by Natalie Grey
“Hashtag not all Kyles,” Gracie said, with a wicked grin. Her phone blooped, however, and she groaned when she saw it. “Or maybe all Kyles. He got stuck in a meeting and can’t meet up tonight. He’ll call me if he’s free later.”
“He’ll string you along,” Alex predicted. “This is all to put you off-balance. Which is working, I might add. You’re wearing makeup.”
“I know. It feels itchy.”
Alex was still laughing as Gracie kicked off her heels. “Ugh. Enough of that, then. Let’s order a ton of food—I’m fucking starving—and then log in. Wait, are you actually home tonight, or do you have to go back to the office?”
“Actually home.” Alex spread his arms beatifically.
“No shit! You managed to get that dude off the hook?”
“Not really. He seems to have decided to leave the country. Management is putting up the pretense of a fight before giving the IRS the raw data, but since he’s not paying his accounting bill…”
“Oof. Well, let’s get you some giant wolves to beat with a stick, huh?” Gracie grinned. “You order food, I’m going to go wash this stuff off my face.”
Chapter Eleven
Gracie wasn’t entirely sure how she was feeling. There was no way to know if Kyle was being a jerk; that was the thing. Totally reasonable people could get stuck in meetings, after all.
But what if he was being a jerk and she was handing him chances to keep doing that? Or what if he’d met some high-flying executive with perfect hair and he was going with the better option? Between a blackjack dealer who couldn’t make her rent and someone with a career, it wasn’t too hard to pick, right?
She craned and stretched her arms to get the zipper down, then tossed it across the room with her foot and grabbed last night’s PJs off the floor. With her hair in a ponytail and an old tank top on, she finally recognized herself in the mirror, at least.
Food had arrived by the time she went back out, and she wolfed down eggrolls without saying anything.
“Hey.” Alex’s voice was quiet.
“Huh?” Gracie looked at him. She felt her cheeks color. She was suddenly aware that she’d let a date derail her entire night.
“I actually dated a bit after I got here,” Alex said. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
Gracie frowned. She wasn’t quite sure where this was going.
“I just mean, I get it, okay? You get ready for a date, you don’t even like the person that much, and then something goes wrong, and it still feels shitty. You tell yourself it’s stupid and…it doesn’t help.” Alex shrugged. “I talk about how marriage sucks and all of that crap, but the truth is, I felt like an idiot the whole damned time.”
Gracie managed a laugh, and she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, like I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go. I was dreading it, and now I feel like shit.” She put her fork down with more force than was strictly necessary. “God, being human sucks.”
“Well put.” Alex raised his plastic fork in a mock toast. “You know what doesn’t suck?”
Gracie looked at him suspiciously. “Are you going to say video games?”
“I absolutely fucking am. And, since you know the ropes in Metamorphosis, you’re going to help me out, right?”
“Depends. How many bears are going to attack me?” She began gathering up the takeout containers.
“I’ll get those.” Alex piled them into the plastic bag. “You get things set up. You want a seltzer?”
“No. I’ll one hundred percent spill it on the VR suit. But thanks. I’ll get us logged in.” Gracie padded out into the main room and brought up both logins. “Your password is the usual, right?”
“Nah, made a new one,” Alex called back. “OMGWTFBBQ84 exclamation point. All caps.”
Gracie was snickering as she logged in. “All right, it’s loading. Getting all suited up. Or…do I have to pee? This game is hell on bathroom breaks.” As soon as she dropped into the game, however, she felt nothing but contentment. “God, I love everything about this place. Are you at the tavern? I’ll come get you.”
Alex met her at the city gates, lurking to one side as a stream of people passed him. The game was getting more crowded by the day, Gracie had noticed.
“What’s the 9 over your head?” He asked her.
“I don’t know?” Gracie craned her head up. “Crap, I can’t see it. What does it look like?”
“A nine.”
She crossed her arms and gave him a look.
Alex threw up his hands. “What do you want me to say? It’s a big glowy gold 9 above your name.”
