I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. “Two months? Your brother will be here for two months!”

My girlfriend and I had just bought an apartment together in Manhattan, and we finally had a place to ourselves. For years, we’d lived with roommates in the close confines of New York City. Now that we finally had a studio apartment to ourselves, Stacy had invited her little punk brother to come to stay with us.

“Please,” she begged me. “The kid can’t afford to do an internship without us.”

I was no fan of Stacy’s little brother but didn’t feel like I could say no either. At 19-years-old, he had just finished his first year of college and landed his first internship in NYC. With no money for rent, the only way he could swing it was to crash with us in our 600-square-foot apartment in the Upper East Side.

“Fine,” I agreed, unwillingly. “I just hope Ayden’s not at home a lot. I don’t want him in our space.”

*****

Two months later, Ayden arrived in the Big Apple. At 5’10”, he was a little shorter than I was and skinny too. He looked like a twig next to my more toned and muscular body and clearly didn’t work out much. But with blond hair and blue eyes, he had a boyish look about him that seemed to work well with the ladies. Perhaps he was just engaging in typical male banter, but he always boasted about getting “tons of sex” at college.

Apart from Stacy, who I’d now been dating for six years, I wasn’t much of a player in my youth. I only had sex with two girls before I met Stacy, and I’ve been faithful to her ever since.

When Ayden arrived at our apartment, he seemed a little shocked by how small it was. In a typical studio apartment, we had a queen-sized bed, a TV, a couch, an armchair, and a small kitchenette with a stove, a fridge, and a tiny table just big enough for two or three people. Ayden would have to sleep on the couch, and Stacy and I would be on the bed just a few feet away.

I told Stacy that this was far too close of quarters, but she assured me it would work. “He’s my brother,” she assured me. “Everything will be just fine.”

Apart from his clothes in a small suitcase, Ayden’s one thing brought to the apartment was an Xbox 1. To me, this seemed like a red flag. “Who brings an Xbox to New York?” I asked Stacy. “Doesn’t he want to go outside and explore the City?”

Stacy assured me that this would only be for two months and that Ayden needed his Xbox. “He’s socially awkward,” she said. “It helps him relax.”

With my veto clearly overridden, Ayden moved into our apartment with his Xbox. Stacy was right that everything seemed fine at first. Ayden started his internship and was busy at work, and Stacy and I were both occupied with our jobs as well. Ayden also spent time exploring the city, going on runs in Central Park, visiting museums with student discounts, and talking to girls he met on Tinder.

However, bit by bit, I noticed a worrying trend. Ayden began spending more time playing Xbox at home. This wasn’t a big deal since Stacy and I were rarely home, but it started to creep into our alone time together on nights and weekends. As Stacy and I sat in bed and talked or read, Ayden would be on the couch, playing Halo on the Xbox. Then, on weekend mornings, we’d wake up, and he’d already been up playing Fortnite. Ayden was nice enough to keep the volume down, but it was just somewhat annoying that my boyfriend’s little brother was constantly playing Xbox in our tiny apartment.

Things stayed under control until Stacy left town for work. She had a one-week work trip to Toronto and asked Ayden and me to hold down the fort.

Although I was used to Stacy leaving town, I wasn’t used to sharing my space with her teenage brother. At 27-years-old, I’m eight years older than Ayden and not super jazzed about hanging out with him. He wasn’t even old enough to go to bars, so the main thing he did was play Xbox.

Stacy left on a Thursday night and the first day went swimmingly. I ordered takeout for Ayden and me, and we watched one of the old Predator movies on Netflix. At one point during the movie, Ayden took his shirt off. “It’s hot in here,” he said. I didn’t think anything of it because he was right. It was really hot, and our air conditioning has always been lousy in this older apartment.

After the movie, I went out to meet some friends for drinks. Predictably, Ayden stayed in to play Xbox. By the time I got back at 2 am, he was passed out on the couch. Although Ayden normally wore basketball shorts and a t-shirt while Stacy was here, he had now stripped down to a pair of boxers. I didn’t think anything of it and did the same thing myself. After all, it was hot in here, and we were also just two dudes sleeping on different surfaces. I lay down on the bed and was out like a light.

