Hearing Abigail invite him to play, Charlie naturally wasn’t going to refuse.
It was time to show her what the arcade king of his middle school years could do.
“Sure, I’d love to!” he said, raising a hand.
When Abigail saw him agree, she immediately scooted over to make room.
“Great!
Come on, sit next to me.” She patted the spot beside her.
Charlie quickly came over and sat down.
After getting familiar with the rules, he figured it out right away.
Wasn’t this basically a stripped-down arcade shooter?
Even a total beginner could handle this.
He made an OK sign to show he was ready.
“Great.
Perfect.
Let’s start!” Abigail said with a nod.
…
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.
As the energetic music kicked in, the game officially began.
“They’re coming!” Abigail shouted, watching enemies pour in from all four corners.
Charlie immediately read the layout, found the best position, and started fighting back.
In other words, he camped in a corner.
Abigail was wiped out almost instantly.
If she had been one of his friends back in the real world, he probably would have teased her.
Something like, “Wow, Abigail, you got deleted right at the start!”
“Maybe stick to farming!”
But here, he definitely wasn’t going to say that.
Besides, if anyone was going home to farm, it was him.
Soon, Charlie cleared the first wave of enemies.
A few seconds later, Abigail respawned, and the second wave rushed in.
But the enemies seemed to have some kind of “target the weak link first” setting, because they all charged straight at her again.
Seeing herself surrounded right after coming back, Abigail was speechless.
“No!
Don’t!” she cried.
But she still couldn’t escape being wiped out again.
While the enemies were busy taking her down, Charlie picked up a triple-shot power-up.
That was like handing a flamethrower to someone who was already winning.
He immediately started mowing everything down.
He camped the spawn points so hard that the enemies died the moment they appeared.
“Charlie, you’re amazing!”
“We’re already halfway through!”
By then, Abigail had also learned his corner-camping tactic.
The fourth wave.
The fifth wave.
Charlie cleared them easily.
In the final waves, he became even more ridiculous after picking up a full-screen shot power-up.
Bullets fired in every direction with no blind spots, leaving the enemies no chance to fight back.
Abigail trailed behind him like a spectator with a controller, only able to cheer him on.
“We did it!”
As Charlie cleared the last wave of enemies, the first level ended.
Abigail set down her controller and looked at him.
“Hehe, that was actually pretty fun!”
“Sure enough, winning makes it fun!”
She joked.
“Exactly.
I think you got a lot better too,” Charlie said.
“Okay, thanks.
But you’re really good with a controller, Charlie.”
“Oh, right.
You’re from the city.
That makes sense.”
She smiled at him.
Seeing that, he took the Amethyst from his backpack and handed it to her.
“Here.
This is for you.
Think of it as a thank-you gift for letting me play with you.”
Abigail’s eyes lit up when she saw the Amethyst.
“Wow, thank you, Charlie!”
“I love this gift.”
Seeing how much she liked it, Charlie felt his guess had been right on the mark.
Then he checked the time.
It was already past seven in the evening.
“I didn’t expect to spend that long in Abigail’s room.”
“I still have two gifts left to give.”
He got ready to leave.
But before going, he needed to say goodbye.
“Ah… Abigail, it’s getting late.”
“I should get going.”
Just as Charlie was about to leave, a small hand tugged at him.
“Don’t go yet, Charlie.”
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
Abigail was holding the hem of his shirt.
This felt strangely familiar, but he stopped anyway.
“What is it?”
Once he stopped, she looked up at him.
“I’ve been taking online classes at home lately.
I heard from Seb that you’ve been fishing near their house every day.”
“Want to go fishing together sometime?”
Charlie thought Abigail might actually be a little better at fishing than him, but she probably should focus on school first.
“Aren’t you taking online classes?” he asked.
“No, I get Sundays off.
We can go then.”
Since she was willing to spend her day off helping him work, how could he refuse?
“Sure.
I’ll buy an extra fishing rod from Willy when the time comes.”
Then, for some reason, a question suddenly popped into his head.
“Wait, how do you and Seb keep in touch?
Aren’t you always at home?”
The moment he asked, he regretted it.
I’m an idiot.
The internet exists, doesn’t it?
I was literally playing a game just now.
What is wrong with me?
He immediately started scolding himself.
But Abigail took him seriously and thought he really didn’t know.
“Online!”
“Isn’t that pretty basic?” she said.
Charlie wanted badly to say, “I know,” but it was already too late.
He immediately tried to change the subject.
Thankfully, one came to him quickly.
“By the way, Seb is pretty handsome, but he seems kind of withdrawn.”
“So how did you two meet?”
“Have you known each other since you were kids?”
At that, Abigail grew a little shy.
“Mm… how do I put it?
We’re sort of childhood friends,” she said, looking embarrassed.
Those words echoed in Charlie’s mind.
“Ah!
You two are childhood friends?”
He froze for a second, then quickly started thinking.
Still, those two did seem like a good match.
Their personalities complemented each other pretty well.
He couldn’t help imagining how they got along.
Thinking of those two made him think of Sam right away.
Weren’t the three of them good friends?
If Abigail and Seb were childhood friends, didn’t that make Sam the third wheel?
Charlie felt sorry for Sam for two whole seconds.
But then he started wondering.
Could Sam have a childhood friend too?
Or maybe a close female friend?
After all, Sam was so cheerful.
He probably had plenty of friends.
Charlie looked at Abigail.
“Does Sam have any girls he’s especially close to?” he asked.
Abigail thought about it for a moment, then answered.
“Yeah.
When he was little, he had a girl he was really close with.”
Charlie immediately got more excited.
“Oh?
What’s her name?”
“Is she from town?”
Abigail looked a little awkward.
It wasn’t like the two of them didn’t know each other.
“Huh?
You two know each other.”
“We do?”
That only made him even more curious.
“Yeah!”
“She’s Sam’s little brother’s teacher, Ms.
Penny!”
That one sentence made Charlie’s brain shut down.
“Penny?”
“Penny is Sam’s childhood friend?”
“Abigail is Seb’s childhood friend?”
“So every girl I’m close to has a childhood friend?”
“Then… wait.
Am I the guy stealing someone else’s route?”
For a moment, Charlie couldn’t accept it.
Curiosity killed the cat, and he had just walked right into the trap.
So Abigail hadn’t been jealous back then.
She had just been curious—curious about what kind of relationship he had with Penny.
But he recovered quickly.
“Hehe… well… that really is big news.”
“I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me.”
“Mm… um… it’s getting late.
I’m going… no, I should head home.”
With that, Charlie stood up in a daze and walked out of Abigail’s room.