Page 74 of From Drummer to Gamer

CHAPTER 16

SIERRA

I was living a double life or triple life maybe. At this point, I wasn’t sure.

Was it hard? Hell yes.

But was I complaining? No.

Not at all.

Because now I get to talk to Matty whenever I want and for however long I wanted without him catching onto my suspicious behavior.

For the past few days, I’d stuck to a well-planned routine that I specifically curated so I could come off as a diligent pre-med student while secretly pretending to be Luna to Matty, all the while trying to be myself.

The structured plan involved me stepping out every weekday exactly at nine o’clock to the local e-gaming café where I played with Matty and came back home to be Sierra.

The girl who probably had a few secrets up her sleeve, but she was as real as she could get.

Most people living different lives would have a serious case of identity crisis, but not me.

I knew exactly who I was to the point that even a tiny dot of deviation glared hard at me in the mirror.

Daisy Luna was my alter ego and that was all she ever would be, like a skin of a character one would put on before a game. Yes, at times, I admired her confidence and resilience, but at the end of the day, that wasn’t who I was.

I was Sierra Chan, quirky with a bad mouth, fiercely loyal and protective of her family, funny with zero intellect, awkward but kind, a gaming geek with a soft heart, and Matty Evan’s number-one fangirl.

Some people are born to be strong and fearless and brave. Some, like me, are meant to be gentle and soft and loved.

And I thought the latter fit me better.

But pretending was exhausting, especially now that I was pretending to lead multiple lives to the same person. One slip and I would be caught dead. The risks didn’t outweigh the goal.

The goal was more important.

But here I was, swayed by the feelings of the heart. Which never listened to the brain at all for a reason.

Yet what was the brain without the heart anyway?

You can be brain-dead but not heart-dead.

Then you would be dead,dead.

Matty didn’t even spare me a look as he dropped to his usual armchair facing the windows where spring rains were bashing outside.

That was a new one.

Even though that man acted like he barely tolerated the Chan siblings’ presence, his eyes followed me like I was his favorite art piece and he was studying the lines to recreate the masterpiece.

I caught him a few times now that I could confirm that he always watched me, and if I were anyone else, I could get my hopes up thinking he appreciated my beauty, and maybe…just maybe he liked me, but me? I was a Cheetos-riddled mess with untamed hair, so in his head, he probably wondered how such an eccentric human could exist in this modern world.

“Hey, Matty,” I said sweetly from my upside-down position, my head cushioned on the couch edge while I dangled my feet in the air. I knew sitting like this wasn’t healthy and wouldn’t get me smarter, but it helped me strategize and game map.

The prelims were a hit last week. Our team still ranked third, but it didn’t matter.

The forthcoming weeks, when we had head-to-head eliminations, would determine our fate in the game.

We couldn’t lose even one of them.