I frown at the teenager working but they haven’t even bothered to look up. “Umm… I still need to pay.”
“It’s already been paid for,” she remarks in a bored voice.
“Sorry, what? Who paid for it?”
She finally looks up. “The hottie with the attitude.”
I’m going to need her to be more specific, because technically Jeremy is pretty good-looking, and he did just get a bit of an attitude in line. I raise an eyebrow at her.
“Exactly which hottie with the attitude?”
“The one you've been drooling over since you saw him in line behind ya, obviously.” She snaps her gum with a grin. Oh, okay, now she’s got energy when it’s embarrassing for me. Still, she’s not wrong.
I smile at her and pick up my number, tapping the edge of it against the counter twice. “Thanks for the intel.” I look down at her name tag. “Bethany.”
17
Ryne
“Dude, no. Nooooo. That’s one ofourguys! Damn it, what a moron.” Tyler’s subsequent curses come through my headset loud and clear. “That dumb ass just killed one of our guys. Hey, jackass! He’s on our team!”
Tyler takes his gaming pretty seriously. It’s one of the only things that really gets him riled up. I mostly just play if there’s nothing else to do, or with the guys, like now. Tyler and I have been at it for nearly an hour and my attention started to wane at least fifteen minutes ago.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Tyler mutters when our team ends up losing. There’s a clanking sound in my ear, and I assume he just threw his controller down.
“Ty, we can play again. It’s fine. It’s just a game.”
“Says the guy who shoved one of his best friends to get to the finish line first in fifth grade and scarred him for life.” They will never let me live that down. So I’d gotten a little extra aggressive wanting to win and Evan ended up needing a few stitches on his wrist because he landed on a jagged piece of broken brick. So sue me. I didn’t put the brick there. “I KNOW it’s only a game, Ryne,” Tyler continues. “You know how you’re competitive about everything under the sun? Except for video games apparently. Well, this is my everything under the sun. I don’t like losing here, especially to some of the jerks who inevitably end up on the same server as me.” Tyler makes a noise of disgust. “If Wizard were on today, things would have been different, no doubt.”
I shake my head and take a sip from my bottle of sweet tea.Wizardschooldropoutis the username of some guy Tyler’s been gaming with for the last six months. He’s probably some forty-three-year-old dude playing from his mom’s basement but he’s really good. He ends up in our games maybe half the time and we definitely fare better when he’s around.
“I’m gonna call you from another server, hold on a sec.” The line goes silent so I click out and wait for Tyler to invite me to the new one. I click into it and he’s back in my ear within seconds. “So anyway, are you going to Matt’s party this weekend?” Tyler digs through something, it sounds like he’s shuffling papers around. The noise stops and there’s a creaking sound as he sits down in his desk chair and leans back.
“Doubt it.”
“Why not? I think Dacen will be there.” The pitch of Tyler’s voice raises on his name. A little thrill shoots through me, followed by a big twinge of jealousy.
“I have to work all day Saturday and then I’m riding along with Nathan to Camden Hill to pick up some supplies he needs for Monday. I don’t know what time we’ll be back.”
“I’m only going for a little while. If you get home before it’s crazy late you should at least come here and hang.”
Through my closed door, I hear someone stomp down the hall and then my walls shake a little when a door slams. Sounds like Rylee’s got some new drama. It’s never-ending, I swear.
“I’m surprised you’re not staying long if Dacen’s gonna be there.” I’m going for nonchalant but being transparent as a window again, to use Roman’s words, because a few seconds later Tyler’s chuckle floats through my headset.
“Tempting.” His voice is rumbly and irritates every nerve in my body. “Oh hey, guess what Dacen and I realized the other day. If you cut through my backyard and walk diagonally across the alley and down a couple of houses, you end up in Dacen’s backyard. We could actually see each other from our yards if we were both outside.” Cold fury pours through my veins like ice and I clamp my mouth shut. I’m still stuck on the ‘tempting’ comment and it takes me a minute to realize what he just said. Fan-fucking-tastic, they live near each other, too. I think I just growled a little bit out loud. When Tyler speaks again he sounds completely exasperated. “Ryne, I don’t have a thing for Dacen.”
The carpet gets the brunt of my scowl because Tyler’s not in front of me right now to take it. “You flirt with him all the time, Ty. Now you’re flaunting how close you live. I’m not a dumb ass. You’re clearly into him.”
“And I’m telling you I don’t actually have a thing for him, ya dipshit. I love ya dude, but open your eyes, would ya?” His words tumble around in my head. Tyler’s a giant flirt, always has been and probably always will be. Hell, sometimes he even flirts with us. It’s just in his nature. But he’s been overly flirty with Dacen, hasn’t he? I want to pull my hair out right now because WHY DO I EVEN CARE IF HE HAS? “I can hear the hamster wheel turning in your brain, Ryne. If you haven’t figured it out by now let me clue you in. I genuinely don’t have a thing for Dacen. Is he hot? Yes. Is it fun to make him blush? Also yes.” My nostrils flare and fists clench tight. “Chill outover there, man. I can feel the tension from all the way over here. Let me finish, please, before you stroke out. Jesus, you are a dense motherfucker sometimes. I don’t have any sort of extracurricular interest in Dacen, okay? I’ve just been trying to piss you off, quite honestly. You’re in some deep denial, dude.”
The fury in my veins thaws and subsequent relief makes me slouch back against the pillows I’m propped up against. “You’re such a dick, Ty.”
He laughs and I can almost hear his shrug over the line. “Are you going to admit it now?” I plop my head back against my headboard. I don’t know why this is so difficult. I just can’t let shit go. “Come on, Ryne. It’s a hot guy. It’s a dick. You like both of those things. What the hell happened between the two of you at camp? Why are you so apprehensive?”
My mind scrambles to come up with some valid excuse but all I draw are blanks. “He’s really... over the top peppy sometimes.”
“He’s peppy?” Tyler’s voice raises. “That’s what you’re going with as an excuse? He’s more cheerful than your average person sometimes, sure, but he’s nowhere near, say, Trisley’s level, for example.” He chuckles good-naturedly. “I can see why he and Evie clicked right away,” I mumble under my breath and Tyler immediately pipes up in my ear. “What’s that, grumpy pants? I didn’t catch what you said.”
