Eniola took one last look in the mirror, before strutting out of the bathroom. She didn’t know if Jay was going to take her to some high-end restaurant or the back of an alleyway. She wore some black pants, with a dark green cropped hoodie. It was minimalistic but could fit into any setting.

You see, she was prepared.

She would not have a complete freak out about how to look. Jay just wanted to hang out with her. That was all. They weren’t an actual couple, as they just faked it for views. It sounded desperate on paper and probably was.

Besides, he was probably dating that pizza girl who he had flirted with. Or the other many girls he had flirted with. They were going as friends. Teammates.

Eniola didn’t consult Iris or Lucia because her friends would make a complete scene and start saying how much she and Jay looked cute together. She was just going to do this on her own.

She braced herself and walked out of her room, dodging Iris and Lucia watching something together.

She uncovered herself from the hallway, and Jay was already there waiting for her, smiling at her. He was wearing a beanie, the same bomber jacket with a white t-shirt underneath and some black sweatpants and some sneakers. “You ready?”

She nodded. “Where are we going?”

“I’m still not telling you,” he teased. “Grab your helmet.”

“What, no stretch limo waiting for me?” she scoffed. “I thought you were a man of culture.”

“I don’t know if you haven’t noticed, but we had to pretend to date just to get more views and donations,” he jokingly reminded her. “We aren’t exactly swimming in money.”

Eniola snicked, and he joined her. After a long laugh, Eniola looked up to see him staring at her. If she could be seen, she’d be blushing.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Ready,” she replied.

They came out of the dorm, down into the elevator and out into the street. Jay threw his bike orb on the ground, and it sprung up to life and he jumped on. It was different. Bigger, with a taller way to the seat and lined with green.

“Get on,” he said, and she threw on her helmet and attempted to climb on. It was so high that she had to climb like this was a rock wall.

“Here,” Jay said, reaching his hand out and pulling her in. She still wobbled and began leaning sideways until his hand caught her on the exposed skin of her waist, holding her steady. He slowly pulled her back up as they maintained eye contact. Her heart was impossibly loud. It was always easy going on her own, but being behind someone else was different. She wrapped her arms behind his back, and leaned in, pressing herself into him. Her skin tingled where he touched.

His hands curved around the handles as the bike lit up and the engine revved up. They took off speeding into the neon nightscape, feeling the rush and breeze of the LA night escape past them.

She looked up into the night sky where the day had finished its tour and now a technicolour landscape took its place with gold colours of the sunset against the indigo sky. It would soon be replaced by a shining myriad of the stars that glowed against the neon landscape of Los Angeles and the building they whizzed past. It was a cool and windy LA night breeze, as the swaying of palm trees rustled and moved them forward.

It was like being in a trance, just letting everything escape to be in this moment right now. Jay began picking up speed and drove faster. Eniola didn’t know where they were going, but all she cared about was the going.

Her coiled hair was blown back by the wind as they escaped into the sunset. It felt weirdly relaxing and euphoric.

Her heart thumped against her chest and she hugged closer into Jay as they sped down the freeway, palm trees lining their paths down the hills.

Eventually, their driving trance stopped and Jay stopped and they both came down. Eniola stood in front of the glimmering tall white curved building. The place was lit up in neon colours, bustling with people throughout. At the distance, she heard a pulsing Rise of Shadows theme.

Eniola’s eyes lit up. “What is this place?”

“Currently, the biggest gamer festival in LA right now,” Jay said, impressing her. “Second is the SCOPE Championships.”

“Wow!” she awed. “You really outdid yourself.”

Jay awkwardly dug his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth. “So what are we waiting for?”

“Nothing,” Eniola said, suddenly grabbing his arm and pulling him forward. The androids scanned them at the door, and when they were admitted in a huge large foyer, bustling with screens and neon lights.

The place was spire-shaped reaching up to the sky filled with fans bustling through the place. A girl in an impressive Orla cosplay walked by her and Eniola kept staring.

“What do you want to do first?” Jay asked as Eniola stared in awe. Jay had brought her here. This was amazing.

“Everything,” she said, and they began running through the plans. They allowed fans to compete in local competitions, and Eniola and Jay entered and won most of them. They both doted over their favourite cosplays and signed up for every raffle and draw, even though they won nothing. Someone had been making moondust ice cream, a treat in the games when you went into the tavern, and they had eaten it all up.

When they were done, they both ran out of the arena, laughing and holding onto each other.

“That was epic!” Jay yelled, coming out.

“So epic,” Eniola finishes. She looked out into the distance as they walked and noticed the coast of the beach beyond them. “Race you to the coast!” And Eniola took off.

“Hey!” Jay exclaimed, running behind her. “You have a head start!”

She simply smiled at him as she ran through the sidewalk before down the hill leading to the beach. She was there first, and soon Jay was behind her.

“I won!” Eniola exclaimed, rubbing it in as Jay came below her, and suddenly wrapped her in a back embrace jokingly, which she wiggled out of, still laughing.

“Not entirely fair,” he said, panting. “But I let you win.”

“Yeah, right,” she teased. “What’s the point in that?”

“I let you win because I get to see you smile,” Jay admitted, and Eniola went quiet as her heart began beating. She looked at him again before smiling and looking away.

He then crouched down onto the sand before lying completely down. Then he closed his eyes before gazing up, eyes glittering at the stars.

