Chapter 18
Eighteen
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YouTube video caption by @zekeharrisgaming.
I knock on Zeke’s door and take a deep breath. The October air is chilly, and I pull my pale pink peacoat around me tighter. The flowers that lined Zeke’s driveway are wilted and brown.
Zeke and I planned for me to appear live on his channel this afternoon, but I’m starting to have doubts.
What if people hate it? What if people judge me?
What if this doesn’t work and I lose the precious votes I’ve gained?
Nothing is locked in until the winners are announced, so people can change their vote after it’s been submitted.
The door flies open, and Caroline’s face lights up in a smile. Her mouth is large, but it fits her beaming personality. She’s wearing a dress the color of lilacs and her hair is curled into dark ringlets. Mia pokes her head out from behind the frills of her mama’s dress.
“Callie!” Caroline says. “I’m so glad you’re here. Zeke is getting set up.” She pauses, and her big brown eyes glisten with tears. “Oh, look at me. I’m being so silly.”
Caroline steps aside to invite me in, and I step into the entryway and slip off my wet anklet boots.
“I’m just so happy that Zeke has made a friend like you,” Caroline says. “Our last move was so hard on him. He declared that he was never going to make friends again.”
“Oh.” A twinge of guilt pinches my stomach, and I can’t meet Caroline’s eyes.
Mia steps out from behind her mama, fist raised to give me knuckles. I fist bump her back. She’s holding the fluffiest unicorn stuffed animal I’ve ever seen tucked under one arm.
“You love unicorns, huh?” I ask.
Caroline smiles. “Oh, she loves just about any animal.”
I take off my coat and hang it on a peg. “My best friend, Suzy, has a pet guinea pig named Mr. Mochi. Would you like to meet her sometime?”
Mia squeals and does a little happy dance that warms me from head to toe. “YES!”
“I’ll have to check with Suzy and make sure that’s okay,” I say, looking at Caroline. “And you’ll have to be extra careful with her. Mr. Mochi is pregnant.”
Mia’s eyes go enormous, and she interlocks her little fingers together in a prayer. “Mama, I need a baby guinea pig!”
“Suzy is planning on giving one away . . .” I say, but then I wonder if I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Caroline might not want another squealing creature in the house.
Caroline smiles at her daughter. “I don’t know, sweetie. Your daddy and I will talk about it.”
Mia takes off down the sidewalk, screaming, “PARK!”
Caroline grabs a tiny puffy coat off the peg. “Mia needs to get out of the house.” She turns and yells, “Mia, COAT!” Caroline hurries after her daughter and closes the front door.
I walk down the entryway and take a right to Zeke’s room. I can hear Zeke moving around behind the door, which is slightly ajar. I peek through the doorway and watch him set up his phone on the film stand and place cushions on the loveseat in front of his TV just so.
I push open the door. “Zeke, I—”
Zeke turns to me with a huge grin. “Callie! You came!” He sweeps me up in a hug that takes my breath away.
“Sorry,” he says. “I know I squeeze too tight sometimes.” He lets me go.
“No, it’s . . . it’s nice.” I blush. “Thanks for letting me go on your channel today.”
“My pleasure. My followers are going to love it.” Zeke gestures for me to sit on the couch, and I do. I pick up a black game controller.
Zeke takes a seat beside me. “You ready to start?” He looks at me shyly.
“I don’t know . . .” Oh wow. What am I doing? This is so far from my normal weekend activities it’s laughable. Me in some nerdy guy’s bedroom, holding a video game controller, in front of a camera that’s going to go live in a few moments. What is my life coming to?
Zeke uses the remote to turn on the TV, and a blonde elf wearing blue appears on the screen.
“What are we playing?” I ask.
Zeke grins. “I am introducing you to the best video game in the world. It’s in the contract, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. Zeke, I—I don’t know if this is really a good idea. And what . . .” I’m ashamed to admit how much my image matters to me. “What will people think? Will they really like it?”
