Lucy's p.o.v

"Round two will begin in five." The speakers were blasting with the announcer's voice and then the trance music continued.

The wall, my back was leaning on was cool unlike the rest of the gaming room. Crowd whistling, chatting and sweating.

I sighed looking at the digital clock on the screen over the countdown and the players ranking. Halo was still not here and Ace was...

I glanced around seeing him chat up one of the girl strategists.

I guess it's fine.. Well we still have time.

A minute later he showed up with a smile on his face. "Guess who just got a date tonight."

"As long as you don't get the strategist to influence you.."I glanced as him.

"But I'd like her to influence me all over." Ace turned towards her and she winked at him.

He winked back. "I'll be busy later."

Yeah I figured.

"Halo?" Ace asked.

"Not here yet." I looked towards the door "Oh wait..there she is."

Hallo run over carrying a bag. "Sorry had to run home for something. Let's go."

We headed towards our seats when one group of the gamers cut our path and one even bumped his shoulder with Ace.

There were two hackers which I recognized from the last game, the gamer and three strategists.

"Newbies shouldn't be here." He smiled.

I placed my hands in my pockets. "Get out of my way."

He shrugged. "Is the threat supposed to scare me?"

Ace took a step forward and smiled "It should."

The rest of the group snickered.

"Whatever you say." The guy said and walked away.

"Assholes." Halo let out a nervous breath.

"Calm down. You're just here to game. We'll deal with them." I told her and we sat down on the chairs.

"Do you still wanna hide who you are? Go as we planned?" Ace asked getting ready.

The digital clock was counting down the last 60 seconds.

I glanced at the hackers that stopped us.

One of the strategists snickered at me.

"Newbies should go home." He said and turned towards the crowd. "Go home." He yelled and turned towards me. "GO HOME!"

He started hyping the crowd.

Go home. Go home.

I looked at the rest of the crowd. They started hearing with him. Wait, is that a small kid cheering with them in the crowd as well? Do they not have age limits here?

This is why professional hackers, don't take these competitions seriously.

The crowd cheering was starting to get on my nerves. I turned towards Ace.

"Fuck it. They might as well know who they're up against. I was never really someone who plays defense."

Ace smirked .

BEEEEEEP.

Round two began.

Halo cracked her fingers and then started playing. Her eyes followed the screen with fast intensity and her fingers moved at the usual fast pace.

Luckily she wasn't affected by their provocations.

"They'll try it in thirty seconds at best" I told him.

"Got it." Ace placed his wrists on the end of the keyboard, ready to type.

And just as thirty seconds went by, suddenly Halo's screen turned black.

"Ah." She panicked.

"Keep your hands on the keyboard," I told her.

They had sent us an attack like I anticipated.

"In three." Ace numbered. "Two...one"

Ace and I started hitting our code on the keyboard and her screen turned back on.

She immediately continued playing.

"Woah woah woah..." A guy in the crowd gasped. "That's...I know that code."

Not long after, the hacker who had sent that attack started hitting the keyboard cursing. "What the fuck?"

His gamer's screen dropped dead and they were barely fighting on my attacks.

"Holy shit!!" The guy in the crowd started jumping and yelling. " That's Lucy the hacker. Lucy!!!!!!"

The crowd went wild.

It's not like there weren't hackers that were on my level, but they were rare and did not enter these kinds of competitions for money. They'd usually go for higher payments than the competition prizes offered.

Halo got distracted from the crowd.

"Focus..focus.." I said to her and then typed the last of my code to shut down any attacks.

"Putting up defenses." Ace finished the code with a protection code from any backdoors the code might have had.

BEEEEEEEEP.

One of the gamers buzzed in first and Halo was a minute late.

We looked up at the screen. He was still in second place because she had won the previous round and earned points.

But that was a close call.

Maintaining first place was very important.

As the rest of the gamers finished their games, their ranks went up on the screen.

A swarming amount of people circled us and started asking us questions. We tried to break through the crowd and then hid in the alley where the entrance to the place was.

I saw the kid from the crowd again. He seemed to be looking for someone, but the crowd pushed him as they were leaving.

"We're popular now." Ace said, taking out his phone. He was obviously enjoying the fame.

"Some exposure won't do us harm." I said.

The girl who flirted with Ace came out from the building. She glanced around looking for Ace.

"I'm going to have fun now." He saluted me as he walked away and then winked at Halo.

Once the girl saw him she smiled and Ace instantly wrapped an arm around her shoulder, whispering something to her.

"Do you want to go somewhere and get something to eat?" Halo asked.

I looked at her. She seemed kind of down and upset. "Um sure..Let's go."

We sat down at a small pizza place and I only got coffee while she got a whole pizza.

"Are you sure you don't want some?" She asked.

"Yeah. I'm good."

She took a slice and then started eating, but her face was still filled with worry and every bite seemed like she was swallowing it with a heavy sigh.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Umm ..yeah yeah.." She sighed and then placed the slice down. "I mean no.. Ugh.."

"What bothers you?" I placed the coffee on the table.

She took a napkin wiping her hands. "My brother. His stupid naive personality and the problems it causes. And the fact that today I didn't play like I should have and almost lost first place."

I wasn't sure how much I wanted to know about her private life so I decided to say something about it that could help before it got too personal. "I don't know much about what's happening in your life but I certainly understand family problems and having issues with family members. All I can say is to figure out what the best solution is for you. Sometimes talking it out can work, other times you just need to find a way to coexist and hope you can move out soon."

She smiled. "That's my goal right now. I want to live alone and have my own apartment"

"I live alone and it's great." I added

She gasped. "Really? That's amazing. Ah.. I can't believe you're so ahead of me and we're the same age."

"Well, I struggled a lot before, so it's not like it was easy."

"It's not like you were homeless though." She said.

I sighed.

She covered her mouth. "You were homeless?"

I coughed. "Anyways just focus on what you're best at and keep improving. That's what will get you out of the dirt."

"I'll be an even better gamer I promise." She smiled.

I smiled back and picked up my coffee.

"So..." She cleared her throat. " Do you and your girlfriend talk about things like this?"

Um what?

"I mean. You seem like you don't really want to talk about personal things. It must be difficult for her and you." She said.

I thought about it. Sure, we didn't bring out any dark topics often but was that something that made it difficult?

I just wanted to keep her out of that part of my life. Surely it was what earned me the popular reputation, but I doubt it had any positive outcome in Francy's eyes.

"Is not talking about certain issues in the past difficult for girls?" I asked.

She nodded. "Of course it will be difficult if she wants to understand you and relate. But then again if she can't relate..."

If she can't relate what...

"If she can't relate?" I waited for her to finish the sentence.

"Well it's hard for people who haven't been through the same to relate." She said. "I know from experience. When people haven't been through the same issues it's very hard for them to understand each other."

I shrugged. Francy wasn't like that. "I don't know about that. Sometimes you'd be surprised how people can understand you even if they haven't been through the same."

"You say it now but wait until they're put in a position to doubt you. Suddenly knowing your past, their trust in you is broken, they run away and betray you in the worst possible way. And you'll be left out cold."

She suddenly looked down at her pizza. "This is really good."

With that the topic was over.