NPC = Non Player Character = Characters in a game world that are not controlled by another player but are instead controlled by the game itself. Some are just there to fill the world a little, while others are there to give you quests, or sell you items and things like that. I love the funny things that some of the NPCs will say, but you’ll have to stand near them to hear it.

Oh. My. God. I can’t believe I said that... I can’t believe I actually said that I might actually like her... And she said...

I can’t keep my mind in a single direction. Alex is still walking next to me, holding my hand, as we’re going to pick up my bike. My heart is beating loudly and I feel it’s hard to swallow. No matter how much I thought about this possibility before, no matter what Jade asked me... I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready to consider this is actually happening.

But Alex is looking so cool and grownup next to me. She looks so much older, so much calmer. I feel like a little kid now. How can this change again? How can we get back to being equal? I don’t know. I hate feeling like I’m the little kid anywhere…

“Fleur?” Alex pulls on my arm a little. “You still there?” Her voice is soft, and as I turn to her, so are her eyes.

“Sorry. I...” I’m just a little caught up in my own head. Though I don’t think I actually have to tell her that... She already knows that, she understands things like this.

She smiles a little. “I actually wanted to ask you something. Cerise and I are having our birthday party in a couple of weeks. We’re still trying to decide on the exact dates, but it will probably be a weekend thing. It will be girls only, and will be girls from the guild and other girls we know from Elysium.”

“That sounds... interesting?” A girlgamer only party, I’m not exactly sure what to expect from that though.

Alex shrugs a little. “We’ll probably all be taking our computers or laptops with us, and we’ll be spending most of the time in Elysium or other games. Cerise’s parents have a big house and we can have a LAN-party there easily. Do you want to come?” There is hope in her eyes.

I nod. “Sounds fun. I don’t know many girls who play a lot of videogames.”

“That’s why we love to do this.” Alex grins. “I’ll let Cerise know you said yes.”

“I’ll still have to ask my mom though.”

“Fair enough. Though, I think she’ll be fine with it, after today.”

I can’t help but laugh. “True. She seemed impressed with you.”

“I’m good at impressing people.” She winks and my cheeks heat up. That was a flirt, right?

We reach my bike, and I unlock it, grabbing it. Having my bike... I realise that soon I’ll be going home, on my own. Away from Alex. “Alex?” I’m not even sure what I want to say, but my voice is a little rough.

“Yeah?” She turns to me, putting her hand on the handle-bar, near mine. “I was serious when I said that I don’t expect anything special from you. I don’t want you to be scared. I...” She takes a breath. “I really enjoy just spending time with you, no matter what happens.”

My heart sinks a little. I don’t want her to sound like that. I don’t want her to sound like I may be scared of her. I’m not and I would never be. “I’m not scared. I’m just... confused.” I slide my hand over, covering hers, squeezing a little. “I like spending time with you too. I want to spend more time with you.” Why are those stupid tears there again? Why?

Alex reaches out, wiping at the tears with her thumb, then holding me for a moment. “We will. But everything in its own time.” She smiles, then her phone buzzes. She takes her phone and frowns. “My mom’s here.”

I nod. “You’re meeting her at the theatre, yes?”

“Yeah.” She looks at me with sad eyes.

“Let’s walk there.” I tug on her hand which I’m still holding on the handle-bar.

I don’t want to leave. I don’t want her to leave. But this day will come to an end. And that scares me. Because what happens when I’m back on my own? What happens when all the fluttery feelings that I get near her will calm down?

***

When we approach the theatre, a tall woman is standing in front of it. By the colour of her hair, and the way she’s looking our way, I suspect that she’s Alex’ mom.

We stop in front of her, and she smiles at us both.

She reaches out to me. “Hi, I’m Alex’ mom. You must be Fleur.”

I nod. “Nice to meet you.”

She turns to Alex, and then looks at me again. “Did you have fun seeing the movie?”

“Yeah. Was fun. How was work?” Alex is still standing next to me.

Her mom shrugs. “Not too bad. But I’ll be happy to be in my bed soon.” She does look tired. “On that note. We should probably go soon.” She smiles at me. “You’re always welcome to come over. If Alex wants that, anyway.” She eyes her daughter.

I can feel my cheeks heat up again and as I look to the side, I see the same with Alex.

“Ah, so I was right.” There is a tone of glee in her voice.

“Mom!” Alex raises her voice now and her cheeks go even redder. “You’re not allowed to do that.”

“I’m just glad to see you happy. That’s all.” Alex’ mom grins. “I promised that I wouldn’t ask awkward questions. I didn’t. You were the one who gave an answer you didn’t want to give.”

Alex sighs loudly as she rolls her eyes and I burst out laughing. So her mom is as annoying as mine. I understand how she was able to deal with mine so easily.

“See? She doesn’t seem to mind.” Alex’ mom still laughs.

“Ugh.” Alex shakes her head, then she looks at me, smiling. “I’m taking her home before she starts asking actual awkward questions.”

I nod, also smiling. The mood now much lighter. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Talk to you soon.” She steps closer and we hug a little awkwardly as I’m still also holding my bike.

When she lets go, I already miss having her near.

Alex’ mom looks at me. “Have a lovely evening. And get home safely. Are you sure you don’t want us to drop you off at home? I can put the bike in the back.”

I shake my head. “Thanks. But I’ll just cycle home. The weather is nice anyway.”

“Okay. See you some other time.” She smiles, then waits for Alex.

“Talk to you later.” Alex runs her fingers over my hand, and I grab them for a moment.

“Talk to you later.” My voice is low and I feel a tightening in my chest. But we both know that this is the end of the date.

