Mark woke up feeling refreshed and motionlessly lay in bed for a while, enjoying the lazy feeling of a Saturday morning before looking at his phone. It was already 9:30. When did he fall asleep? 23:00? He was surprised that he could sleep that long. It wasn't like he was sleep-deprived.

There was a bunch of messages from Steve and Zeke. He scrolled through them quickly, but it was just the usual meaningless chatter. He sent some replies and reactions, then closed his phone. Since he had nothing else to do, he got up.

He could hear the noise of his sister's chattering on her phone through her closed door as was usual for her, especially on the weekend. His parents' door was closed. They were likely still asleep, also as usual. He headed down and prepared some breakfast for himself, then sat down with it in front of the television, relaxing in his pajamas. It was his own Saturday morning routine.

He wasn't interested in what the various vapid talking heads on the big screen were saying. To him it was just background noise to accompany his meal. He could have just as well put on elevator music or a white noise generator. It would have achieved the same purpose. He did perk up, however, when the hourly news broadcast mentioned Beth's kidnapper, but it didn't say much he hadn't already known except to mention the specific charges and the sentencing that the district attorney was expected to go for, nor did it mention the rapist's health condition. Amber would be disappointed.

He smiled at the memory from the previous evening. It was as if Amber was some vigilante who single-handedly tracked down and rescued Beth, rather than a fellow victim. She didn't even seem to notice that that was the image she projected.

The news update ended, and Mark finished his breakfast shortly after the morning program's chatter resumed. Now he had to figure out what to do with the rest of his morning. Jake lived a few towns away and since Mark didn't drive he'd have to catch a bus. That meant leaving the house no later than 13:30, leaving him with around 3 hours of free time. That was plenty of time to read a book, watch a movie, play a game, or go practice some more soccer, but Mark didn't feel like doing any of those things. He was going to play around later anyway, and as for soccer, he felt that he needed a little bit of a break in order to come back stronger.

He leaned back lazily on the couch for a while, then with resignation he rose to wash his dishes and then went upstairs to his room. Due to all of the distractions he'd fallen behind on his homework, and if he wanted to have some free time later he needed to catch up now. He reluctantly sat by his desk and slowly worked through the pile. At least he was getting to it with enough time to do it without too much pressure.

As he worked he could hear the rest of his family moving about in the house. His sister, as usual, left to go visit some friend, slamming the door behind her. The day progressed slowly, until finally he felt that he made enough progress to at least call it a good start. He got up from his desk and got ready to leave.

As he made his way to the door his mother called out.

"Mark, where are you going?"

"To Jake's", he answered impatiently. Why did parents always pry into their children's private affairs? He wasn't a little kid anymore.

"Let me know when you're heading home, and come back before supper time", Maria ordered her son.

"Yes, mom", he answered automatically. It was irritating to be told to do what he was going to do anyway.

"Bye", he called out, then quickly exited before his mother could say anything else to annoy him.

"Bye", he heard her answer as the door closed behind him.

Mark had to walk a few blocks to reach the main street where the bus stop was located. It happened to be the same street as his school, and not far from it. The bus ran frequently as it passed through densely-populated areas and major train stations, so he didn't have to wait long before it arrived.

After boarding he sat and stared out the window. Beautiful suburban views of houses, mansions, gardens, forests, and lakes passed before his eyes, but the beauty was lost on him. He lived here all his life and was accustomed to it. To him it was normal, while the dirty, noisy, and crowded concrete landscape of the city was the exotic place.

It was a long ride to Jake's house, but finally he arrived and got off. He walked for several minutes past large, fancy houses and mansions with sprawling lawns and manicured gardens before reaching Jake's house. Compared to Mark's house Jake's house was huge and displayed a tremendous amount of wealth. Compared to the rest of the neighborhood it was slightly below average, a poor man's substitute for a proper mansion.

Mark had been here many times before, taking advantage of Jake's hospitality, which included his snacks, his pool, and his many fancy toys. The summertime pool parties were especially nice, providing an uncommonly lovely view of his classmates, and they happened at least once a year thanks to Jake's birthday taking place at the end of July.

