My Virtual Prince Charming: Geeks Gone Wild #2

by Dallen, Maggie

  She jerked her arms out of my hands and crossed them. “Am I wrong?” she demanded.

  “Actually, yes. You are wrong.”

  A flicker of self-doubt passed through those eyes, there and gone in an instant, but I latched onto it. I pointed toward the chair she’d just jumped out of. “Just hear me out.”

  She sank back into the seat, not even trying to hide her wariness.

  Man, what had I ever done to her to merit this level of mistrust? I’d barely spoken to the girl up until this year.

  Bingo.

  I ignored the sarcastic voice, drowning it out with a sales pitch instead. “Look, if we want to stand out in this contest, the idea we choose needs to be something fresh. Something different from what they already have going on.”

  She pursed her lips and for a second I thought she might argue, but she just said, “I’m listening.”

  “They want to appeal to a younger crowd, right?”

  She nodded. “This whole contest is basically a publicity stunt to make high schoolers aware of the game.”

  I bit back a laugh at her pragmatic statement that bordered on cynical. “Right, my point exactly. Not to be sexist or anything, but my guess is they’re hoping to target teen guys specifically.”

  She hitched her lips to the side and tilted her head back and forth, a grudging maybe.

  “From the little research I’ve done, more than double the amount of young adult guys would describe themselves as gamers while—”

  “Okay, fine,” she cut in loudly. “You’ve made your point. They’re probably gearing their marketing toward guys.”

  “Right,” I said, absurdly pleased that she was conceding a point in my favor. “So it stands to reason that our mod setting should be something that appeals to a younger male crowd.”

  “And you think that’s a ski slope?” she asked, her tone still wary but not nearly as defensive.

  I nodded. “Think X-Games meets magic.”

  Her face was unreadable, her eyes shuttered. I found myself holding my breath. When she finally spoke she just repeated what I said like she was trying to wrap her head around it. “X-Games meets magic.”

  There was no emotion in her tone, no way of telling if she was intrigued by the idea or repulsed. I had a feeling she was honestly trying to envision it, maybe even thinking through logistics. That was the thing about Suzie—she might’ve been quiet at school but that shy unassuming demeanor was hiding a wicked sharp brain. I had no idea it was currently working a mile a minute to visualize the idea.

  I wanted her to see it too. I’d been so psyched about the idea when I was lying in bed last night—so excited I’d had to restrain myself from jumping up and logging into the game to see if Prince Z was online too so I could share it with her.

  Of course I’d quickly realized the error inherent in that thinking. To tell her my ideas I’d first have to explain who I was…and that I knew who she was.

  It was a secret that needed to be divulged, but not today.

  Today I just had to get her to see that my idea had merit. I had to help her picture the setting as vividly as I could, I had to—

  Inspiration struck and I moved closer to Suzie, not even trying to hide my excitement. “Let me show you.”

  Her eyes narrowed on me. “How?”

  “You know the ski resort up on Donnelley Mountain?” I asked.

  “I know of it,” she said.

  “I’m taking you there this weekend.”

  “What?” She shook her head. “No.”

  I should have seen the rejection coming a mile away but it still cut like a knife. “Why not?” I said. “Do you have plans this weekend?”

  She shifted and her cheeks started to flush. Ah hell, I hadn’t meant it like that.

  “No.” She crossed her arms defensively and I tried to salvage the situation.

  “Good, neither do I.”

  She arched her brows in disbelief. “You have no plans?”

  I knew what she meant. I had a bit of an image as a party guy and yeah, I normally kept my weekend schedule packed—more to avoid my father than anything else. “No plans I can’t change,” I said.

  I waited for her to toss more arguments my way to get out of this. If Suzie had made one thing clear these past six weeks it was that she had little desire to get to know me, and would actually go to great lengths to steer clear of me.

  I took advantage of her temporary silence, pretending that her silence was a tacit agreement. “Great, so I’ll pick you up on Saturday, then.”