Zeke meets my eyes, and his are warm and brown. “Does it matter?”
I want to look away, but I can’t. His stare is mesmerizing. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
He smiles. “Do you want to do this? For you. Not for them.”
I swallow. “Yes.” The word comes out small.
“Say it again.”
“Yes.” I pause. “But I’m nervous. That’s a lot of people watching.”
Zeke scoots closer to me, an almost imperceptible amount. He’s close enough that I can feel the comfortable warmth radiating from his body. “Let me tell you a secret about hosting a channel about video game walk throughs: people don’t come for the games.”
My brows furrow. “They don’t?”
“Maybe at first. But then they get to know you and see your personality, and that’s what keeps them coming back. They want to feel a connection. They want to be genuinely seen.”
“That sounds like a lot of pressure.” I toy with the ends of the sleeves of my fluffy white sweater.
“It’s not, though,” Zeke says. “All you have to do is be yourself.”
Myself. What a novel idea.
When I don’t say anything, Zeke raises an eyebrow. “You promised. You signed. Do you need me to get out your pink notebook?”
I laugh. “Okay, okay.”
Zeke places his fingers over the controller in my hands. He moves my thumbs into place, and I can’t help but notice each touch of his hands to mine.
Zeke turns on the camera phone, and we’re live.
“Hello, my friends!” Zeke says in an upbeat, confident voice. “Today I have a special treat for you: we are playing a game everyone loves, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I am joined by none other than Callie Carter.”
I smile and wave, feeling shy. Zeke makes this look so easy.
“You all know Ben Carter from his Marvel movie, ohmygosh that was good, but did you know that his daughter is a video game freak?”
I gasp and punch Zeke’s arm. “I am not. I’ve never played in my life.”
“Don’t listen to her, folks.” Zeke grins. “She is a nerd at heart, but you’d never know it. Gorgeous, smart, and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, none of that compares to her epic video game talent. Behold it!”
My cheeks heat. Did he mean all that? Or is he just performing?
Zeke gets me started on the game, and the opening “cut scenes” come on.
“Why doesn’t Link have any clothes on?” I ask.
“He just woke up from a hundred years of hibernation!” Zeke says. “And he’s wearing boxers. Give him a break.”
The controls take some getting used to, and at first, I run around aimlessly.
“Watch as Callie chooses a weapon to fight a bokoblin,” Zeke says. “Ooooh a stick, excellent choice.”
It’s hard to say how the audience is liking it, but the heart button at the top corner of the screen flashes, showing that we’re getting likes. Comments scroll up the right side of the screen, and Zeke engages and responds.
The bokoblin kills me. I fall off a cliff.
I freeze to death on a snowy mountain. But Zeke makes each of my deaths seem like the grand act of a master player, and soon I’m laughing and joking along with him, forgetting that we’re on camera, forgetting that many of his subscribers are watching right now, including people at our school.
People that know me personally and hold my future in their voting hands are watching me right now.
The thought makes me freeze up for a second, and I have to take a steadying breath.
“So Link and Zelda are a couple, right?” I ask while I make Link climb a cliff, keeping one eye on my stamina wheel. “He’s saving her because he loves her.”
“Not exactly,” Zeke says. “He’s like her . . . bodyguard?”
I whip my head towards Zeke. “You’re telling me that they’re not in love? Not even a little bit? Don’t they kiss at the end?”
“It’s not a romcom, Cal.” Zeke’s eyes sparkle.
“And why does he never talk?” My stamina wheel is almost empty. “Is he a mute?”
“Eat some food, Callie!”
“Do what?”
Link plummets to the ground and lets out an “Ahhhhhh!”
“Uhhh . . . Callie Carter, my friends! A woman of the people.”
I laugh and do an awkward seated bow. That was fun. I actually . . . enjoyed myself. The thought surprises me.
“And did you know she’s running for Homecoming Queen?” Zeke winks at me. “Click the link in the caption to vote. Let’s get a nerd on the throne, shall we?”
I grin.