Today was no different from any of his previous visits, with the new console and games being the reason for their get-together. As he walked up to the door Mark wondered, and not for the first time, if Jake would as popular without his parents' money. He was certainly a nice guy, but was usually a little too responsible. If he didn't have all these expensive toys and didn't provide such a great way for guys to get together with girls he might have been relegated to the role of class nerd and found himself keeping company mainly with other nerds like himself. Then again, it was possibly that he'd be roped in by the cool guys, just like Mark was.

Mark checked his phone and saw that he was early, which was something Jake and his family appreciated. They believed in the motto that to be on time was to be late. He rang the doorbell and moments later it was answered by Jake's mother. She was tall, skinny, with chocolate-brown skin, and short, thick, straight hair and beautifully delicate features. He knew she was in her late 40s, but she looked much younger than that.

"Hello, Mark. Come in. You can wait in the living room until Jake is ready to come down", she greeted him in her fancy accent. It reminded him of the way the actors spoke in British movies, but it was substantially different. He didn't know what that accent was called.

"Thank you", he answered, and followed her to the gigantic room, which was more a library than anything else. The walls of the room were white while the heavy furniture was a dark shade of brown. The contrast, together with the large windows on the wall that was facing the back of the house, made the room seem perfectly in tune with any season of the year.

The walls of the room were lined with wooden bookcases, each stacked with books that were sorted by topic. They included classical novels as well as a wide variety of non-fiction subjects including philosophy, science, medicine, history, and economics. There was no television in the room, nor any other electronic device save for a high-end sound system that softly played classical music in the background.

He sat down on one of the soft leather couches. There were already drinks and snacks laid out before him on the coffee table. He always felt embarrassed by the perfect hospitality Jake's family provided, thinking himself to be quite shameless for how he frequently took advantage of it.

"Thank you", he said again.

"You're welcome", Jake's mother gave him a dazzling smile and left.

Mark helped himself to the refreshments while staring blankly out the window. The area close to the window consisted of a patio with a built-in set of utilities for all manner of outdoor cooking. Beyond that lay a large pool, built as if it were made of multiple overlapping circles and surrounded by greenery.

Although he liked Jake's house he wasn't jealous of it. He didn't need all the space or fancy accommodations, and the neighborhood pool was good enough for his exercise needs and included an indoor pool he could take advantage of all year round. All he really needed was a place to play ball, and neither of their houses had it.

After several minutes of waiting Mark heard footsteps coming down the stairs outside the room. He looked at his phone and saw that the time was exactly 14:00, as expected. When Jake entered the room he didn't look at all surprised to find that only Mark was there.

"Hi" Jake greeted.

"Hi" Mark answered.

Jake sat down on another couch. Neither of them was particularly chatty, but they tried to make conversation anyway.

"How's the homework going?" Mark asked.

"I finished it. That's why I was so late to come down". Only a member of Jacob's family could think that arriving precisely on the minute was late. "How about you?"

"Pretty good. I did more than half already". Mark said casually.

"Just half?", Jake shook his head at Mark's sluggishness.

"Do you need help?", he offered.

"No, I'm okay. I just wasn't into it this week". What did being into it have to do with anything? You just sit down and get it done, Jake thought.

The doorbell rang. Mark followed Jacob as he rose to answer it. A round of "Hi", "What's up?", "How you doing?" ensued as Steve and Zeke entered. One of them must have given the other a lift, as usual.

Jake and Mark put away the dishes and refreshments that Jake's mother had set out for them, and then Jake led them down to the den in the basement where his shiny new console gleamed below the gigantic TV. It was the latest model, only recently released.

While Jake went to grab the remotes and controllers to turn it the rest of them grabbed seats. Mark and Zeke went for the bean bags, while Steve preferred the couch. Once Jake finished starting up the system he passed the controllers around, then sat down on the couch next to Steve.

"So what would you like to try first?", Jake asked. Jake had over a dozen games in his library. They quickly examined the options on the screen.

