Page 10 of Now Streaming

A little out of breath, she finally stepped out onto the platform and the night chill sank into her bones. Los Angeles was beautiful at all times, but the sun had set, leaving a bite in the air that made soft Angelenos like herself shiver. She kept up her pace, heading to the back of the line for business class. The tickets were more expensive, but worth the splurge as they were the only seats guaranteed on the train. After her first year going to Kickoff when she had purchased an unreserved seat and had found herself stuck for hours under the sun in a line waiting to make it onto a train, she swore to herself she’d always pay the extra money for the peace of mind of a guaranteed seat. Even if it meant she was eating ramen for a few weeks.

She was one of the last to board, and still felt the stress of her tardiness as she climbed the narrow stairs to the second-floor seating. People were everywhere, negotiating seats, stowing bags, and Min slowly made her way through the crowd, finally spotting ahead of her an empty aisle seat. She slowly shuffled forward to claim it… only to stop short at the guy in front of her, clearly about to sit in the seat she already thought of as hers. He was tall, his wide shoulders blocking her from finagling her way around him, so she cleared her throat, hoping to get his attention. He turned toward her and their eyes locked, and Min silently berated herself for not seeing this coming.

It was DeathsHead.

No.Hayden.

She hadn’t spoken to him since the meeting last month. They weren’t really friends online. They streamed in different circles for the most part, only coming together for larger group games. And since Min’s scandal, she hadn’t been invited to those lobbies, her presence replaced by newer, greener streamers whose scandal wouldn’t overshadow the other players. She had to admit, she couldn’t blame them. Every time Min had tried to stream since the photos had leaked, her chat and feed had been filled with hate, name-calling, judgment, and threats. Everything under the sun a bored internet troll could think of was thrown at her, until she had finally just stopped. She told herself it was only a short break, to give her followers time to process and herself time to grieve what had happened. Her other streamer friends had been sympathetic, but since views and likes were the life and death of a professional streamer, they had made it clear that she was on her own. Min understood their position, but she’d be lying if it didn’t make her burn.

Hayden’s mouth quirked, and Min realized too late that they had been staring at each other for far too long in the busy aisle. A glance around told her that most passengers had settled into their seats already. He quirked his head into the empty seats for her to go first. But the amusement in his eyes was too much, his accusing words from the day they met too fresh in her mind, so she glared at him and sat in the seat across the aisle, next to a businessman who she silently hoped would be quiet and sleep. For his part, Hayden helped an older woman into the window seat and then sat, only the aisle separating them.

But even across the aisle, she was too aware of him pulling out his laptop, settling in for the trip, his deep sigh of being able to finally relax. Min started to worry the aisle wasn’t wide enough.

Taking a deep breath, Min focused on shuffling her carry-on, pulling out the items she had planned to use during the train trip. She grabbed her phone, and even though she was intent on ignoring him, she couldn’t help throwing a sarcastic remark his way.

“I’m waiting for a text from my sister, so don’t freak if I have my phone out.”

She heard him snort, and a glance through her lashes showed he was not looking at her, settling into his seat and focusing on his laptop, clearly as determined to ignore her as she was him. Not able to decide if she was annoyed or relieved, Min took out her own laptop to do some work, letting the quiet of the evening train settle around her and loosen the tension in her shoulders.

Before her photos had hit the internet, Min had been invited to speak on a panel for Women in Gaming. Well, she had been invited to speak on many panels, but the Women in Gaming panel was the only one that hadn’t dropped her after the photos made the rounds. Min was grateful for the small act of kindness and settled in to study the list of panel questions that had been emailed to her. She wanted to be as prepared as possible.

