My Virtual Prince Charming: Geeks Gone Wild #2

by Dallen, Maggie

  I stopped, not because I wanted to talk but because I didn’t know where I was going.

  I stared at the parking lot full of cars and instantly realized my mistake. Luke had been the one to drive and I had no idea where the rest of my friends had run off to. I could either start walking home or turn and face the music.

  By the music, I mean the Fonz. For a second there I forgot all about Halloween and at the sight of him bearing down on me in full-on fifties attire…I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  Nope, that wasn’t true. My body made the decision for me and I started to cry. I tried looking up at the dark night sky and blinking rapidly but I had a feeling that only made me look even more pathetic as Luke came to a stop right in front of me.

  “Suzie Q,” he said softly, quietly, his voice so gentle it nearly made me start crying all over again.

  “I’m fine,” I said stiffly.

  “You don’t look fine.”

  Dang, I hated that his teasing tone made me want to laugh even when I was about to cry. “Stop,” I said. “Just stop.”

  I finally brought my gaze back down from the sky and found him watching me with such sweet tenderness in his eyes it made it hard to breathe, let alone think.

  “Stop what?” he said.

  “Stop being so nice to me.” I realized how ridiculous that sounded when he arched his brows in surprise. “I mean it,” I said. “It would be so much easier if you would just stop being so nice.”

  “I bet it would,” he said, his lips twitching up at the corners in that look of barely suppressed amusement that I’d come to know so well. It was tempered with a sadness, though, and I was a little stricken to realize that I was the cause of that.

  He moved a little closer to me. “I’m sure it would be much easier to pretend that what we have between us isn’t real if you went back to thinking of me as the big bad wolf.”

  “I never thought—”

  “Yeah, you did,” he said, but there was no anger in his voice. “You lumped me in with Joel and those other morons, and I get it.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, shame mingling with embarrassment that I’d ever thought of him as just another dumb jock. “You do?”

  He nodded. “I might not have noticed you before this year but you didn’t really see me either.”

  I swallowed. It was hard to deny that. But it didn’t change anything. I could still see Cara’s expression when she’d spotted his arm wrapped around me. She couldn’t understand why Luke would ever want anything to do with me, and in that moment I hadn’t either.

  He seemed to read my mind as he took another small step forward and reached out to push one of my curls out of my face. “I like you, Suzie Q. What I don’t get is why you find that so hard to believe.”

  I couldn’t for the life of me explain why that simple statement made the dam burst and tears start flowing.

  “Don’t cry, babe,” he said. “Please don’t cry.”

  I sniffed and didn’t resist when he pulled me against his chest. His chest was warm and solid beneath my cheek, and his scent that I knew so well mixed with leather and whatever hair product he’d used to mold his hair into that style.

  Even through my tears I had this moment—one of those rare, fleeting moments of clarity. I knew that this would be a memory I would never forget. I knew without a doubt that the smell of him, the feel of him against me, even the sounds of shrieks and laughter coming from the carnival, they would be permanently ingrained in my long-term memory.

  He stroked my back. “Why are you crying?”

  I sniffed. It was so embarrassing, too humiliating to admit. “I don’t know why you like me.”

  He pulled back slightly to look down at me. “Don’t you?” he asked. “You can’t imagine a world in which a guy finds you beautiful and smart and funny and sexy—”

  “Now I know you’re lying,” I said with another sniff. “No one finds me beautiful, or…or sexy.”

  “I highly doubt that’s true,” he said. “But I can’t speak for anyone else, I can only speak for me.” His arms around me tightened and his expression grew uncharacteristically serious. “If other guys don’t see your incredible appeal, then clearly they don’t know you very well.”

  I let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. Who knew Luke Warner could be so sweet? I hadn’t. I wouldn’t have if he hadn’t gone out of his way to get to know me. But much as his words made my heart squeeze and my chest ache, it didn’t quite ring true.

  I didn’t think he was lying, exactly, but there was something missing. This wasn’t the whole story. I eased back a little further so I could look up and see his face while still standing in the warm comfort of his embrace. “What aren’t you telling me?” I said. “What changed at the start of this year that suddenly made you aware of me, that made you…” I hesitated, hating how insecure I must have sounded. “What made you see me?”

  He drew in a deep breath but it was the flicker of wariness in his eyes that made my stomach sink. It had me attempting to pull back even more as I steeled myself for the truth. But Luke tightened his grip with one arm and brought his other hand up to cup my cheek. Then he slid that hand into my hair, holding me still as he leaned in to kiss me.

  The kiss was just as hot as always, but I felt a sliver of fear, a chill that made it impossible to enjoy the feel of his lips against mine because a part of me was waiting for the other shoe to drop. That kiss wasn’t one of longing, but one of warning…like he was preparing me, or him, or maybe both of us.

  It set off an alarm in my brain, one that made it hard to breathe as I waited for him to speak.

  His hand stayed in my hair, his palm cupping my skull as his hand on my back moved in little circles. “You keep saying that I don’t know you,” he said. “But that’s not true.”

  I blinked up at him as I tried to make sense of his words, but more importantly his wary tone.

