Vexxx Part 2 (Patreon)

Ajax ripped the headset away from his face, nearly fumbling it as his thick gloves got in the way. “Damn it!” He glared at the headset as though it was responsible for what had just happened.

Beside him, a door creaked, and his mother peered into his bedroom. Her mouth was open, probably about to ask what was wrong, but it clicked closed and her eyes narrowed as she saw what he was holding.

“I should have sent that thing right back to Marcus,” she muttered. “Even if it was a Christmas present.” Pushing the door the rest of the way open, she stepped inside the room. She was still wearing her tailored business suit, so she’d just arrived home from work, which meant it was probably around six.

“Ajax, I told you to take a break from that game. You haven’t been on as much lately, so I thought you were actually listening to me for once.” She rolled her eyes. “What was I thinking?”

He tossed the headset onto his narrow bed, and started unstrapping the tight gloves. “Yeah, whatever,” he muttered. “I don’t feel like playing anyway.”

His mom sighed, rubbing her eyes. “Look, AJ-”

“Ajax,” he corrected, glaring.

She sighed again. “We called you AJ for fourteen years, but fine. Ajax, do you have any homework tonight?”

He shrugged, refusing to meet her eyes. “I’ll finish it.”

“Now,” she said, and looked around. “And clean this room, or I’ll take your game gear away.”

His shoulders stiffened. He’d already said he’d do it. Why did she care about his room anyway? It was his. The only place that was. Leaning over, he scooped up the headset and gloves and thrust them at her. “Fine, then. Here.”

Her hands came up reflexively, catching the gear before it could slide to the ground. “I didn’t say-”

“Whatever. You would have found an excuse eventually, so just take them. I said I don’t want to play anyway.” He hesitated, staring at the floor, nudging a dirty pair of underwear deeper under his bed with a toe. “What’s for dinner?”

He didn’t look up as the silence stretched.

“Oh,” she said, finally. “I thought I told you. Jolene is coming over to hang out with you tonight. She’ll order pizza. I’m going to see a movie with Brad.”

Brad. Just the name was enough to set Ajax’s teeth on edge. Brad was two years younger than his mom, and looked like a Ken doll. Ajax had never seen him wear anything but a suit and loafers, and he sure didn’t talk about going fishing, or a baseball game, and the only music he liked was pop. He was a potato, and Ajax hated him.

“Whatever,” he mumbled, the word tasting like ashes. He was going to order the most expensive pizza on the menu, even if it had mushrooms or green peppers.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his mom’s shiny work shoes turn and head for the hall. She took his game gear, even though she’d said she didn’t want it. Pausing in the doorway, she said, “I got the plane tickets for Uncle Marcus’ wedding today. Our return flight is on Friday, and they’re non-refundable, so you can’t change your mind.”

His hands clenched into fists, and he tucked them behind his back. She’d told him she wanted to stay an extra week after the wedding, theoretically so Ajax could spend time with his cousin, Zoey, and their grandma, and in a moment of weakness, he’d told her that was fine. Of course, he hadn’t realized then that she planned to leave Ajax himself behind, and take a romantic five day trip somewhere with Brad. So, really, she was just using his Nana as a glorified babysitter while she went off with the potato.

“Fine,” he gritted out, though he was thinking, Get out Get out Get out Get out…

And then she did, though not without a final unnecessary admonishment to do his homework, and he was alone with his messy room and his digital copy of Animal Farm, and sometimes he wished he could chase his mother off like the farmer in the book, except she’d probably just go move in with Brad, and she wouldn’t miss Ajax at all, or try to come back, and… He flopped down on the bed, hearing the familiar, comforting squeak of its old springs. He laid an arm over his eyes in a pose reminiscent of the one he’d been in when Alpha returned, and he winced as he thought about her.

Sometimes it seemed like his mouth belonged to someone else. Like he couldn’t control what came out of it. He didn’t mean to fight with his mom so much, and he wouldn’t have harassed Alpha if he’d realized something was really wrong. Or maybe he would, because he had known. He'd have to be an idiot not to get that something was wrong when Myles vanished like that, and he knew perfectly well that Myles and Alpha were in a situationship, even though they didn’t seem to want to admit it, and-

He groaned, cutting off the latest cascade of self-loathing that threatened to flood his brain. He hated his life. He just wanted to be a grown-up already. If he was an adult, he could get a job and move out, and his mom could move in with Brad, like he’d overheard Brad ask her to do, and she’d said no because she had to take care of Ajax. Which meant that she would have said yes if Ajax wasn’t there, and she didn’t feel responsible for him.

