Mutual Benefits Ch. 13

"I am a nerd," I countered.

"You certainly took my advice to heart for someone who hated it so much," he mused, still looking at my phone. "You put yourself out there and now you've fully integrated yourself into Taylor's group."

"It's kind of a non-option when you're dating one of them," I replied.

He shook his head, partly at me, partly at his character's untimely demise. "The things you think of as non-optional are things their boyfriends never even consider," Kevin coolly replied. "It's why they like you and actually text you and shit."

"Come on, dude, that's giving me too much credit, I got lucky," I said uneasily.

"How many times have you seen Joel hanging out with the group?"

A shiver ran up my spine when I heard that name. I would have liked to have felt the full gravity of his point, but I was too busy thinking of how easily he could beat me up.

Kevin took my silence as acceptance. "There, yeah, see?"

"Are you trying to tease me about being a good boyfriend?" I asked, annoyed.

"Um, no," he flatly replied. "I'm teasing you because you still hold your face up to your phone when you text, like a dork." He slapped my phone from behind to prove his point. It instantly hit my face.

"Ow," I complained. "Let me see how you text then. I'm sure Mr. Popular has soooo many text messages to answer."

He gestured around. "This is how I text," he told me. "Keep 'em on their toes. You see this pocket?" He pointed to a bulge in his pocket. "Inside this pocket rests about seventeen messages, all eagerly waiting a response from..."

I waited a bit with half-lowered eyelids. "...You?"

"Bingo. Yours truly. The one and only. Anticipation, Quinn. People wanna talk to me, and I let them know that it's not gonna be so easy."

"But... what about if you really want to talk to them too? If Morgan messages me, I want to know what she said and I want to say something back."

"So, you're in what we in the biz would like to call the 'idealistic' stage of texting," Kevin began. I grinned in disbelief. Much like with Mother, the sun would be a lot closer to setting by the time he had finished his speech.

***

"Like a fuckin' truck," Crystal finished as we walked into Morgan's house.

"What an idiot," Morgan replied lowly, shaking her head.

"Was he okay?" I asked.

"After what he did to me? I didn't ask," Crystal replied with a vindictive tone. She flipped her hair past her ear and paused. "But yeah, I texted him like an hour later. Not, like, 'I miss you' text him. Just regular text him."

"You still tried to go out with him like two weeks later," Lexi pointed out.

"Lexi!" Crystal practically whined. "Can you fucking keep quiet about anything I tell you?"

"It doesn't help that you all talk so loud you give Godzilla a run for his money," Doug quipped from the living room.

"Hey Doug!" Crystal sang, not even caring about his dig. If I understood her, or even people, correctly, she seemed to have a major crush on him. She and Lexi quickly moved over to him.

They left just Morgan and myself giggling and looking at each other as we heard the inevitable ring from the living room. "Hey, hey, knock it off, I'm trying to play here!"

Morgan and I took the opportunity and stole a kiss. It turned out Crystal had a limit, and she wanted us to cut it out with the "high levels" of PDA around her. Lexi never complained though -- probably too busy being jealous of us.

"You got two hot girls coming up to you, and you can't even pause your stupid game?" Lexi's annoyed voice rang.

"It's Bloodborne, you can't pause," Doug angrily responded.

Morgan instantly rolled her eyes when she saw my attention spike. "Bloodborne?" I asked quickly, and walked over to view the screen. Sure enough, he was playing my favorite game, and struggling, though to be fair he was at a hard part and he had two girls clamoring for his attention.

Morgan caught up to us and clapped her hands once. "Alright bitches, let's go. Doug's off-limits anyway."

"You don't own him, you can't speak for him!" Lexi playfully replied.

"Doug's off-limits," Doug repeated. "There, you heard it from me."

"Deadbeat," Lexi angrily name-called.

"Child," Doug replied, with a suave smile. This was a game to him, and by he looks of both of their faces, he knew how to get under Lexi's skin without her even coming close to getting under his. "Besides, you could do better than a deadbeat like me."

"I'm starting to think not," Lexi replied, a hint of genuine sadness to her voice. She got up off the couch, waiting for Crystal, and turned to me. I gave a sad, lipless smile at her, and she gave me the same smile back.

While Crystal attempted to keep talking to Doug, I turned back towards Morgan and leaned in close to her ear.

"I don't mind to imply or rush anything, but-"

She turned to me and kissed my nose, giving me a chastising smirk. "I know I promised it would be just us tonight. I'm working on it," she clarified. I smiled in return. Hanging out with her friends was fun, but... but to be frank, Morgan was hot and I wanted to fool around with her.