  “What do you mean?” I said. “You and I barely spoke up until we partnered up for the competition. I mean, you’d been annoying me for weeks, but we never actually—”

  “That’s the thing, Suzie Q. We have talked before this week. A lot, actually.”

  I frowned up at him and he sighed, his whole body seeming to deflate as he did. “You say that you don’t know me, but you do, Prince Z. Sometimes I think you know me better than anyone.”

  The blood rushing to my head roared in my ears as my stomach dove into a freefall. My body was quicker to register what he was saying than my mind. My stupid brain could only manage to fixate on that name—Prince Z.

  Prince Z, Prince Z, Prince Z.

  It played on a loop as I struggled to fully understand what he was saying.

  He knew I was Prince Z, which meant…what?

  The implications came swift and fierce. He’d been spying on me. He’d interacted with me online. He somehow knew me from the game, and he thought that I knew him too.

  He thought I knew him well. Very well.

  Ice filed my blood as I looked up to see the anguished look in his eyes. “Suzie, I never meant to lie—”

  “Who are you?” I said through lips that seemed frozen and stiff. “Who are you in the game?”

  I think I knew before he said it, but I needed to hear it. I needed to hear him say it.

  “I’m DataG.”

  Oof. There it was. The truth bomb that landed like a physical blow to my chest. All of those suspicions and implications were replaced by something so much worse.

  Memories.

  Lots and lots of memories of all-night chats, and stories, and jokes, and sharing.

  And all that had been with Luke.

  “When?” I asked. It was hard enough to get that one word out so I was glad when he understood what I was trying to ask.

  When had he figured it out? Oh God, had he always known?

  No. No, that couldn’t be the case.

  “Labor Day weekend,” he said.

  I stared at him in shock. Labor D
ay weekend? I remembered it vividly, of course. Most embarrassing moments were memorable like that. But that was more than six weeks ago. Almost two full months ago. That was…

  That was the exact same time that he’d started to notice me.

  I dropped my head into my hands as horror swept through me. All this time I’d been telling DataG everything. I’d been opening my heart to him and all that time he’d been mocking me at school, probably laughing at me behind my back.

  “I think I’m going to puke,” I moaned.

  I felt Luke’s hand on my back and I jerked away from his touch. “Don’t,” I snapped. “I can’t believe I trusted you.” I didn’t even know who I was talking to as I said that—my online buddy who I’d thought was my friend or the guy who’d given me my first kiss.

  I closed my eyes as I tried to reconcile the two. To think I’d had such a crush on DataG and all that time he’d been lying to me. Pretending he didn’t know anything about me, when he’d been seeing me every day at school.

  “Suzie, please let me explain,” he said. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  I turned away from him, hugging myself to keep warm as shivers ripped through me. “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “But I need you to know—”

  “No,” I said sharply as I started to walk away. “You’ve had months to talk to me, you’ve had months to get used to the idea. I think I deserve that too, don’t you?” I barely recognized my voice it was so hard and cold, but at least it hadn’t been shaky. At least I hadn’t cried again.

  That was what I told myself as I headed back toward the carnival, ignoring Luke’s pleas to at least let him drive me home.

  But the thought of sitting in the same car with him as I replayed the memories of all the things I had said and done—with DataG and with Luke—it was too much. So I ignored him and headed back into the crowd.

  After aimlessly wandering the carnival I finally spotted Matt and his AV club friends at one of the games. I went up to him and touched his arm. He took one look at me and told his friends he had to leave. With one arm wrapped around my shoulders he led me out of there and into his car.

  Chapter Eleven

  Luke

  A full week passed and it might have been the weirdest week of my life. Also, the loneliest. I still had Jason, but since I’d never talked to him about my friendship with Prince Z or how she was actually Suzie…well, it didn’t seem right to start now. Especially since he was dating her best friend and I had no way of knowing how much she’d told Margo.

  So, while I still had Jason, I couldn’t really tell him what was going on. And ever since that showdown at the carnival, I had to figure I was persona non grata with the party crowd. Even if I was welcome to hang out with those guys, I wasn’t looking to party and I’d be just as lonely in that noisy crowd as I was sitting home alone in my room.

  The saddest part of my loneliness was that I didn’t have Prince Z. For the first time in more than six months I didn’t have her to turn to when my dad was being a dick. And he was. Make no mistake about it. Every day I came home to be grilled about my grades, about the computer club, about this video game competition that he’d gotten wind of when he’d called the school to check up on me.

  Fortunately he’d talked to Mr. Marsico who apparently sold the competition as a learning exercise in computer coding, business acumen, marketing, and blah blah blah. The point was, he made it sound epically boring to my dad so he wasn’t opposed to it. My dad seemed to think it would be good for my college applications and he was probably right.

  But I didn’t care about the applications, I only cared about this contest.

  And Suzie.

  Right now, those two things were one and the same. We were still partners and that partnership was the only link I had to her—I wasn’t about to let that go. And I cared about this idea, I wanted to see us win. I wanted to see our dream a reality.

  I just wished we could do it together. As a couple, and not as two strangers who just so happened to be placed on the same team.

