Drink This

So, here we are again. Another bar, another fine piece of ass walking in the other direction. It was the story of my life so far. Rachel, at least I think that was her name, made six. Six women turning me down flat in the past week. One even threw her drink in my face. I would be forgiven for thinking that this online meetup thing was highly overrated.

But first, introductions. Manners and all that.

My name is, or rather from your perspective was, John Smith. I am what my parents would call a professional waste of space. That's mostly because my job is sitting in front of a screen and playing video games over the internet. I try not to use the term "gamer" as it sounds like a middle-aged man-child in need of a hobby and I'm still very much in my twenties.

Since I broke up with the only girl that I've been in a serious relationship with over a month ago, finding love (or at least a rebound) has been less than fruitful. The conversation seems to go downhill really fast once my occupation is brought up.

You see dear readers, being a professional gamer can be great and all but not everyone who enjoys video games is an introvert; this is especially true of us that are able to do so for a living.

Don't believe me? I dare you to search through twitch and youtube and see how many pros and commentators also have families. It's way more than you think. Hell, up until last month I was almost one of them; was even going to propose. Then I found out the bitch was stealing from me.

Now any woman I meet seems to either think of me as a deadbeat slob or part of that SJW/GamerGate bullshit.

And so here I am...at a bar...alone...drinking cola because I'm too much of a lightweight to risk getting drunk. Kind of sad and pathetic isn't it?

You don't have to agree so quickly you know!

Anyway, you're not here to read about how much my love life "currently" sucks. You are here for the raunchy details of how that is all about to change. Our story begins here, in this bar, in about 5 more minutes. An old friend of mine will come strolling and buy me a drink that will change my life. The twist is that I can only remember odd bits here and there. It's why I say "our story" begins here; because dear reader I'm sure you would not be reading this if you did not somehow know my story beforehand from word of mouth. In fact, I will need your help in trying to recall exactly what it was that happened to me from this point on. You will need to fill in the blanks where my memory gets fuzzy.

If you're not sure about anything that happened, don't worry, you'll catch on as we go and I'm sure I'll remember some variation of events as well. Now shush! David is about to show up.

And as if on cue, David strolled in and spotted me seated at the bar.

"Hey, Numbnuts! Struck out again I see."

I sign as I turn around to greet David. We had been friends since school and were once thick as thieves but that all started to change once we tried to go into business together a few years ago. He was the one who convinced me to try and become a pro gamer and even helped me set up my streaming and social media accounts. We made a great team until our first major sponsorship deal. David was greedy and wanted to charge excessive amounts of money to feature the company on our youtube channel. I had already seen this backfire on other pro's and had wanted out. David blamed me for weeks, saying that I had torpedoed the deal and ruined his side of the business.

"Hello David. Are you just here to rub my face in it or do you actually want something?" I was in no mood to take a trip on the guilt train or be party to another fight. Even when we were little, David had an annoying habit of holding a grudge.

He held both hands up and dropped the shit eating grin. "No need for DEFCON three. I'm here to make amends.

I looked at him with a raised brow as he took a seat on the stool next to mine and ordered his usual drink. "You'll forgive me mate if I find that hard to believe." The spite oozed from my lips as I spoke. I may have backed out of the deal but it still felt like David had been the one to set the bridge alight with his insane asking price.

"I know..." His turn to sigh and look much older than his twenty-two years. "...Been doing a lot of thinking lately. You were right. I got greedy and it bit us both in the arse. You were lucky enough see it and do damage control, saving your career. I got what I deserved."

"Well thank you for finally admitting to it." I had already forgiven him as soon as he had said I was right but there was still venom in my tone. The "damage control" as he had put it was not as smooth or as easy as he made it sound. I had spent weeks trying to regain lost subscriptions and ad revenue after the deal collapsed. Running the business solo made it twice as hard. "Does this mean you want to come back?"

"Stright to the point?" David let out a chuckle. "Yes...If you will have me back. We would have to make a video statement and I would leave any financial stuff to you from now on; plus working for my dad is a load of bollocks."

At that point, my armour cracked and we both started laughing.

"OK, but I'm not cutting you out of the business end. You may have acted like a pratt but you were still better at it than I was."

Now let me pause here. I know what you are thinking. Yes, I forgave him far too quickly and was way too trusting. In hindsight, I should have seen that something was up from a mile off.

In my defence, I had very few other friends, was struggling to run an online business while maintaining an esports career and to top it all off, I couldn't get a date to save myself. I was at a very low point and a chance to get my best friend back was too good to pass up.

With that cleared up, let's get back to it.

We spent the next hour just talking and BS'ing over what we planned to do. David had moved us over to a booth across the room so we could talk with less noise. I had just mentioned rebranding and going purely into gameplay streaming when David asked me if he could buy me a drink to celebrate.
"I'll pass. You know I can't hold my drink."

"I promise You'll like this one. I recently discovered it; low content, even for you but tastes amazing."

"Sure," I smirked. "Why not, but if I pass out you will have to drag my sorry arse back home."

"You mean to say you still haven't learned to drive yet?"

"We work in a profession where we sit in front on a computer screen and barely leave the house. What the feck do I need a car for?" I said laughing. It felt like the night had taken a turn for the better as I joked around but little did I know that my whole life was about to spiral out of control.

"Wait here then and I'll go order. My treat as part of my apology." I didn't argue, not seeing anything wrong despite the neon sign saying; "Danger Will Robinson! Danger!" I was blinded by the stress of being overworked and lack of sex. Good news, even if it was really fake news was like a to me at this point. Funny, considering how things turned out. Within five minutes David was back and offering me this wonder drink of his. "Here you go, mate! Drink this!"