Page 38 of Love Legacy

Naomi

T rue to my word, I went back to my parents’ house the day after our fight.

I went during the Three Kings Day event, knowing I’d be able to avoid them.

Grannie Mae even came and helped me pack up the remainder of my clothes and childhood items I wanted to keep.

She allowed me to store my boxes in one of the guest rooms at her house on the condition I come get them once I get a real apartment in New York (not just campus housing).

She even offered to give my mother a call and “let her have it for turning her back on her baby,” but I told her it wasn’t worth it.

Their relationship is strained as is, the last thing she needs is to insert herself into my situation.

Knowing Grannie Mae though, she probably will call anyway.

She’s stubborn, similar to my father, and I think that’s partially why they never got along, even before she found out he was a preacher.

I stayed at Grannie Mae’s house for a couple more days until I could find an open flight to return back to New York earlier than originally scheduled.

I was supposed to stay in Georgia for another two weeks, but with everything that happened, there was no point.

I have nothing left for me there besides Grannie Mae.

My relationship with my father’s side of the family was strained to begin with, but now it was nonexistent.

Any “friends” I had were from Bible Study or High Valley, and I distanced myself from just about all of them when I left for Pinebrook University.

I reached out to Alex, asking if she was around to pick me up from the airport.

Campus is just a little too far from the airport for Uber, and I’m not ready to see Sage yet.

She’s the only one at Pinebrook who knew I was planning to come out to my family, and I’m not ready to talk about how it went down.

I didn’t even tell Grannie Mae specifics.

She just saw the look on my face when I returned home and put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Thankfully, my roommate decided to spend the time after Thanksgiving with her boyfriend Matthew, so they were at his apartment in Manhattan.

She didn’t ask too many questions about what happened and why I asked her and not Sage, but I gave her some lame excuse I didn’t want to get stuck in Georgia if a big storm hit New York.

I don’t know if she bought it or not, but either way, she didn’t pry any further.

Now, I’m standing at baggage claim, grabbing my big suitcase, waiting for the text from Alex to let me know that she was here.

My phone beeps, and I check it, expecting it to be Alex.

It was Sage—again. I’ve been mostly dodging her texts and calls since I talked to my parents.

I feel bad, but I’m still processing, and that’s all she wants to talk about.

I’m sure if I explained to her that, she’d understand, but I’m just taking the coward’s way out and avoiding her for now.

My phone rings again, and this time it is Alex.

I head outside, looking for her small sedan, surprised when I see her in the passenger seat of a blacked-out Cadillac XT5.

“Hi Naomi, Matt is going to drive us back to campus if that’s okay?

He has to drive to a last-minute conference in Albany and Pinebrook is on the way.

” I nod, heading toward the trunk to see her boyfriend rounding the vehicle to open the hatchback.

“We haven’t officially met, but I’ve heard a lot about you, Naomi,” he says, reaching for my bag and putting it in his trunk for me next to their bags. “I’m Matthew, but everyone calls me Matt.”

“Nice to officially meet you, Matt. I’ve heard a lot about you too,” I say, shaking his outstretched hand.

“Good things, I hope?”

I laugh. “Definitely good. She can’t stop talking about how great you are.” I get in the car, buckling in behind Alex.

“Naomi!” She says defensively, embarrassed to be called out.

“What? You know it’s true.”

Matthew glances at me through the rearview. “So Naomi, are you graduating this year too?”

I shake my head. “I was only allowed to transfer in so many credits, so I had to come in as a Junior rather than a Senior. I still have one more year.”

Alex nods. “Matt too. He’s doing a dual BS/MBA program, so he has to take a fifth year to finish the MBA.”

“Oh nice, what are you planning to do after graduation?” I ask, trying to make conversation.

“Probably the same thing I’m doing now. I’m not sure how much Aleka told you about my background, but I created and sold a Smart Home app when I was sixteen, and since then I’ve created a couple indie games that I’ve released on Steam, plus I have a pretty decent following as a streamer.

I want to fully invest and start my own video game development company, you know, do it full time, on a larger scale.

