Page 33 of Do You Ship It

I can only stare, horrified, because, while he’s right, I can’t wrap my head around his blasé attitude. He doesn’t even sound like hecares.

‘But … But they’re our friends.’

‘Yeah, I’m not saying otherwise, it’s just … you know …’

He shrugs, a resigned but mild expression on his face, and Mum’s words about drifting apart ring in my mind again.

‘No,’ I tell him, an edge to my voice. ‘Idon’tknow.’

Jake seems almost happy to distance himself from them, to let that distance just happen, and …

What if I’m next?

What if he decides to drift apart from me, too? It’s already started happening, our lengthy Discord chats the only saving grace for how infrequently he texts me these days. And I know we’ve had these couple of Wednesday after-school hangouts, but with Max tagging along, what if that’s not Jake wanting to include his new friend so much as trying toexcludeme?

After the pizzas arrive, I resume my previous position on the bed as Jake queues up the final episode. But I can’t stop my brain from worrying – if Jake fades out the gang from school, we’ll have one less anchor in our friendship … unlessthat’sintentional, too? On the flip side, I can suddenly hear Daphne and the girls telling me that Jake isn’t trying to push me out completely, only out of thefriendzone, and that this can only be good for proving to him how perfect we’d be together. If he sees me as less of a friend …

If he sees me as less of a friend, I think, determination pushing out the weird mix of grief and worry andsadness in my stomach,maybe he will start to see me as more of a girlfriend?

The alternative really doesn’t bear thinking about.

The finale of season one is essentially a montage of main characters establishing that they are on various, semi-connected quests to defeat the evil rulers and seek out the long-lost Eldritch King who’s rumoured to bring peace back to the land.

It ends with a scene that has both boys cheering: a hard-done-by yet conventionally attractive young man in the capitol, cursed (or blessed, depending on how you look at it) with fated magick and with a great destiny ahead of him, is forced to flee the palace guards and runs right into the path of the bedraggled redhead man with broken glasses, Rogdan, leader of the rebellious Rascals, a ragtag bunch of people and creatures causing mischief and mayhem to disrupt the evil royal family.

Rogdan grasps the young man by the shoulder, after lecturing him on the wider plot of the series while a montage of the other characters on their quests plays out. And then, just before the credits roll, he asks in a gruff voice, ‘So … Be ye a Rascal, Roach?’

I let out an audible ‘Ohhh!’ at finally hearing theline from our T-shirts. Itdoespack a punch. And I do feel excited to see how things go next, and how Roach joining the Rascals will change the dynamics on the show.

‘So? Worth the watch?’ Jake asks, scooting a bit closer to beam at me. His blue eyes twinkle, the light off the TV reflecting in them and his glasses. His hand is placed just behind my back and I can’t help but think that if I leaned over just alittle, it’d put our faces very,verynear together.

I risk placing my hand over his on the bed as I enthuse, ‘Soworth it! That was brilliant!’

I still don’t know that I could explain the plot very well, or why this Eldritch King is so important, but I can see how people are so drawn to the characters. And the artwork and design ismesmerizing.

I’m genuinely looking forward to watching more.

I’m even a bit disappointed that I missed out on that special-effects panel Jake mentioned at the convention, and say as much. In Discord, it’s easier to take a minute to think through anything I say about the show so I don’t sound like an idiot or accidentally offend his love for OWAR, but I don’t want Jake to mistake my quietness now for being fake.

Even if it did sort of, kind of, actually start out that way.

And even if I’ll probably spend hours talking about it with him on Discord later.

Jake grins. ‘See? Did youreallythink I’d lead you astray, all those times I said you should watch it?’

‘Better late than never, though, right?’

‘Oh, always.’ He winks, and butterflies flutter in my stomach even as he pulls his hand from underneath mine, turning to look as Max stands up, stretching his arms above his head. His shirt rises, revealing a sliver of lean stomach beneath. He drops his arms with a groan, then grabs his blazer where it’s slung over the back of the gaming chair.

‘Are you leaving?’ Jake says, looking as dismayed as I feel; I file that look away to tell the girls about tomorrow, sure it must mean something. ‘Already? But … You can’t go now! I mean, we haven’t even grilled Cerys yet about her favourite parts of the season.’

Max scoffs, glancing my way only briefly before replying, ‘Please, I think we both know the answer to that. That tower scene was a pivotal moment for the newbie over here. But yeah, I’ve gotta get going – it’s already nine o’clock, mate, and I’ve got that maths homework due in for second period tomorrow I never got around to finishing.’

‘Still?We’ve had that since Monday!’ Jaketsks.‘D’you want to just borrow mine? You can give it back to me in class.’

‘Nah, I need to get my head around these differentials. I’ve only got a couple of problems left to work through.’

‘And they’re due tomorrow?’ I say, and return Max the favour of not looking at him when I talk about him, instead laughing as I push Jake gently in the shoulder. ‘This one’s a serial procrastinator, too; you’re as bad as each other! Either that or he’s just aterribleinfluence.’

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