  “Wait, I didn’t—”

  I was already backing away. The club’s meeting was nearing an end, that much was obvious by the fact that everyone around us was packing up and heading toward the door.

  I joined in on the mass exodus, ignoring Suzie’s growing look of panic as she realized she was stuck. “I’m not going out with you,” she called out, her cheeks turning crimson as she no doubt realized how that sounded to our peers who were watching us as they filed out. “I mean—”

  I didn’t give her a chance to explain. “You want us to take this seriously, right?”

  She pressed her lips together. Of course she wanted us to take this seriously.

  “Then come along for the sake of the project,” I called back to her.

  She opened her mouth to argue and I stopped in the doorway. “Come on, Suzie Q, give me a chance. If you still hate the idea after Saturday we’ll pick one of your ideas. Deal?”

  I didn’t wait for her response before I bolted.

  I honestly didn’t trust that she’d say yes and this idea I had in my head—the new mod that I could see so clearly, it felt crazy important that she understand. That she was just as excited as I was about it. I knew she wasn’t there yet, but she wasn’t outright hating on it either, and that was a start.

  Later that night as Prince Z and I battled an ogre in the Fields of Yarrow, my suspicions were confirmed. She might hate that the idea was coming from me, but she was starting to see its merit.

  Prince Z: Question time.

  Me: About the contest?

  Prince Z: How’d you know?

  Me: It’s all anyone is talking about these days.

  This was the truth. Right after I’d learned about it, suddenly it was everywhere I looked. Of course, I’d started seeking out info on the rules and the gaming company, but once I did I found people chatting about it on all the major gaming sites.

  Prince Z: Oh. Right.

  Me: So, what’s the question?

  Prince Z: You’re a guy, right?

  Me: Affirmative.

  When she didn’t immediately respond, I added: I assume that’s a rhetorical question?

  Prince Z: What do you think of a mod that’s like X-Games meets magic?

  Me: Love it.

  I grinned at the screen because I could practically hear her sigh through the computer screen.

  Prince Z: That’s what I thought.

  Chapter Six

  Suzie

  My friends were watching me from my bed—Matt sprawled out with his feet up, while Margo perched on the edge.

  “I can’t believe you’re actually doing this,” Matt said.

  “Yeah, well…” I trailed off with a shrug. I couldn’t really believe I was doing this either.

  “You don’t have to go, you know,” Matt said. He was frowning in concern and the sight was odd. I mean, I’d seen my best friend frown before but out of the three of us, Matt was typically the most easygoing. Ever since the #GeeksGoneWild photo disaster, though, he’d been weirdly on edge. Margo and I figured this was his protective manly side coming out and in a way it was sweet, but in another way…

  Margo smacked his leg. “Jeez, stop being so annoying, Matt.”

  Yeah, in another way he was kind of driving us crazy with his overprotectiveness. We’d never needed him to look out for us before and I didn’t need it now.

  “I think it’s great that she’s going out with Luke,” Margo added.r />
  Matt rolled his eyes. “Of course you do. He’s Jason’s best friend.”

  Margo’s expression got a little dreamy at the mention of her new boyfriend. Matt and I exchanged an amused smirk. It was kind of adorable to see Margo in love.

  “I’ve gotten to know Luke a little better,” she said. “And I really don’t think he’s such a bad guy.”

  Matt and I both stared at her.

  “What?” she asked defensively. “It’s not like I’m brainwashed or something, I honestly think he likes you, Suzie.”

  I laughed and Matt let out a snort of amusement that I tried not to take personally.

  “You don’t think it’s weird that he never paid attention to Suzie until the slideshow thing and now he won’t leave her alone?” Matt asked, his brows raised in challenge.

  Margo made a funny face. “It’s not that weird. He just didn’t notice her before, but now she’s caught his interest and—”

  “And what?” I interrupted, reaching for a thick wool cardigan to throw over my T-shirt. “Now all of the sudden it’s his life mission to annoy me?”

