The Loners Ch. 01

Rachel again looked at me curiously. "What? Afraid I might bite?" She smiled, showing off her fangs. Putting my thoughts aside, I closed the bedroom door, which was normal for me as well, and I sat down next to her, but kept a comfortable distance as I turned on the good old Xbox 360.

"Uh, are you really going to sit here and watch me play?" I asked, curious. This was another rarity for me. No one ever does that.

Rachel merely shrugged. "Sure. It's not like I have anything else to do, since you turned off the show I was enjoying."

"Well, it would have been strange if I left it on, wouldn't it?" I replied. She brushed the comment off.

"Besides, I want to see this from the point of view from the assholes." She remarked.

Dave and I began our first round, and were talking through our microphones as Rachel silently watched me play. A few minutes into the first match, she spoke up. "Wow, you're a camper aren't you?" She asked.

"Am not!" I responded.

"What?" I heard from my microphone. Oops.

"Nothing, just someone sending me a message saying I'm a camper."

"But dude, you are." Dave responded.

"Gee, thanks, and I am not, you've seen some of my best matches, I'm all over the place."

"But that's only because your team sucked and couldn't hold anything down." Dave shot back as Rachel laughed at me.

"See, even your friend says you are a camper!"

"You shut up! At least A is secured while I'm here, ha!" I said to both of them, although Dave thought it was only him that I was speaking to.

"Hmm, I didn't think about that, so you're not a camper, you're a defender? I guess that's a little more acceptable." Rachel said.

I turned my microphone off this time. "See, the biggest thing about this game that a lot of people don't realize from what I know is strategy. If you think for a moment, and don't mindlessly run into the enemy, you avoid getting your ass handed to you, at least a little bit, or, in other words, become one of my victims, like this poor guy who keeps coming down here hoping to kill me." I said as I killed said victim for the fourth time now.

"Well, he does keep running down the same path, and you change locations slightly, expecting him to run to your previous location." Rachel observed.

"Exactly, lot's of people fall for that. I bet you do too, don't you?" I asked.

"I just lose patience because I keep dying all the time." She replied.

"That's what I mean! It sucks when you die, sure, but you can't really let it get to you...FUUUCKK!!!!" I suddenly shouted as some asshole with a random grenade killed me, stopping me from getting a high kill streak.

Rachel immediately began to laugh. "And who was talking about keeping calm after you die?" She mocked.

And that's how it went on for a while. Rachel actually sat at my side watching me the entire time, making remarks here and there, though she was laughing when I actually got my kill streaks and beat the shit out of the other team.

"Wow....35-1, that's just stupid." She said, still laughing a little.

"Maybe, but it is pretty funny when you're not on the ugly side of it." I responded.

"I don't think you actually deserve it, you got lucky that claymore didn't kill you earlier, before you got your last kill streak."

I shrugged. "Shit happens."

"Oh, don't forget, your laundry is still going, and I can't go get it, you have to." I rolled my eyes.

"Don't worry, I won't ruin your precious kill death ratio." Rachel added as I got up, telling Dave to put a hold on things. He decided to play a round or two while I took care of my laundry.

As I went to the washer and put my clothes in the dryer, I began to run my mind through the past 24 hours, and about Rachel. I need to be careful here. I can already tell I'm going through the same route as I had before. This wasn't going anywhere, I reminded myself. She's leaving, and not only that, it never goes anywhere.

And yet, I could already feel myself becoming attached to her. This was stupid! I've known her for less than a day! What the hell is wrong with me!? I hated when I did this, and I've done this several times already, and each time, went through the same disappointing heartbreak. It makes me wish that I could have a button and just turn my feelings off. Apparently, I very lost and thought and taking too long, for Rachel suddenly appeared, sitting on top of the dryer.

I jumped back, and let out a yell. "Could you not do that, please!" I said after recovering from my heart attack.

"Well, maybe if you weren't taking so long, just how long does it take to put clothes in the dryer?" She asked.

I proceeded to do just that. "Nothing." I said, pushing my previous inner conversation down and finished loading up the dryer. As I looked up and began to start it, I found her still sitting there, staring at me. Yet, it was a very serious face, as though looking for or at something. It almost felt like she was staring into my soul.

"You're actually pretty good at hiding your feelings, aren't you?" She asked me suddenly.

"Uh...what?" I asked.

Rachel got off the dryer and stood before me, setting off proximity alerts in my brain. "If it weren't for last night and just now...I would be sure that you are a rather happy person, but that's not true is it?" She asked me.

I found myself unable to meet her gaze. "If I wasn't around, would you have spent the entire day alone, aside from your roommate?" She asked me. Again, I remained silent.

