Page 38 of Death, Interrupted

What’s her name???

“I can’t tell you her name because it’s pretty special and unique. I have never met someone with that name before.” I could hear the smile in his voice again, and I found myself smiling too. “We’ll just call her baby for now. She’ll understand why.”

I did understand. When I first told him my name, he had told me that my name had too many syllables—which isn’t really true because it just has two—and that calling me baby would be easier.

I hadn’t minded, but he also hadn’t called me that since that night back at Joey’s. It didn’t bother me, but I liked hearing him call me baby.

The chat exploded again.

PUSSY WHIPPED

Oh, he’s IN LOVE

Visor nooo, you’re supposed to be mine! I’m heartbroken.

“Alright, alright. Let’s all calm down now.” He moved his thumbs over the controller, and the window with him in it became smaller. The main screen was now the video game’s menu. He was getting ready to play, and I wondered if he would keep talking so much. I wanted him to. He was good at entertaining the people watching, and it was no surprise that he was this famous.

The chat wasn’t calming down, though. It seemed that VisorDown’s love life was a hot topic, and maybe he was starting to regret telling them about me.

Tell us just one thing about her

PLEASE

MORE INFO!

His thumbs stopped moving on the controller, and he looked at the chat before shaking his head slowly, probably chuckling to himself because of how demanding these people were.

“Fine.” He paused just long enough to make them wait. “Her hair smells like the sweetest peaches, and she has the most beautiful grey eyes.”

I went still, and my smile faded.

Grey eyes?

My eyes were green. They had always been green. Maybe in a certain light, they looked bluer, but how could I be sure? I never saw my eyes. I felt dumb for wanting to check in the mirror. Was he even talking about me? Maybe he was keeping details blurry on purpose. Or maybe I was an idiot and making this into something it wasn’t. Maybe he was talking about a different girl.

The chat went feral again.

We love a poet

grey eyes?? dead

peach hair smell is oddly specific sir

king…I bet she’s blushing because I am, and you’re not even talking about me

I picked up my phone, ready to text him.Don’t make it a thing, I told myself. He probably has his reasons for saying grey instead of green.

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He had hundreds of thousands of people watching him. He didn’t need me correcting colors midstream. Still, the thought kept nagging.

He queued for a match, and a loading screen came up. I wasn’t sure what game he was playing, but it looked like a shooter. Joey used to play those with hisfriends too when, well, they were still alive. But he wasn’t very good at it. I had high hopes for Sly. With that many followers, he had to be good at it.

His voice got focused. “Alright, warm-up round. Can’t embarrass myself in front of my baby.”

He had to be talking about me.

God, I had asked to watch the stream, and he sent me the link. He wanted me to watch, so after all, I decided that the comment about my eyes being grey was just a mistake. Maybe I had been standing in weird lighting every time we were in front of each other.

When the game started, I saw his character for the first time, and I smiled at the helmet he was wearing. Of course, he was wearing a helmet.