Super Fake Love Song - David Yoon Page 0,47

containers. The house was so silent I could hear myself blink.

I told Jamal and Milo I would figure out what to do about the Gray Problem. They, of course, had no idea that the Problem had expanded to include Gunner.

I, of course, had no idea what to do.

Just thinking about that problem gave me much, much angst.

I had also promised them I would work on improvements to Esmeralda’s Veil. That was a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much easier promise to fulfill.

So I sat at my workbench and flipped my face shield down.

Esmeralda’s Veil was a good idea on Jamal’s part, but its biggest flaw was that it was way too noxious to pass the Safe part of the CREAPS test. I removed the stinking smoke bomb from the base of the tube and replaced it with a portable, battery-operated humidifier, one of the many compact nebulizers I kept around the house to protect my sinus tissues from allergens.

I taped the humidifier into a plastic bottle of water, flipped the switch, and watched as delicate fingers of mist began streaming from the perforations in the wand. Silent, odorless, nontoxic, easily refillable with free and abundant H2O. For extra shiny, I lined the clear tube with an LED array strip to turn the mist blue, green, orange, and so on.

I clipped my phone to its stand, recorded a short rough to send to Jamal and Milo in the morning, and tidied up. From my tiny knight I took a tiny sword pen and wrote

Esmeralda’s Veil Version 2: Success (+3 Magic Defense Bonus, +2 Evasion Bonus)

Lady Lashblade was sure to be impressed.

My feeling of satisfaction lasted only for a moment before giving way to my previous foreboding. Gray was still out there. And Gunner.

I wrote Gray’s name in my notebook, then crossed it out hard with a ballpoint pen until the paper tore. I did this over and over.

GRAY GRAY GRAY GRAY GRAY GRAY

I was angry. Mainly at myself.

STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID

All I wanted was to somehow rewind time to the part just before Gray came home. I wanted to somehow keep him in Hollywood—find him another roommate, whatever—so that I could keep being Rock Star Sunny. So that I could keep having fun, because I was having fun, in a way that I hadn’t for a long time.

Why should my fun get ruined?

Gray didn’t even like his old stuff anymore. Why should he care what I did with it?

Why did Gray have to be what he was—the lord of all douchetubes?

I slammed my notebook shut.

I headed downstairs.

Down, down, to where the air grew muted and musty with disuse. Gray’s door was ajar. I shoved it open against thick carpet unflattened by any footstep.

Gray did not move.

I peered closer. He lay on the derelict recliner with one hand covering his eyes and frayed, gaffer-taped headphones sealed over his ears. He sighed deep and slow.

When I touched the chair with a fingertip, he wiped his eyes, which fluttered wildly against the light until they found me, focused in, and dimmed. “What,” he said.

Gray had been listening to his old iPod. His eyes were poofy and red.

“What are you listening to?” I said, as bitingly as possible, which was not very much.

“Music,” said Gray.

“You forgot you even had that thing,” I said, wiggling my toes to muster up courage. “You’re not even using it.”

“What the hell are you using it for?” said Gray.

I stopped, searched for words like a fish gasping for air. “Nothing,” I said.

Gray watched me for a long moment, and I was too paralyzed to do anything but simply let him. I wanted to say so many things, but found I couldn’t.

Gray began chuckling softly. He squeezed his temples, shook his head.

“Seeing you with my guitars, and her sitting there,” he said.

“Stop,” I commanded.

A single laugh—a loud one—escaped his throat before he could catch it. “I’m sorry,” he said, not at all sorry. “That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.”

“Shut up,” was all I could come up with as a retort.

“You guys are completely stupid, you know that?”

I gritted my teeth. The only thing I could do was stand there as Gray found my predicament amusing. I wished I could stun him with Raiden’s Spark for real from one hand, and then cast Esmeralda’s Veil with the other so that I could abscond