Sex & Mayhem 04 No Matter What by K.A. Merikan Page B

you some clothes,” Ghost said, and when
Luca faced the room again, he saw Ghost kneeling next to an open
wardrobe. He was wearing simple gray jogging bottoms and a blue
T-shirt. “I kinda get what you’re saying. I should have been
smarter about this, not throw myself at you like that when we
hadn’t even met once.”
    Luca dragged
his hands down his face. “It wasn’t like that with you. Flirting
was the last thing on my mind when we met. I never wanted for you
to feel cheated.”
    “I remember.
You had lots of problems back then.” Ghost gestured for Luca to
kneel next to him and some boxes. In this case, ‘problems’ was a
euphemism for ‘wanting to die’, something neither of them wanted to
mention. Frederico raped Luca the day before he and Ghost met, and
he did that while holding a loaded gun to Luca’s head, leaving him
almost catatonic. He then locked Luca in his room so he ‘had time
to think about his ungrateful behavior’.
    It had been a
shock after only getting to know the good side of Frederico, and
all it took to unlock the monster was Luca saying ‘no’ to something
Frederico wanted in bed. It was then that Luca realized Frederico
wasn’t a handsome older guy, who fell head over heels for a
teenager. Luca was a prisoner in Frederico’s home, a living sex
toy, and if he didn’t like it there, Frederico would surely get a
good price for him elsewhere. And the possibilities Frederico had
hinted at were what made Luca stay, scared out of his mind.
    Hopeless, he
did the one thing that always helped him escape. He logged into his
favorite game, but there was no energy in him to proceed like he
always did, and so he started walking around the world, confronting
all kinds of monsters only to have them kill him violently. The
gory animations gave him pleasure. He’d been disemboweled, impaled
on sharp spikes, had his head pulled off and his stomach eaten out,
but in real life he wanted a quiet, painless death. He thought of
slitting his wrists but found himself unable to cut deep enough
into his flesh, he had no poisonous substances in his room, and
with thick bars in the window, he couldn’t jump. He was out of
options when he met Ghost.
    On another
attempt to be crushed under the wheels of a MI-99 Planet Explorer,
Ghost’s character pushed him away. At first they had an argument
over the principles of gaming, and how interfering with another
person’s vehicle was trolling, and unethical, but Ghost’s
persistence and relentless questions led to Luca bursting out about
the emotions that pushed him to do so. What followed was a
conversation of over ten hours that helped Luca through the night,
and changed his life forever. Having Ghost to talk to, knowing that
there was a stranger out there who cared, gave Luca enough drive to
live through the next day, and then another. Ghost didn’t even turn
out to be a creep trying to get into the pants of Luca’s female
character. He was just there for him. A real, caring person, far
removed from the reality Luca had to live in. How could he not have
fallen in love?
    Luca slowly
kneeled down next to Ghost and looked at the clothes in the plastic
box he was browsing through. “Did you wear that in college?” he
asked, reaching for a hoodie with the logo of Michigan State
University.
    Ghost smiled.
“Yeah. You can take it. I’m a bit bigger now. It’s ridiculously
soft inside.”
    “Yeah, you do
seem bigger than on the screen,” said Luca without thinking.
    Ghost watched
him with a blank expression before bursting out with laughter. He
nudged Luca’s shoulder. “Do you mean my arms or my dick?”
    Luca chewed on
his lip, feeling a flush creep up his face. “You only showed me
your arms,” he muttered, pulling the hoodie to his face.
    “I know, I just
wanted to push the elephant out of the room. I don’t want to forget
stuff ever happened.” Ghost’s voice came closer, and Luca could
swear the warmth of Ghost’s body tickled the side of his