"C'mon, you two," she turned back to the other girls, going so far as to grab Crystal by the wrist. "Time to go."

"You just want to be alone with Quinn so you two can spend some alone time together," Lexi complained.

"No we don't," Morgan lied, reassuring her.

"Jealous?" I asked, speaking at the same time as Morgan.

Morgan, in response, gave me a bit of a shocked face that quickly turned into a half-smile. "You are getting too confident too quickly, mister," she chuckled. "Anyway, out."

It took a little more convincing for the others to leave, but once they did, Morgan shut the door and sighed. "They're a handful sometimes," she said simply.

"I guess," I chuckled. A beat of silence passed between us and I glanced off towards the stairs. "So, should we...?"

Morgan gave me the same half-smile. "Too confident, too fast," she repeated. "Actually..." she continued in a teasing voice. "I was thinking of spending some time with Doug first. Care to join us on the couch?" She gave me a wink as she walked past. I could only laugh and join her.

Soon, the three of us were on the couch, idly chatting and watching Doug attempt to beat the Orphan of Kos, one of the most challenging boss monsters of the game. Something inside me wanted to dislike Doug, but...

"You're okay, Doug," I said out of nowhere.

I didn't register that he'd just died to the Orphan and my comment came across as sarcastic. "You know what, fuck you, he's harder than he looks," Doug replied in the heat of the moment. He cleared his throat and chuckled a bit, as if to let me know he didn't mean anything.

"Oh, Quinn knows Bloodborne," Morgan told him, nuzzling into me. "It's the game he plays the most often."

"You are so hot when you listen to me," I quipped and gave her an innocent kiss.

"Yeah, I'm training you to be hot in the same way," she quipped back.

"Hey, I listen to you!" I protested.

"I know, I know, I was just joking, just kidding around," she soothed me. "Hey, I'm going to get a drink. Like, a 'drink.'" Either of you want any?"

Doug got to a safe point in the game and turned to us. "Uh, is that a good idea?" he asked. "Is he staying over?"

I turned to Morgan. "I probably can't stay tonight of all nights," I told her, then turned back to Doug. "But it's summer. I actually kind of like walking home. If you want to drink, have fun, no need to give me a ride home."

"You sure?" he asked me, fully serious. "I don't want to leave you in a bad situation."

I shrugged. "I'll be sober anyways, so sure, why not?"

"Hey, cool." He turned to Morgan. "Surprise me."

Morgan disappeared into the kitchen while I watched Doug play. "So you're really good at this game, huh?" he asked.

I nodded, then realized he couldn't see me nod. "Yes."

"So why aren't you bossing me around and backseat gaming me?" he asked jokingly.

"Because my brother does that to me all the time and I hate it," I honestly answered.

Eyes on the screen, Doug started laughing a low, slow laugh. "Yeah, alright," he eventually said. "I hear ya." With that, Morgan reappeared from the kitchen, putting two glasses of orange juice down onto the TV table in front of us.

"Screwdriver," Doug observed. He took one of the glasses and took a swig. "I said, 'surprise me,'" he added jokingly.

Morgan just stuck her tongue out at him, took a swig from her own drink, and cuddled back into me. Around half an hour later, the glasses were empty and the drinks were starting to take effect -- Morgan's hands were getting a little more adventurous, and Doug was making more and more preventable mistakes. Luckily, he was also getting into it, so we could get bolder and bolder on the couch next to him.

My lips detached from Morgan's, both of us looking each other in the eyes, trying not to make a sound, both with our lips and Morgan from her throat. Below a blanket we'd found, my hands also got a little adventurous (though nothing too crazy in front of her brother) and occasionally the sounds of dying Fishmen would drown out a small whimper emitted by Morgan.

Right around the time I got up the confidence to whisper in Morgan's ear if she wanted to take this to her room, we heard an "ugh" from Doug, coupled with the setting down of the controller on the table. Instantly, my hand retracted from inside her shirt but stayed under the blanket, trying to play it cool.

"You alright?" Morgan asked, a little hazily. I smirked at her. She smiled shyly back.

"I just fuckin' suck at this game, man," Doug replied dejectedly. He eyed me and his head made exaggerated movements from the controller to me, back and forth. He was clearly as much of a lightweight as his sister.

"Alright, Quinn. Here ya go," he told me, as if he was holding out until I was ready or something. He passed the controller to me.

