Page 11 of Whatever It Takes

Jared looks around my place like he’s on an apartment tour. “Wow, you’ve got a sweet setup.” He eyes the back wall with the desk and four monitors. Two servers. All the chords are neatly bundled and tucked at the floorboard. It took me days to put everything together and not have it look like a mess.

“You a gamer?” Jared wonders.

Probably not the kind he’s thinking of. I don’t play Call of Duty or Halo or even League of Legends. My true love is the classics on consoles like Sega and N64. But that’s not why I have the computers.

“No,” I tell him. “I’m a software engineer at Cobalt Inc.”

Jared raises his brows. “Damn.” He sounds impressed. “But I thought you said you were at Penn.”

Never said that. He assumed it. Because I look my age—twenty. And this building is affordable and a short distance to campus. It adds up, I guess.

I shake my head. “I didn’t go to college.” I’m not ashamed about that. It’s not for everyone. Definitely not for me.

Jared looks me up and down. “So you’re like one of those geniuses fromThe Social Network?”

I almost laugh. I’m so far from a genius. I’m just good at what I do.

“Not really.” I’m about to make up some excuse about work. Anything to get him out of my apartment, but he’s already talking again.

“About the other night with Ana,” he says into a cringe. “Sorry if she came on strong. She’s just a huge fan of your family’s.”

“They’re not my family,” I correct him. They’re Willow’s. I’m just…adjacent to them.

He scratches the back of his neck. “Right, sorry.”

“I have to work,” I tell him.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll get out of your hair.” He picks up his broom. “If you have issues with your smoke detector again, you know where to find me.” He leaves quickly. A weird feeling crawls under my skin, and I know it’s from his sudden saccharine neighborly friendliness. It seems fake, but I really don’t want to judge him.

I lock my door and then assess the kitchen. The smoke is almost all cleared out. Checking the pizza, my stomach grumbles and I let out an irritated breath.

Crispy and inedible. Pizza should be neither of those things.

I end up grabbing a Lightning Bolt! energy drink from the fridge and sink onto my desk chair. My computer is one of the few places I can just get completely lost in. Right now, that’s all I want.

Willow’s Tumblr Questionnaire

Age 17

Rules:Complete the form by answering each section truthfully. Once you’ve finished, tag other users to complete the task. Begin by sourcing the person who tagged you.

Have you ever…

Been cheated on:never gave anyone the chance to

Kissed someone and regretted it:never been kissed (don’t judge)

Drank hard liquor:a couple times. I didn’t like the taste

Been drunk and thrown up:nope

Met someone who changed you:I met Loren Hale once (my only celebrity run-in). He was standing on my front doorstep (long story). Loren Hale left within like five minutes—but he actually spoke to me. He noticed my Mutants & Proud pin, and I mentioned liking X-Men Evolution (the cartoons). Then he made a comment about the comics and Lily Calloway. He called her his girlfriend, but they were and are still engaged if Celebrity Crush is right. It made me think that girls could read comics too—and the way he spoke, he presumed I already did. I never tried to read them until that moment, until he left and I thought yeah, I’m allowed to read these too.

I started New X-Men and related so much to Wallflower, a girl I really needed a year ago, when my dad divorced my mom. And I would’ve never read comic books and fallen in love with them if I didn’t meet Loren Hale

Fallen out of love:I’ve never fallen in love to fall out of it

Found out who your true friends are:this is why I keep my circle small. Maggie is the truest friend there ever could be