But it soon became clear that wasn’t going to happen. The guy next to her was disruptive, pushing her elbow off the shared armrest, taking up more space than his skinny frame needed, talking loudly on his phone even though other passengers were clearly trying to sleep. Judging from his conversation, he was a lower-level executive at a film production company, and he very much felt he was more important than he probably was. He glanced at Min every now and then as if reassuring himself that she was paying attention to him, and Min was annoyed that she was, that she couldn’t help it. He kept knocking her off the armrest, his legs kept shifting, spreading, taking up space in what she considered her “zone,” and it was pissing her off.

“Could you stay in your area, please?” she tried to ask him quietly, her tone polite, all while hating that she actually had to engage with this guy.

He only flashed her a grin that made her skin crawl. “The boys need to breathe, honey.”

Ick. Min couldn’t stop herself from glancing at his crotch skeptically, not really seeing a bulge worth the spread he was claiming, but he somehow took her skepticism as interest. He threw her a wink as he dialed someone on his phone and proceeded to talk even louder. Min saw a woman a few rows ahead jerk upright, probably awoken from a good sleep by this scum ball and his need to prove he could have a loud phone conversation. She could see people glancing at them and wanted to shrink. While FlameThrower dressed outrageously and loved attention on the stream, Min hated being the center of attention, especially for something like this.

Not able to stop herself, Min glanced across the aisle, wondering what Hayden’s response was to her loud neighbor. But Hayden had some large headphones over his ears and looked as if his entire focus was on whatever was on his laptop, not paying her the slightest attention. His wild hair had fallen into his eyes, and his hoodie was pulled around his body like armor. The older woman next to him had fallen asleep almost immediately after the train had departed, and Min gazed at her longingly, thinking of all the work she would’ve gotten done with a quiet seatmate who just slept and didn’t keep spreading his legs to knock into hers.

The jerk next to her interrupted her jealous thoughts by tapping her shoulder too hard.

“Snack time, honey. Let me out.”

With a roll of her eyes, Min grabbed her laptop and stood in her seat, pressing back so he had room to pass. Of course, even with all the space she had made for him, he still somehow managed to brush up against her body as he moved past her, sending her a smirk before heading down the aisle toward the cafe car. She breathed a little relief when he was gone, reveling in the silence now that his constant clamor for attention had left with him. She quickly dove into her work, knowing her quiet time was limited and wanting to make the most of it. Because she was so intent on it, Min only vaguely sensed Hayden stand up and head out of the car, probably needing to stretch his long legs.

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed before both Hayden and her seatmate returned. She jumped back as the jerk reached over her and grabbed his small bag from under his seat, pulling it to him over the aisle. A glance up at him had her curious, since he was pointedly not meeting her eyes, his face carefully blank, his smirk gone. She kept staring at him, confused, as he took his bag and spun around, settling into what she belatedly realized was Hayden’s now empty seat.

And then her vision was blocked by what she knew to be a hard chest tucked into a black hoodie. Her eyes reluctantly made the slow trek up to meet Hayden’s dark eyes.

“Scoot over.”

Confused, she picked up her stuff and slipped into the window seat. Hayden quickly dropped into her vacated one. He didn’t say anything else, just stored his bag, set up his laptop, and slipped his headphones back on. Her confusion growing, Min glanced around him to peer across the aisle and caught her former seatmate shooting Hayden a nervous look. She was even more surprised when the jerk put away his phone and turned his eyes to gaze out the dark window, actually staying quiet for the first time since he boarded.

Min turned her attention back to Hayden, her eyes narrowing.

“What did you do?”

He ignored her, but she knew they were close enough for him to hear her, even through the noise-canceling headphones. Annoyed, she poked her finger into his side. Hard.

He jumped, eyes turning to her, rubbing his side, frowning.

“Ow?”

“What did you do?” She was practically hissing through her teeth, low enough for her voice not to carry in the quiet train car. But Hayden was clearly intent on dismissing her.

“I ran into Mr. Wonderful in the cafe car. He asked to switch seats. Said you were complaining too much. Practically begged me.” Hayden’s tone was dry and flippant and Min absolutely did not trust it.

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