*****

When I came to around 11 am, Ayden was already up playing Xbox. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said.

I went to the bathroom and started getting ready for the day. “Have you made any coffee yet?” I asked Ayden.

“Nope,” he replied.

It bugged me a little bit that Ayden never did anything around the apartment. Stacy and I paid for all of his groceries, cooked him meals, and cleaned up after him. Yet, all he did was play Xbox, and he couldn’t even make his own coffee in the morning?

I didn’t verbalize any of these concerns but instead made plenty of coffee for both me and Ayden. I then went down to a bagel shop to get some breakfast. As I brought him a bagel sandwich with egg and cheddar, he barely looked up to thank me.

“Sweet, man,” is all he said.

I was a little annoyed that Ayden was still in his boxers playing Xbox and seemingly making no effort to leave the apartment. After being cooped up with him and Stacy, I rather wanted space for myself, so I decided to go to a museum. “See you later,” I said, walking out the door.

I spent eight full hours outside the apartment, walking around the City, going to the Met, and taking the train to a farmer’s market on the lower east side. It was a fun and rejuvenating day, but I got back to the apartment, pretty beat and ready to relax.

As I stepped back into my studio, I was surprised to see Ayden right where I left him, in the same pair of dirty boxers, still sitting on the couch.

“Have you eaten anything?” I asked.

“Just some stuff I found in the fridge,” he replied.

“Umm, those were my leftovers from yesterday that I was going to eat for dinner,” I told him.

“Oh, okay.”

As Ayden sat on the couch playing Halo, I whipped up some mac and cheese, which wasn’t nearly as delicious as the filet mignon I’d been saving from lunch the day before. As I ate the mediocre macaroni and stared at Ayden, my anger towards him began to grow.

Here was this kid who had invaded our apartment and somehow thought it was okay to eat my leftovers and sit around all day playing Halo. Moreover, he was wearing the same dirty boxers that he had last night, and I could almost smell his BO. The only thing he had going for him is that he was such a cute and skinny kid that I couldn’t even fathom lifting a finger against it. But he sure could use a lesson and get put in his place. He needed to learn some discipline and start treating people with more respect.

“Do you want to play?” Ayden asked me.

I looked at the screen and saw he was playing Halo 5. I’d played previous versions back in college and had been pretty good at it. I’d always won Halo tournaments in my college dorm and beat most people I played online.

“Sure,” I said, grabbing the extra controller. For the moment, I briefly forgot how mad I was that Ayden had been sitting and gaming all day.

“Have you played before?” he asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “I used to win tournaments in my college dorm.”

“That’s awesome,” he said, sounding genuinely enthused. “Maybe we should play a tournament.”

“What do you mean?”

“One on one, the best man wins,” Ayden said, winking at me.

“Sure,” I replied. “Game on.”

*****

The first match was a blood bath. Literally, Ayden killed me ten times. I was clearly a bit rusty with my Halo skills and no match for this teenage guy who clearly played it every day.

“Not bad,” Ayden said after the first round. “I bet you’ll get better.”

I was steaming after the first game and pissed off that I hadn’t gotten a single kill. “Oh, you’re gonna get it this time!” I yelled.

“Wanna bet?” Ayden replied coolly.

Feeling cocky and a bit vindictive, I told him to name his bet.

“How about if you get one kill, I’ll take off these boxers. But if I win the match, you lose a piece of clothing.”

It took me a minute to register what I heard. Ayden was sitting there almost naked except for a pair of boxers. If I killed him one time, just once, he would have to take them off. I had zero interest in seeing this guy naked but wouldn’t mind knocking him down a peg and putting him in his place.

If I lost, if Ayden killed me ten times, then I had to take off just one piece of clothing. The odds were incredible. Here I was fully clothed, with ten lives to spare. All I had to do was kill Ayden once, and he’d be fully naked. Was he purposefully trying to take all his clothes off?

