Page 15 of Level Up
“Audrey,” I say, and then glower at Scones. “But I suppose you might know me asOddlyAdored.”
Victory and Pal introduce themselves as well, as if this is a perfectly normal social situation we find ourselves in, and not the weirdest freaking night of my life.
“Damien,” Scones says—basically grunts—but he doesn’t look me in the eye.
“So this is why you were weird at Ink & Well?” I add, folding my arms across my chest. “You recognized me from my speedrun, and since you’re my nemesis?—”
“Why do you keep sayingnemesis?” He looks utterly baffled. “What are you talking about?”
“Are you just upset that I beat your speedrun time, or what?”
Scones blinks at me through his wire-rimmed glasses, perplexed. “Are you kidding? Why would I care about that?”
“Well, you never said anything about it!” I reply angrily.
“What—”
“People were tagging me onyourstreams, saying that I’m a fraud, and you saidnothing,” I explain, and he at least has the decency to look a little guilty.
Malcolm tuts and shakes his head. “Dude. Cultivating a toxic environment…”
“Shut up,” Scones grumbles at him, and Malcolm laughs again.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter.” I hold up both hands in front of me. “I’m just here to get my Deluxe Edition ofThe Stones of Ayor 4and get on with my life, so you can turn right back around and wait in line like the good little gatekeeper you are, and we never have to speak of this again.”
Scones stares at me for another moment before turning around, and I turn around as well to face Victory and Pal.
“That’s it?” Victory says to me, keeping her voice low. “This guy has fuelled your rage for the past week, and you’re just going to let it slide?”
“What am I supposed to do?” I say. “Punch him in the face?”
“I’ll do it,” Pal says, grinning wickedly.
“No. We’re grown-ups. I can be mature about this.”
“Well, if you’re not going to punch him,” they add, “then you should definitely fuck him.”
I sputter in response, glancing over my shoulder to make sure he didn’t hear anything and pulling my sweater up to hide most of my face. “What?”
“He’s all nerd-boy horny for you, it’s so obvious,” they say casually.
“Audrey doesn’t do that,” Victory tells them. She’s not mocking me, merely stating a fact.
“Do what? Fuck?” Pal asks, and Victory nods. “Ah, okay. That’s cool.”
“It doesn’t even matter,” I hiss at both of them. “Because he has agirlfriend. I sold her a fountain pen this week. There’s nohornyhappening here.”
Pal snorts. “Okay.”
“You don’t want to be with someone who can’t even stand up for you, anyway,” Victory says, putting a hand on my arm. She jerks it away as soon as she touches my sleeve.
“Sorry. Wool.” I give her an apologetic shrug, and she laughs a little.
I’m grateful to have friends with me while I wait in line, and even more grateful that the store opens five minutes early and the owner lets us pile in to get out of the cold before bringing out the Deluxe Edition games. There are more people here than I expected, and I’m almost afraid that I won’t get myhands on it, but I manage to snag one and I hug the box to my chest on the way out, grinning like an idiot.
Whatever other crap may have gone down tonight, this will make up for it.
“Hey, wait,” a voice says behind me when we start heading down the street, and I look back to see the velvet one—Malcolm, I think—jogging to catch up to us. He comes to a stop a few feet away from us. I’d already forgotten just how tall he is. “Damien would like to apologize for being a dumbass and wants to know?—”
