I was silent for a while. What exactly did he mean by that? Finally, I replied, even more quietly than him, “You make me happy, too, Daniel.”
I didn’t say anything more, but I couldn’t believe I’d even said that. Seemed we were both in deeper than we’d expected.
23
Questing Again
The following evening, a solution to my problem of how to bring Daniel to the party fell into my lap—or rather fell onto Daniel’s wrist. Daniel called me from the hospital while he was getting a cast put on the hairline fracture in his wrist.
He’d been at hockey practice and was stepping off the ice to hit the bench. He’d just taken off those big padded gloves, and literally seconds later, a hockey puck flew over the boards and hit him square on his arm.
“Ugh. I’m sorry,” I said. “That really sucks. Does it hurt a lot?”
“Yeah. I used your pie trick to distract myself.”
“You recited the digits of pi?”
“No, I thought about pie. Specifically, I considered the plausibility of a pineapple meringue pie. Worked well, thanks for the tip.”
“How many games do you think you’ll miss?”
“A couple. We have a bit of a break coming up anyway. But, Samaya, don’t you see? This means Icancome to that dude’s party this weekend! No one will actually expect me to play the game with a cast.”
I frowned. “You sound almost ... gleeful about breaking your wrist.”
“Well, I’m not actuallygleeful. It hurts like hell, and yeah, missing games will suck. But this is a silver lining, isn’t it? I can come, you don’t have to go alone, and we can figure out who the catfisher is together.”
I sighed. After our ... confession to each other the night before, I’d been thinking all day that it was a good thing that Daniel and I weren’t going to have another date after all. As much as I wanted to figure out who LostAxis was, I also still terrified of whatever was happening between me and Daniel.
“What if someone asks you to log in, though?” I asked. “Maybe you can get out of actually playing, but they still think you’re a level fifty. You’re fifteen.”
“Sixteen,” he corrected. “I played alone for a bit after you and I played. Honestly, I play better solo. Which is weird because I am usually a team-sports kind of guy. We can always come up with an excuse if someone wants me to log in. But it totally makes sense for me to come watch my girlfriend play even if I can’t. This will work.”
It could, possibly, maybe work. I sighed. “Fine. Jayden’s party is officially a sting operation. We’re going to smoke out a catfisher.”
On Friday night Cass picked Daniel and me up at the shelter at eight to take us to Jayden’s gaming party. I’d gone to the shelter after school because we needed more time to bake this week since Daniel was one-handed. I’d begged Tahira to go to the mall for me the day before to get Daniel a redDragon Arenashirt from the gaming store since, once again, I didn’t have enough time to mail-order one. I was also wearing aDragon Arenashirt (my black obsidian dragon one), along with black jeans and my black Converse. Daniel had proclaimed me extra vampire-esque tonight. He was wearing the ruby dragon shirt with jeans and red sneakers.
Daniel’s jaw dropped when Cass pulled up in front of Jayden’s house. Jayden lived near Hana, in the posh Beach neighborhood of Toronto. And if Hana’s house was impressive, Jayden’s topped it. By a lot.
Daniel whistled low as we walked up the driveway. “This one is bigger than the last one. You sure your house isn’t like this?”
“Hell no. Although”—I smiled, looking at the Audi in Jayden’s driveway—“my mom has that car. She calls it her baby. Mom won’t let Tahira drive the Audi. She’s only allowed in Dad’s Toyota.”
After chatting with Jayden’s mother for a bit—when she learned Daniel’s cast was from a hockey injury, they bonded over the sport since she used to play in university—we headed downstairs to the gaming party.
“Jayden’s mom seems awesome,” Daniel said. “She should join the women’s rec team that plays in the arena. They’re always looking for players.”
I nodded, following Daniel down the basement steps. “She is awesome. She was super nice the first time I came here. We ended up chatting here in the kitchen while everyone was playing. Whenever my parents meet any of my friends for the first time, Mom first asks what their parents do for a living.”
Jayden’s house was impressive, but the basement game room was really the best part. It was a large, open space with deep brown hardwood floors and warm gray walls. Jayden had set it up like he always did for our guild nights—with a long table (made up of two big wood folding tables) along the middle of the room, with seats all around it. There must have been twenty kids crowded around the table—mostly members of the guild, but some newbies we hadn’t played with, too. Of course Jayden was there, as well as Aimee, Hana, Omar, and Devin. I also saw Kavita and Carson, but not Nabil or Alex.
The game was being projected on one wall, although everyone at the table was looking at their own laptop screens. A seating area near thetable was also full—Daniel wasn’t the only spectator here. Friends and dates of the players were already putting their feet on the coffee table. Daniel joined them. This was the biggest turnout I could remember for a gaming night. It looked like they’d been playing for a bit—some cans of Monster energy drink and small bags of Doritos were already scattered.
Jayden looked up from his seat. “Good. Here’s another Light Mage—this one has an Obsidian Staff. Hope you brushed up on your healing combos, Samaya. Oh, you brought your Dark Mage ... Slide over, Devin. Daniel can sit next to you. We’ll be starting another round in five minutes.”
I raised a brow. Jayden was barely even looking at us. I don’t know what I expected, but with that Whispers post, I assumed people would be more interested in Daniel and I arriving together.
“Daniel’s just here for moral support and to watch,” I said, then pointed to his tie-dye-print cast. “Broken wrist.”
