Page 35 of Devil in Disguise

“Five-fifty. Next door to you, I guess.”

“Well,” he said, “you can come hang out with us if it gets chilly over there. Here, come meet my roommate.”

Boy, did she want to. “I should really unpack and get my bed set up,” she said instead, hopefully earning her Maturity Points. “Stomp boxes, all that stuff. My mom’s pretty pregnant, if I didn’t mention it. If I don’t get it done, she’ll come back and do it herself, and I kind of promised her fiancé that I wouldn’t let her.”

“We’ll give you a hand, then.” He leaned into the room and hollered, “Avery! Come meet Dyma. We’re helping her unpack.” He turned back to Dyma and said, “He’s computer science too. All geekdom here, all the time. If you’re A&A … do you play video games?”

“Only enough to kick your ass,” she said, sticking her hands into her back pockets. “Divinity: Original Sin II is my jam right now. Though I’m fairly good at pool, too. I’m multidimensional.”

He grinned some more. He had extremely straight, white teeth. Colfax must have excellent dentists. He looked like he’d drunk a lot of milk in his life, and also like his parents bought half a steer at the county fair every fall. She’d have bet money that his dad grew wheat, that he farmed a couple thousand acres, and that his ancestors were German.

“Multiplayer RPGs,” he said.“Andpool. Awesome. You shoulddefinitelyhang out with us.”

17

All New

When Dyma walkedinto the room, Sydney was saying to Cassandra, “And her sweaty, pregnant singlemom.Could you—”

Dyma thought,No stabbing. You’re above it all,and said, “Hey. This is Fletcher and, uh …”

“Avery,” Fletcher said, since Avery was more normal-world, meaning, “Not exactly suave,” and didn’t seem like he was about to jump in and introduce himself. He was nice, though, and pretty cute in a quiet sort of way. And, hey, he was going to help her unpack.

“Hi!” Sydney said perkily. “I’m Sydney, and this is Cassandra.”Now,she stood up, and so did Cassandra. Cassandra managed to flick her hair, too. They were both looking at Fletcher, then glancing at each other. If there was a kicking, biting, hair-pulling fight over him tonight, Dyma wasn’t breaking it up.

“Just here to help Dyma unpack,” Fletcher said. He kicked off his shoes, sort of swarmed up the ladder at the end of the bed with a whole lot of agility and a fair amount of muscle and said, “Toss me up the sheets. Avery, get the foot of the bed, would you?”

Sydney dashed forward, got on the lower rung of the ladder, pulled herself up, and said, “I’ve got it! We were just about to give her a hand.”

“Cool,” Fletcher said. He didn’t smile, though, not the way he had at Dyma. Hey, she couldn’t help but notice.

It was pretty ridiculous in here with five of them and all her boxes, bumping into each other like an old movie she’d seen once with about twenty-five people crammed into a ship’s cabin. On the other hand, it worked, because twenty minutes later, Fletcher was setting up her electronics, and Avery, who’d turned out to be deeply nerdy but also sweet, was helping her empty clothes into the wardrobe.

“Oh,” he said, taking his hands off the last items in a box. “I’ll just, uh, let you get these.”

“What?”

“Personal stuff.”

She looked. And laughed. “It’s not a variety pack of magnum condoms. It’s a box of tampons and my makeup bag. Not that personal. Just stick them in the bathroom, would you?”

Avery hesitated, then did it, but when he came out again, his cheeks were a little darker. She couldn’t exactly tell, because she’d never really known any Asian people, but she thought he was embarrassed.

Wait. She’d always thought her frankness was funny. Maybe not. She said, “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“You didn’t? Huh. On the other hand, the ‘magnum’ was a nice touch.” He smiled his sweet smile, and she laughed.

“Don’t say something creepy, though,” Dyma told him.

“Who, me?” He laughed, and they were friends again.

Dyma asked, “So are you from Washington?”

“Yeah. Seattle. And I hear you think you can beat me at Original Sin II. You sure?”

“Well, I can beat most people, so I’m figuring my streak will continue. If I have time, because I’ve got to line up a work-study job this week.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “Right away, freshman year?”