"Lets see Gang Warfare", Zeke was the first to call out. It was a new big indie game that let players choose between fighting on the ground as a foot soldier or controlling your gang as a boss from a strategic point of view, with the goal being to gain complete control over a randomly generated city. It had both single player and multiplayer modes. Although it was simple, one complete playthrough could take hours so long as one didn't lose too easily.

They took turns controlling the boss, but even though playing the game was fun they each spent far more time spectating than playing. Also, as an indie game it didn't do the best job of showcasing the graphical capabilities of the system.

"How about we try Mythological Fighters instead?", Jake suggested after a while. It was a fighting game where the characters were all creatures out of ancient mythology. It was played as a 2D game, but the graphics were rendered in exquisitely detailed 3D. It didn't have so much hype surrounding it like Gang Warfare. Perhaps that was why Zeke didn't suggest it first.

"Okay", they all agreed.

Jake selected tournament mode with 4 players. Steve chose to play as a giant, which let him throw rocks. Zeke chose to play an ogre, which let him wield a large club. Jake's choice of minotaur gave him a large, double-headed ax. Mark went over each character's stats and abilities.

"Come on, just choose one already", Steve urged. Mark ignored him and moved on to the next character. It was a nymph. She had weak attacks and defenses, but strong crowd control capabilities against male characters. She seemed like she was meant as a support character for the team battle mode, but with all the rest of them choosing male characters he wondered how well she'd fare in a 1 on 1.

"Hurry up!" Zeke impatiently exclaimed.

The nymph had a slim figure with beautiful curves, a perfectly round chest, long thick hair, rosy lips and delicate features. She was extremely alluring in her near-nudity. Mark figured that if he's going to play this game he might as well see something nice on the screen, and chose her. Zeke snickered.

"Are you sure you want to be a girl, Mark?", he teased.

"Yeah, you don't have some secret to come out with, right?", Steve added.

"Just play the game, okay?", Mark rolled his eyes at them. They might not have been willing to swallow their macho pride and choose a female character themselves, but he was sure that they were grateful for the eye candy he was providing them.

The first match started. Mark was randomly matched against Jake. Mark cast a Seduce as soon as he could move but it needed a few moments to take effect, allowing Jake to turn his character away, causing it to fail. It had a lengthy ending animation and Jake took advantage to charge at Mark head first, impaling him with his horns and then sending him flying with a head-toss animation. Mark recovered while Jake charged again.

This time Mark could move freely, so he cast a Flirt, interrupting Jake's charge and forcing the minotaur into short period of immobility. Mark used the opportunity to hit the minotaur with his strongest move, a water summoning spell that enveloped the target in a pillar of water that dealt damage over time.

The effect of the flirt was instantly broken by the attack, and the minotaur ran at the nymph, the water sticking to him, but little droplets falling away as he moved. Her breasts jiggled suggestively as she dodged the swings of the ax, with each one being animated separately by the physics engine, and blood sprayed liberally every time she got hit.

She tried to counter attack, but her crowd control wouldn't work while the minotaur was taking damage. Her leg sweeps were useless against the tough and heavy creature. All that she had left were punches and kicks, which only dealt light damage and helped dispel the water magic faster.

By the time the minotaur finished hacking the nymph's health bar down to zero she had managed to reduce his health by 40%. Mark figured it wasn't such a bad performance on his part.

Steve and Zeke went next and their match vaguely resembled a baseball match, with Steve throwing rocks and Zeke batting at them with his club. In the end Zeke managed to bring the fight to close quarters but narrowly lost anyway.

Next it was the turn of the losers to fight for 3rd place.

Zeke's ogre ran toward the nymph as soon as the countdown ended. Mark cast a Flirt to stop him for a moment, then Seduce, which froze the ogre in place for a period of time so long it might as well have been infinite for such fast-paced fights. Mark had his nymph run to the far edge of the arena until there was almost no room for her to back up any more, then cast the water summon.

The effect of the Seduce was broken as soon as the spell hit, and the ogre resumed his charge. Mark fired minor long-range attacks to try to deal as much damage as possible until the ogre arrived before his nymph.