  You see, that’s how Suzie had been treating me all week. She still worked with me on the technical stuff and we worked together on the presentation for the class. But that was the extent of our interactions. My every attempt to joke around was squelched and the tiniest whiff of a lead-in to an actual conversation not involving the competition was met with cold, unyielding silence.

  And now today was the day. I turned to her as we waited for our turn to present our concept to the club. “Do you want to do the honors?” I asked.

  Her stare could only be described as withering. “Do you honestly think I’d be the better person for this particular job?”

  I opened my mouth but hesitated because quite frankly I was stunned by the hostility in her voice. I mean, I’d known she was mad at me. Obviously. It didn’t take a genius to work that out. But I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of real emotion in her all week long. Now, here we were, minutes away from the most important presentation of my life, and I caught sight of a crack in her armor.

  Too bad now was not the time to talk.

  Since I hadn’t spoken, she filled the silence. “I mean, you of all people,” she continued, sarcasm creeping into her tone. “You who know me so well. Do you really think I’m the one who ought to be making the presentation?”

  “Uh…” I scratched the back of my head as I tried to figure out how to navigate here. I mean, this was the first time she’d even so much as hinted toward my duplicity. This was the first time she’d so much as acknowledged that heated, emotional scene in the parking lot this past weekend.

  “You do it,” she said with a little huff of exasperation, that glimpse of emotion covered over again with logic. “We both know you’re better at speaking in front of people, and on top of that you have the clout of popularity.”

  “Clout of popularity?” I echoed. “What does that even mean?”

  She gave a derisive snort. “Playing dumb doesn’t look good on you.”

  Ouch. Now if that wasn’t an open acknowledgement of the secret I’d been keeping, I didn’t know what was. “Suzie, can we please talk?”

  She outright ignored my plea as she handed me the notebook filled with the details of our plan. “Just stick to the basics when it comes to the tech side of things. If they ask pointed questions, I’ll step in.”

  I took the book from her, the full weight of what I was about to do making me temporarily forget about the conversation that she and I still needed to have—the one I would have with her just as soon as she gave me an opening. But for now, our future was on the line. She and I both had everything to gain if we made it to the national level, and the first step to that round was to get our peers to vote for our concept. “You trust me with this?”

  “Do I trust you? No,” she said swiftly, with a gut-wrenching finality. “But do I believe that you want to win this competition as badly as I do? Yes.”

  I studied her as she kept her gaze fixed on the collar of my button-down shirt. We’d both dressed up a little for this presentation, maybe just to beef up our confidence.

  “Well,” I said with a rueful smile. “I guess that’s something.” I leaned in a little closer and tried for teasing. “You know how much I like to win better than anyone, right?”

  It was a nod to our gaming friendship. It was something we’d always had in common. She took a deep breath but she didn’t lift her eyes to meet my gaze.

  “Almost as much as you like to demolish your enemies,” I added.

  I watched her mouth grow taut, but I couldn’t tell if she was battling laughter or tears. She still wouldn’t look at me so I couldn’t see her eyes.

  If only there was something I could say to make this right. “Suzie, please—”

  “Mr. Warner, Ms. Bryers,” Mr. Marsico called. “You’re up.”

  I turned to see Mr. Marsico gesturing toward the podium at the front of the classroom. Suzie nodded toward it as well, all but telling me to get on with it
.

  I strode to the front of the room and gave the small group the easy grin I’d spent years mastering. It worked perfectly now as I watched the room smile back, their expressions going from bored to expectant as they waited for me to entertain them, and maybe even wow them with our concept. We were the last to go and I felt confident that ours was the best—how could it not be when Suzie and I were the only people in this school who were so obsessive about the game?

  I tapped into that confidence and gave the best presentation I could manage, using every ounce of the charisma Suzie had mentioned to win them over.

  My presentation went well—really well, if I did say so myself. I turned to see Suzie’s reaction but I glanced over just in time to see her flee.

  Awesome. My partner just ran away.

  And I ran after her. I couldn’t take it anymore—the silences, in person and online. There was a hole in my life where Suzie once was and while I knew I ought to give her space, I just couldn’t.

  But when I turned the corner and ran smack into Dale, with Suzie nowhere in sight, I had a feeling I might have to give her more space.

  I might not have a choice.

  “Yo, Warner,” Dale said, a scowl replacing his typical idiotic grin. His friends stayed by his locker as he stalked toward me but they were watching closely, clearly ready for a fight. The testosterone in the hallway was stifling and I didn’t have time for it.

  “Hey,” I said. “Have you seen your sister?”

  Dale crossed his arms. “She just ran out of here.” He lowered his voice and his chin so he was outright glaring. “She was crying.”

  Ah crap. I’d known something was up for her to run away before the vote was held. But tears? I couldn’t handle Suzie crying, especially not because of me.

  “She’s been acting weird ever since you two went out last weekend,” he said, his tone all macho and tough guy.

  I so did not have time for this. “I’ve got to go find her.” But the moment I tried to step around him, he moved to block me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his friends stirring, edging closer, no doubt smelling blood in the water.