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I didn’t want to, of course. But for Hazel, I figured I could make an exception.
“I’ve got some time for a pro bono case. Let me work on my karma.”
God knows I need to.
Hazel arched a recently done eyebrow. A silver ring at the end of her brow glinted in the sunlight.
“Okay… thank you, Mr. Hudson. Eh, Detective Hudson. Really, thank you. I’ve been feeling so uncomfortable in my own apartment. I’ve been wanting to move out, but with my mom being sick, I haven’t had the money, time, or the energy to figure it all out. So I’ve just been dealing with it.”
“Well, hopefully I can help put an end to it.”
“Hopefully.” She adjusted the purse strap on her shoulder. “So I live with two guys, Sam and Jesse. Sam’s my best friend since forever ago, and we’ve lived together for the past three years. Jesse used to be a distant friend, and when we first moved in together, things were fine. Then he started hanging around with a really shitty crowd, and everything changed. He turned into a creepy drug addict, and I’m pretty sure he graduated to full-blown drug dealer not that long ago.”
“What makes you think Jesse’s stealing your underwear?”
“I know it’s not Sam, for sure. Like, a thousand percent sure. I’ve caught Jesse snooping around in my room once before, about a year ago. He didn’t have anything with him and said he had heard a weird noise inside my locked room, so he wanted to check things out. So I know he can pick the lock, and I know he’s got no qualms about going into my room without me being there. Plus, he’s the poster child for ‘creepy panty thief.’ It has to be him.”
“You mentioned his friends?”
“Yeah. Three of them specifically: Andrea, Julie, and Nick. They all seem to actively despise me for some reason, and none of them really speak to me. I’ve heard Nick say a few transphobic things when he walks by me, which I try to ignore. I don’t let meth-mouthed losers get into my head… but still. It’s not great. Whenever they’re over, Sam and I just leave the apartment.”
“Which is a good opening for someone to break into your room.”
Hazel nodded. “I don’t know if any of those three are involved, but I’m almost willing to bet my life on the fact that Jesse is the creep that’s doing this.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
Hazel’s smile was a big one. “When can you get started?”
I glanced down at my watch but didn’t bother to actually check the time. “Right now.”
3
Sam Clark
The elven knight on the screen fell into a fiery lava pit, pushed by the dragon currently flapping its wings and spewing flames all around the arena.
I groaned before cursing up a storm. “Shit, shit, oh, come on! Damn it. Icey, where the hell were the heals?”
IceyPriest238 popped up in the chat, apologizing profusely, saying that his cat disconnected the keyboard.
I rolled my eyes and shot a look at the camera on my laptop before cracking a smile. “It’s all right, Icey. Just pop me a rez so I can get back in there.”
“And buy a mic before your cat ends up holding your dumb ass hostage.”
That was JuliusCharge98, an orcan warrior who had a short temper and a large vocabulary made up of mainly curse words. I’d been playing with him for three years now, and we’d become really good friends, even though we still hadn’t gotten the chance to meet in person.
“Will do,” Icey typed into the chat box.
I shot a glance at the small window in the corner of my screen, showing how many people were viewing my stream. Tonight was a good night, I had to admit. Unnecessary death aside, I had a total of fifty-five consistent viewers. That was a jump from the five or ten I’d been getting since I started streaming six months back.
My keyboard clacked and clicked as I jumped back into the game, occasionally answering a question or two one of the viewers would have for me. A warm breeze came in through the open window, rustling the white plastic blinds, stained yellow with age. Outside, someone must have been having a party by the pool because loud reggaeton was beginning to compete with the sound of my spells being cast.
“Can you guys hear me all right?”
“Yeah, of course we can hear you. Oh fuck, that twat-wad blew me up!” Julius flew off the screen, his character icon flashing red. “Oh, are you talking to your fans?”
“I don’t have fans,” I said, adjusting the headset so that the mic was closer to my mouth. “I have Samsonites.”
It was a play on my username: Samsonite23.
“Right, forgot they’re called Samsonlice.”
“Samsonites.”
“Samsonlice.”
“Nites.”
“Lice.”
“Boys!” SilkAura7 shouted into her mic. “Can you two focus on the boss please. I’m running low on mana and patience.”
