Page 130 of Hyperspeed
Then I bolted out of the apartment, pounding down the stairs two at a time, and bursting onto the street, I sprinted like my life depended on it.
Grandma was right again.
I had a boy to get to, and nothing was going to stand in my way.
On the Right Track
Kai
“Kai.”
My eyes came back into focus to see a “game over” screen on the TV. I must’ve zoned out, falling deeper into my head than I realised. I couldn’t even remember where we’d gotten up to in the game before we’d lost.
We’d been playingGrand Rift Turboin my living room for hours—Jax’s idea, his way of dragging me out of my slump.
It hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped, since we’d lost one of the easiest missions in the game. I’d played it loads of times and could smash it with my eyes shut if I wanted, but my heart wasn’t in it, my mind too busy thinking about pearlescent skin, a prehensile tail, and void-like eyes.
Glancing at my watch, I was happy to see it was only four o’clock. That meant I hadn’t missed my daily grovelling sesh on Rev’s doorstep.
I tried to keep to the same time every day, keeping my fingers crossed today would be the day he’d open up. But so far, it’d been nothing but apologising to the wooden door until my voice was hoarse.
I knew his neighbours were sick of me. Sick of me interrupting their dinner and trashy TV with my knocking, ringing, and begging.
The Hessarian from two doors down had burst into the hallway last week, telling me in no uncertain terms to fuck off if I didn’t want my ass kicked. He’d changed his tune when I pulled out a raggedy Nexus ball cap and offered to sign it, and I hadn’t seen him since.
I’d sign a thousand hats for every resident in the place if it meant I could still get to Rev’s door, could still whimper at the wood like a lost puppy waiting for its owner.
I kept coming back each day with a fresh bouquet, blooms that mirrored the shimmering colours of his skin. I emptied the local gift shop of all the stuffed animals it had. Something about the cheesy love notes spoke to me.
I knew Rev would pretend to hate them, but beneath the act, he was a man who loved soft things and an even softer touch.
Sometimes he was there when I stopped by.
The doors weren’t thick, and I could hear him shuffling around the hallway. The doorbell also had a camera, so recordings of my whiny ass begging for forgiveness were uploaded onto the cloud somewhere, just waiting to be leaked to the world.
I didn’t care, though. All I cared about was Rev, and how guilty I felt for the things I’d said.
Every time I returned, the previous day’s delivery was missing. He might have thrown them down the rubbish chute, but I hoped he’d kept them, knowing I was thinking of him. Knowing that despite my twattish behaviour, I hadn’t given up on him . . . onus.
I just hoped he hadn’t given up onmeyet.
“So, when did you and Rev go from mortal enemies to whatever weird thing you’ve got going on now?”
He asked the same question every time he came over, and every time I dodged it by stealing shuttles, robbing banks, and shooting strangers—for fun, of course. All acceptable in the game, and ideal for bleeding out the heartbreak I couldn’t say aloud.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bollocks,” he retorted, restarting the mission we’d lost.
It involved stealing a modified hoverbike from a courier and delivering it to a chop shop before the Unified Space Enforcement could trace the bike’s signal.
“I saw you in the lift together. If the sex hair hadn’t given it away, the massive boner you were sporting would have.”
I knocked the courier off the bike with our shuttle, and Jax’s character hopped onto it. I side-eyed him as I tailed him through the Nebula slums.
“It wasn’t just me with a boner, though, was it?”
“Nope,” he bit out, narrowly avoiding an old woman walking her cat down the street. “We’re not going there.”
