I glare up at him. “Don’t tempt me.”
“Have you tried restarting it?”
“Iamrestarting it. With rage.”
Haven appears at my side within a few moments, her brows furrowed. “Want me to look at it?”
“Angel,” I say, breathing hard through my nose, “unless you can perform mechanical CPR, this thing’s about to get launched out the window.”
Carter sighs. “Okay, let’s just… back away. Take a breath. Your files are all cloud-backed, right?”
I mutter something that might beyesor might beI’ll die before I let Carter be right again.
Haven steps closer and brushes a hand through my hair with those slow fingers that turn me stupid. “Let’s not kill the PC. Finals are in a few days.”
I groan. “Finals. Iknow.This thing better resurrect itself with a vengeance, or I’m borrowing Carter’s PC and putting a sticker over his webcam so I don’t catch whatever wholesome malware is on it.”
Carter grins. “Joke’s on you, mine’s all set up for streamingsoft-core domesticity.”
“That’s the worst, maybe stupidest sentence you’ve ever said.”
“Not true,” Haven giggles. “You’ve heard him talk to his plants.”
“Inamethem,” Carter argues.
“Exactly.”
My PC flickers. Then dies again. I stare at it, deadpan.
Carter takes the cup of coffee from Haven’s hand and holds it toward me. I take it, sip once and breathe. “Okay,” I say through gritted teeth. “We’re going to buy a new fan. And thermal paste, maybe a bat in case this fucker tries to reboot mid-tournament.”
Carter’s pulling up the nearest tech shop on his phone. Haven leans against the couch with arms crossed, smiling like she finds this whole thing way too endearing.
“I could stream with you on mine until you’re set up again,” she offers. “Co-op, corruption edition.”
I look up at her. That smile, that mouth. ThatproblemI’m obsessed with. “Yeah, let’s give the internet another reason to lose their minds.”
SCENE BREAK
I don’t smoke often. Only when I feel like I’m about to come unglued, or already did.
The apartment’s back door creaks open behind me, letting in a wash of cooler air. Haven steps out, barefoot. She doesn’t say anything right away, just slides down onto the small step beside me and pulls her knees up to her chest. We sit like that for a moment, quiet.
I take another drag, exhale slow and watch the smoke curl upward like it might carry whatever the hell’s rattling inside me with it.
“Bad habit,” she says softly.
“Yeah,” I answer. “Add it to the list. It did help, back then.”
“Back when?”
I glance at her from the corner of my eye. “Back when I needed silence more than I needed air.”
She doesn’t prod.
“I didn’t grow up with softness,” I admit knowing damn well she’s not clueless. “Didn’t know what to do with it and still don’t. Carter always had this… way about him. Hebelievedin people. I learned how to read the room and burn it down if I had to.”
“You don’t scare me.”
