Page 31 of Level Up
“Sorry!” I laugh as well. “I just thought—Well, I don’t know what I thought, because now that I’m thinking about it, you did just seem to annoy each other?—”
“She was visiting from out of town, and she loves pens and stuff, so I told her I saw a store she might like, and she dragged me along,” he explains. “And I don’t have a girlfriend. Or—anyone. Not that I’m—What I mean is, I—I’m just me.”
“Does that mean you’re—” I hesitate to ask, because it’s so personal, but there’s a swell of hope in my chest that maybe if he’sjust himit means he’s somewhere on the ace spectrum with me.
“Bi, yeah,” he says, which was not what I was expecting him to say.
“Oh.”
“But don’t—I mean, not that you would, but maybe don’t mention it online?” he adds quickly. “I like to keep my life pretty private?—”
“I swear, I would never,” I assure him. I know what it can be like to out yourself on a public platform—I did it myself a few years ago, and I kind of wish I hadn’t. Not because people have been terrible—they mostly haven’t—but because now that I’m questioning…everything, I don’t know if I lied to them or not.
“Yeah, I know. Sorry,” he says with a small laugh. “I trust you.”
Holy heck, I think we’re definitely friends.
I turn my attention back to the TV and the controller in my hand so I can start playing and stop geeking out over the fact that I made a new friend.
A friend who doesn’t have a girlfriend.
A friend whose jokes and insights—and infuriating littlesmiles at the edge of the screen—in his streams made me question everything in the first place.
“The first thing I’m going to do,” I say as I load up a new game ofSuper Mario 64, trying to focus on the excitement of it instead, “is find a place to go swimming because I love that Mario can breathe through his feet.”
“You find joy in the strangest of things,” he says, almost wistfully.
I smile but don’t look over at him. “Thank you.”
We’re playing “Alternate Names for Video Games”
Go!
SconesOfAyor:
???
“Neurodivergent Lesbian Hunts Robot Dinosaurs”
“My Split Personality is Keanu Reeves”
SconesOfAyor:
Aha, I see
“Elderly Man Rides Horse and Fucks Sorceresses”
“Stuck in a Space Time Loop with Angler Fish”
SconesOfAyor:
“I’ve Been Asleep for a Hundred Years and You Woke Me Up for This Shitshow, Princess?”
“A Raccoon is My Mortgage Broker”
SconesOfAyor:
“IDGAF About These Brain Worms Because This Mean Vampire is Sexy”