“Okay, well, I don’t know what that’s about, I’m Level 15.” Gracie shrugged, then heard a ding. “Oh, I know someone who will know, though. Inviting them to the party. Yo, Kevin.”
“What’s up?” Kevin’s voice came through high and squeaky in the Piskie filter.
“All right, it’s just weird hearing a Piskie female voice and calling the person ‘Kevin,’” Alex commented.
Gracie laughed. “Kevin, this is Alex. Alex, Kevin. Alex is my roommate, and Kevin has been part of the group I’m in. We’re helping each other level up. Would you mind helping Alex get up to our level tonight, Kev?”
“No problem,” Kevin said easily. “After last night’s excitement, I could use a night of frolicking in the flowers.”
“We had this weird boss thing,” Gracie explained to Alex. “Ah, yep, there’s Alan. And oh, hey, Jay’s still online. Whole group. What’s up, guys?”
“Not much.” Jay’s voice was scratchy, and they heard him cough and clear his throat. “Sorry about that. I, uh, might just have to leave suddenly tonight.”
“Ooooh,” Gracie teased. “Hot date?”
“Er. No.”
“She’s just salty,” Alex chimed in. “She, in the grand tradition of dating, got stood up by a douche.”
“Been there,” Alan said glumly.
“Twice this week,” Kevin agreed.
“After the first time they stood you up, you let them try again?” Gracie said skeptically.
“Nah, someone else. Same night, too.”
“You…”
“He has the devil’s own luck,” Alan said. “And—this is the big one—guys are just easier to date than girls.”
“Let me tell you, man, that is not true.” Kevin was emphatic, which sounded hilarious in the Piskie voice. Everyone burst out laughing. “I’m serious! Stop laughing. Goddammit, guys!”
Jay recovered first. “All right, go on. Tell us about it while we all get to—where are we meeting, city gates?” There was a chorus of yeses. “Come on,” Jay cajoled Kevin. “We promise we won’t laugh at the voice.”
Kevin harrumphed. “There’s no ‘about it’ to tell,” he said finally, still sounding a bit prickly. “It’s just, dudes are every bit as crazy as girls. You think there’s less drama when it’s two guys dating? You’re wrong, pal.”
“I have to agree,” Gracie chimed in. “Well, all I know is, my cousin has a bunch of stories from dating guys and girls, and from what she says, it’s always a clusterfuck.”
“I’d be willing to believe that,” Alex said contemplatively. “People get dumb when they date, right? Although, having enough dates to get stood up twice in one week...”
“I should have known we were coming back around to that,” Kevin grumbled. He appeared at the end of the street, his Piskie running along, her hair easily half again her height. “Listen, I date that often because people are crazy. You gotta play the odds if you want to find a good one, right? And there are seven billion people. That’s a lot to go through. I mean, even three and a half billion is— Whoa. Whoa. Gracie. Whoa.”
“I’d ask if I had spinach in my teeth, but I don’t think they programmed the game that thoroughly,” Gracie joked. “Oh, and since you’re here, you’ll know this—what’s with the glowing 9 thing Alex says I have above my head? Assuming he’s not pranking me.”
“Oh, no,” Jay said.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I just…spilled something.” He cleared his throat. “So, where are we questing tonight?”
“That 9,” Kevin said, ignoring Jay, “means you’ve hit the global rankings, Gracie. You’re in the top ten.”
“The top ten? Whoa, wait, the top ten players?”
“Yeah. So, you hiding some Level 50 alt somewhere or something?”
“I…no?” Gracie looked at Alex, baffled. There was no emote for baffled, but after a moment, his character gave an elaborate shrug. “It has to be a glitch, right?”
“Right,” Jay said, his voice sounding stronger. There was a pause, then he sighed. “No.”
“No what?”
“I mean, it’s not a glitch.”
“How do you know?” Gracie waved as Alan joined them and pointed toward Jay, who was walking their direction from the surrounding countryside. Everyone set off together.
“I just mean, if you’ve got that ranking, there’s a reason, right?”