“You’re on,” I replied. “I hope you like being naked.”

“We’ll see,” he laughed. “You shouldn’t be so cocky.”

I couldn’t believe that Ayden was calling me cocky. He was the one who proposed this ludicrous bet, and he was certainly about to pay the price.

*****

The second match was a repeat of the first. To my dismay, Ayden obliterated me a whopping ten times. Every time I spawned, I tried to find him and kill him, but he always hit me first. Whether by a sniper, laser gun, or melee-ing me in the back, Ayden destroyed me every time.

“Time to pay up,” he said gleefully.

As I set down my controller, I quickly took off my shirt. This was partly because it was hot again in our apartment but also because I wanted Ayden to see my muscles. Compared to his thin and lanky torso, I clearly worked out and had a good definition of my Pecs, Abs, and Biceps.

Ayden barely noticed as he prepared for game three. Although he was obviously very good at Halo, I found it to be a fluke that he’d killed me 20 times without me getting him once in return. This time I was convinced that I would make him lose the dirty boxers.

However, Ayden once again dominated in game three. Racking up kill after kill, he countered my every move, making me look like a total novice. In this game, Ayden also started ratcheting up the trash talk.

“Have you ever played this game before?” He laughed. “What kind of tournaments did you win back in college?”

I didn’t respond as I quickly took off one of my socks. “Let’s play again,” I said. “This time, you’re going down.”

I was convinced that I would win, but Ayden kept destroying me in round four. Somehow he anticipated my every position as if he had a sixth sense of where I would be. I almost killed him once with a grenade, but I died right before he did from my own grenade.

“Ahaaaaa…” I yelled. “Gotcha!”

“That doesn’t count!” He argued. “You killed yourself first, and I already own the game!”

Sure enough, I looked at the screen. Counting my suicide, Ayden had racked up 10 kills before I registered a single one. Ayden had now won four games in a row, a mindboggling 40 kills, and I had only come close to beating him once. I begrudgingly removed my other sock.

*****

Ayden and I took a break to grab some beer. We’d now been playing Halo for an hour, and I hadn’t gotten a single kill. I really hated this little punk and was determined to knock him down a peg.

Even though he wasn’t 21, Ayden also drank a beer and basked in his victory. “I really thought you had me on that last one,” he joked. “Maybe next time!”

It pissed me off a bit that Ayden was rubbing his Halo skills in my face. This had been my game in college, and I’d never been beaten this badly.

“We don’t have to keep playing, you know,” Ayden told me. “You can always quit while you have some clothes left.”

I still had on my jeans and underwear, which was far more than Ayden’s measly boxers were. Sure, he’d killed me 40 times before, but I was warmed up now and confident that I could take him out at least once.

“Let’s do this,” I said as I finished my beer. “I’m going to end you.”

Ayden and I sat back on the couch and picked up our controllers. He was in his boxers, and I was shirtless, and we were just two bros playing video games. The only problem was that I was starting to hate him and growingly increasingly jealous.

I definitely did better in game five. I came close to sneaking up on Ayden and melee-ing him in the back, but he suddenly whipped around and blasted me with a shotgun to the face.

“SUCK IT!” he yelled. “You almost had me there, bro!”

I was really getting annoyed by Ayden’s trash talk but determined to keep going. So when I re-spawned, I hopped into a vehicle and decided to run him over. But Ayden was too fast for me. So with one throw of a grenade, he stole my last life and ended around five.

“Hahahahahahahaa, the little punk laughed. “You suck at this SO bad.”

I couldn’t believe that Ayden had now destroyed me fifty fucking times. This little punk had played me and now was making me lose my pants.

As I stood up to take off my jeans, Ayden kept making fun of me. “Woo-hoo!” he screamed. “Why don’t you give me a dance as you strip for me?”

I glared when my pants fell to the floor until I stood before Ayden in a pair of baby blue boxer briefs. “Nice undies,” he exclaimed. “Are those the kind my sister likes? They look kinda, girly, almost like panties.”

