Page 87 of Darkness Defined

I squinted to make out a title. “What do you have there?”

“Oh this?” The guy pointed to the heap of electronics. “It’s my old gaming unit. My grams just sent me a new one. Why?” It was perfect. Neutral. Normal. Distracting.

“What do you want for it?”

He checked out the bag I was carrying. “What do you got?”

“Ice cream.”

“Sold. Here, there are even some games.”

I traded him half of the ice cream and accepted the console. He probably would have given it to me for free, but it didn’t matter, it was mine now. Now all I had to do was get Alex to play it.

Inside our dorm, there was no clear sign of Alex. I successfully put away the frozen goods and install the unit before he emerged from his cave again. He ghosted around a few minutes before finally settling on the couch. It was the first time he’d done that in days, so I chose to see that as yet another sign of hope. I quickly retrieved two pints from the freezer.

“Hey,” I called. As he turned, I tossed him the strawberry. He wasn’t expecting something to be thrown at him and almost dropped it. For a couple of shimmering seconds, it was like nothing was wrong. He was his usual self. I walked over and sat on the back of the couch, cracking open my container.

“You know a spoon would be—”

I held out a spoon for him, and he looked from it to me before accepting it.

He scooped up a bite and paused without taking it. “Matt—”

“It’s fine, Alex. You have a right to be angry. I should have told you about the fight club.” I stared into my frozen treat and mustered up the courage to be honest. “I… I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to know.”

He narrowed his eyes and slowly took a bite.

I rushed to elaborate, realizing too late how that must sound. “Because I didn’t want you to think less of me. I don’t even know why I kept going. I guess it was just nice for people to be afraid of me for a change.” I bit into a frozen chunk.

He sighed, looking pensive as he scooped another spoonful. As apologies went, it wasn’t the worst one I’d ever done, but there was really no way to make it right. It was already done. All that was left was to be honest about it.

Alex gestured with his spoon at my recent acquisition. “What’s that?”

“Some kid down the hall was getting rid of it because he has a new one.”

“That’s wasteful.”

“Agreed. He said nothing’s wrong with it. Even gave me the controllers and some games.”

“Should we see if it works?”

I diligently schooled my face from erupting into a grin. It was working. “I’m game if you are.”

He hesitated a moment, then gave a small laugh under his breath. Joy surged inside of me at yet another sign I was making progress. While he inspected the selection, I put away what was left of the ice cream, then joined him on the floor. The cords for the controllers stretched over the coffee table, which he’d pushed out to give us more room.

“So, what are we playing?” I asked, sitting close enough to be present without crowding him.

He gave me a crooked grin that made my heart stutter. “Since we’re apparently doing puns today, I went with Demon Crusader. It says it can have two players, though I’m not really sure how that will work.”

“One way to find out.” The console fired up no problem, and before long, the sounds of the game filled the room.

We played in silence, though it was substantially more companionable than the quiet I’d endured over the last week. The mechanics of the game were fairly simple, and after a while, I was confident enough to glance at Alex. He looked like he was actually having fun. That made me happy. Maybe I could fix this mess I’d made after all. Of course, there was still one more thing I had to take care of: I had to prove to Alex that I didn’t have to be totally smashed to want to kiss him.

We paused at a checkpoint. While the game saved our progress, Alex excused himself and I grabbed a beer. I popped it open and sat it on the coffee table.

“What do you think of the game?” he asked, giving the beer a sidelong look as he resumed his seat. I wasn’t even sure why I’d grabbed it. I didn’t really want it, and it completely contradicted what I was trying to prove. My nerves were getting the better of me.

“It’s not too bad. Though you would think someone would tell the creators that’s not what demons look like. I mean, we don’t have horns or wings and none of the other demons I’ve met do either.”