Page 64 of Don't Hate the Player
Jake took a deep breath. “She gave me a ride after Round One. It was raining; she was being nice. Nothing happened. She’s just got a lot of stuff going on withGLO, so no one’s supposed to know she plays. So please, don’t tell anyone her name. Like youreallycan’t tell anyone who she is or that she goes to my school.”
“Who cares?” Muddy interjected.
“Not now, Mud,” Penelope replied sharply.
“She almost got doxxed, okay? A couple years ago, when she first started playingGLO, there were some bad . . . ?guys, I don’t know. It freaked her out, and she only agreed to play with Fury if they protected her identity. She didn’t expect anyone she knew to be at the competition, so I’ve been keeping that secret for her. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t my secret to tell.”
He felt terrible for lying, but he’d done it for Emilia, and she was equally as important to him as Unity right now. He was going to have to figure out how to parse that in the finals, but it was his problem to work out, not something that should be decided by committee.
“Then we kept talking,” Jake continued. “I didn’t think we would, because why would she bother with me? But she did, and it’s been a few days, and she gave me a ride this morning because she’s nice.” Jake felt his voice rising as he defended Emilia. He wasn’t great at making himself heard, but this was too important. “She’s great, and she’s too good to have her motives torn apart by people who don’t understand where she’s coming from. So no,Bob, Byunki didn’t send her to mess with me, and even if he did, she wouldn’t do that. And I’m not an idiot who would fall for it anyway because I’m not a baby.”
“I never said you were, Jake,” Bob said calmly, “but the timing looks . . . not great.”
Jake wasn’t finished talking. “And about this all being a secret? Not even her parents know. She’s an extraordinary player, and she does this in herspare time. If you knew half of what she had to do at school . . . and her parents . . . Personally I’d, like, die if I was her. I’d wake up, take one look at my schedule, and die. And through all of that she . . . ?she still saw me. She’s so cool? And she has so many friends? She still wants me—to talk to me and ask me questions and stuff. And you guys are great, and I love you, even Muddy, but also screw you right now, but I feel 3D around her, like I’m real and worth looking at, and I love it. Because I—”
Yeah, no. Jake knew that was where the speech stopped. Those were more words than he’d had said out loud to anyone besides Emilia in months, and he didn’t want to go any further. His eyes hurt, and his nose was tingling uncomfortably. That was a good sign to stop.
Jake slid his fingers under his glasses and covered his face. It wasn’t enough to block out the fluorescent light in the green room, but it did save his brain from processing a few of the million stimuli that made him feel like he was about to barf-explode.
“I’m sorry for lying,” he said through his palms. He probably looked dumb as hell. “I’m not sorry for spending time with Emilia. Sorry for not being sorry.”
Jake was surprised to feel arms around him then, two sets encircling him from either side. Ki and Penelope were hugging him, and when he took his hands away from his face, he saw both of them smiling at each other like they’d both just won a bet. Muddy and Bob looked less enthused.
“You’re just going to believe that?” Muddy finally said. “You’re just going to believe that a hot girl waltzes back into your life on the opposite side of a million-dollar deal because you’re special? She doesn’t want you, dumbass.” He rubbed at his brow like he was trying to wipe Jake’s airborne stupid off his face. “Of course you two buy it.” He gestured to Penelope and Ki’s half-octopus grip on Jake. “Bob, please tell me you don’t believe this.”
Bob leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. If he had a bomber jacket, Jake would think he was aiming for a full Karamo Brown cosplay moment. “I believe that what Jake is feeling is real. I also think”—he turned to look at Jake—“that you don’t know Byunki like I do. He knew about the league before everyone else. I know he met with Thibault because Wizzard wants a big-name team like Fury to win. So if Emilia started talking to you on Wednesday, it’s still possible that she’s, you know . . .”
“She didn’t know,” Jake interjected. “She didn’t know until this morning. We talked after the announcement.”
“Where?” Muddy asked. “When?”
“Right before the match, some weird corner behind craft services where they keep all the chairs. Does that matter?”
“Because she tried to psych you out before the match!” Muddy yelled.
“No,” Jake snarled back, “she didn’t. She was actually about to quit when I talked to her, so if she was trying to psych me out, she must be on some next level sideways mind game shit, which she isn’t.”
Bob spoke tenderly, like he were trying to explain death to a toddler. “Maybe she isn’t, but Byunki—”
“Hey, Bob?” Penelope spoke up from beside Jake. She exchanged a look with Ki, who nodded. “Maybe you need to let go of the idea that your ex is a psychopath out to get you and let people have nice things.”
Bob’s what? Everyone, including Muddy, snapped around to stare at Bob.
“We love you, B-man,” Ki picked up where Penelope left off, “but just because Byunki dicked you over onWorld of Warfare, like, half a decade ago doesn’t mean that every time someone likes someone it’s the preamble to a blood feud. Like, yeah, Byunki is your evil ex, but maybe, and stop me if this is crazy, Emilia is a better person than him.”
“Not like that’s hard,” added Penelope, “but your bad taste in men hasn’t necessarily rubbed off on the rest of us.”
“Not even a little bit,” Ki riffed. “You’re the only one here who likes men at all.”
“Sorry.” Jake’s brain was exploding in slow motion. “But Byunki, like Team Fury Byunki, is Bob’s ex-boyfriend?That’sthe thing? And you all knew this?”
Muddy shook his head. “I didn’t. You people don’t tell me shit.”
Bob groaned and stood up from his spot on the couch. Now that the end of the reclining edge was free, Muddy stretched his feet up in the open spot and leaned back with his arms behind his head, clearly waiting for the show to continue.
“Yes, Jake, that’s the thing,” Bob admitted. Sitting, he was another member of Team Unity, but standing was Bob’s signal that he was about to enter Captain Mode. “We were your age, we cocreated a guild onWorld of Warfare, there was a meetup, and Byunki and I got close.”
“They hooked up in the bathroom at Amalgam,” Penelope added. “Like a lot.” She was never going to let Bob tell the story devoid of details. Jake loved that about P.
