Page 97 of Level Up
“It’s this obnoxious user who goes by the nameLinkFarts,” I explain, and Pal practically cackles. Unsurprising, given their sense of humour. “He likes to tune into our joint streams and be a jerk.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Victory says.
“Don’t worry, it’s hilarious,” I assure her. “I don’t find those commenters as unbearable anymore. I guess I’m learning to let go.”
“Also, you totallypwnedme, as one person put it, so there’s nothing anyone can say about you now,” Damien adds.
“People still saypwned?” Evan asks, grimacing.
“No, they definitely do not,” I reply, and she laughs again.
The rest of the evening is surprisingly enjoyable, considering that I thought having Pal and Malcolm in the same room would create such a density of dick jokes that they’d form a supermassive blackhole in the middle of the bar, and we’d be trapped for eternity in its event horizon. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of dick jokes from the two of them this evening, but it’s manageable.
Elliot and Nathan are the first to leave—Nathan seemed to reach his socializing limit early on and appeared to just be dissociating in the corner for the last half hour—and Victory and Pal get up to leave shortly after. This was probably a lot of people at once for her too.
“I guess that means I should get going,” I say, standing alongside them. They’ll only be getting off the streetcar a couple stops before I do, so it makes sense to go together.
“I’ll come with you,” Damien offers. “Make sure you get home safe.”
I’m about to protest that I’ll be fine on my own, but when he stands up next to me, I suddenly can’t bear the idea of being apart from him yet. “Okay.”
Malcolm and Evan stand up to give us all hugs goodbye—Evan is also a really good hugger, wow.
“I know Damien was afraid you wouldn’t want to come, but I’m glad you did,” Malcolm says quietly when he hugs me again. “You’re good for him.”
“So are you,” I tell him.
“Oh, you have no idea.” He laughs.
When we leave the bar, we fall into formation, walking two-by-two to the streetcar.
“What did Malcolm say to you when we were leaving?”Damien asks, leaning towards me and keeping his voice low. He sounds like he’s bracing himself for the worst.
“Um. He said that I was good for you,” I tell him, and he just nods.
“Evan said you were good for me, too.”
“In the interest of transparency,”Damien says as he pulls off his wet boots in my doorway. I managed to arm-twist him into crashing here tonight, since it’s pretty late for him to be going back to his place. “I am tired and a little tipsy and I kind of just want to go to sleep.”
“Oh, thank god,” I say with a weary laugh. I’d felt a twinge of guilt after I invited him to stay, thinking he’d assumesomethingwas going to happen—it is pretty much his birthday, after all—but I’m exhausted as well, so his words are a relief.
Though part of me feels like his reluctance is my fault.
“I can sleep on your couch if you don’t want me in your bed, though,” he adds, draping his plaid jacket over the chair.
“No, I definitely want you in my bed,” I say quickly, before I register the words and turn red. “Um. Also, you’re, like, twice as long as that couch, so.”
“Fair enough.”
“Oh, but wait—” I suddenly remember that there’s an actual reason it’s good that he’s here, after all, and I can assuage my guilt a little. “I have a present for you!”
I switch on the lamps in the living room as I make my way over to my desk where I grab the rectangular box that I left sitting there. I spin around to bring it to him only to find that he’s right behind me.
“Hi,” I say with a laugh. “This is for you.”
He frowns at me fondly—if that’s even a thing. “You gotme a keyboard?” he asks as he takes the unwrapped box from my hand.