"Yeah? You want me to beat the Orphan for you?" I asked.

Doug chuckled and closed his eyes. "If you can," he simply said.

I shrugged meekly. "Okay." I felt around the controller with my hands -- a little sweatier than I was used to, but I could make it work.

Morgan pulled me back and whispered in my ear, "You'd better beat it on the first try," teasingly.

I smiled back at her. The harder the boss, the more time I dedicated to learning it, inside and out. And bless her, even though Morgan had no idea what was going on, she was enjoying this power play between her brother and myself.

My smile got bigger when I got an idea. "Hey Doug."

"Yo."

"How many blood vials do you think I'll need to beat the Orphan of Kos?" I asked innocently.

"Like, all twenty?" Doug answered, confused.

"Okay," I simply replied.

Morgan audibly giggled as Doug understood where I was going with this. "Oh, no way, dude. Come on. You can't play me like this, he's one of the hardest bosses in the fuckin' game."

Doug, especially drunk, was hesitant. He seemed to play Bloodborne like any other Souls game. But Bloodborne was fast and demanded you to be faster. It was calculated and demanded you out-calculate it. It favored the bold. From the moment I entered the arena, it was like the living room faded from around me. There was no Morgan or Doug anymore. There wasn't even a Quinn. There was only the Orphan of Kos and its Hunter.

The world went by in a blur for the next few minutes. I wasn't even sure how many. All I knew was that my reflexes told me what buttons to hit and my eyes practically never moved from the center of the screen, seeing from the corner of my eye the movements made and how I needed to respond. I didn't regain consciousness until after I heard the telltale groan of the Orphan falling and the Kos Parasite appearing onscreen.

I exhaled, as if for the first time, then regained my sense of self. "So, how many blood vials did I use?" I asked Doug, half-bragging, half genuinely unsure.

"Two," Doug muttered in disbelief. "Jesus. You know how to play, I'll give you that."

"I was aiming for zero," I admitted. "I guess I don't really use your build much, so-"

"Alright, alright," Doug cut in, snatching the controller back. "You got your time to brag."

A little nervous given his reaction, I sank back to the couch seeing Morgan give me a look. I knew that look well -- Morgan liked when I put on little displays like this. Less 'Bloodborne,' more 'showing Doug up,' but she was definitely giving me the 'fuck me' eyes.

Enter, stage left, who fucking else. Right when Morgan and I were about to kiss, we heard the front door slam and Morgan immediately looked back in bewilderment.

Doug was less fazed. "Who is it?" he called.

"It's me," Taylor's tired voice ran through the hallway.

At the sound of Taylor's voice, Morgan's head snapped back into place, a look of pure frustration and nothing else on her face. Without even looking at me, she pushed the blanket off of herself and got up at the couch to meet Taylor, who was already walking past the hallway.

"Hey Doug -- oh. Hey, Quinn." She began her sentence with, granted, no enthusiasm, but at least energy. When she got to me, her voice went all quiet. I didn't even know which look I should have been giving her at that moment.

"Hey Tay," Doug replied.

In a voice barely audible enough for me to hear, Morgan told Taylor, "Hey, it's good to see you, but uh..." She hugged Taylor politely to complement her point. "Could this wait? I kinda wanted to be with Quinn alone tonight."

Taylor, not gifted with subtlety, answered with a regularly-volumed voice. "No. I need to talk about Joel stuff with you. You need to know." She slowly turned to face me, and just looked at me. Morgan turned and looked at me too, then back to Taylor. "I think... Quinn should know too?" Taylor continued, with a lot less confidence.

"And this can't wait?" Morgan asked.

Taylor shook her head no and, winning Morgan's approval, motioned for me to come upstairs with them. I sighed, said my goodbyes to Doug, and followed the two of them into Morgan's room.

"Okay, so what is it?" Morgan asked in a borderline impatient voice.

"So," Taylor began, waiting for me to shut the door. "This is about Joel."

"Yes, we know it's about Joel," I cut in. "You said that at the door."

Taylor looked at Morgan, probably expecting Morgan to defend her, but deflated like a balloon when she saw Morgan's face reflecting mine. She sighed angrily. "Okay, so basically, Joel doesn't believe Milo, I think."

"What?" both of us asked at the same time.

"Like, I think this is okay," Taylor continued, as if that's all we needed to know.

"What do you mean, you 'think' he doesn't believe him?" Morgan asked.

Taylor started fiddling with her hair. "So, like, Joel was high when Milo told him, and I think he, like, thinks it's a joke. Or thinks he doesn't know if it's a joke."

