Destroy Me Gently:Ex-Enemy Becomes My Lover!-Chapter 146: Game Over

**OLIVER WEST**

The door to William’s room slammed shut so hard the picture frames of his favourite animated characters on his wall rattled.

"But I brought my own blanket and everything!" Penny’s muffled voice came through the door, followed by knocking. "Come on, let me in!"

"Absolutely not!" William yelled back, pressing his weight against the door like she might try to break it down. "This is a boys only sleepover!"

"That’s discrimination!"

"It’s called boundaries, learn about them!"

There were more loud knockings, and then the sound of footsteps stomping away down the hall.

William waited a few seconds before cautiously stepping away from the door. "She’s probably going to try to sneak back in later."

I found the realization a little bit surprising myself, all the times I’d had a sleepover in William’s place, Penny had never been around. The last time was when we went to Alex’s party, she had slept over at her friend’s place too.

"Does she do this often?" I asked William from where I sat cross-legged on his bed.

"Only when there’s someone in the house she finds interesting." He gave me a pointed look. "Which is apparently you now."

I shrugged. "That’s not my fault."

"I know, but you could try being less..." he waved his hand vaguely, "you know, likeable."

"How do I do that?"

"I don’t know, be mean to her or something."

"I can’t be mean to Penny, she’s nice!"

"That’s exactly the problem," William muttered, grabbing two controllers and tossing one to me. "Forget about my weird sister, let’s just play."

The game loaded and we picked our characters for the co-op zombie survival mode. William chose the tank character with the big gun and I ended up with the medic. Again.

"Why do I always get stuck being the healer?" I complained.

"Because I called tank first."

"You always call tank first!"

"Then be faster next time."

The game started and immediately we were surrounded by zombies shambling toward us from all directions.

"Shoot them!" William yelled.

"I’m trying!" My character was firing but missing every shot. "The aim on this gun is terrible!"

"That’s because you’re supposed to heal me, not shoot!"

"Then why does my character have a gun?!"

"For decoration!"

A zombie grabbed my character and started biting. I watched as the health bar dropped rapidly.

"William, help me!" I yelled.

"I’m busy!" He was surrounded by his own horde of zombies, firing wildly.

"You’re the tank, you’re supposed to protect me!"

"You’re the medic, heal yourself!"

"I can’t heal while I’m being eaten!"

My character died first, collapsing in a dramatic pool of blood while zombies continued to feast.

"Great, just great," William said as more zombies swarmed him without me to draw aggro. "Now I’m alone."

"That’s your fault for not saving me!"

"My fault? You walked directly into a group of zombies!"

"I was trying to get a health pack!"

"There was a zombie ON the health pack, Oliver!"

His character lasted about ten more seconds before also dying. Game over screen flashed.

We both sat on his bed in silence, I didn’t even try to hide my satisfaction, how dare he think he could survive without me? Serves him right!

"That was your fault," William glared at me.

"How was that my fault?!"

"You died first!"

"That’s because you didn’t protect me!"I grabbed a pillow and threw it at his head. He blocked it with his controller and threw it back.

"Let’s go again," he said. "And this time try not to die in the first thirty seconds."

We started another round. This time I made it a whole two minutes before a zombie grabbed me from behind.

"WILLIAM!"

"I SEE IT, STOP SCREAMING IN MY EAR!"

He shot at the zombie but hit me instead. My health dropped even faster.

"You just shot me!"

"That was an accident!"

"AN ACCIDENT?!"

My character died again and I turned to scowl at him. "You killed me on purpose for revenge, didn’t you?"

"What do you take me for? I’m not that petty," He scoffed, but a part of me didn’t buy his innocent look.

All thanks to Karma, his character lasted five seconds longer.

"See? This is what you get for killing me on purpose." I gloated.

"I SHOT YOU BY ACCIDENT!"

"A good teammate wouldn’t shoot their medic!"

"A good medic wouldn’t stand directly in the line of fire!"

We went three more rounds and died spectacularly each time. By the end we were both yelling at the screen and each other.

"Why do we even play co-op?" William asked, throwing his controller onto the bed. "You are terrible at this."

"No, you’re terrible at this."

"Says the person who died first every single time!"

"Because you kept leaving me alone with zombies!"

A knock on the door interrupted our argument.

"Are you two done screaming?" Penny’s voice called. "I can hear you from my room."

"GO AWAY!" we both yelled at the same time.

Her laughter faded down the hall.

William looked at me and we both started laughing despite ourselves.

"Yeah, I’m so bad at this," I admitted, wiping my eyes.

"The worst partner," William agreed.

My phone buzzed on the bed space next to me. I almost ignored it but something made me pick it up.

It was a credit alert notification.

The amount made me blink and read it three times. I stared at it in shock, until I saw the sender. My heart rate spiked seeing Kieran’s name, why the hell was he sending me money?

Was this for fixing the house? I stared at the amount, even if it was for that purpose, this amount was way more than we’d needed. Triple, maybe more.

I waited for another message that didn’t come.

It was just the transfer. I didn’t realize how much I was waiting for his text, but now my heart suddenly stirred with anger.

"What’s wrong?" William noticed my mood change immediately.

"He sent money." My voice came out flat.

William leaned over to look at my screen and his eyebrows shot up. "That’s a lot of money, is he trying to buy you a new house or something? Or maybe he’s compensating for breaking your heart,"

Was William right? Was Kieran trying to apologize by doing this?

Something hot and sharp flared in my chest. He didn’t try to call, or even text and now he was doing this?

But underneath my anger was something else. Why would he send this now when he didn’t even try to contact me for the past week? What did it mean?

"I think you should just take the money and spend it, you deserve this much compensation after everything he put you through," William said, yawning, but I was already standing up, holding my phone.

"I have to see him."

I was just going to tell him that I didn’t want his charity, he could take back his stupid money! It’s not like I could just transfer it back to him, yeah, this needed physical confrontation, right?

"Oliver—"

"I know what you’re going to say." but I really need to see him,"

William studied my face for a long moment. Then he grabbed his shirt. "Okay, let’s go together."

My heart softened at his action, he wanted to be there for me.

"William, you don’t have to..." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"I won’t sleep well if I don’t experience all the drama first hand," He grabbed his keys while I gawked at him, so this was his reason?

His parents weren’t around, so we didn’t have to sneak out, we simply told Penny we were getting some late night snacks.

She pumped her fist at me, mouthing out. "You can do this!"

William stared at her suspiciously, and then at me, "What does that even mean? Don’t tell me that’s what her behaviour has been about... PENNY, YOU’VE LOST IT!" He yelled after her.

"Don’t act too slow, or you will lose him!" She shouted back and I was laughing, wrapping my arm around William’s neck.

"You heard her, treat me even more better or you’ll lose me,"