Chapter 9 #2
“Excuse me. Can I help you?” I smiled a big, toothy smile and tried not to think that I was a shark. I worked to keep the flash of annoyance out of my eyes so I didn’t provoke him further, while desperately ignoring my jelly-like legs telling me I had liked Ni standing up for me.
The jerk turned to me. “Do you know who ScarlettSaber is? This sissyboy here says it isn’t him. That means she’s here right now.” He scanned the room as if ScarlettSaber would be labeled with a head bubble or wearing red armor IRL.
“What’s it to you?” I asked.
“We had a thing online.”
Pfft. A thing online. I wasn’t dumb enough.
Maybe it was having Ni next to me or Stephanie’s mean-girl gaze, or maybe it was just the fact that they had invaded my territory, but in outrage the words spilled from my mouth before I had thought entirely through the consequences.
“I’m ScarlettSaber. And we most definitely didn’t have a ‘thing’ online or anywhere else. ”
I stood with my hands on my hips. It took me a minute to realize only a couple of people knew ScarlettSaber was a “she.” And now, the people listening would know it was me as well.
I hadn’t kept my identity totally secret, but I hadn’t been blaring it either.
With me hiding upstairs and screen sharing downstairs, there hadn’t been a face to go with the name.
The jerk’s eyes went wide, then calculating.
Oh, crap. Was it possible that this jerk was IK? Had I done it again?
He looked me up and down and grinned. “Well, well, well. Not bad. I don’t know why you refused to meet me.”
I swallowed again and crossed my arms, feeling violated by his gaze.
I was getting a bad feeling about this. There had only been one person who didn’t know what I looked like, and whom I had refused to meet.
And he had just utterly pissed me off with a boss steal.
And adding insult to injury, he had apparently done it in my place of work.
But I couldn’t show weakness right now. And I couldn’t kill him.
Murder was frowned upon in real life. Plus, Buzz would make me clean it up, and that didn’t sound very appealing.
I lifted my chin. “Is that right? Well, now that I’ve met you, I wish I hadn’t.
So, if you wouldn’t mind leaving...” I smiled harder and gestured for the door.
“It’s me. RogueStriker.”
He said it as if it would change my mind.
Instead, my terrible smile officially turned into a grimace.
And now I wanted to kill him even more than after the kill steal.
I really, really, really hated this guy.
Most people probably wouldn’t. At first glance, he was handsome.
He rivaled dragon Stephanie for looks but matched her in personality... unlike Ni.
“I know you wish you had decided to meet me.” He ran a hand through his hair as if he were God’s gift to women and flashed me another smile.
Stephanie cooed and snuggled against his arm.
I tried not to upchuck, because I’d have to clean that up too.
“But I’m willing to give you a second chance. I could take you out to dinner tonight.” He gave me a look as if I couldn’t refuse him. I could imagine the two of them posing for some low-standard online post.
His words weren’t meant as a question, and I suddenly felt even queasier. It had nothing to do with the daggers Stephanie’s gaze was now throwing at me from beside RogueStriker. Or the oil from fried foods in the air.
The guy was a greasy idiot. And his complete lack of a grasp on the situation was making me want to explode like a volcano.
I suddenly had much more sympathy for Mom dealing with Dad.
I made an executive decision and hoped that Buzz would back me.
“Excuse me, but I think it’s time for you two to go.
This establishment reserves the right to refuse service.
So thank you for coming, but please don’t come back. Ever.”
“What?” He looked genuinely flabbergasted at the idea that I wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend time with him. After he had just stolen a boss and my loot, and thrown my reputation to the wind in COTSA. Not to mention his behavior since he’d entered DragonByte. What did he expect?
Was he really that dense? He did hang out with Stephanie. What was it going to take to get this loser to go? I appreciated Ni’s silent support. His eyes were drilling “you need to leave” into RogueStriker—which the cretin was blind to—but he had left the talking up to me.
I checked my trusty watch. How long would it take for this idiot to get the hint?
“I’m not interested. But you and Stephanie seem cozy.
Why don’t you go take her out for a nice big steak or something?
” The dragon would need something to gnaw upon.
I smiled at them both. My cheeks were starting to hurt.
This whole thing was super painful, but I would not let either of these griefers ruin the safety I had found here at DragonByte.
Stephanie finally spoke up. “Excuse me, but do you know who you’re talking to? You have no right to make me leave. My parents could make things very difficult for you.”
Whatever that meant. Did it have something to do with Lin?
RogueStriker pulled himself up and fisted his hands again. His face started to turn red, then drained, and he relaxed. His eyes glinted nastily, but his words were almost polite. “Let’s go, Steph. I don’t like the vibe of this place.”
I relaxed and spun only to run into Buzz.
“Nice job.”
His words were sincere, but I had caused the problem to begin with.
I could feel the heat in my cheeks. “Sorry. I’ll get to 42 now.
” And now everyone knew I was ScarlettSaber because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
They’d be looking at me when I played now.
Was that better than having to deal with Stephanie and RogueStriker in DragonByte?
I’D FINALLY DONE IT. Level High School: Complete.
Lin faced the photographer, but Charisse waved to me past the rest of our graduating class.
The photographer grouped all the shortest people in front and the tallest people in back, so I, of course, was somewhere in the middle.
Why couldn’t we take a class photo with our friends instead of strangers and acquaintances?
I had started out on the edge, so I could breathe, but as people had been sent to my row, I was pushed farther into the center of the mass of people wearing black.
The bleachers creaked and groaned with hundreds of teenagers shifting positions.
The sun beat down. I batted away a particularly persistent buzzing insect.
A light breeze took the edge off, but the polyester graduation gown absorbed the heat and clung like plastic wrap, while my head itched from the accompanying hat with its tassel tickling my face.
I tossed the tassel back again, hoping it would stay for a few seconds before making its inevitable return along with the bug.
I was ordered by the torturer with the camera—who owned the next several minutes of my life—to face inward.
I tilted my body to the required forty-five degrees, and so did the people to the left of me.
Someone stumbled or probably thought it would be funny to push, and I was forced forward.
I caught my balance inches from Ni’s face.
I was getting used to my body going haywire when I saw him. It wouldn’t be much longer before I could move on and no longer be enticed by him day after day—in classes, hallways, and even DragonByte.
Instead of his usual smile, his eyes flashed with concern. “Are you okay?”
I nodded dumbly.
Ni’s eyelashes swept over his cheeks, unfairly long.
There was a sprinkling of green in the gray of his eyes.
His lips parted, and his breath whispered across my face like perfume.
My hand was on his chest, and he held it steadily there.
I jerked back. That was close. He was like a siren, pulling girls in.
But I had built a natural defense against the magic over the last several months as Dad treated Mom and me like a virus to avoid at all costs.
I turned my face to the camera and tried to make my smile look natural, whatever that was.
The agony lasted only a few more minutes.
Between the awkward position, my difficulty breathing, and acting calm while electricity sparked through my hand where it had been pressed against solid muscle, I was a mess.
This was the last time I would see him...
the last time...last time. It became a mantra.
I’d scraped A’s in all my classes, most importantly in programming. We would all soon be off to college. Likely community college for me since I worked, but that was a problem for future Molly. I wasn’t going to think about it today.