Morgan had to deal with the confusing details and the reality of the drink hitting her harder by the minute. "Wait... he told you this?"

Taylor nodded enthusiastically. "He went up to me and was telling me, like, how he doesn't think Milo is funny, and how pathe- no offense, how pathetic Quinn is and stuff."

"Yeah, who could possibly take offense to that?" I sarcastically grumbled, pacing around the room. "This doesn't sound like it concerns me. Can I leave?"

Morgan looked back and forth from Taylor to me, eventually stopping with a cold look at Taylor. "Yeah, Taylor, you need to stop pretending his feelings don't exist," she told Taylor in a cold voice, a voice I didn't think Morgan had. "He's had to deal with so much bullshit."

"And I haven't?!" Taylor erupted. "Do you want me to tell you what happened or don't you?"

"You could have sugarcoated it, or even implied he was wrong for saying that," I shot back with a louder voice than I expected. "You could have defended me, whether it was with him or with your own friend group half the time when I started hanging out with you more regularly. You could have treated me like more than just your plaything." At this point my voice was barely above a growl. "You could have chosen not to order me to crawl."

Weirdly, none of my accusations seemed to hit her hard until the last one. The last one broke her. She started breathing more rapidly, although I couldn't tell if it was anger or trying to stop herself from crying.

Morgan reacted to my final words immediately too. "Crawl? What do you mean, crawl?" She turned to Taylor. "What does he mean, crawl?"

Taylor said nothing.

Morgan turned back to me. "Is this a metaphor or-"

"It's literal," I answered.

Morgan's look of concern deepened. "We're discussing this afte-"

"No. That's between me and Quinn," Taylor said, her first words since my outburst.

I waited until Morgan turned back to me. "We're discussing this after she leaves, yes."

"Quinn, what are you doing?" Taylor asked. "Trying to look like the tough guy for your girlfriend?"

"If you don't think what happened was wrong, you should be fine with me discussing that with her," I simply answered.

"I think it was private," she sharply objected. A beat of silence passed. "Defending you would have made it look more like Milo was right, and Joel was, like, believing nothing happened." She paused. "He looked for you on Facebook and Instagram later. I saw it. He couldn't find you."

"I don't have a Facebook," I replied. "Or an Instagram."

"Don't tell her about the crawl thing," Taylor quickly spoke. "Please. I won't do it again."

Another beat of silence passed. Taylor's eyes were definitely welling up now.

"The fuck is going on?" Morgan asked.

I had a theory. "She thinks this is the one thing that, if you knew fully about it, would make you consider actually leaving her," I answered. "For some reason, she thinks this is the thing."

"All the more reason I should know about it," Morgan replied darkly.

"I was just curious about -- I got too carried away with something. If you talk about it I'm fucking leaving," Taylor continued.

I studied her face. "Why do you think this is the one thing...?" I trailed off, looking from one girl's face to the next. I felt like I didn't have every puzzle piece here. Or I did, but I just didn't get why.

I thought about Morgan's words from earlier on in the week. Obsessive. Don't get obsessive. You don't always need to know why.

I shook my head. "You know what? Forget it. This conversation is going nowhere. Let's move on. So Joel thinks it's a lie, but clearly has his doubts if he was trying to look me up online. What's the next step?"

Taylor sniffled a little. "Well, like, first of all, I don't think I should talk to you or be seen with you anymore."

I threw up a hand and began pacing again. "You really enjoy this, don't you?" I asked rhetorically.

"I never said I liked it," Taylor admitted. "And I'm sure if it's the group it's fine. If we're in a group it's fine. More than fine, since you're Morgan's boyfriend."

"Which means I'm going to have to lie about how open we were, in case he asks me," Morgan noted, even while tipsy. "He might see me as the only neutral third party." She cleared her throat and nodded. "And what happens after that?"

I stole a look at Taylor. "I think it's become abundantly clear there's not going to be an 'after that' for us, huh Taylor?"

The first tear. The first convulsion. The dam broke. Taylor was crying. Taylor's cute chipmunk face was twisted into bitter pain, and I was standing there, looking down on her, trying not to feel sorry for her. God damn, did she ever make it difficult.

Morgan felt sorry for her first, moving in for a hug, which Taylor accepted. I sighed and quickly followed. "Anything I can get you?" I asked annoyedly, crossing and uncrossing my arms.

Taylor turned to Morgan. "Ha-have y-you been dri-inking?" she asked.