“Nope. I thought about it, but I kinda liked playing with you and—” He was rambling again. He’d gone to play a few times, actually, but they were heading into new territory now, and somehow, even though he didn’t know him, Avery wanted to go there with Abe. He’d liked the calm way he’d talked last week. A lot of the time, when Avery played with strangers, he got these hyperactive dudebros who wanted to curse at the screen and mash buttons until either they or the monsters were dead. Abe had been methodical and a good listener, following Avery’s instructions on navigating the Winterlands to a tee.
Kind of like the way Linc had been so helpful with the futon Avery was now sitting on. Avery liked working through the illustrated how-to guide, but a lot of the time he got overwhelmed with all the bits and pieces, or he’d lose a screwdriver, or wind up with extra parts at the end. Linc was slow and asked good questions, and the whole thing had come together perfectly.
“Still there?” Abe said.
“What? Yeah. Yeah, I’m here. Should we play?”
Playing together was like last time. Easy. So much easier than talking to people in person. Neither had cleared this place in the game before, but Abe had good instincts.
“Have you ever tried the Winter Haven expansion pack?” Avery asked as they trudged up a mountain.
“No. I heard good things, though. Everything they let McCluskey design is awesome.”
“It really is. I got him to sign my poster last year. I went to Raleigh MegaCon. It was amazing. He was just there! Like at a table. You could talk to him and everything!”
The split second of silence before Abe responded was enough to make Avery tense. Was that too nerdy to say?
“That sounds pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I thought so. Man, you should have seen it. There was a firefighter in my apartment last week. He was totally geeking out over the poster.”
This time the pause sounded more like Abe was choking. “A firefighter? Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just a cooking mishap. But then he came back again. I’m not even sure why. I must have seemed really helpless, so he came back to check on me.”
Abe laughed. The closeness of it, even though they were separated by however many miles of cables and internet frequencies, made Avery warm.
“He sounds like a considerate kind of guy.” Something in the way he said it—half serious, half laughing—made the hairs stand up on the back of Avery’s neck.
“Yeah. I mean, they probably all have to be nice, right? Like professionally, I mean. They wouldn’t be great firefighters if they made people feel shitty when they’re also dealing with an emergency.”
“True. But that doesn’t mean he has to be friendly, or comment on the stuff in your apartment. I think a lot of them would stick to keeping it professional. Is there a fire and how do they deal with it?”
“Oh, that’s a good point.” Like Linc’s partner, Vasquez. She had been super professional—and kind of scary. Her attention never wavered from his sweet potato and the microwave. Linc, though, he’d looked around, actually noticed things. Maybe that meant—
Out of nowhere, a troll appeared and pushed Avery off a cliff.
“Holy shit!” Abe laughed. He had a nice laugh. Avery didn’t mind giving up a life for that laugh.
* * *
Linc woke up two hours before he wanted when his phone rang. Of course, at two in the afternoon, a phone call wasn’t completely out of line, but Linc had a twenty-four-hour shift starting at nine and, in a perfect world, he’d like to be asleep until four o’clock. Six would have been even better. But the phone screeched and would not be ignored, particularly when the display picture showed Lilah’s face.
“What’s up?” He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Linc?”
He sat up straight, blinking hard to clear the rest of the sleep out of his brain. “What’s wrong?”
“What if he comes here?”
He sighed. Their desperation must be maxing out if they were calling him.
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.” His baby sister’s voice wobbled, making his heart hurt.
“Where’s Lacey?”