  Margo grinned and sipped at her coffee. “Or maybe he just wants to get your attention.”

  I rolled my eyes as Matt scoffed again.

  “Well then, mission accomplished, I guess.” I turned to face them. “He’s definitely gotten my attention. I can’t stand the guy.”

  Margo’s shrug and the noncommittal noise that went with it made me stiffen. “What are you not saying?”

  “Methinks thou doth protest too much,” she sang it in a sing song under her breath.

  “Oh my God,” I moaned as I let my head drop back. “First of all, you just butchered Shakespeare. Second, just because you went and fell for a charming jock doesn’t mean—”

  “So you admit it,” she interrupted with a triumphant smile. “You think Luke’s charming.”

  My answer was a groan.

  Matt sat up. “Seriously, though, don’t you think his sudden interest in her is kind of strange?” He addressed this to Margo who was standing up and heading to my closet, sifting through my clothes as if maybe I’d suddenly gotten a new wardrobe in the last few minutes.

  “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing—”

  “How come he never noticed her before?” Matt argued.

  I turned away and made a show of logging out of my laptop. I knew exactly why he hadn’t noticed me before. Up until that slideshow I’d been invisible—to Luke, to the popular crowd, to pretty much everyone who was not the two best friends who were currently analyzing my newfound relationship with Luke.

  “She just wasn’t on his radar before,” Margo said.

  Matt shook his head. “I don’t trust it. I don’t trust him.”

  I scowled over at Matt. I might’ve had my issues with Luke but I was trying to figure out what Matt meant by that. “What are you implying? That he has some ulterior motive?”

  Margo glanced over her shoulder at him with a frown as well. “What, do you think he’s guilty or something?” She pursed her lips. “You don’t honestly think that he had something to do with that photo or the hashtag, do you?”

  No matter how much of a Luke fan I was not, I had a hard time picturing him doing anything cruel. The guy might joke and tease, but I’d never seen him be outright mean…to anyone, come to think of it.

  “I’m not saying that,” Matt said. But before he could explain what he was trying to say, Margo interrupted with a total non-sequitur.

  “You should wear this,” Margo said, handing me a bright pink, form fitting top that she’d bought for me in one of her attempts to make me over ala the basketcase in The Breakfast Club.

  I stared at it like it might bite. “We’re going to a ski slope, not a disco.”

  She dropped the shirt and widened her eyes. “Disco? Seriously, what era do you live in?”

  “One in which people wear sweaters when it’s bound to be freezing out.”

  “It’s October,” she argued.

  “On a mountain,” I shot back.

  Matt intervened. “Can we get back on topic here, please?”

  Margo and I both turned to face him. “Sorry,” I said. “What exactly was the topic?”

  “How you’re going on a date with the jerk who’s been harassing you ever since the slideshow,” Matt said, exasperation lacing every word.

  “It’s not a date,” I said.

  Margo spoke over me. “He’s not harassing her, he likes her.”

  I turned to stare at her with my mouth open.

  Margo caught me staring. “What?”

  I shook my head. “You might think I’m living in a different era, but you are clearly residing in a different dimension if you honestly think that Luke likes me as a friend.”

  Margo wagged her eyebrows and dropped her voice to a comically low level. “Oh, I never said anything about him liking you as a friend.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I said. But even as I said it I realized…she was. Margo had a funny sense of humor but she’d never mock me like that.

  I gaped at her until Matt fell back on the bed, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, “This is all my fault.”

  Margo and I exchanged a knowing look before turning our attention to Matt. He’d been doing this to himself ever since the slideshow debacle. Yes, he was friends with the guys in the AV club and it sucked that they’d never been able to prove that it was my jerky neighbor Joel behind the photo and the hashtag that sparked a minor war at Grover High. But no one blamed Matt…except for Matt.

  “This is in no way your fault,” Margo said for the millionth time.

