Chapter 32 Lincoln
LINCOLN
@pancakesareelite:
Spontaneous personality test: What’s your take on Twilight?
@theanswerisno:
Vampires shouldn’t sparkle, but for some reason, I found myself enjoying it more than I’d like to admit
@pancakesareelite:
Team Jacob or Team Edward
@theanswerisno:
#TeamBedward
@pancakesareelite:
No one calls them that
@theanswerisno:
By the way, I’m deleting this conversation. No one can ever know
@pancakesareelite:
I’ll always know
My mind was everywhere except here. If this LAN wasn’t all about Overpower, the game my closest friends poured their hearts into, I’d have skipped it. I’d have gone home and told Lily I was ill.
Because I genuinely felt ill.
But I couldn’t do that to them; I couldn’t do that to Lily. I needed to meet her. I’d made a promise even though I couldn’t stop thinking about Elizabeth.
And I’d probably have to tell Lily. I told her everything else. Albeit indirectly.
She’d never let this go.
I took out my phone and stared at it. Not a single message from Elizabeth. I clicked on her name.
No chat history available.
Perhaps I’d imagined everything. All of it.
Every smile. Every glance.
It was possible. I spent a fair amount of time inside my head. Creating a world where Elizabeth Gordon-Bettencourt was interested in me wouldn’t be the strangest fantasy I’d had.
Anders had insinuated that I was being used but it didn’t feel that way. We’d kissed. Not a peck-on-the-lips, accidental kiss. I couldn’t have fabricated her warmth, her urgency, and that sweet mouth.
With a low sigh that seemed to come from the depths of my heavy soul, I hid behind my laptop screen and continued setting up the game.
Main quest: Enjoy Overpower. Side quest: Don’t end up in love with two women.
Incognito wasn’t really an option when you were friends with both game creators.
It was even harder when they were both showmen.
Rose and William were approached by admiring gamers for the longest time, and their excitement was palpable, deliciously so.
William wanted to brag about his fiancée, and if Rose could convert her happiness into electricity, she could solve the energy crisis.
Despite everything, a smile found its way onto my mouth as I eavesdropped on their conversations.
“Thanks, yeah. I think it’ll be a good follow-up to Walk of Death,” William said.
“It’s way better,” Rose teased.
The gamers laughed. “You two are Couple Goals.”
While I knew it was soundless, I could hear Rose blushing; her love for William and his for her was one of the most intensely public displays of affection I’d ever come across.
I logged in and set up my controls. I’d played Overpower a few times to help with the testing since William and Rose were too close to the project and Shaun, Neema, and Claire hadn’t gamed in years.
@pancakesareelite has entered the chat
My hand shot out, clutching William and pulling him to my screen. He took one look and grabbed Rose, who leaned in and widened her eyes. I wanted to survey the area without the search being too obvious, but what was I looking for?
I dropped my head in my hands. I couldn’t do this. This was a terrible idea, and I regretted every single decision I’d ever made, including being born.
“Come on, man.” William gripped my shoulder.
“I don’t want to meet her anymore,” I whispered. “I don’t want to ruin whatever fantasy she’s got of me. I’m not Link. I’m not flirty and suave and…” I blew out a shaking breath and pushed myself upward.
My heart banged against my rib cage.
And the sound of the game, the music, and the chatter echoed inside my skull, making me dizzy.
“I’m sorry, I need to go for a walk,” I said, and without waiting for an answer, I dashed for the exit. I needed more air, more than this room had to give.
Someone ran up behind me. Probably Rose.
But that delicious cinnamon scent reached me as a hand curled gently around my wrist. “Lincoln?”
“Elizabeth?” I breathed, knowing it was her before I spun around and took her in.
She was beautiful. Somehow more beautiful than she’d been when I’d left her at the office.
Her eyes shimmered like silver. Her lips were painted red.
I don’t think I’d ever seen them that way before—it did ungovernable things to my already frazzled brain.
Her mouth was slightly open as if her thoughts were sitting on the edge of that cupid’s bow.
Her long, loose hair curled around her soft features and landed on her cleavage, over which she wore a very, very tight T-shirt that seemed to have been scribbled on with awful handwriting.
#teambedward
I stared at the word. At the hashtag. I repeated it back to myself, mumbling it. Team Bedward.
Had my heart not already been racing, it would have skyrocketed now. The oxygen in this place completely ran out.
My head spun.
I’d only ever said that to one person. One person who was supposed to be here. And that one person randomly brought it up at every opportunity.
Lily.
But… My gaze shot up to meet Elizabeth’s worried, stormy eyes.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Link?” she whispered, quietly enough for me to wonder whether I’d imagined it.
No. No. No. It couldn’t be. There must be a misunderstanding. Surely.
She swallowed with much effort. “Link?” she said, louder this time, but it came out scruffy.
There was only one way to describe what overcame me: sheer panic.
I took a step back, stumbling over someone’s outstretched leg but catching myself before I hit the ground.
“I can explain,” she whispered.
I kept moving backward. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t, even if I wanted it to, I couldn’t because the noise in my head grew louder. I took another step back, needing space.
I shook my head. It was the best I could do in an attempt to clear it of the fog setting in.
But when it was no use, I spun around and moved forward this time, as quickly as I could.
Dodging people, cables, legs, and tables, I needed to get out.
I needed to get out of this oxygen-stealing building.
I needed to breathe before the tightening around my lungs killed me.
This could not be happening.
Elizabeth? Lily? No.
“Link?” A foreign name with her familiar voice. “Lincoln, please,” she begged, nearer now.
I sped up. The bright red light of the exit sign was in sight. I slipped through the crowd shuffling at the doorway.
“Let me explain.” She ran up to me.
“Explain what?” The words burst out of me. “That you’re… Lily?” My mouth was completely dry. I struggled to even speak. “This doesn’t make sense. It can’t be. It…”
She nodded, her mouth opening but saying nothing.
With enough effort, I managed to swallow and spit out, “Have you been lying to me this whole time?”
“I… I…” she stammered, her arms curling around herself.
My hand shot up to my chest as it physically ached. “I confided in you, Elizabeth. Lily. Whatever the heck your name is.”
“I—” she started again, her arms tightening.
“Did you know it was me?” My voice trembled.
Again, her mouth opened, but nothing coherent came out.
She knew.
I spun around and walked straight into Claire and Dean. They looked between Elizabeth and me as I pushed past them.
“I need to go. Please let me go.” My eyes stung with unwanted tears. I hadn’t cried about anyone, not since my father.
I don’t know what happened next because I was already in my car and driving out of Thunderstruck’s parking lot.