At Any Price (Gaming The System) by Brenna Aubrey Read Free Book Online Page B

the test is over.”
    I shook my head. “Don’t you two have finals coming up or something? Why aren’t you studying?”
    They attended nearby California State University in Fullerton, which was on a slightly different schedule than my school, Chapman University. Alex cleared her throat. “Because I’m a communications major and she has such good grades that she opted out of most of her finals, because she’s a fucking brainiac,” she said, jerking her thumb toward Jenna.
    Jenna looked up and despite the crap she’d just given me, I could read real empathy in her pale blue eyes. She was stunning, really—like the love child of a Norse goddess and Alexander Skarsgård. “It’s okay, Mia, really. If you ever need help studying or anything, let me know. I could quiz you. I don’t know much about bio, but I know there are some physics-related questions on the test and since that’s my major…”
    I sighed, running my hands through my hair and resting my forehead in my palms. “I’m the worst friend ever.”
    “No. You’re just stressed out and if you keep this up, you’ll fail just because you’ll be too keyed up to even focus.”
    I rubbed my forehead with my thumbs, feeling the beginnings of a stress headache. This day! It felt endless, between the lack of sleep after my late shift, the rushed preparations, the unexpected meeting with a pompous but very hot asshole, the weird gaming session with Fallen and now this.
    Alex got up from the couch and came over to crouch beside my chair. “Pobrecita,” she murmured in Spanish, meaning “you poor thing.” She slipped an arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry.”
    I sighed again and leaned my head on her shoulder. Then she invited me to eat downstairs with her mom and we pigged out on her awesome enchiladas.
    “You leave it to me and Jen,” Alex said. “We’ll find you a hot nerd and then you won’t be able to say ‘no’ to our parties.”
    I grinned and swallowed, my throat suddenly tight. I’d met a hot nerd earlier that day and found I didn’t like him much.

Chapter Four
    As the next few days rolled on, my mind constantly dwelled on the question of whether it was the right decision to proceed as planned. I was finding it awkward to even force myself to do my weekly DE report. This week’s had been a bland, neutral commentary on some of the lamer quests in the game. But what about next week and the week after? What about after Drake and I slept together? Would I always be worried that he’d be stalking my blog?
    I could opt to cut my regular DE report from the blog. Readers would protest that. I received lots of hits, re-blogs and comments on that feature. My blog was my livelihood. It brought in more money through advertisements than my hospital job currently did. Hopefully it would keep paying the rent throughout med school as well.
    So, after days of mulling it over, I came to a decision. And while procrastinating making the call to Heath, I happened to log on and find him on the game
     
    *You tell Fragged, “Hey dude, whatcha doing?”
    *Fragged tells you, “Killing trolls in the Golden Mountains. This new hidden quest chain is driving me up a tree. Come help me, I need your enchantress. They keep stunning me.”
     
    With a sigh, I complied, running my character over to the nearest magic portal chamber to take her to the location where Heath was tirelessly hacking his way through troll parts to find some small clue to the game’s latest mystery.
     
    *You tell Fragged, “You and everyone else who plays the game. You didn’t try to weasel the secret out of Drake, did you?”
    *Fragged tells you, “No. I doubt he’d tell me anything anyway.”
    *You tell Fragged, “You sure? You definitely chatted with him for a long time.”
     
    My character was almost to Fragged’s location in the game, at the base of the Golden Mountains, when I got jumped by an aggressive mountain goblin.
     
    *Fragged tells you, “Where are you? I’m up to my