  “Seriously,” I added. “Just because your AV club friends accidentally let it be included doesn’t mean you’re somehow to blame.”

  Matt sighed. “Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I actually wanted to—”

  Dale poked his head into the room, cutting Matt off mid-apology. “Hey, loser.”

  We all turned to stare at him because it wasn’t initially clear who that lovely term of endearment was intended for. I found my jerky jock of a brother staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

  “What?” I snapped. Me and Dale? Our relationship was complicated. We loved each other because we had to. He was my brother, after all. But we were less than one year apart and we could not possibly have been more different. So while we technically loved each other, we didn’t actually like each other.

  Like I said, complicated. Which was why it was weird that he was interrupting my friend time to shout the word loser at me out of nowhere.

  “Dude,” he said, this time clearly talking to me, his brows arched in shock.

  “What?” I repeated.

  “Why is Luke Warner at our front door?”

  I burst into motion. Oh crap, he was here early. I glanced at the clock. Okay, fine, he was on time.

  All I knew for certain was that I had to go out there and intercept him before one of my parents decided to grill him on where we were going and why. The less my mother knew about my life the better. She took controlling and involved to new levels and the fact that I was heading out on a day trip with our school’s notorious player?

  She absolutely did not need to know about that. As far as she was concerned, me and Margo and Matt were spending the day at Matt’s to watch Game of Thrones episodes. This wasn’t a stretch. That was exactly how we’d spent last Saturday and the Saturday before that.

  The only difference today was that Jason would be claiming my spot on Matt’s basement couch. A fact I was rapidly regretting because OMG Luke Warner was standing in my front foyer looking…hot.

  No. Not hot.

  Well, yes hot. But more than just hot, he looked at ease. He always looked at ease and that drove me nuts. Now was no exception. Why couldn’t he be the one who felt awkward and out of place for once. I mean, this was my house. Shouldn’t he be the one experiencing some discomfort here?


  “Hey,” he said with that slow grin that made my stomach flip. “You look cute.”

  I looked over at my reflection in the hallway mirror to see if he was joking. I didn’t look any worse than usual. My hair wasn’t totally frizzing out, even though it was lying loose around my shoulders. I hadn’t had time to tie it back. My makeup was, as usual, nonexistent, and my outfit was pretty much what I wore every day to school.

  When I looked back at him I realized that he hadn’t been kidding. Heat rushed to my cheeks as he stepped forward and tugged on one of the curls that fell beside my cheek. “I love your hair down like this.”

  I stared at him in confusion. He did? Since when?

  Dale interrupted the moment. “Dude, didn’t expect to see you back at my house. What’s up, is my sister tutoring you or something?”

  I turned with a huff. “I’m standing right here.” I looked from Dale to Luke and back again. “What do you mean back here?”

  I heard Luke start to talk but Dale overrode him, gesturing toward Luke. “Your man here was over the night of your rager.”

  I glared at him at the ‘your rager’ part. He and I both knew who was responsible for the keg and the people—and it wasn’t me. But before I could launch into yet another pointed reminder of just how much he owed me, the rest of what he’d said registered. I wrinkled my nose up in confusion as I turned back to Luke. “You were here that night?”

  For the first time ever, Luke actually looked kind of flustered. Well, flustered for Luke, which really wasn’t all that flustered. It basically just meant he didn’t quite meet my eyes and he started fidgeting with the car keys he was holding. “Yeah, well, I was at Joel’s party that night so…”

  He trailed off as if that was any explanation at all. Maybe it was. I mean, after the first five minutes of the party I’d spent the rest of the night praying to the porcelain gods and cursing myself for accepting Dale’s dare to do a kegstand.

  For all I knew half the school could have swung by Dale’s impromptu party out by our pool.

  All I knew for certain was that the less said about it, the better. I couldn’t wait until that night and all of its ramifications were a thing of my past. Maybe one day. But that day probably wouldn’t happen until college.