Without a word, I sat back down and adjusted my crotch. I technically had the same number of clothing items as Ayden now, but it felt like he had more than me because his boxers were less revealing.

“We don’t have to play anymore,” Ayden said. “You can just surrender.”

His words washed over me as I tried to digest what he had to say. In a way, I knew he was right. I had been dominated repeatedly, and only ten more kills separated me from total nudity. However, I was so pissed off that I couldn’t bear to surrender to this cocky kid. He was so arrogant that I desperately wanted to knock him off his Halo pedestal.

“I’m good,” I replied. “You’re really going down this time.”

“Alright, big boy.” He said. “Hope you’re ready to get naked!”

And with that, we started game six, where I was determined to get revenge on this smug little punk.

*****

This was by far my closest game yet. I found Ayden’s hideaway, where he’d been restocking on guns and ammo for several games before. Crouching there with an invisibility cloak, I waited to ambush him; but weirdly, he never came. I waited and waited, but Ayden outwitted me. Finally, I left the cave and was immediately shot by a sniper.

“Fuck!” I yelled. It felt like this teenage jerk was anticipating my every move.

“Nice try,” Ayden gloated.

Before I knew it, Ayden killed me four more times, and I’d lost the game. Now I was sixty kills behind, and he’d obliterated me every time. There was nothing I could do at this point but give up and move on with my life.

“Good game,” I said. “You really got me.”

“You made a valiant effort, but time for you to lose the shorts.”

“What?” I asked. “I thought we were joking about getting naked.”

Ayden chuckled. “I offered to take off my boxers if you got one fucking kill, and now you don’t want to pay up? Are you afraid of your small dick or something?”

Ayden’s words were really starting to annoy me. Not only had he humiliated me at Halo, but now he was also insulting my manhood. I didn’t want to give him the pleasure of knowing that I was afraid to strip naked, so I stood up and prepared to remove my underwear.

I started to shuck off my boxer briefs with my back towards Ayden and my dick towards the TV. As they fell to the floor, I heard a ‘woot-woot’ from my girlfriend’s little brother.

“Nice ass,” he said, jokingly.

I did actually have a nice ass from all my time in the gym. Squats were one of my favorite workouts, and I had nice, firm buns from all the time I spent on leg day.

As I turned around to sit back down, Ayden let out a gasp and then burst out laughing. “Is that all you got? No wonder you were so afraid of getting naked.”

Frozen in place, I looked down at my two-inch softie. There was nothing wrong with it, and I always felt in the middle of the pack in the college locker room. Stacy had certainly never complained about my dick size, and I assumed her little brother was packing nothing special.

“Shut up,” I told him. “I’m sure it’s much bigger than your little thing.”

“You wish,” he retorted. “If you didn’t suck so much at Halo, you’d actually have a shot at seeing my big fucking man’s dick. Instead, my poor sister has to put up with your baby dick. That sucks, bro.”

As I stood naked in my own living room, I couldn’t have been more annoyed at Ayden. He had completely ruined my Saturday night and now was being an obnoxious little brat.

“Fine,” I said with a sneer. “Wanna bet again? I bet I’d kick your ass at FIFA.”

FIFA soccer was one video game that I had never seen Ayden play. I knew he had it because it was sitting on our bookshelf, but I’d never once seen him turn it on. Meanwhile, I’d played it tons in college and generally beat my roommates most of the time.

“You’re on,” He said. “But what’s in it for me? You’re already naked.”

I thought about this for a second and realized that he had a point. I almost withdrew the bet until Ayden chimed in again.

“How about this…” he said. “The loser has to do a dare from the winner and to make things even if you win, and I’ll lose my shorts and do a dare. Are you in?”

I wasn’t sure what the dare would be, but Ayden’s logic seemed sound. More than anything, I wanted to humiliate this kid and knock him down a peg, so forcing him to get naked and making him do a dare sounded sweet to me.

The End.