“I missed you, Lexi,” he said in my ear, and I almost wanted to cry.
When was the last time he’d called me that?
“I missed you too.”
When he pulled back, there was something in the way he looked at me. “I was a dick. I should have been there for you when you moved.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re busy with classes.”
He shook his head. “You should never be too busy for your best friend. I was a dick. Simple as that.”
“Okay. What are you going to do about it? Let me win a game?”
He laughed. “No chance.” And then he was off again, practically running toward the end of the aisle. “Come on. I know what we’re going to play.”
5
TROY
When it cameto arcade games, I was a kid in a candy store. At the best of times, I wanted to play all the games, but now all I wanted was to make sure Alexi had the best time because I had some making up to do.
I stopped when I found the right machine, the familiar design on the arcade cabinet taking me back to my childhood. Light-blue lines on the dark-navy panel and that specific font they used for the game name.
“This is the first game I ever played,” I said.
“How old were you?”
“Eight, I think. Wren used to take me to an arcade in Chester Falls when I was little. I had to stand on a plastic stool to reach the controls.”
Alexi put his beer on the table next to the game and moved the joystick on the left side.
“It must have been nice having a big brother.”
I detected a little sadness in his voice. As far as we knew, Alexi was an only child, abandoned by his biological parents when he was young. He’d lived in group homes and then with foster parents until he met Charlie and Kris.
“Even though there’s a considerable age gap between us, Wren always took time to hang out with me when he didn’t have football practice. Of course, me being me, I wanted to figure out howallthe games worked.”
“Naturally.” He rolled his eyes. “Okay, so how does this one work?”
I set my beer next to his. “We’re the dragons, and we have to save our dragon girlfriends from the evil masters.”
“Girlfriends?” he chuckled.
“No rainbow-friendly version back then, I guess.” I leaned into him and whispered in his ear. “We can save our boyfriends if you like.”
He took a sharp breath and paused before letting it out slowly. “Let’s save our…boyfriends then.”
“When I press the start button, bubbles will come down on the screen. You use the joystick to move your dragon and these buttons to burst the bubbles.”
“Gotcha.”
I pressed the Start button with my hand on the joystick, ready to go.
“Oh,” I added. “We can also shoot at each other.”
It took a second for the words to sink in before Alexi moved his dragon away from mine and toward the bubbles.
We shot them down one by one, keeping an even score for the first level.
