Clay watched anxiously as Bad's character was overwhelmed by enemies on screen.

Skeppy was yelling something about coming and cursing the monsters in his way as he struggled to get to Bad's warlock.

But he wasn't fast enough.

Bad screamed dramatically as his character died.

RIP.

"F" said a6d.

Dying in Destiny 2 isn't the end of the world, you can be revived by another player, it just takes time and makes it harder for the surviving players because they're targeted more while trying to help you. Also it's tricky to get to the character's body if they're surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters.

All the three of them could do now was watch Skeppy fight his way over and hope he wasn't brutally murdered before getting to Bad.

They were all watching Skeppy's screen when an explosion went off in the middle of Bad's.

"What the hell was that?" Skeppy said as he glanced at the flash on Bad's screen before returning attention to his own.

"I don't know." Bad replied. "It looked like a grenade, but you didn't throw it, and I'm dead."

"Must've been that other guy..." Clay murmured while keeping his eyes fixed on Bad's stagnant POV.

Soon enough, the other figure came into view and hovered over Bad, reviving him.

"HEY!" Bad exclaimed. "That's nice of him."

Skeppy scowled.

"I was coming to get you." He said sulkily.

"Well that would have taken a lot longer and you might've died so I'm just aPPrEciAtiNG..."

Clay wasn't listening to them argue as he was examining the third player. Now that he wasn't darting around anymore, Clay could finally read his gamertag.

nootnootfound.

Lol. Weird.

The dude finally finished resurrecting Bad and sprung off into the horde of monsters.

A few minutes later the boss finally came crashing down and Bad celebrated with a "WOOOOOO TEAMWORK!"

Skeppy still looked a little glum, but he couldn't help but smile as Bad started shaking him excitedly. The smile fell from his face, though, when Bad suggested:

"Let's message the guy."

"What, why?! All he did was revive you!"

"I wanna say thank you!" Bad made a pouty face that Skeppy couldn't resist.

"Fine." Skeppy pulled up his account and leaned back as the game transitioned back to the lobby.

"Hold on," Bad said, confused, as he opened the chat, "is that George?"

"George from school?" A6d leaned forward curiously.

"Noob." Said Skeppy. "What kind of idiot shows his real name on- ACKCULBUBWHATTHEFUQUKWKWB"

Clay turned his head in slow motion to see the fountain of Dr Pepper shooting out of Skeppy's hands onto his face.

Bad dove out of the way and Vincent doubled over laughing as Skeppy sputtered and tried to stop the flow with his hands.

Skeppy's expression was so priceless Clay dissolved into his teakettle wheezes. He felt a little guilty for not telling them about the sodas but he was laughing so hard it left his mind quickly.

Leaving them with a sticky mess to clean up, an angry Skeppy disappeared to wash his face or maybe take a whole shower.

The other three were still chuckling at him as they threw a towel over the floor and decided to worry about it tomorrow. They almost forgot about George with all the "Did you see his face?!" and "He went WHATDAFAQ haHA, priceless."

Bad caught sight of the waiting chat screen and calmed down enough to type out a message. "Hey thanks for the save Georgie. And send."

The answer came quickly. "No problem."

Then- "Wait how did u know my name?"

Clay laughed again picturing George's befuddled face. He poked Bad's shoulder. "Tell him you're a stalker."

"What the muffin? No, I'm inviting him into the party so we can talk with him."

He fiddled with the controller. "I just have to figure out how to do it-"

Bad finally managed to send it and they waited for George to accept. Clay could picture him looking dubiously at the invite and really hoped he would just click it already.

nootnootfound joined the party.

"H-" Bad's greeting was cut off and he shot confused eyes at Clay, whose hand was covering his mouth.

Clay motioned a6d to be silent and leaned over to Bad's microphone.

George's nervous voice came through the Xbox, "hello?"

Clay took a deep inhale and shouted "BOAHHUDHSUHUHSDIUEWGFCAHJUCYWGEHBDAUKWIFDBELLOGEORGIE-" basically swallowing the microphone.

The high-pitched scream from the other side made him wheeze like nothing else.

Bad made a semi-angry face at him for jumpscaring George like that.

"CLAY!"

A6d was rolling on the floor laughing at this point.

Clay was light-headed and his sides hurt but he couldn't stop laughing. Georgie's girly scream replayed in his head. He could've blown up a bouncy castle with all the air coming out of his lungs.

George stopped shrieking like a banshee and finally realized who it was.

"OH MY GOD CLAY!" he sounded almost like he was smiling.

"THAT WAS NOT FUNNY."

Clay was wiping his eyes and struggling for breath. "That yell-

I can't-" He dissolved into wheezes again.

"OH shut up." You could practically hear him blushing.

"How did you even recognize me anyway?"

Bad explained that he accidentally showed his full name to everyone on his profile and told him how to fix it, helpful like always.

A voice at the door said, "now what the hell'd I miss?"

Skeppy stood there with his hair dripping wet looking like a confused duckie.

"Who's that?" George asked. Bad had set it so they could speak freely without having to wear headsets and stuff.

"Skeppy" Bad answered, or maybe he was greeting him. He explained to the slightly haughty Skep that they added George to the party.

"Hi Skeppy! You guys actually did a good job in the fight, how did you get all that cool gear?" George's friendly attitude and genuine compliment chilled Skeppy out a little bit and he sat down next to Bad and said they'd been playing a long time, but they could help him upgrade.

He leaned on Bad's shoulder but the other boy drew back and pushed him away slightly.

"You're getting me all wet Skeppy."

"Oh am I? Well how about this-" he headbutted Bad and knocked him over again with a soft "oof."

"You muffin-"

Clay cleared his throat to get their attention. Skeppy stopped tormenting Bad with his hair and they looked up at him. George was silent; Vin was absently playing with Ian but otherwise paying attention.

All Clay's courage left him once he felt all their eyes, not George's, of course, but still.

"Um, I was wondering if you guys want to come stay at my place tomorrow. Like, I don't have an xbox, but we could... just hang out, I guess."

"Yeah sure that sounds fun." a6d responded. "Can I bring Ian?"

Clay nodded and looked at the others.

Skeppy was rubbing the back of his head; he groaned. "I don't think I can tomorrow. My parents are kinda taking me and my sister out of town until Sunday."

"Oh, that's ok." Clay was a little disappointed. "Bad?"

Bad looked a little bummed. "Yeah. I'll try, but my parents are pretty strict about no sleepovers, so I probably won't be able to go."

"More like definitely not." Skeppy grumbled.

"Oh, well that's fine. We can all do it together sometime later. A6d and I can still have a good time, right?" Vin nodded in agreement.

"Maybe George can go." Skeppy suggested slyly.

How could I forget about George? He hasn't said anything.

Just proves I'm a bad friend. There's no way he'll come since he doesn't want to spend time with me.

Maybe he just walked away from the game. Or he just doesn't know how to say no.

"Sure, I'll come." George said nervously.

Clay was actually shocked but he quickly covered his reaction. He clapped his hands together like a weird dad.

"Great!"

"I mean not great, since Skeppy and Bad can't come, but... yeah."

Luckily they moved on to other things.

Eventually, sometime past 4am when their vision was blurry from playing, they decided to go to bed.

But it would be a restless night for Clay.

(1.4k words)