Page 26 of Dire Straights

“What, exactly, do you like about him?” I wondered, leaning back against the counter. “And do you need any help with any of this?”

Cyprian tilted his head back and forth a few times, like he was thinking. “Nah, it’ll be quicker if I do it myself. You can hang out and chat though, if you want. It’ll keep me from getting bored.”

“Sure,” I agreed. It would help keep my mind off my shitty week too, so it was a win win.

“Anyway, Caelyx isn’t exactly what he seems.”

“So you admit he seems terrible.”

Cyprian smirked, but shook his head. He was way too nice to admit anything like that, even if we both knew it was true. “I admit he can be prickly at first. But you have to get to know him.”

“Pass.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself. But show him some grace, okay? He’s not having the best time right now, you know?”

“Alright,” I said. I could agree to that, at least. Anyway, I was never the one giving him a hard time. He was the one who always had to be a complete dick.

We changed topics, talking about our classes for a while and stuff going on at the school. When I finally felt comfortable enough to bring up Kelani, and how I was pretty sure she didn’t like me, Cyprian only laughed and said she could be kind of a spitfire. He also said that she could snap to judgment or quick temper, but she was usually pretty reasonable once she calmed down. I wondered if maybe I’d given her a bad first impressionor something. But I couldn’t remember even meeting her before that party she’d brought Ren to.

When he explained he was making chicken noodle soup, I told him I didn’t know human beings made this stuff. I thought it was created in a Campbell’s soup can factory or something.

“Your mom didn’t make stuff like this?” He guessed, and I scoffed.

“Anytime my mom told me she was making dinner, I’d head over to a friend’s house,” I admitted. “She’s the worst cook. She tries, but… I’ll just say our smoke alarm put in a lot of hours over the years. She tried making bread once, and the loaves were so hard and dense that my dad used it as a doorstop as a joke. She didn’t think it was funny,” I remembered. But the memory was kind of funny.

Cyprian laughed. “My mom didn’t really cook either. She’s a lawyer, so… Long work hours, you know? My dad got pretty decent at it over the years, though.”

“Your parents still together?” I wondered.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Two peas in a pod. It made it a lot easier growing up.”

“Must have been nice,” I noted. Before we could reminisce about the varying degrees in quality of our childhoods as determined by the healthiness of our parents’ relationships, there was a knock at the door.

“Probably just Jehovah’s Witnesses or something,” I said, but made my way over to check it out. When I stuck my eye through the little peephole to see who it was, my stomach dropped and my mouth went dry.

REN

“DO YOU HAVEyour ult?” Clacking his mouse and keyboard frantically, Aspen asked the question just as two members of the enemy team jumped out of the hidden part of the map to ambush him.

Che made a noise of assent. He was playing as our team’s healer, like always. Aspen always played carry. I didn’t mind any role, so I usually filled whatever was left after everyone picked. This time I was playing tank.

I did my best to mitigate the damage against Aspen’s character in the fight, and then breathed a sigh of relief when Che popped his character’s ultimate move, healing everyone on our team just before our health bars could drop to zero. With the extra health, we won the fight and pushed ahead to the enemy’s base, destroying their core. As we won, Aspen typed a bunch of trash talk in the chat at the enemy team. He was kind of bad about that.

“Good ult, Che. We would have been cooked without you,” Aspen said, as we sat in the queue for the next match.

“Thanks,” Che said, softly as always. When I glanced back at him, he looked up at me and gave me a small, shy smile. Pretty much everything about Che was soft. His voice, his black hair, his skin. Not that I’d touched it or anything, but he just kind oflookedsmooth and soft and cute. Like a kitten or a baby bunny. Today he had a pink bandage stuck across the bridge of his nose, a pink collar with a shiny heart charm dangling from the front, and a chunky rainbow-beaded bracelet on his wrist.

“Where’s Arie, anyway?” I wondered. Not that he would have been playing with us. He didn’t really get video games, but he usually cheered us on when he was around, at least.

“He’s doing this girl’s hair for a job interview,” Che explained. “So he’s over in her room helping her get ready and stuff.” I nodded in acknowledgment, but before I could think of a response, he cleared his throat, furrowing his dark brows. “Um, I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but… Are you okay, Ren? You’ve seemed kind of down.”

Ah, crap. I thought I’d been hiding my bad mood, but apparently I’d done a bad job of it. Or Che was just really perceptive to bad moods.

“I’m fine,” I lied. But this time even Aspen picked up on it, turning around his chair to give me an inquiring look.

“Bull,” he said. “Did you fail a test or something?”

“No,” I said honestly.

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