Page 156 of Talk Nerdy To Me
Chapter 40
BRITT
“It’s not as much fun being back here as it is being out in all the action, is it?” Harley asks me as the primeval battle rages on well outside of our hidden tent in the woods.
“It’s fun not knowing who’s winning, though,” I tell her as I anxiously tap my foot, wondering if Base is already gone.
This is so far outside of his comfort zone. He really shouldn’t be here right now. He’s going to ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. I could see it in his eyes.
“You say not to meddle,” I very reasonably point out to her. “You always tell everyone not to meddle.”
“I’m only a hypocrite because I haven’t had any sleep for three months, and I love you, but you have to deal with this at some point. You’re too smart; people won’t let you play dumb,” she says as her eyes flutter shut.
She snaps them open again, and then takes a sip of coffee as she yawns and puts it back down. “I like to sneak in and play sometimes at some of the smaller ones. They usually don’t recognize me, since my avatar is the only pictures I use for profiles and no one really cares what I look like, most of the time.”
Her head lulls to the side as she falls asleep mid-ramble, because we have put in a lot of hours to get this done quickly. I was tired too…until Base Masters showed up as a squire.
Now I’m wide awake despite the inconvenient fact that it really is boring on this side of the tent, and I didn’t bring anything to keep my attention.
I practically jump off the chair when I hear the wail of the final horn, and Harley yelps like she’s been startled awake as I push through the tent’s entrance.
I make it almost out of the woods when I see Base walking right toward me, goggles hanging from his hand as he breathes heavily.
He’s covered in kill shots, and he’s wearing a string with no less than ten revival cards around his neck.
His eyes meet mine, and I’m almost positive I see relief cross his features as he straightens and gestures toward himself.
“You died a lot,” I point out in confusion. “It’s hard to die that much. Very few of us are good shots in real life.”
“I had a sniper on me for the first few hits. I would have died more, but a lot of them glanced off me without enough strength to break the bulb. To be honest, halfway through, I was so confused that I just started trying to die. But people kept thinking I was being selfless and heroic, so they kept reviving me,” he says like he’s quickly recapping.
I follow his gaze when he glances over to a group of four men and three women who are all staring at him with very big grins. Rain calls the five-finger-wiggle-wave a flirty wave. All seven seem to give him that wave at once.
He gives a no-finger-wiggle-wave back before giving me that look he uses when he’s too tired to try to explain.
“I couldn’t talk, because Harley said she’d kick me out if I broke her rules. So I also came off as the strong, silent type. It’s…a long story,” he says to confirm my assessment.
“The wars only last for thirty minutes at a time,” I say, because I’m still really confused.
That’s a lot of times to die.
“Yeah, did you know there are emergency inhaler stations set up around the edges? And there are label makers for anyone who hasn’t already labeled their inhalers,” he says like that’s somehow relevant to this conversation.
I don’t even get to respond before he’s firing off the next question. “So what happens now? I no longer trust the itinerary I got, because this is all different than I thought it would be.”
The spot lights all cut out at once, and he looks around as more torches light up in unison around the tables being set up.
“Rich people,” he says on a snort under his breath, smirking as he looks back at me. “I’m not saying that to be mean, either.”
“Now we eat,” I say as I start walking, unsure what else to really say.
I didn’t prepare myself for him to be here. There wasn’t even a fraction of a chance he’d be here.
Harley…the meddler.
He pulls the string of revival cards over his head, and he nudges me as he moves to my side.
“I sat down and told you about the tour and shit. You could have at least mentioned all this,” he says as he follows me to a table.
“It’s hard to talk about things that need so much background explanation it detracts from the original point you were trying to reference,” I tell him, absently, as people keep swinging their attention in our direction. “It’s usually not worth the effort.”
Harley warned me there’d be more attention on me once it went live. I thought I was ready for it.
My eyes move back to Base to find him so close our lips could touch. I pull back just barely, and his hand comes up to my waist, simply resting there.
Fortunately, Harley starts a toast, and the food starts being served directly after, interrupting the moment as the tables start filling up quickly.
This is a really big problem for me, because he’s refusing to stay out of my sight.
