Looking for Group - Alexis Hall Page 0,77

requiring her to play a randomly selected character, and culminated in her having to play a charcter of her opponent’s choice. Tinuviel accepted all of this with good grace, and still won virtually all of her games.

“I don’t admit this often,” said Sanee, awarding Tinuviel the grand prize of a red-iced and thus ostensibly blood-themed cupcake that Steff had apparently made specially, “but I am genuinely impressed and slightly afraid.”

Tinuviel accepted her award gravely, peeled off the paper, and devoured it in two large bites. “Thank you, Sanee. I attribute my success to my supportive family, the voice talents of Karen Strassman, my repressed violent urges, and the fact that none of you would recognise a cancel or a breaker if you fell over it.”

Everyone applauded.

Drew still missed Kit, but the evening had turned out to be exactly what he needed. On the way back to his room, he estimated that “a couple of days” could, if you squinted and tilted your head right, just about be said to have passed. So he took a deep breath and started composing a text. It took way longer than the word count really justified.

In the end, he had: Sorry if I was a dick. I miss you. Can we talk?

Kit got back to him the next morning, and they agreed to meet in Kit’s favourite tearoom before the raid.

So there they were, in the very frilly tearoom, half-lost behind overloaded cake stands. In his anxiety, Drew had already eaten three triangular cucumber sandwiches and a macaron, and was now feeling awkward and clumsy on top of nervous. Kit, of course, looked like just the sort of boy you’d take to a tea shop—except, to Drew, he seemed a little washed out. Not quite his usual self.

“Um.” Drew picked up a piece of Victoria sponge and hastily put it down again. “I am really sorry. I was worried and confused and overreacted.”

Kit was silent for a while. Finally, he folded his hands on the tabletop and said, “I think it’s the worried that upsets me most.”

Drew had always been under the impression that worrying about someone showed you cared. “What? Why?”

“Well, I guess I’ve got used to people making me feel there’s something wrong with how I live my life. But I wasn’t expecting it from you. I thought you got me.”

“Oh my God, I do get you. We have a thing . . . like, a real proper thing.” Drew was starting to realise this was way more serious than he’d thought—and he still didn’t entirely know why. “I just want you to spend more time with me than you do hanging out in a video game.”

Kit blinked. His eyelashes looked a little damp. “But, Drew, we met in that video game.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to spend all our time in it.”

“I don’t understand where this is coming from. Why are you so obsessed with how much I play HoL? You’ve played it as much as I have.”

Drew was trying to be calm and apologetic like Morag had said, but he was really struggling with the way Kit seemed to see him. He wasn’t that sort of player and never had been. Yes, he’d taken the game seriously, but it had never been his default activity. He had lots of other stuff going on in his life, and he was a bit narked Kit couldn’t recognise that.

“I really haven’t, mate. I’ve got three alts, plus the one I rolled with you. Even when I was raiding hard-core with Anni, I was there to do the content. I’ve actually spent more time in HoL since I met you than I did when I was the MT for the number one raiding guild on the server.”

“But didn’t being MT for the number one raiding guild on the server make you miserable?” Kit pushed his hair exasperately out of his eyes. “Do you think maybe that the reason you’ve been spending more time in the game now than when you were with Anni is that you’re, y’know, enjoying it more?”

Drew opened his mouth, intending to reply, but then realised he didn’t really have one. He felt a little bit cheated, like Kit had put him in a position where he couldn’t disagree, because he couldn’t explain why he disagreed, and had now got him cornered by being right about something slightly different.

“Look, is this even about me?” Kit carefully moved the cake stand to one side so they could see each properly.