Multiplayer Read Online Free Page A

stared at the screen in horror. The stinging tears in his eyes turned the TV into a shimmering wash of color. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the controller ever tighter with both hands, trying to snap it in two. “You fu –”
    “Ready to do your homework?” his mother trilled, and Hector nearly leapt off the couch. He hadn’t heard her enter the room.
    He turned, swallowing hard to conceal his rage, and dropped the controller onto the couch. “Yes, Ma’am,” he croaked, wondering if she understood what had just happened.
    She squinted at him and cocked her head. “You okay?”
    “Yeah. Just tired. Long day.” He changed the subject, forcing down the nausea threatening to swamp him. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to upset Halie.”
    “Thank you for apologizing,” she replied, as her eyes wandered over the information displayed on the screen. Her smooth, olive skin, brown eyes, and dark curls spoke of her Greek ancestry. Her eyes were wide-spaced, large and round, and she had full lips. Though she was his mother, Hector knew she was a pretty lady and he’d always imagined she looked something like Helen of Troy – who could not have been blonde as portrayed in movies. She had to have been like Hector, who favored his mother save for the gray shock in her hair that had begun growing the day they learned his father had been killed. It sprouted just to the right of her forehead and had grown almost all the way out. There was now only a short, black tip at the end of the gray streak, like it had been dipped in ink. It was all that was left from before his father’s death.
    His mother frowned at the TV, displaying stats from the last match. “And I’m not sure I like that game. Those people you play with, this Mal-X, he could be anybody, anywhere in the world. What if he figured out who you are?”
    Hector rolled his eyes, still reeling inside from his defeat at the hands of a cheater. He had failed! Failed his father! “Why would Mal-X care who I am, Mom? I’m not going to agree to meet him somewhere; I’m not that stupid. Besides, he’s just a gamer.” But I’d like to find him, Hector thought bitterly. Find him and kill him. The real him. Dad would approve.
    “I’m just not sure it’s a good idea for you to run around killing people, and vice versa.”
    Hector scowled, matching his mother’s look exactly. “Dad thought it was okay.”
    She shook her head in frustration. “Don’t do that to me Hector. You don’t play soccer anymore. You hardly go outside. You don’t study like you should. You don’t do anything but play that game . And it isn’t even real.”
    “There’s nothing to do outside.” He looked out the window, thinking how true that was. In his old home, he was always outside. So was everyone else. This was like a ghost-town, everyone holed up in their houses or bustling about in their minivans racing from one event to the next. It was Omega Wars or … nothing.
    “We’ve been here for almost a year, Hector. And you have friends, or at least you would if you’d get off that game. There’s Jordan, Blake, Deion. Tyr –”
    “I was just playing with Deion,” Hector blurted, and pointed at the TV. “And Tyra. Just now, on the game. See? That’s interaction. That’s –”
    “Human interaction, Hector. People. And what about Sanjar, next door? He’s always asking you to do things. He’s such a nice boy. And the family is so sweet. Mr. Zahedi is always offering to help.”
    “Sanjar?” said Hector doubtfully. “You want me to hang out with Sanjar?”
    Mom frowned. “What’s wrong with him?”
    Hector shook his head, not believing she was going to make him say it. “Have you seen him?” he asked.
    “Yes I’ve seen him. This has nothing to do with what happened to your father, Hector. You’ve had Muslim friends before. He just wants to be your friend.”
    Friend? Sanjar wasn’t trying to be his friend – he was thumbing his nose at Hector.