He and his friend chortle again. “Do you hear these guys? What a bunch of nerds. How about we play a real game?” He storms over to an extra controller and exits the game before we have a chance to save our progress.
“Hey!” both Kylen and I shout.
Kylen shrugs at me. “At least we can go back in time and undo the poor cow’s trauma.”
“Kylen, I harvested all the crops and gave them in to the quest giver,” I whine.
Kylen scowls at Richie. “The monster.”
Richie hands another controller to Derek and loads the monkey game. “Get ready to get owned, losers.”
Before we get to the character selection, Kylen goes into the settings. “This time, we’re turningoffthe boosts,” he says in a cool manner.
I can see Richie mentally kicking himself in an “Ah, darn, they know the trick” kind of way.
He and Derek have squeezed themselves on the sofa, since that provides the best view of the game. It really wouldn’t be fair to sit on the nearby chairs. The result is my body being pressedsuper close to Kylen’s. Everywhere he touches me burns and sends chills down my spine at the same time.
“Sorry,” he whispers, his breath warm on my cheek.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
“Ready to show these fools who’s boss?” he asks.
“I was born ready.”
I once again choose the adorable female monkey with the pink bow while Richie and Derek run to grab the most burly-looking monkeys. How their characters look has nothing to do with the players’ actual skill, so this is obvious to show dominance. But Kylen is very happy with his scrawny-looking monkey. I think it suits my monkey very well.
“Two out of three?” Derek asks.
“Fine with me,” Kylen says, and I nod.
And so begins Game 1. Kylen and I start off ahead for the first few minutes, but then Richie and Derek’s monkeys zoom ahead because they haven’t stumbled once. Derek is a really good player, and Richie is pretty good, too. But Kylen and I are just as good as well.
Then I miss a moving platform and plummet to the ground. All of the other three monkeys continue racing ahead while my monkey gets resurrected, floating over my partner’s head in a bubble.
“It’s okay,” Kylen says in a reassuring tone as he leaps into the air to pop my bubble. “Minor mishap. You’ve got this.”
I push the stumble out of my head and focus on the game because there’s no point lingering on the past. Richie and Derek are way ahead of us because of my mistake, but I can’t focus on that. I can’t give up, and there’s always a chance one of them will fall, too.
But unfortunately, they play a clean game, and they reach the end of the level so quickly that they beat the current record.
“Yeah!” Both Derek and Richie leap off the chairs and smack their chests into each other. “That’s how it’s done!” Richie cheers. “That’s how you own!” The rest of the kids holler and cheer.
I can’t help but berate myself. It’s my fault we lost so royally.
A warm hand slips into mine. I glance down at them before raising my eyes to Kylen.
“Don’t listen to them,” he says softly. “I don’t know what they’re trying to prove here, but all that matters to me is that we’re having fun. So forget about them, and forget about having to prove anything to them. The only people in the room are you and me, okay? Little Miss Monkey with Scrawny Monkey. We’ve got this.” He squeezes my hand with a sweet smile.
I return the smile and the squeeze. “Only you and me.”
When all the cheering and the hollering finally die down, and Richie and Derek are back on the sofa, we start Game 2. If they win, it’s over. If we win, there’s still a chance. But as Little Miss Monkey leaps after Scrawny Monkey, I realize that Kylen is right. He and I wanted to prove to them that girls are just as good at video games as guys, but does that really matter? The guy is a jerk and he will always be a jerk, unless he gets a personality transplant. Why should Kylen and I have a miserable time not enjoying the game just to prove a point? The only thing that should matter is that we have fun together.
So I let go of everything and just enjoy the game. Our monkeys are in perfect sync as we work together to get to the finish line. Now that the pressure is off, I don’t feel so nervous. I really have fun.
My jaw hangs open when my monkey is the first to reach the end of the level, followed very closely by Kylen’s. And a few seconds later, the burly monkeys reach the end.
Richie stares at the screen like his entire world just vanished before his eyes. “What the…?”
