Luke led the way into his bedroom. It was a typical Friday night. We'd both get off of work, then he would come over and pick me up so I could spend the weekend at his place. We stepped into the familiar orange walled room. I made myself comfortable on his bed with my snacks and phone charger. This is how it went most weekends. We would get in, I would chill on his bed with my phone, and he would sit at his desk and play video games. We were pretty low maintenance in that way. Before he took his place in his gaming chair, he crawled onto the bed on all fours to give me a kiss. His beard, beaming smile and tan face approached. I ran my fingers through his tight curly hair as he kissed me.
"Alright, I'm gonna play some games. Do you need anything before I sit down?" He asked.
"Maybe just one more kiss." I shot him a coy smile. He laughed and planted one on me. The bed shifted as he slid off and took his seat in front of his computer. I followed suit, grabbing a handful of gummy bears from the package next to me and put them on the desk next to his keyboard.
"Thanks, babe." He chuckled.
"No problem!" I kissed him on the cheek and returned to the bed to spread out and watch TikToks on my phone.
With Luke being 6'2", I had a lot of room to get comfortable. Sometimes I would bring my laptop and we would play a game together, or we would play something on Luke's Switch. But other times I was perfectly happy with my phone. First, I opened Instagram, checking the group chat, then any new posts. Next, I moved on to Snapchat, looking at new stories before keeping up with my current streaks. Finally, I got to TikTok. There, I first checked my DMs to see what videos my friends had sent me, then to the For You page to see what was current. A new recipe here, another trending dance or 70's song becoming popular again there.
A few minutes in, I could tell Luke was getting somewhat upset. He was clicking harder with his mouse, and was being a bit rough with the keyboard. I know how frustrating games can get, especially with live people, so I shrugged it off and went back to browsing TikTok. Soon enough, the heavy taps on the keyboard became harder slams. He picked up his mouse and slapped it back down into the desk. As I looked up from my phone he began to yell at the computer screen. Things like 'Are you fucking kidding me?' and 'Are you even looking at your screen?'. He shot up from the desk, his arms up in the air, as to question why the person on the other end did what they did to cause such an offense. He sat back down, punishing his chair by dropping into it and flailing his legs under the desk, hitting the sides of his knees into the side of the wood underneath before bringing them back together again. That's when I got an idea to help him blow off some of this anger.
"Is everything alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, these guys just don't know what the fuck their doing." Another slam of the mouse.
"Okay, You just seem really mad over there."
"Yeah, people like this just really piss me off sometimes, especially when there's a lot on the line in game."
"Well, I could try and help you with letting out that anger, maybe."
"Oh yeah?" He seemed intrigued, but continued to place his focus on the computer.
"Yeah, I think I could really help you get all that frustration out." I got off the bed and started playfully rubbing his shoulder.
"I'm almost out of this game, then we can play stress relief all you want." He told me, somewhat getting my hint.
"No, don't stop. I want to help you while you play." I slid my hand down his arm and felt the waistband of his shorts.
"Oh? You meant while I play?" He looked up, his game having ended.
"Yeah. I'll slide under the desk and give you some live stress relief." I kissed the side of his neck.
"I dunno, are you sure you wanna just sit down there?"
