she said, turning his attention to him.

“I have you” he said, smiling at her.

She smiled back and returned to the game.