What's Up With You?

I was still awake that entire time. It seems that Knox greatly overestimated my abilities to fall asleep at rapid speeds. I even tried shifting a bit to make them shut up, but that clearly didn't work. It's nice knowing that they care about me and want to make sure that I don't end up getting hurt, but I can't help but think they'd rather me not date anyone. Though, I don't get why Knox even cares, he has a secret crush after all, one that he's never told me about. Plus, I bet Keita has several girls that'd just love to go out with him, so what's so special about me?

Luckily because of that bang I was able to jolt up and act like I was asleep. But now Cerberus is all hyped up and Knox's mom is yelling at Keita for slamming the door and waking me up. Knox is oddly quiet as well. It's probably because he's playing video games so he's just focused on that, or maybe it's because he doesn't want to speak too loudly and risk his mother yelling at him. I'm still a little cold too, I wish that Cerberus would warm up already so I can cuddle him, but something tells me that that might take a little while.

Cerberus' slobber continues to soak the bed as I lay under the covers, watching Knox play some Call Of Duty. He's busy sniping people and blowing them up, easily carrying the rest of his team. I would be surprised if he ends up killing over half of the enemy team. He's achieved that multiple times in team deathmatches, I think his highest number of kills was around sixty in just one game. Man's a god, and frantically, it's no surprise that people call him a hacker all the time. In reality, he's not a hacker, he just doesn't do anything else other than play games, go to school, and spend time with me.

Somebody headshots Knox right when he was on a roll, and he nearly throws his keyboard. He only stops himself when he catches sight of me watching him in the momentary darkness of his screen. Taking a deep breath, he spawns back in and starts running again, only to get shot and killed by a hiding camper. Despicable.

"There's a guy hiding behind the large, blue moving truck in spawn, he's spawn killing," Knox calls, as he spawns in again, only to get killed once more. There's some muffling coming from his headset, then Knox waits a few seconds. There's some more muffling and he finally respawns, heading back into battle. "Thanks, guys."

There's some more muffling on his headset for the next few minutes, except it doesn't sound like callouts, but more like singing. Isn't he in a competitive match? Wait no, on Call Of Duty Four there is no team deathmatch for competitive. There should be though, Knox would do amazingly everytime. Between his callouts, his shooting skills, and his ability to think quickly on his feet, he'd be amazing in an esports league, or the military, but he'd never workout enough to do that. Maybe if they have a little gaming setup and let him control a robot or something then he'd do amazingly. Hell, if they do that then Canada would be a force to be reckoned with.

My phone vibrates next to me and Cerberus nearly yelps from the suddenness of it. Knox glances over his shoulder, showing a suspicious expression on his face for a moment. I give him a weird look and he goes back to playing his games. Cerberus crawls across the bed and lays down next to me as I check my phone. It's a text from Daniel.

'How's everything going so far?' He asks.

'Pretty good, took Cerberus for a walk in the freezing fucking cold and now I'm trying to warm up while Knox plays some video games,' I respond, adding in a smily face.

'Will there be a time that you're free today?' He asks, then continues to type. 'I'd love it if you swing by my work, I can give you a cookie or something. On me. You can bring Knox too if you'd like.'

'Are dogs allowed?' I ask, glancing at my adorable big pitbull laying his head down on my chest. Reaching out my arm, I snap a photo of us and send it to Daniel.

'That's fucking adorable,' He sends a blushing emoji. 'And sadly they're not, especially big dogs. Are you not able to go without him?'

'I can, I was just wondering 'cause Knox's mom is still getting used to him,' I respond. 'Though it does make sense that dogs aren't allowed in there, it is a cafe after all.'

'When would it be good for you to show up?' He asks, and Knox and I lock eyes once more.

"Who you texting?" He finally asks, not breaking eye contact with me from the reflection of his screen.

"Daniel," I respond, scratching Cerberus' ears. "Wanna go to his work? He offered to give me a free cookie for my birthday."

"I don't know," He shakes his head. "It's cold, and we barely know him, and I don't really feel like socializing with anyone new on my birthday."

What happened to our birthday?

Just as I was going to ask him about his terminology, Ketia bursts into the room, "Let's go, I wanna meet this Daniel guy."

"Were you eavesdropping?" I ask, not all that surprised.

"That doesn't matter, come on, get dressed and let's go," Ketia orders, gesturing to the door. He then walks over to me and attempts to rip the covers off, making Cerberus all riled up once more.

"You two can go," Knox mumbles and we all stop to look at him.

"Everything okay?" I ask, though I know I won't get the real answer since it's not just the two of us.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He nods, though his mouth stays in a frown. He's pretending to be more focused on the game, but I know for a fact that he's upset about something right now. Is he upset that I'm talking to Daniel on our birthday? Or is he just upset that Keita's here? "Just go without me, I'm focused on my games right now anyway."

"What?" My voice squeaks, a little bit of pain reaching out from my heart. My heart burns slightly but I stop myself from crying. "Why?"

"It's my birthday, so I'll do what I want," He starts, instantly noticing my expression of anger in the reflection. "It's also your birthday, so go do what you want as well. Go hangout with your boyfriend or whatever. Go hangout with my brother too I guess."

"Hey, man, what's up with you all of a sudden?" Keita asks, but for the first time in a while, he seems more concerned than anything else.

"Nothing," Knox's voice cracks and he forces it to sound deeper. "Just go already, go have fun."

"I'm not going without you," I mention with a direct tone.

Just then, my phone vibrates again. It's from Daniel, 'I look forward to seeing you.' There's a heart emoji at the end.

"Get out," Knox orders, and without saying anything else, Keita grabs my wrist and pulls me out of the room with Cerberus following close behind. He shuts the door behind us and we continue up the stairs, not saying a word.

Opening my messages again, I respond, 'I'm on my way now, but I'm bringing Knox's brother instead. Knox is in the middle of a game and Keita wants to meet you.'

It takes him a few minutes to respond, he was most likely serving someone. 'Sounds good, I'll see you both soon.'