“Jayden’s gonna be pissed. He’s dying for one of those,” Aimee said.
Jayden was the Dark Mage in our regularDragon Arenaguild. Jayden was also one of Devin’s best friends. The guild was a group of about twenty players, mostly from our school, who played together online last year. We’d even had a few in-person gaming sessions. I’d stopped playing with the guild last June after Devin dumped me, but Cass had told me the guild hadn’t played all summer anyway, since everyone was too busy with camps and summer jobs. Last time I heard from Jayden, he accused me of breaking up the guild. I reminded him that since Devin was the one who dumped me, he should take it up with his best friend.
“I don’t care if Jayden’s pissed,” I said. He wanted an Obsidian Staff, but there was no point in being mad that I had one. If he was jealous, he could just find someone to do the quest with to get his own.
“Yesterday he told me he’s having aDragon Arenaparty next month,” Aimee said.
I raised a brow. “You’re talking regularly to Jayden now?”
“Yeah. So?”
I frowned. I knew things would be awkward this year since Devin and I had so many friends in common, but I didn’t think one of my closest friends would getcloserto Devin’s friend after we broke up.
“Are you, like,talking, or just talking,” Cass said, mocking Aimee’s earlier emphasis on the word.
Aimee waved her hand. “Enough about Jayden. I want to hear more about Samaya’s mystery guy. You say there’s no flirting, but would you even know flirting if you saw it? Because you and Devin were together a long time, so you might be a bit rusty—”
She had a point, but I hit her (gently) on her lace-covered arm anyway.
“Let me see his messages,” Aimee said.
There really was no hiding from my friends. I opened theDragon Arenamessage app and handed my phone to Aimee.
“He’s into you,” Aimee announced after three seconds of reading. “See this? He always makes plans to play again after a run. What’s with the weird animal facts?”
I shrugged. “He’s quirky.”
“What do you know about him?” Cass asked. “He could be a forty-year-old in Florida or something. Did I ever tell you that kid I met in Arkansas, the one I’ve been playingFair Gemswith, isn’t really akidat all?”
I snorted. “What are they, a cat?”
They laughed again. “No, theyarea person—just not a kid. Her name is Carol, and she’s like a seventy-five-year-old grandma.”
“Holy crap.” Aimee laughed. “Are you still playing with her?”
“Hell yeah! TBH, her age only makes her cooler. She swears like a sailor and promised me she’d send some crocheted cozies for my game controllers.”
I laughed. I did, of course, accept that LostAxis might not be who he said he was. What he’d told me was that he was seventeen, like me, and that he lived somewhere in Canada, but he didn’t specify. We’d first met on aDragon Arenamessage board, and there were lots of seventeen-year-old male players.
Aimee was still scrolling through my messages. It could take a while—there was a lot of in-game chatter between us. Out-of-game chatter, too.
“Holy shit, is this him?” Aimee said suddenly, holding up the picture he’d sent me several weeks back. He’d asked me what I thought my character would look like if they were in the real world, so as a joke I’d sent him a picture of Sam I Am, the main character fromGreen Eggs and Ham—which was where my character name came from. But he’d sent me a picture of himself.
It was a distance shot of him with some trees and an old concrete and rusted metal staircase behind him. Of course, I’d zoomed in when I first saw it—and saw that he was cute. Tallish. Broad shoulders. Hehad darker skin and looked like he could be southeast Asian. He was standing straight, looking down and to the right. One hand was holding on to a tall pole of some sort, and his other hand rested on top of it. I’d snorted when I first saw the picture—this was the exact pose inDragon Arenathat Dark Mages equipped with a staff would make when the character was in “waiting mode.”
“He’snice,” Aimee said, zooming in on the picture. “Are those dimples? Love it.” She frowned, tapping her black-sparkled nail on the phone screen. “Where is this? Where does he live?”
“I don’t know. Canada.”
Cass huffed. “That narrows it down.” They took the phone from Aimee, and zoomed in. “What’s on his jacket? A duck?”
I shrugged.
Aimee frowned. “Why didn’t you ask where he lives? If you both live in the same country, I would think you’d ask where.”
“We game together. We have a lot in common. He’s into math and coding, too. But we don’t, you know ... go deep.”
Cass frowned. “Asking him where he lives isdeep?”
