In 2001, everything was going according to plan. Central State wasn’t a well-known university to anyone outside the state. It was a great stepping stone into life with the underrated opportunities for academics and socializing. Even with an apartment off campus, everything was within walking distance and I was happy existing in this perfect little bubble.
In 2002, everything was still going according to plan, but I decided to throw them away. My girlfriend, dead set to attend the University of Oklahoma, was not interested in living inside my perfect bubble. A pair of high school friends already attending OU and thought this would be a great opportunity to transfer schools and buy a house. After all, I had many perks to working for a nationwide bank – perks such as obtaining a low rate mortgage. My two best friends would move in and pay rent, my girlfriend would go to OU, and the four of us would live happily ever after!
In 2003, nothing went according to plan, except the part where I transfer schools, job, and buy a house. I was now attending an overrated university, but my girlfriend had come to the conclusion that it was just too difficult to meet OU’s standards. She instead enrolled at Central State. My two best friends decided they couldn’t move into the already purchased house. The bedrooms were half-a-foot smaller than their current rooms (I know, because I measured and apparently size mattered to them).
On weekends I'd drive the forty-five minutes from OU to Central State and visit my girlfriend at the newly constructed dorms. After becoming well-known to her dorm mates and neighbors – even the residents flirting with her on weekdays when I wasn’t around - I started to participate in friendly dorm wars via Halo, a first-person shoot ‘em up! I wasn’t religiously attending, but enjoyed taking the opportunity to snipe particular flirty residents; I couldn’t stop them during the week, but enjoyed embarrassing them on the weekend!
One visiting weekend, the devotees and I congregated in a small lounge ready to divide into Red and Blue teams. The process was a simple, but was taking longer than usual today on account of the intrusion of a new player - a new female player. I was the only one unfamiliar with the girl, but also the only one not drooling and pining for her attention. It was clear this “Halo girl” loved the spotlight. I wasn’t about to fall for it although understood her popular following. Most of these guys never received attention from girls, let alone one with a flawless slender frame with just-enough curves and a “genuine” interest in video games. I was still pessimistic. Just because she strutted into the room donning fitted yoga pants, accentuating her perfectly contoured lower body with an X-Box S-Controller lingering around her neck, did not mean she could handle a game like Halo.
Girls are perfectly capable of handling two dimensional, up-and-down, back-and-forth movements (see Tetris, Mario Bros., etc.). Halo was not a girl-friendly game. Any girl that attempts to play, gets lost in the expansive virtual fields, confused at the concept of three dimensional movement, spends the majority of their time spinning in circles and are easy targets for opposing teams to earn points or “kills”.
Halo Girl couldn't possibly be any different. She was too gorgeous and confident to actually be skilled, or even decent at a man's game, like Halo. As fate would have it, she was paired up with my friend Zach and me as members of the Blue team. I was certain she would be in constant need of babysitting lest she become cannon fodder and hurt our score.
I was wrong.
Playfully teasing about being a girl gamer, not wanting to fall for her deceptive and alluring lips like the rest of the herd, I joked that she “try and stay close so we can protect you”. She just continued to brag about her prowess with a sniper rifle.
The game started.
Halo Girl revealed her foul-mouthed, trigger-happy, inner-self. Zach was quickly left behind as we proceeded to sweep through rooms of opponents. I started sweating. She was at the heels of my kill count and catching up. Life wasn’t much different on the other side of the controller where we started to talk, laugh, joke, and flirt. Flirting was unavoidable. We clicked on every level. Then the dorm room door clicked open and my girlfriend walked in as Halo Girl and I were celebrating another capture-the-flag win with a vigorous victory embrace.
"Are you going to spend any time with me or are you going to play Halo all night?"
I quickly released our embrace.
"We'll be done soon.”
She glanced at Halo Girl and glared at me with dagger eyes. You know what I’m talking about!
When we were safe again, Halo Girl asked, “Who was that?”
“Oh, nobody just my girlfriend.”
A steel wall went up between us before I finished saying "girlfriend" and the once faithful Halo Girl scooted closer to the forgotten Zach. On the other side of the controller, she began sweeping through opponents with Zack, too. I was almost certain something was wrong when Halo Girl tried to run over me with a Scorpion Tank, claiming it was by accident and I should “be more careful of who I choose to follow”.
After the last game, we stood arms-length from each other in the empty dorm halls. I wanted to know when she would be playing again. Halo Girl said she wouldn’t be playing again – she was transferring to a college out of state. I was never going to have a second chance to play with her. Do you know that feeling when you want to say something, something important, but can’t think of just the right words to say it? We were both feeling that. Finally, I admitted:
"It was great playing with you. Good luck in college"
"Thank you''
She turned and strolled away. I turned, defeated, and went to argue with my girlfriend.
In some ways, I was grateful Halo Girl wouldn’t be around anymore to distract me from my girlfriend. It’s also foolish to fall in love with someone you just met and didn’t even catch their real name, right?
Time passed and Halo Girl was out of my life, but not my memory. Every path crossed with a girl gamer was met with disappointment. There was only one Halo Girl and I would never find her again.
In 2009, everything was going according to plan. My professional and personal life was starting to reach the fabled equilibrium. Then, everything changed three days ago when I was reunited with my Halo Girl.
