Chapter 2

Around us, the other players stood tense.

"The match is about to start. What happened with breakfast?"

"Ken's our star. If this throws off the game, who's going to answer for it?"

His fingers picked restlessly at the edge of his nail.

I looked at Ken before I could stop myself.

He turned his head, dodging my eyes.

Myrtle spoke up, cold.

"He hits a snag right before a match. What kind of assistant are you?"

"One more time like this and we should just replace you."

I kept my eyes down, my jaw locked tight.

I didn't argue. I said nothing.

I only set the hot water on the desk without a word.

Then bent my head and went back to tidying the training room desks.

Little black spots swam in front of me, and my head throbbed and went light.

I gritted my teeth and kept wiping down the mouse.

Myrtle brushed past, her arm knocking into mine.

The mouse slipped from my hand and hit the floor hard.

I bent to pick it up.

Ken moved faster than I did.

He cradled the mouse, his fingertip running over the fresh scratch on the shell.

His face darkened in an instant.

"Can't you be a little more careful?"

"This is Myrtle's mouse. She's had it a long time."

My head was still spinning.

I could only stand there, unable to get a single word out.

Ken turned to Myrtle, his voice gentle.

"Use mine for now."

"I'll buy you a new one later."

His hand pressed against the edge of the desk, gripping just slightly.

To Ken, a mouse was like a third hand.

Normally he'd stop me the second I so much as touched it.

Now he was giving it away without a thought.

I didn't say anything more. I just turned and left.

I checked my temperature. A hundred and two.

I took sick leave and went home, collapsing onto the couch.

The memories flickered past me, frame by frame.

The last time I'd run a fever this high was senior year of college.

There'd been rain like this then, too.

The tuition I'd earned busing tables had been stolen.

My parents had given that money to my younger brother for summer camp.

I knelt in the yard for three hours.

In the end all I got was two words. "No money."

No one could help me.

Ken and I were still only friends from online back then.

He heard what had happened to me and, without a word, wired me ten thousand dollars.

He wasn't much older than me at the time.

Every cent of it he'd earned as a paid gaming partner, pounded out key by key.

He said:

"It's fine. From now on, I've got you covered."

My eyes stung with wet.

The door pushed open. Ken was home.

He tucked a blanket over me and laid the back of his hand against my forehead.

"Why are you so hot?"

He fumbled around and mixed me a packet of cold medicine.

I closed my eyes, and a thin thread of hope rose in me despite everything.

Really, Ken still loved me.

The next second, he opened his laptop again.

Every so often his voice drifted over.

"Myrtle, that shot just now was sick!"

The corner of my mouth pulled down.

Myrtle again.

Cold sweat soaked through me, and I dragged myself up to find a towel.

I clipped the corner of the desk and went down onto the floor.

Ken shut off the game and rushed over to me.

He saw my flushed face and frowned.

"How did you get this bad?"

"I'll go buy more medicine."

He bolted out the door.

I lay on the couch, sweat soaking the back of my shirt again and again.

Two hours passed.

With shaking hands, I ordered delivery to bring me medicine.

By the time I'd taken it, Ken still hadn't come back.

I lifted my hand and called him.

No answer.

I let the screen go dark and curled up in bed.

Somewhere in the haze, Ken came back.

He held me tight, his tears wetting the front of my shirt.

"Summer, get better soon."

I reached up to hold him back.

But my arms closed on nothing.

Two in the morning.

The one who should have been by the bed still hadn't come home.

I pulled the blanket tight and buried my head.

The next day, I woke very early.

I got to the company far earlier than usual.

I stopped at the convenience store for breakfast on the way.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ken and Myrtle walking out of the hotel next door together.

Both of them had heavy dark circles under their eyes.

Myrtle went into the company first.

Ken stayed where he was and ran straight into me, caught off guard.

His face tightened all at once, and he hurried two steps toward me.

"I ran into Myrtle last night and helped her pick out a mouse."

"It got so late we just went to the gaming hotel."

"We only played games. Nothing happened."

His hands were empty. Not a single capsule in them.

I was home burning up with fever while he spent the night in the same room as another woman.

Every bit of hurt and misery surged up at once.

I couldn't keep my voice from shaking.

"Let's break up."