Page 78 of Level Up
My shoulders tense, preparing myself to get defensive. “Yes,” I say through my teeth.
“That’s…” She trails off, but I know what she’s going to say.Pathetic. Ridiculous. Juvenile. “…pretty romantic.”
I almost choke on nothing. “What?”
“It must be nice that you have this thing in common that’s so important to both of you,” she says.
The implication that she and Josh never had something like that in common hangs heavily in the air between us, but neither of us mentions it.
Minutes pass before she speaks again. “Why is this guy climbing the side of a mountain?” she asks, her eyes fixed on the TV.
“Because he’s in love,” I answer casually, and I don’t expect her to get the reference, but she snorts a laugh again and looks over at me like she’s in on the joke.
“That’s from that Captain Kirk song, right?” she says, and my jaw nearly drops. She knows nerd references?What is happening?
“Yeah. But, uh, really, this guy’s trying to save time. It’s a speedrun,” I explain more seriously. “Getting through the main quest line as fast as possible. Though this one is without cheats. The ones using cheats and glitches can do in under an hour. It’s pretty cool.”
“And why do people do this?”
I shrug. “It’s fun.”
I expect her to scoff at that, but she just nods and keeps watching. “Who’s that blond guy?” She points at the screen.
“Cartwright. He’s like the Hadley of this game; everyone loves him.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Before I know it, two more hours have passed by and I have to get up to pause before the final battle, so I don’t spoil it for myself.
And Marie is still right there on my couch.
I don’t knowwhat I was expecting.
That Marie would suddenly think I’m cool and we could just hang out like equals from now until the end of time? That she wouldn’ttattle to our gosh-darn mother that I had a boy in my room? (Apartment. Whatever.)
Because the first thing Mom asks me, when I come down to the shop to start packing orders on Wednesday, is when she’ll get to meet myhe-friend. Since she now knows all about Marie meeting him yesterday. (I would tell her that she won’t meet him until hell freezes over, but with climate change, I don’t feel safe banking on that.)
“Bring him to dinner on Saturday,” Mom suggests. The wicked glint in her eye is a stark contrast to her syrupy sweet tone. “What does he like to eat?”
“The raw intestines of his vanquished enemies.”
“Do you think Skip the Dishes will deliver that?” She even has her phone out, like she’s googling it. The lengths she will go for a bit, I swear.
“He is not coming to dinner on Saturday,” I tell her. “I don’t think he wants to be eaten alive by rabid hyenas.”
“Can hyenas have rabies?” She’s googling again. “Huh. Apparently yes, but?—”
“Unless you can promise that both you and Gram will behave yourselves while he’s there? And promise you won’t use the wordhe-friendin front of him?”
“Anything is possible,” Mom says with a smile. I am not amused. “All right, fine, yes. We will be civil and appropriate and not at all rabid orhyenic.”
God-freaking-dammit.She cracked me withhyenic, and now I’m laughing, which gives the incorrect impressionthat I am okay with any of this. And worse, it gives the impression that I agreed to invite him to dinner on Saturday.
Which I absolutely did not.
“I’m goingto ask you something and you’re not going to like it.”
A great opening line for tonight’s video call with Damien. I’ve just finished my stream for the night, and we’ve immediately switched to our private chat, where I am about to ruin his week.
