Page 36 of sWitch

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It is a compliment. Maybe if I get a cool haircut, start skateboarding, drumming, and piercing and tattooing people like you, Dad will actually be proud of me for once.”

I paused the game. “This is a mind-fuck for me, Trevor. Dad has never given me any indication he gives a shit what I do. I always assumed he looked down on me. He always shakes his head when I show up at Christmas with more holes in my ears and ink on my arms. I’m really sorry I didn’t see that you felt the same way as me. And Dad’s a dick for what he said at dinner too.”

Trevor unpaused, and his avatar fell into a walk beside mine. I sat at the game chair as he reclined on a beanbag next to me. “Well, we put on a great show for Mom, at least,” he said, his tone still melancholy. “Our drama will be a broadway play soon, I bet.”

I chuckled softly as our neon LED lights faded from pink to blue. “Hey, it’s like when we were kids, gaming together after a fight or to avoid Mom and Dad.”

Trevor quirked a grin. “Yeah, look us. Haven’t changed a bit.”

My phone buzzed on the desk with a text, and I groaned. “I just know it’s the band. They’re probably pissed at me for bailing.”

“I can just imagine you jumping off stage to steal some freaking kittens—but why is beating this game so urgent?”

It was urgent, but how could I beat the game in time to get whatever shit Prue had on Fauna taken down? Even if Trevor and I gamed all night straight, we likely couldn’t beat the game. There were nerds who dedicated their life to this shit who still hadn’t mastered V for Valin. There was a knock at the door. “Pizza. I’ll get it.”

I fished cash out of my pockets for a tip and swung open the door, expecting food and beer—instead an onslaught of people pushed through and into the apartment. Rollo held cat litter, Joss had a bag of cat food, and Lennon immediately got on their hands and knees to coax a kitty out from under the table.

“What the fuck is this?” I asked. “I bailed on the show. You guys, I’m really sorry?—”

“We know,” Rollo said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “If you jumped off the stage mid-set, so we knew it had to have been life and death.”

Joss scooped up Turnip. “I saw you wrestle a backpack of kittens away from that bitch. This has to do with Fauna, doesn’t it?”

I nodded, swallowing the pressing emotions in my throat. “I just need to reiterate that I fucking destroyed our show. Are you guys okay? Like, someone punch me or something, please.”

Rollo rifled through the fridge. “It’s like the fridge in Fight Club over here. Someone order food.”

“Look, this is what’s up,” I said when Trevor appeared in the kitchen. “Fauna’s ops, Prue, and probably that meathead Chet, have posted bullying revenge shit at the end of V for Valin. We have to beat the game and take it down before other people do.”

Joss raised an eyebrow. “That’s diabolical. Who the fuck does that?”

Rollo poured cat food in a bowl and sat it down for the kittens. “V for Valin is, like, impossible to beat, and you think we could do this in a day?”

I ran a hand through my hair. “We have to try. I have to do this. I-I?—”

Trevor wrapped his arm around me. “Remy’s got it bad. Also, we’re going to need more pizzas if we’re pulling a nerd all-nighter.”

Lennon rigged our monitors, adding our television to the mix and rounding up multiple controllers. “I really am sorry, guys,” I said again once we were all stationed in our digital party.

Joss equipped her avatar with nunchucks. “I really hate mean girl shit. Also, they invited us to play again next week. We still rocked—and with you jumping off stage like that, now we havelore.”

“Lore?” Rollo laughed. “Ah, rumors! Fauna is our Yoko, breaking up the band.”

“We’re never breaking up the Mall Ratz. Now, let’s kick some ass in this goddamn game and save my girl.”

LEVEL 13

PLAYER ONE: REMY

We gamed.We gamed harder than anyone in the history of gaming has ever gamed. My crew and I were relentless, only taking breaks to pet the kittens and retrieve snacks and beverages.

In the middle of a jump puzzle over the ruins of Valin, I asked Trevor to check his phone. “Any word from Fauna?”

“Nothing. I’ve emailed like four times.”

Worry pressed on my shoulders, and I sat my controller in my lap while Lennon completed the jumps. I searched the number for the animal shelter and rang. A man answered.

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