ONE
NOVA
ONE MONTH BEFORE HELLFIRE NIGHT.
“I’ll meetyou in there. Just hold them off.” I lean forward in my gaming chair and tap the controls on the keyboard as I fight off enemies in the game.
Brandon growls over the headset. “I don’t think you understand. I’m surrounded by them.” An explosion fills my headphones. “Jesus Christ!”
“I’m getting there as fast as I can.” I bite my bottom lip as my avatar rushes into the next room to save him from being killed. More space aliens come out of nowhere and shoot at me. I jam my finger repeatedly on the arrow button as I fire my weapon at them.
“Ahh, fuck!” Brandon bellows.
The game blurs, and a window pops up on the screen.
Game Over. Play again?
Huffing, I lean back in my seat. “Sorry I didn’t get to you in time.”
Brandon sighs, then chuckles as he runs his fingers through his dark hair behind his headphones. The sound never fails to make my stomach do that weird thing where it flips and fills with butterflies at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it, princess,” he says, sending my heart into a race at his pet name for me. “We chose the hardest level, and it’s our first time.”
His chair squeaks over the headset as he twists it from side to side. Then silence stretches between us, and I mentally scramble to think of something witty to say. No, not witty. Flirty.
His soft laugh breaks the silence, like he can tell I’m nervous. “I think we should stick with normal settings for a while.”
“Aww. You don’t wanna try again?” I flash my webcam a mischievous smirk.
He chuckles. “No, I’m good.” He pauses, then sighs, his breath blowing into the mic and making a static sound. “It’s getting late, and I have work in the morning.”
My smile falls. Glancing at the corner of my screen to check the time, I frown. I can’t believe how much time has passed since we started playing earlier this evening.
I squint my eyes, thinking it’ll change the numbers and it’s really only eleven o’clock. Maybe I’m hallucinating from lack of sleep and my brain is dropping off the extra one. Blinking again, I huff when the time doesn’t change. “Is it really one in the morning?”
Brandon snickers. “Yeah, and I’ve gotta get up in four hours.”
“Then get some sleep. We can play later when we aren’t busy.”
His groan sends heat through my veins and raises my temperature by a few degrees. “I really don’t want to go to bed. I love spending time with you.”
I bite my bottom lip to hide a smile. “I love spending time with you too, but you need to get some rest before work.”
“Will do.” An odd look flashes over his handsome features before he says, “By the way, I don’t want to come off weird or anything by asking this?—”
I sit straighter in my seat and hold my breath, hoping he’s about to ask me out on a date. He lives in town, but we have yet to bump into each other this whole time. I’ve been dying to hang out with him in person, and he seems to be as into me as I’m into him. Yet something stops him from making the first move to turn this friendship into something more.
“—but I saw your Instagram post,” Brandon says, drawing my attention back to him. “Didn’t know you ride a motorcycle.”
I let out a breath and sag in my seat. “No, but I’d like to learn.”
“Oh yeah? It’s your boyfriend’s?”
I scrunch my nose. It’s my brother’s bike, but if Brandon knew, he’d backpedal on his statement.
He catches my disgruntled look, then chuckles. “So he’s just a friend, then? Got it. I’ll just warn you that if he’s letting you pose on his bike and post it on social media, he wants in your pants.”
“What?” My eyes widen, and I shake my head. “No way.”
