“Right back at you, Count Von Count. You have time for someHockeyStars? I can teach you how to play goalie?”
Strangely, I turned out to be quite good at playing goalie inHockeyStars. Like ... really good. Weird.
27
The Return of the Gamer-Boy
After playing for about an hour, Daniel had to leave for hockey practice. He still liked to skate with the team even though he couldn’t hold a stick yet. So I went downstairs to see what was happening for dinner.
Tahira was standing in front of the open fridge. “Mom called,” she said. “She’s got a late meeting or something. We’re on our own again.” She closed the fridge, a handful of vegetables in her hands. “I’m making an omelet.”
I shrugged. I didn’t have that much of an appetite.
Tahira tilted her head, concerned. “What’s wrong? Rough day?”
I exhaled. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“What happened?” she asked as she took a knife out of the drawer.
I sat on the stool at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and told Tahira everything while she cut up mushrooms, peppers, and onions.
“Holy shit,” she said. “I can’t believe Jayden would do that. And that girl Kavita. I can’t believe any of these people would do any of this.”
I nodded. “I know. I don’t even know what to think.”
“What are you going to do about your game-dev team?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Kavita obviously isn’t welcome anymore. I think Aimee might leave if I kick out Jayden, and I have no idea how we can continue without her art.” I sighed. I needed to talk to Aimee about this. “Shockingly, Hana seems to be an okay person. I can’t believe Devin turned in Kavita. Hana seemed pretty sure that Devin is still hung up on me.”
Tahira snorted as she took the eggs out of the fridge. “IsDevin hung up on you?”
“I have no idea. But he told Hana he never wanted me to get hurt, and we wereduo goalsor something.” I paused, thinking. “‘Duo goals’ is a weird thing to say, isn’t it? Isn’t the common phrasecouple goals?” A realization hit me. A major, horrendous, revolting realization.“Fuck.”
Tahira raised one brow. “What? You’ve gone all white.”
I blinked. “When Devin and I were together, he never, not once, called uscouple goals. Or duo goals. Butduois what you call a two-person party in Dragon Arena. You know who used to say we wereduo goals?”
“Who?”
“LostAxis.Devinis LostAxis.”
Tahira put down the carton of eggs. “Holy crap.”
“I need to go to Devin’s.”
Tahira took the plastic wrap out of the drawer. “Screw omelets. I’ll drive you. I have the car.”
The Kapadia family lived in an enormous house about fifteen minutes from ours. Tahira pulled into the empty driveway. I hadn’t been here in months. I used to love this house. I’d spent hours here—sometimes with Devin’s parents, but most of the time alone with him. He and I studied together. Watched movies in the living room. And we’d spent hours hanging out ... alone ... in his bedroom.
It was weird being here now. I didn’t feel like I belonged anymore.
“Want me to come in?” Tahira asked.
I shook my head as I unbuckled the seat belt. “Nah. I can handle it.”
“Okay. I’ll go pick up shawarmas for dinner. I’ll be back in about twenty.”
I got out of the car. When I rang the doorbell, Devin answered the door immediately.