“I don’t think there really is.” Gracie shook her head. “We’re all Level 15, right? We should have the same ranking. We haven’t done anything different, have we? I mean, Alex and I had that weird bear thing we fought off, but that can’t have that big an effect.”
“You did that quest with the jewel, right?” Alex interjected.
“I suppose. And there was that thing last night—”
“Let’s get leveling,” Jay broke in. “Before I have to go, right? Oh, we have a low-level.”
“This is Alex,” Gracie explained. “He’s my roommate. He got me into the game, but he’s had to work late the past few nights. Figured we could help him level up.”
Alex bowed. “Gary Swiftbolt, at your service.”
“Gary Swiftbolt?” Gracie snorted. “You are such a dork.”
“We’re all dorks here,” Kevin said philosophically. His Piskie made a grand, sweeping gesture. “Let’s get Swiftbolt here leveled up before we lose you, Miss Number 9, to one of the big guilds.”
“Oh, good point.” Alex shrugged. “I need to kill some wolves by a magical spring, by the way?”
“Ah, we’ll show you the way.” Gracie set off. “What’s a good point? And what about guilds?”
“He means,” Jay said, “that you’ll be getting headhunted if you stay in the top ten. Even close, really.” He didn’t sound entirely pleased.
“Or she’ll get a sponsorship,” Alex chimed in. “All right, Teef, take it away. Go get me a wolf.” He sent his panther racing off into the sunshine. The days passed quickly here in the game world, and the sun climbed noticeably if you took even a moment to look at it.
“She might get a sponsorship,” Jay said.
“Uh, guys? Little help here?”
“Right.” Jay nodded to Gracie, and the two of them took off for the fight as Alan began healing. Kevin’s demon oozed along beside them as they ran, and all three of them slammed into the wolf at once. It went flying, one-shotted easily by three Level 15s.
Gracie pointed in two directions and she and Jay took off, one-shotting another wolf apiece.
“Excellent,” Gracie said. “Well, there’s that quest sorted out.”
“I’ll go get the next one,” Alex called.
“Cool. Alan, you want to go with him, keep him out of trouble, and heal him if anything comes out of the woodwork?”
“Sounds good,” Alan said.
“You know,” Jay said, as the other two started off, “you should think about looking for sponsorship.”
“It’s a glitch, man.” Gracie looked at him, grinning, and then remembered to make her character emote. “I’ve only played this game for a few days. Wait. Son of a bitch.” She sighed. “I just realized that the email I got about making back my monthly fee—that’s probably the same glitch. Argh.”
“Or it’s not a glitch,” Jay argued. “Gracie, what if—” He broke off.
“What if?” Gracie prompted.
“It’s nothing. Not important. Just remember it’s not a glitch, okay?” His voice was oddly intense. “All this money you’re making every day? That’s yours.”
“I make money every day?”
“If you’re in the top ten, yeah,” Kevin chimed in.
“Yeah.” Jay wasn’t looking at her. “And your roommate’s right. You should try to get a sponsorship.”
“What do sponsorships even do? How do they work?” Gracie looked around. This all seemed ridiculous, but no one else seemed to be noticing that. It’s a glitch, her brain insisted.
“Well, they pay some living expenses, make sure you have good internet, stuff like that. And you rep their brand.”
“I don’t know. If I’m already making money every day, why do I need more?” Gracie shrugged. “Hell, if I get higher in the top ten—”
“Which you can do more easily with a sponsorship,” Alex chimed in. “Imagine not having to work so many hours, Gracie.”
“Oh, that would be nice.” Gracie let herself dream for a moment. “Ugh, I don’t know.” She shook her head. None of this was real. No matter what Jay said, it wasn’t real, and she was going to have to give that money back. “Let’s just go play for a bit, okay? Good old-fashioned slicing things open with giant swords.”
“Thrusting,” Alan corrected. Since they’d found out Gracie was a girl, the Gracie’s-sword-is-a-penis jokes had become more common, not less.
She snickered.