I’m a pretty advanced coder, but my Computer Science degree and the MBA will give me a good educational foundation in some of the technicalities and legalities of the business, not to mention the tools and information I need to run a business. ”

Alex did tell me about his app, but I didn’t know quite the full extent of his coding and gaming success. “Wow, that’s extremely impressive. So, the apartment in Manhattan and this sweet car?”

“Bought them both with the payout from the app. And then I put the remainder in my savings. I only use it now to pay my tuition. My rent for my apartment on campus and the money I invest into my game development comes from my Twitch earnings and my appearance fees for conferences and conventions.”

Alex is a lucky girl. Matthew must be loaded, though I’m sure she probably doesn’t care so much about that. “Do you go to a lot of events?” I ask, genuinely curious about his industry.

He nods. “Yeah, a bit. There’s a few I go to every year guaranteed, whether they invite me as a featured creator or if I just go as an attendee.

I’m required to attend TwitchCon as part of my monetization contract with Twitch, and then I also go to San Diego Comic-Con, DreamHack, and E3, though they’ve canceled the last couple of E3 cons since Sony pulled out.

Then I usually try to see if I can swing an invite to one of the mega Asian gaming conventions like G-Star in South Korea or Tokyo Game Show in Japan. ”

Alex grins. “And this year, he was invited to sit on a panel for indie game developers at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. And since it wonderfully coincides with our Spring Break, I’m going to go with him.”

I return her smile; I know she must be so excited to go and be part of his world. “What? No annual Kappa trip to Costa Rica?”

She shakes her head. “Not this Spring Break. We were actually thinking about waiting until after graduation to go this year instead, so it works out.”

“That’s awesome, Alex. I’m happy for you, for both of you, that should be a fun trip.”

Matthew glances over at Alex, looking at her adoringly. “I’ve never gone to a conference with someone before. Even at my first E3 expo, I was eighteen, so I convinced my parents to let me go by myself. I’ll be nice to have you there with me by my side.”

She blushes, pecking him on the cheek. “I can’t wait. And Tyler The Creator is doing a show at the Moody Center in Austin at the end of South By Southwest, so we got tickets to go to that. A little birthday present for the both of us.”

I look at Alex, a little puzzled. “Birthday present?”

She nods. “Matt’s birthday is like a week before mine. His falls in the middle of SXSW and mine is right after the festival, so the concert is like midway between both birthdays.”

“Aw, that’s sweet, you two are Pisces twins, right?” Sage has been teaching me a lot about astrology. It wasn’t something I had been allowed to enjoy back home, but I’ve since discovered I love it. Explains a lot about people’s personalities.

Alex nods. “Yep! Water signs generally complement each other well, but Pisces Pisces pairings are so harmonious.”

Matthew laughs. “What she said. I’m still trying to get a grasp on the whole astrology thing.”

“I teach him astrology, he teaches me the best way to get a victory royale in Fortnite.”

“It’s the only game you’ll play with me on a Twitch stream because you can be off-camera in another room.”

Alex playfully rolls her eyes. “I’m warming up to the idea of actually being on camera. You have a rabid following, Mister. Men and women.”

Matthew blushes but doesn’t respond—Alex was right.

It doesn’t surprise me at all to hear he gets a lot of attention from his followers.

He’s an attractive guy. He’s got that secretly hot thing going on.

Like looking at him from the shoulders up, he’s not bad looking, but if he takes off his shirt, you get to see all the tattoos and muscles hidden away.

Even I was surprised when Alex showed me a photo of them at the beach from this past summer.

You’d never know, just looking at his face, that he looked like that underneath.

Soon enough, we were back at campus. Matthew pulls up to the front of our apartment building, jumping out to get our bags from the back.

I take my bag, thanking him for the ride and the assistance with my things before heading toward the front door.

I look back, waiting for Alex as she says goodbye to Matthew.

She smiles up at him, her arms wrapped around his middle as he cups her cheek.

He whispers something in her ear that makes her laugh and blush beet red before giving her a sweet kiss.

From what Maeve’s told me, Alex has had a mix of some okay boyfriends and some not-so-great ones.

This is the first guy who’s truly adored her in every way, and you can see it on his face and with how he holds her that he’s head over heels.

I love the two of them together, they complement each other so well.