"I only know because I know what it's like. To be so alone in the world, unable to create bonds with anyone because of who you are, it's something I know only too well." She said, and I turned my eyes back to her. She then shook her head suddenly.

"C'mon, let's go back, you've got some asses to kick and I want to see you do better than 35-1" She said happily, turning and starting the dryer, and practically began shoving me back to my room, taking her spot next to me again.

This time, however, she remained silent as I played, as did I. I don't know what she was thinking, but I kept drifting to our chat in the laundry room. After one day of knowing her, and she managed to see that far into me. The truth was, yeah, I was pretty good at hiding my feelings. I mean, some people who were close to me knew that I may be a little lonely, or a little depressed because I admitted it. But they didn't know to what extent. They didn't know that it bothered me everyday. It was like pulling weights around on the heart.

Yet Rachel...somehow, could see it. I know she could, because now that I think about it. I thought I saw that same look I gave myself in the mirror in her eyes. She too, was alone, and from what I could guess, even more so than I. I hated when I did this as well, beating myself up for not having that bad of a life as though it was the worst on all of Earth. Yet, I also couldn't help it. I woke up and feel asleep each day alone, incapable of spending time with anyone.

When it started to get late, I put down the controller, and turned to Rachel. "So, where are you going to sleep tonight?" I asked her. I must have broken a deep train of thought because she turned to me curiously.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Where are you going to sleep tonight?" I asked again.

Rachel went into thought. "Well, I could sleep on the couch, but you're roommate could end up sitting on me at some point, and that would be a problem."

Oh boy. This could be going in the wrong direction. "How about I sleep on the couch?" I volunteered.

"And how do you plan on explaining that? 'I'm sleeping on the couch cause I don't want to disturb the invisible vampire?' Good luck with that." She responded, and sighed.

"Nope, the two of us are just going to have to sleep here in your bed." She said seriously.

"Uh..." I began, but she cut me off.

"Don't worry, I won't molest you in your sleep, and obviously, you'd better not try anything funny or you will never rise again." She said menacingly.

"Uh..." I tried again, but she cut me off.

"What? It's not like the bed isn't big enough for both of us." She responded.

"I sleep with nothing but my underwear." I finally got out.

Rachel merely shrugged. "You have two blankets, right? You sleep under one, and I'll take another, there, problem solved, cause I do the same thing."

I suddenly found myself getting excited and filled my head with images of a near naked beauty sleeping right next to me. Of course, my groin started getting warm as well.

Without missing a beat, she took her (I mean, my) shirt off, revealing her bra and very generous cleavage, along with a very well built female form. She then dropped the shorts, revealing all of her legs, her cute and shapely butt, and turned to me, finding me openly gawking at her, stunned.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "What? You don't do that when you see girls in bathing suits do you? What's the difference? My old bathing suits actually revealed more." She said as she began to lay down.

"Move." She directed as she lay down completely, and I got out of her way, and she covered herself with the light blanket she was going to use. She seemed to sense that I was still staring at her, and she turned her head up to look at me. "You know, if you stay there all night and stare, you're not going to get any sleep, and you're the one who has to get up tomorrow." She reminded me, breaking my trance. I stood, and was about to undress to get into bed, but suddenly, I felt apprehensive, for I had a very obvious stirring event going on with my lower head. How the hell was I going to hide a raging hard on? I turned back to Rachel, and found that her eyes were close and was actually going to sleep.

I very quickly got undressed, and crawled under my own blanket next to her, and attempted to sleep. However, this was futile. My hormones were raging at this point, and I attempted to twist and turn to find a comfortable position and to calm myself down, but to no avail. I must of turned one too many times because I heard Rachel give out a frustrated grunt.

"Just go ahead and take care of your business, otherwise, I'm not going to get any sleep either." She mumbled to me.

"Huh?"

"Please, you think I missed the bulge in your pants when I undressed? You were too busy staring at me to cover yourself. Now hurry up and get it over with."

"H-here?"

"I don't care if you go to the moon and do it, just get it done." She responded.

Well, the cat's out of the bag. But I wasn't going to do it here, even if she, to some extent, said I could. I instead got up and went to the bathroom. It didn't take too long to take care of that little problem, but when I opened the door, she was there.

"Now you've got me going." Was all she said as she walked in and I walked out. I stared at the closed bathroom door for a few moments, suddenly wishing I had x-ray vision. Pushing the thoughts away before I got myself excited again, I laid back down in the bed. A short while after, I heard Rachel emerge from the bathroom and felt her lay back down on the bed next to me. If there was one thing I had to admit, this was one of the most interesting situations I've ever experienced.