They managed to boost Alex’s level considerably over the course of the night, trading jokes and lobbing creative insults at each other and their various opponents. By the time Gracie logged off for the night, she was feeling quite content.
That was, until she got into her room and saw the dress lying on the floor. A few beads winked at her in the dim light and Gracie caught sight of herself in the mirror, dressed in old clothes and her hair straggling out of its ponytail. The mirror also caught, in stark detail, the bare walls of the room, the cluttered nightstand, and the mattress on the floor.
She checked her phone. She’d given Kyle a brief, polite acknowledgment, but he hadn’t responded after that. He hadn’t contacted her after work, either.
She sat down on the bed with a thump. She hadn’t wanted to go back, to have the life her parents wanted for her, but more and more, she was beginning to wonder if she’d just left because she couldn’t hack it.
If she was just running away from the truth.
After all, what evidence did she have that she could be a success?
Chapter Twelve
“It’s the only solution that makes any sense.” Jay fought the rising urge to slam his hands on the table.
Or better, Chris’s head.
No, worse. That would be worse. Right.
“He has a point,” Sam said cautiously. He wore the expression of someone venturing out onto thin ice. Jay had to hand it to Sam; the guy really was trying to keep him safe. He was just very, very aware that this situation was getting dicey, and that he didn’t know the rules of it. He cleared his throat and smoothed his tie. Unlike the rest of them, Sam dressed like he was coming to an office. “I think a sponsorship would resolve this nicely.”
Chris looked at them as if trying to determine how much of this they had planned beforehand. “And when our other sponsors ask why this teen-level character has so many points?” he asked. “When they ask why she’s rising so fast? Because the questions are already starting.”
Jay swallowed before he could stop himself.
Chris leaned forward. “Get her into one of the big guilds,” he said, “and the questions go away. Sure, she’ll have a rankings boost, but it’ll lift all of their rankings, too. We can claim she’s getting their spillover, they’ll be glad to have her on board, and we’ll have time to figure this out.”
Jay looked down at the table and tried to think of something—anything—to say.
Chris was right; a guild was a better solution. When Gracie was on her own, her rank was more noteworthy, and more of an insult to the g
uilds that cooperated and garnered sponsorships. If she were subsumed into one of the bigger guilds, however, they would have a vested interest in her keeping her ranking. Each member’s individual ranking, after all, both boosted and was boosted by their guilds.
It was only Jay’s selfishness that kept him from accepting the solution. He liked playing with Gracie. He liked the banter and wit their little group shared, and Gracie fit as the leader of their party. In a big guild, she’d be just another newbie, maybe a little bit favored due to her rank, but certainly not a guild officer.
She deserved better than that.
“Jay?” It was Sam, his voice a little worried. “Chris is right. Until we figure this whole thing out, it makes sense to have her boosting a guild and being a little more hidden in the rankings.”
“No,” Jay exclaimed in a sudden stroke of inspiration.
Chris sighed and looked heavenward.
“Because if we take the ranking away later, we’re dropping a huge and well-sponsored guild down,” Jay said. He was still grasping at straws, but from Chris’s expression, he was on to something. “It doesn’t matter if you decide it was a glitch. It was something they had, and we took it away. They’ll be pissed.”
Chris groaned and dropped his face into one hand.
“All right, I’m calling it.” For once, Sam cloaked himself in authority. He didn’t generally throw his weight around, and the sheer unexpectedness meant that both Jay and Chris looked at him with automatic attention. “We’re overlooking one of the easiest solutions: we reroll the character, give it the same gear, wipe its achievements, and manually put it back in the quest chains it’s supposed to be on. We give it the rankings level it should have.” He stressed the words faintly. “Harry’s quests won’t trigger anymore, we’ll give this Gracie person the money she made to keep, so she’ll stay quiet, and everyone else will calm down. It’s a big game, and everyone knows games have glitches.”
Jay stood frozen. No. They couldn’t let Callista get rebooted. She’d started the quest, she’d—
“I’ll do it,” Chris said. He gave Sam a hard look. “Why didn’t you suggest this before?”
