Page 29 of You Had Me at Hello World
Back on the dance floor, I bump into Obi first. “Char!” he yells over the music. “Whadupppp.”
If he’s here, Khoi can’t be far away. “Where’s your roommate?” I ask.
“Whaaa?”
“WHERE’S KHOI?”
“Oh!” Obi jabs a finger in a vague direction. “Good luck getting to Mr. Popular, though.”
I spot Khoi in the corner, surrounded by actual adults. He’s talking to all of them, and he seems mildly terrified. It looks like a seven-on-one fight club for people wearing Patagonia.
“What’s he doing?”
“Schmoozing with the sponsors. They probably want to know what he’s building next. If they can write a check for his round. They’re like vultures.” He does this weird growl-clawing combo that tells me he’s never seen a vulture in his entire life.
“Why do they care about what a random teenager is building?”
Obi frowns. “Khoi’s not a rando teenager.” But before I can ask what he means, a Kendrick Lamar song comes on, and he whoops. “Sorry, can’t chat! This is the anthem of mysoul.” Heshuts his eyes and starts swaying to the beat. I don’t bother asking why a diss track is the anthem of his soul.
I wander toward Khoi. As I get closer, I spot Lucas and Stella huddled together instead of dancing. They keep shooting glares in the direction of Khoi and the suits.
“—so selfish,” Lucas is saying. “He doesn’t even need a rec letter. He’s going to get in everywhere.”
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Stella says quickly.
Lucas narrows his eyes at me. “Wait, you’re friends with Astor, right? Can you tell him to stop hogging all the attention?”
“Why are they talking to him?” I ask.
“Imposter Syndrome,” Stella says. “The video game?Hisvideo game?”
Everybody knowsImposter Syndrome. It went viral last year. Gameplay is simple: There are six to ten people, and one or two are randomly assigned to be imposters. The imposters have to kill everyone else while avoiding being found out. I never really got into it. Mostly because I was bad at surviving past the first round.
“Like, he worked on it?”
“Like, he made it by himself? Or so he claims. He sold it to some private equity suits for almost a million dollars.” Lucas leans in closer. His breath has a familiar boozy stench. I resist the urge to slap a hand over my nose. “There’s something sus about his story, though.”
“What’s sus?”
“Guy is full Vietnamese, so why’s his last name Astor? I thought maybe he was a nepo baby, but there’s no info online about his family. Something is off. A teenager doesn’t just pop off like that unless he has connections.”
I should defend Khoi, but I don’t want to screw up my shot at teaming with Stella. She’s the only somewhat normal person I met today. And… what if Lucas is right? What if Khoi is some industry plant? I just met the kid, after all. What do I really know about him?
Lucas continues. “And he’s so weird! I talked to him the other day, and I swear to God he’s re—”
“Baby, you’re not allowed tousethat word!” Stella says in a way that tells me he’s casually dropped this slur too many times before.
“Fine, he’s autistic. Is that politically correct enough for you?”
“Lucas, stoppp! You’re being mean,” Stella says, but she’s laughing.
Suddenly, the bees in my stomach are back. No, they’re wasps now. Poisonous and evil.
“Sorry, feeling sick,” I mumble.
I shove past random partygoers and bolt out into the fresh air. The pinprick of wind doesn’t fix whatever is wrong inside of me.
