Page 22 of Don't Hate the Player
In the immortal words of John Mulaney, we don’t have time to unpack allthat. First of all, I’d smoke any one of Connor’s friends atMadden, though it’s not his fault he doesn’t know that. Second of all, girlfriend? I need to clear some stuff up with this boy, like, yesterday.
But first: getting home. Connor’s voicemail disappears when I swipe through my phone and connect my map app to the car’s Bluetooth. Everyone else is still inside watching the day’s finalGLOrounds, so there’s no one in the parking lot to slow me down when I pull out of my spot and make my way toward the side exit. Almost no one.
Jake’s still there, looking wet and miserable in my rearview mirror with no bus in sight across the entire abandoned lot. I glance at my map. Thirty-five minutes back to Hillford without traffic, forty given traffic and the current total downpour. I have time. I could help if I wanted to.
Why should I, though? The easiest thing to do would be to have faith in his niceness and ignore him at school and for the rest of the tournament. Being seen with him at either place could lead anyone to make the connection between KNOX and Emilia Romero, student at Hillford West. I’ve been on Tumblr, and I follow the PhillyGLOsubreddit. I know what kind of investigation even a blurry picture of two people talking can spark. He’s the only link anyone on both sides of this horrible divide could use to out me, not only to my family and friends in Hillford but also to the entireGLOgaming community.
Now that I think about it, Jake was the reason I thought it would be fine if I went on voice chat inGLOin the first place. I think I’d assumed every gamer was like Jake, who only cared about how well I could play and always treated me like an equal he could learn from. Naive assumption, I know, but I don’t want to be angry at my younger self for not knowing how shitty things are.
Jake doesn’t know it yet, but he holds the key to Fort Knox, and one word from him could burn it to the ground. Jake Hooper, who is shivering in the rain at a bus stop a few minutes away while I sit here in a warm car knowing that being seen with him is the worst thing I can do for myself right now. Jake who was once so nice to me it made me have faith in gamers as a whole.Gamers.
God damn it.
CHAPTER NINE
Team Unity, Saturday
ElementalP: WEEEEEEE
shineedancer: ARE THE CHAMPIONS
MUDD: jesus christ stop
ElementalP: boo
BobTheeQ: I promise if we make it to the finals I’ll tell muddy to let you finish.
shineedancer: but that was one of the greatest GLO matches of all time?
JHoops: OF. ALL. TIME.
BobTheeQ: There you are! You’ve been running and hiding from us all day, I thought you’d want to stay for some pictures.
MUDD: seriously i know you’re always like ‘where’s muddy’ but today the name of the game was where the hell is jake
LanguageBot: language, MATTHEW
MUDD: really Bob?
BobTheeQ: Don’t worry I customized LBot for everyone while we were waiting for Jake today.
shineedancer: really? Hell! Damn! Byunki!
LanguageBot: language, KI
ElementalP: omg I love it even more now???
JHoops: that’s neat
JHoops: and sorry, I was in a weird place n wanted to get home asap. at the bus stop and it’s so cold i hate this
BobTheeQ: You played well today in spite of everything. Proud of you and the whole team. I’m getting in my car so I’m off chat. We’ll talk tomorrow and see you buddies next weeeeeek for round 2!
JHoops: bye bob
BobTheeQ: Love you bye.
[BobTheeQ has left the chat]
