There is only one person who loves me unconditionally, despite my many (and believe me, there are many) ups and downs. Only one person who I can know as well if I haven’t seen them for months as if I just saw them a few seconds ago. Only one person I can still adore even when they infuriate me. And no, this person is not my significant other.
My best friend is an amazing, beautiful human being. They’re hilarious, gay AF, and loves their cat only a little more than they love me.
And this bitch introduced me to League of Legends.
Let me make this clear: while I enjoy gaming culture, I am by no means a “gamer." I’m just not good at them, and I find it very difficult to stay interested in a game for longer than an hour. The closest I have probably come to becoming obsessed with any game in general was a board game probably 10 years ago that I couldn’t stop playing for a full month.
With that (slightly saddening) backstory out in the open, I can now share the story of the woeful backstabbing done to me by the one person I have ever trusted in my life.
My best friend of over 13 years was going through a bit of a rough patch and I, being the nice and trusting person that I am, decided to help them out and let them stay with my family and I for a month.
“It’s no problem,” I found myself thinking, “it’s going to be like an extended sleepover!”
What I wouldn’t give to travel back in time and punch my past self right in her stressless eyes, still so full of hope for her future. That’s gone now.
Not even one week into their stay, I woke up to a rampant clicking sound sometime around 1 AM. Groggy and confused, I sat up and looked around, only to be blinded by the bright light of a laptop screen sitting in the center of my room. Huddled over this was my so-called friend, biting their lip and with glazed-over eyes. Concerned but unsurprised by their antics, I let it go and went back to sleep. I should have kicked them out.
This soon became a nightly occurrence. They eventually migrated to the living room in an attempt to keep their habits from me, but my curiosity had piqued. What was this thing that so engrossed my friend, keeping them up to ungodly hours of the night and eating up hours of their days? So, within two weeks, I asked them a question that has forever changed my life.
“Can you show me how to play?”
I should have known when I saw the demonic glow in their eye as they showed me the gameplay that this was not just a game, but a curse. Since that night, the world of League of Legends has been open to me, but many other doors have closed. I no longer sleep. I rarely eat. I ache for the comparatively stress-free homework that I once used to pass my time as a student. Now the nights echoing with the sound of a clicking mouse are mine.
My best friend got their own apartment months ago, and I moved to my new dorm states away, yet I am still stuck with this disease that they gave me. This game, unlike any other, has stuck with me like a tick. I have found that the only way to deal with this curse is to spread it to others, much to the detriment of my roommate. It is with great shame that I admit to spreading the curse to her. I share this with the hope that those who read will learn from my mistakes.