Alex steps back, then as she turns around, she waves at me. I wave back, as I watch them walk off.

When they walk around the corner, I slump over my handle-bar, letting out a deep breath. Today was exhausting, so much happened, much more than I even thought could happen. And now I feel a little lost.

I grab my phone and send a message to Jade. ‘OMFG!’ I don’t even know how else to put into words what’s going on in my head.

‘What?’ She’s pretty quick at responding.

‘OMFG OMFG OMFG!’

I can imagine the face she’ll be making at my messages. ‘Where are you?’

‘About to go home.’ I sigh. I’m still too wound up to actually go home. Especially since I know that I’ll just be there alone and Alex won’t be home for another hour...

‘Wanna come here? You need to tell me everything about the date!’ Jade’s place is much closer and on my way home too.

‘Sure. Lemme let my mom know.’ Or she’s going to freak out, don’t want that... Especially not when the blame would be on Alex, if she doesn’t know that I’m with Jade. And if I want to see Alex more often, that’s going to be annoying.

***

I lock my bike and walk up to the back door of the house, but Jade’s already pulling open the door. A huge smile of excitement on her face. “Tell me everything!” She pulls on my arm, but instead of going into the house, she pulls me to the bench at the back of the garden. She makes me sit down and then sits on it herself. “Come on. Tell me.” She looks so excited.

I shrug. “I don’t know what to tell, really.”

“You only sent me O-M-G. I need more than that!” She raises her eyebrow at me.

“I sent O-M-F-G, not just O-M-G.” I can’t help smiling.

“Even better. Start at the beginning.” She crosses her arms in front of herself, trying to look sternly.

“She met my mom.” I cringe a little at the memory. “You know what my mom’s like... But Alex survived her well. Which... I actually met her mom too, just now. I get how she survived it.” I let out a laugh. “Alex’ mom is almost worse than mine. She was the best, or worst, really. I don’t think I’ll ever see Alex blush like that again. I didn’t even realise that she could.” I feel my own cheeks heat up at the memory, of how cute it made Alex look. Alex, who usually looks so cool and even sexy, or at least much more grown-up than I feel, reduced to blushes and sounds of awkwardness, I know that I’ll probably not see that again any time soon.

Jade is giving me that look again... That look like I’m some special specimen or like I’m doing some weird new trick...

“Stop looking like that.” I now try to frown at her.

“I can’t help it.” She smiles. “This is new. This is new for you, but it’s also new for me to see you like this. You’re excited.”

“I’m always excited.” I get easily excited, that’s who I am.

“Not in the same way. You’re excited about a person. You’re talking differently, acting differently. I like seeing it. But it’s also a little odd right now.”

“If you’re just studying me, I’m not going to continue my story.” I lean back, crossing my arms in front of myself, pretending to pout.

“No, please. Tell me more. I haven’t dated in a long time. I need to live vicariously through you right now. This is the closest I’ve been to a date in months.” She also pouts, giving me the big puppy dog eyes.

“Fine.” I roll my eyes, laughing. “So, after she survived my mom, we went shopping quickly, before we went for dinner.” That had been interesting, if not a little scary sometimes. Being so close to her, I felt like I’d burst out of my skin at any moment and I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t help feeling all those bubbles inside, those bubbles that made my brain go all weird and made me say stupid stuff a couple of times. “Have I told you yet that she’s sexy? Like... When I saw her... Hmmm...” I wrap my arms around myself, grinning. “Gives me butterflies.” I bite on my lip. “I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

Jade bursts out laughing. “I’ve gotta meet her. I know you showed me a pic, but I really need to meet this girl that reduces you to a puddle of goo.”

“Maybe.” I look at her. “I don’t know if that would be safe, for my sanity.” I grin.

“Riiiight.” Jade shakes her head. “So, what of all of this was the O-M-F-G part of it?”

“I asked her if she liked girls more than boys.” I cover my face with my hand. “Still can’t believe that I did that.”

“You, what?” I hear the surprise in her voice. “What did she say?”

“At first, nothing... And she fled to the bathroom...” It freaked me out too. I was scared I’d said too much. I couldn’t believe my own stupidity.

“What?”

“I followed her. And she said that she does like girls better.” I take a deep breath. “And-then-I-confessed-to-her.” The words spill from my mouth in one long line.

“You—” Jade pulls my hands away from my face, looking at me closely. “You confessed?”

I nod.

“You said that you liked her?”

“I said that I thought I might like her...” I look at my hands.

“What did she do? What did she say?”

“She said that she already knew that she liked me.” I still can’t really believe the words.

Jade lets out a squeal and laughs so loudly that I curl up on the bench, trying to hide. “OMG. I can’t believe it!” She turns to me, grinning. “She really likes you. Like, likes-likes you like that.” That’s a lot of likes…

I nod, my emotions split, excited and scared at the same time.

“Congrats.” Jade still grins and wraps her arms around me.

“What was that noise?” Jade’s brother looks at us from his bedroom window, glowering, though he never really got that good at it when it came to us. He’s always been too much of a softie to us.

“Fleur’s got herself a girlfriend!” Jade calls up at him.

“Right. Now, can you just keep the noise down?” He rolls his eyes as he closes the window again.

Jade and I look at each other and then burst out laughing. Leave it to her brother to just shake his head at us as he goes off doing something else again. Typical.

It also takes some of the anxiety away. His reaction, laughing, it all makes me happy, and less anxious. It makes me feel like I did around Alex a little, relaxed, but also a little nervous.

Because, I’m sure not everyone will respond to this knowledge in the same way...

And that’s what really scares me... Not knowing how other people will react when they find out.