Page 45 of My Roommate from Hell
I only need three more points to win this game.
I’m in the middle of the first Gaymers meeting. We’re playing a round of King of Tokyo, a dice game where you play as gargantuan monsters. To win you either have to punch your opponents enough times to knock them out, or get the most victory points. Both are earned by getting good dice rolls. It’s kinda like Yahtzee, but with more violence.
I am trying not to think about Zarmenus.
I’m trying with everything I have.
The game is nearing the end, and only a few players are left. And as long as Madison doesn’t hit me with more than four hits, I’m going to win the game. She rolls the dice. Two hits. She sets them aside, indicating what she’s up to. She’s being aggressive, going for my jugular. It’s what she needs to do in order to beat me.
“I see you,” she says, looking right at me. “Being quiet’s not going to work on me.”
Damn it. That has been my strategy this entire game: lie low, never get too much attention from anyone, and keep racking up victory points until I have enough to win. It was working perfectly—until now.
She rolls the leftover dice, getting one more punch. She gets one final re-roll, and she has to roll three dice. I know theodds aren’t exactly great for me, since she only needs to roll one more hit.
“You’re going down,” she says.
I meet her stare, facing the challenge. Me, afraid? Never.
Honestly, I don’t mind if I win or lose at this game, I just love that this group is so into it. There are a few different board games running at the moment, and they aren’t things like Monopoly or Jenga. They’re the more hardcore ones, most of which I’d never heard of before. Tyrell is currently playing a game of Wyrmspan, a complicated-looking game where you raise dragons, and he seems to be really into it. Avery tagged along, and he was one of the first people knocked out in King of Tokyo. He was too aggressive and made too many enemies too quickly, which led to a quick demise.
This is genuinely fun.
I’m trying my best not to think about how much Ashley would love it here. She prefers video games to board games, but this is still right up her alley. She even has a pretty popular YouTube channel where she reviews the latest cozy game releases. I should ask her about that, because she hasn’t posted in a while.
Madison rolls the dice, and each one of the results is a punch. It’s, like, sheer overkill.
“Game over,” she says. “God, I love beating twinks.”
“Well done,” I say, taking a sip of my drink. It’s just Pepsi, because I didn’t feel like drinking tonight.
The group overall is pretty eclectic, with people from all over the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and almost everyone has different majors. A lot of them are in the creative industries, but it’s not like I’m the only one who isn’t. In fact, it seems that everyone only has two things in common: being LGBTQ+ and liking games. I’d say those two things are more than enough to become friends with someone.
“I am the queen of Tokyo!” she says, lifting her game piece, a mini Cthulhu, up into the air.
I applaud, joining the others. Because it is undisputed. She destroyed us.
I leave the table and go into the living room, taking a sip of mydrink as I walk. In here, a group of people are sitting on a lounge, playingSuper Smash Bros.on the TV. I sit on the only free space, one of the armrests.
The battle on the screen is chaotic in the best possible way. I watch as Princess Peach uses her side move to send poor Pikachu tumbling across the stage. She doesn’t give him a break, and before he can even recover she has dashed under him, using her umbrella to send him spinning up into the air. Even being airborne isn’t enough to protect him—she follows him up, hitting him to the side so he’s over the edge. As he tries to fly back onto the stage, she charges up a smash attack. At the exact right time, she unleashes, sending him flying so far away from the stage it’s impossible for him to recover.
“Well, I’m out,” says a guy on the far end of the couch. He locks eyes with me. “Want a go?”
I choose Bayonetta, because she serves. Then the battle starts, with me against two strangers and Avery. Avery is playing as Peach, and he makes a beeline for me. I barely get my feet on the ground before I’m caught. I try to shield, but that’s the wrong move as that gives him time to grab an item: a baseball bat. He throws that at me, and in the moment I’m stunned he closes the distance, grabs me, and throws me off the stage. I try to recover but I can’t, and I lose my first life.
I used to think I was good at this game. It doesn’t take long until I’ve lost all three of my lives and I’m out. I don’t mind, though, it’s fun to watch. Everyone else is clearly way better than me, and it’s kind of inspiring. Maybe if I keep coming to meetups, I can get as skilled as them. I take another sip of my drink.
“So what’s your name?” asks the guy at the end of the couch. “I’m Brian, by the way.”
It takes me a moment, probably because nobody else answered, to realize he’s speaking to me.
“Oh, I’m Owen,” I say.
“You’re the hot demon’s roommate, right?”
I don’t think he needed to add the “hot” part. It’s not like there are any other demons on campus for him to compete with.
“Yup,” I say, wary of the fact that I did just say out loud that Zarmenus is hot.
