Me:Yes, please.
Connor:Okay, then you suck and I’m glad you can’t go out with me because I was going to have to stab myself in the face with a fork if I had to see you again.
How did I like him so much already?
I texted:Poured it on too thick so now I know you’re lying. You’re obviously dying to see me again.
Connor:Perhaps.
I sighed and wished I could just talk to him all day. I texted:I have to go to work now, but thanks for being understanding.
I wanted to addplease please please raincheck me!!but I restrained myself.
I didn’t want to seem desperate, especially when “coy” and “elusive” were the adjectives I was supposed to be striving for.
Connor:Of course. I’m a hell of a guy.
Me:You just might be.
“I’m leaving,” I said as I put on my jacket. My dad was watchingGood Morning America—he watched it every morning until he left for work—but I knew he wasn’t really watching. “Do you need anything before I go?”
“Nah. Drive safe, kid.”
I wanted to hug him, to say something to pull him out of himself, but I was pretty sure just mentioning my mom would bring on tears and I knew my bawling wouldn’t help him. So instead, I went to work and threw myself into spreadsheets until my dad called a couple hours later.
“Hello?”
“Hey, are you going tonight?” he asked.
“Going where?”
“To Connor’s thing. Your brothers all said they’re going, and as long as one of them can take me because I can’t drive after dark, I’m thinking I’d go, too. But Connor didn’t mention if you were going or if it was just a guy thing.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, truly confused.
“Cunningham called because apparently he’s got some beta version of that old World War IICODand since you told him we used to play, he invited us to come over tonight because his access ends tomorrow.”
“Wait. What?”
Abetaversion of a relic of a game?
“Yeah, I don’t know, I don’t really understand the details, but I guess it’s a special version he has a code for or something.”
“So let me get this straight.” I felt, for the thousandth time since meeting Connor, completely confused. “You and Matty and Ty and Joey are going to Connor’s house. Tonight. To playCOD.”
“Yeah, what don’t you get, Duff?” My dad sounded vaguely amused.
“I don’t know,” I said, because I really didn’t.
“Get this—I asked if any of his teammates will be coming over and he said he’d see if they’re free.”
What the hell?
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m invited,” I said, trying my hardest to get a grip on this. It felt a lot like Connor was doing something very nice to distract my dad tonight, but I couldn’t be understanding it right because that was just too selfless, for him to let a bunch of near-strangers come over and play a video game at his house to keep them from being sad.
People just…weren’t that nice.
“So he really just invited us and not you—that’s hilarious,” he said, sounding incredibly happy I wasn’t included.