He was messing up her life, and he wasn’t even trying.

Rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his hand, he sniffed and rolled over so he could pull his screen out from under his pillow. He turned it on, and immediately saw that he had a notification from the Veritas Online messaging app.

@Tessle (offline): Hey, you okay? We managed to beat the Owl King, and got first clear for the dungeon. Alpha says she’s sorry she kicked you out of the party, so you probably didn’t get the award. It’s just that something really did happen to Myles, and she’s really upset, so don’t mention him to her again, okay? Anyway, we’re going to Refuge, and we’d really like to play with you again sometime, so send us a message if you decide to go that way. We have some loot for you!

Yeah, right. He snorted and deleted the message without answering. He’d put in all that time and effort, with barely anything to show for it. No vamp race change, no insta-kill spell, just death debuffs and a pissed-off girl who wasn’t even interested in him, but still kept stringing him along so she could call him in whenever she and her actual boyfriend needed some extra DPS for a dungeon run or something.

Speaking of which… Without consciously deciding to do so, his thumb swept up the screen, pausing on a certain message thread, then tapping an entry firmly.

@Oblique: I need help.

That had been the beginning. Just ‘I need help’, and he’d gone running, just like always, even though, as it turned out, it was her boyfriend who needed help, not her. Still, that day had been the beginning of him letting her go. Unable to stop himself, he scrolled down through several week’s worth of messages.

First, she blamed him for getting them all killed, then she ordered him to come help her with a quest. When he didn’t answer, her messages grew more insistent, and then she seemed to realize he really meant it this time, because she started begging him, telling him how much she needed him, that she was sorry if she’d been too harsh, he was her BFF…

He came to the end of the list, and looked at the date. Just over a week. Eight days without a single message. No begging, or apologies, or even angry insistence that he answer. Eight days of silence, and he’d been filling it with homework and games, and now his mom had his headset, and the only homework he had left was English, which he hated.

He rolled over, and, on a whim, opened his contacts and scrolled to one he never used. Marcus Williams. His uncle, and an actual Literature professor at an actual college. He snickered to himself. What would his teacher say if he called Uncle Marcus up and drained his brain for some intel on Animal Farm? Mr. Thompson would probably think he’d cribbed his paper off the internet or something, and fail him on the principle of it.

Beneath Marcus’ name was an associated link. Zoey Williams. The cousin Ajax barely knew, even though she was only a few months older than him. Still, they lived almost two thousand miles apart, and Ajax’s mom was still mad at Zoey’s dad for something that happened when they were kids.

She and Uncle Marcus were polite, but distant, and though they kept in touch often enough that Ajax wouldn’t call them estranged, it wasn’t that far off. The most contact they’d had had been when Ajax’s dad left, then came back in the middle of a work-day and took more stuff that his mom hadn’t agreed he could have. Uncle Marcus came out and got the stuff back, because he was a big guy, and knew karate, and nobody messed with Uncle Marcus, and Ajax had barely seen his dad since.

Ajax flexed his own skinny arm, grimacing as exactly zero noticeable muscle bulged beneath the fabric of his t-shirt. Everybody in his family was like that; short and skinny, except for Uncle Marcus. Even Uncle Milo had more of a swimmer’s build than a wrestler’s, even though he worked out, and if he was anywhere close to six feet tall, Ajax would eat his headset.

Ajax’s finger hovered over Zoey’s e-link. He knew she played Veritas, because Uncle Marcus sent him the headset specifically hoping that he and Zoey would play together and ‘get to know each other’. It hadn’t happened, because Ajax met Oblique on his very first day, and they partied together until they were both at a high enough level that they could survive in Bloodhaven. But Oblique friend-zoned him hard, and he’d never been able to escape, no matter how much of a simp he was, until he finally gave up and ghosted her like a coward.

He’d heard Zoey was in Refuge now, and Tess had said she and Alpha were going there, too. Before he could think too hard about it, he tapped out a quick message.

@Vexxx (offline): Yo I might be heading 2 Refuge soon. U wanna hang?

That done, he let the screen drop down on the bed and sat up. He might as well finish reading Animal Farm before his mom came back to tell him she was leaving. If she even bothered. Picking up his school screen, he turned it on and opened the book, reading, “They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind…”