The ogre swung his bat, and the nymph dodged by rolling past him. Somehow the tiny flaps of cloth that covered her most sensitive areas didn't fail to continue to carry out their function. The ogre tried to block her from rolling past him with a kick, but he reacted too slowly. She ran to the opposite side of the arena while he chased after her.

While they ran the movements shook more and more of the droplets loose until the water spell was broken. The nymph immediately cast another flirt, but Zeke was ready for it and turned his ogre away. Although the move failed it still bought Mark a moment, which he used to widen the distance between the characters.

Zeke quickly turned his ogre around to continue the chase, while Mark used the opportunity to cast another water spell. The nymph finished executing the move just as the ogre caught up to her. While he was being enveloped in water he swung his ax and slammed it into her head, sending her flying against the wall. From there on out the ogre rained blows on the nymph. Mark desperately tried to evade past the ogre, but Zeke managed to block his every attempt.

Finally the nymph got slammed into the wall again and didn't get up. The ogre's health bar had only 30% left. Steve raised his fists in the air.

"Yeah!".

Mark relaxed back into his beanbag. He didn't even realize how tense he was, and how far forward he had been leaning.

"Damn", he exhaled. "Good game".

It was disappointing to lose in such a helpless way, especially after such a strong opening, but he supposed that with that character match-up it couldn't be helped. As long as Zeke could reach the nymph he could easily overpower her and keep her pinned with the knockback effect his powerful moves had on such a lightweight character.

Next it was Steve's aggressive instincts against Jake's greater technical skill and familiarity with the game. The minotaur's ability to block the giant's rocks was much weaker, giving Steve an even greater advantage at long range compared to his fight against Zeke. At close range, however, the minotaur's ax was more advantageous than the ogre's club. It dealt more damage, and although it had no knockback effect, since both characters were heavyweights the knockback effects were minimal in any case.

The minotaur slowly advanced on the giant by alternately blocking the rocks and dodging beneath them, but took heavy damage while doing so. When he finally reached the giant he began raining blows on it, trying desperately to catch up on the damage dealing before his health bar ran out. The two of them exchanged furious blows almost without regard to defense, rapidly depleting each other's health.

The minotaur fell.

"Hell yeah!", Steve hollered. His giant only had a sliver left on his health bar. Another hit or two and it would have been him who fell.

Jake stood motionless, staring at the screen. He didn't even notice when he stood up. A moment later he shook himself and muttered "good game" as he sat back down.

Next they tried battle royale mode. They all seemed to like their characters, so they kept using them in fight after fight, increasing their familiarity and skill with their chosen character. Eventually they went online for some frantic 4 on 4 team matches. Since the game was new few players had a significantly greater level of skill than them, leading to many close matches and about as many losses as wins.

Mark's stomach growled, interrupting him. He hadn't eaten a proper meal since breakfast and lost track of time while playing. It was no wonder, too, since it was difficult to notice the time of day in the cozy basement room, so he looked at his phone. It was only one hour before supper.

Mark put down the controller and sighed regretfully.

"Sorry guys. I have to go home now".

Jake took a look at his watch.

"Oops, it's late", he yelped.

They put the controllers back while Jake shut down the system, then headed to the front door of the house. Steve and Zeke were chatting animatedly, talking about the fights.

"Want a ride home?", Steve paused to ask Mark.

"Sure", Mark answered.

Jake waved them goodbye with a giant smile on his face, which made his earlier reluctance to have them over seem like nothing more than a pretense.

Mark sat in the back seat. He texted his mother that he was on the way home. Steve and Zeke continued chattering away about the game and the graphics in the front, but Mark stayed out of it and simply enjoyed the relaxing ride, treating their chatter as white noise.

That evening and the following morning Mark was finally relaxed enough to properly tackle his homework, attacking the stack of pending assignments and rapidly reducing it to nothingness. When he was done with his homework he did chores, and once he was done with those too he finally treated himself to an afternoon and evening of indulgence in practicing soccer, playing computer games about soccer, and even watching movies about soccer.

He felt his passion for the sport coming back to him. The weight had been fully lifted from his shoulders, and he slept deeply and restfully at night.