THE beetle? Oh, please give it to me. I can’t play now though, I’m heading out. I’ll be free later. Much, much later.
She sounded like herself again. I typed a reply without waiting a second:I’ll keep the beetle. I caught it for you.Unsure of how tonight’ll go. You might be on your own, Pancakes.
@pancakesareelite:
Boooring.
It’s way more fun when you’re involved.
Blood rushed to my ears. Claire squeaked beside me, her gaze fixed on my screen.
“Don’t,” I said to her, and before I could reply to Lily, my gaming laptop died. I grabbed my phone, but it was dead too. I grumbled and shoved my laptop into my backpack, enviously looking at William, who still had power.
Before Claire could say anything about what she’d seen, I put my phone on charge and changed the topic. “How’s theOverpowerLAN planning coming along?”
William spun on his chair and faced us. “Oh, it’s awesome. I posted the details for the LAN event about an hour ago.” His smile was wide, and his dimple deep. “Please repost and share, and do whatever you need to do. We want a big turnout. The event of the century.”
“That isa lotto ask from a LAN,” Dean said, and was met by unimpressed stares. As the only non-gamer in the group, he must be used to this.
Rose hopped over to William’s side. “Dean’s right. It’s a bunch of nerds getting together to play a game. Maybe you should lower your expectations.”
“Let me rephrase,” William said, and I couldn’t help but notice how his arm curled around Rose’s waist with such ease. “I want it to be the gamer event of the century. Every gamer we know on this side of the world needs to attend.”
William’s words struck that already worn chord in my head.
“Every gamer?” I mumbled to myself.
“Do you think Lily will come?” Claire asked, reading my glitching mind.
My stomach dropped. “Uhhhhhh…”
“We’ve spoken about this before. Did you not consider it?” Claire twisted and glanced at my face.
“Uhhhh…” Words escaped me. Thoughts escaped me. Lily could be there. Lilywouldbe there.
“Would you know who she is?” Dean asked without looking up from his phone.
“Uhhhh…”
Say something useful.
But would I? Would she know who I was? Had I ever described myself to her? My avatar was a pixelated beloved fictional character.
“What does she look like? I’ll keep an eye out,” Rose said.
Everyone knew I chatted with a woman online while gaming. All of a sudden, in front of these people who had real relationships, it felt rather childish.
But they were waiting for me to say something. I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know. Probably not.” I exhaled and should have been relieved. But I wasn’t. Everything inside me was twisting.
“If she registers and logs in using her gamertag, I’ll be able to see which station she’ll be gaming at.” William lifted his dark eyebrows at me. “If you want to know.”
“I don’t,” I said quickly, unsure if it was true. It was. I think.
“I know you’ve said you don’t want to meet her, but don’t you even want to know who she is, like, from a distance?” Claire asked, trying to make eye contact with me, but I resisted.
I shook my head.
“Do you think she’s a weirdo? Will it break the fantasy you have of her?” Claire asked.