“What are you doing?” Eniola asked.

“Looking at the stars,” he told her. “It’s fun, come and do it.” She thought for a while until getting down onto the sand right next to him. Her thick curls submerged and Eniola knew she would soon regret this, picking sound out of her hair.

She dared to meet his gaze. He looked good as the starlight radiated off his tan skin. His smile was effervescent as ever, shining bright. He looked down at her, as her gaze seeped into his brown eyes. Everyone always glorified the passive beauty of blue or green eyes or even the colour-changing eyes people got for show, but looking into his deep brown eyes made her feel like she was staring at beauty.

He looked focused onto the sky, analyzing the milky white pool of the moon spilling out into the glimmering stars. His eyes were trained onto them like he could see something beyond them. like there was hope or a dream.

Jay laced his hand into hers, and suddenly they were intertwined. His was big, veiny, and slightly calloused and it fit into her smaller and softer hand. Her heart pounded strongly at the actions, and now they were staring into so much silence she thought Jay and the whole of North America could hear it. Eniola felt like she didn’t want this night to end, that they were having too much fun and she didn’t want to let it go yet.

“This was really fun!” Eniola admitted. Although she didn’t want to say it, she was glad Jay had won that specific round in Rise of Shadows.

“I’m glad you liked it,” he took his gaze off of her, and now stared at the stars. “Do you ever wonder how small we are in this vast universe?”

“Just because we’re lying on the ground at night doesn’t mean we need to get all deep and have existential crises in life,” Eniola said sarcastically, and Jay laughed at her. “But they’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

“They are,” Jay awed. Eniola turned around to him to see that he was not looking at the stars. Instead, right at her. Her heart sped up.

“What do you want to do with your future?” Eniola asked Jay, only to see him taken aback.

“I don’t know,” Jay admitted. “Be successful?”

“Everyone wants to be successful,” Eniola retorted. “How about this; what did you want to be when you were younger?”

He sighs. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Tell me,” Eniola prodded jokingly, pressing a finger into his side.

“No,” he said, squirming away.

“Tell me,” she prodded. “Please.”

He sighed as he finally gave in. “Professional bull-rider.”

“What?” Eniola asked, flipping her ear open jokingly.

“Bull rider,” he finally said out into the open.

Eniola snickered lightly. “That’s cute.”

“It’s stupid, I know,” Jay brushed off. “It’s just the inner Texan in me who saw one rodeo and went stupid.”

“No, it’s not. If you want to ride that bull, then ride that bull,” Eniola motivated, but then caught something else. “You’re from Texas?”

Jay looked like he was realizing the weight of his words. “Yeah. I’m a Texas boy.” he then laughed.

“Hm,” Eniola analyzed. “How did you end up in San Francisco then?”

“Eh,” he said in a high voice. “I don’t know, either. It just happened,” he said breathily. “It’s a long story.”

“We have a long night,” Eniola replied. “I’m all ears.”

“Just some family stuff,” Jay quickly said. “What about you?”

Eniola was shocked at how quickly he wavered on the topic. She began feeling a wave of reality sink into her. Her family would move tomorrow, but Eniola had basically decided to risk her life and stay for the competition. It would be a hefty explanation. She refocused on Jay instead.

“I don’t know what I want to do either,” she admitted. “In school, people always referred to me as the girl who had a plan for everything. I was going to college early to become a doctor and everyone thought that I had my entire life mapped out at the tender age of 16. But I have no clue on what I’m even going to eat for breakfast.”

“It’s probably going to be vegan,” Jay joked. Eniola laughed in response.

“Do you want to be a doctor?” Jay asked. “Or do your parents want you to be a doctor?”

Eniola thought at the sudden question. “No one’s ever asked what I want. It always did this, do that, and if you ask why it’s treason.”

“Answer the question,” Jay restated. “What do you want to be?”

She exhaled. “I want to be a gamer. I want to play SCOPE.” She sucked in a breath at the sudden realization. She hadn’t admitted this to herself before, because saying it was like a betrayal to her parents.

“That’s what you want?” Jay asked. She nodded. “Then go for it.”

“I can’t,” Eniola said. “Strict parent alert.”

“Why do they want you to be a doctor?” he asked curiously. “Aren’t there many other careers that are just as great as being a doctor?”

“Because it’s the tradition in my family to be a doctor,” she explained. “I can’t break that. I need to be a doctor. My older brother didn’t become the way they wanted him to. He wanted to be a designer and dated the wrong girl.”

“Who?” He asked. “Just curious.”

“No,” Eniola said, and Jay made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth. “He started dating this girl named May. She was everything my parents wanted, but then it turned out she had endometriosis and likely wouldn’t be able to have children easily. But Olu loved her despite it all. He didn’t care about it. He just saw May for who she was.”

“And your parents didn’t?” Jay questioned.

“Yeah,” Eniola continued. “They got into a huge fight about it because my parents wanted him to give them grandchildren, especially as the oldest. They disowned him and stopped speaking to him. I just felt like since he rejected those career paths I’ve had to take them on without question.”

“Well, you know what I say,” Jay said. “Do what you want. It’s your life and you’re eventually going to be making your own decisions. Because your brother didn’t become how they wanted, doesn’t mean you have to become like him. You can’t please everyone.”

“I don’t want to disappoint my parents,” Eniola explained.

“What’s worse? Having your parents feel disappointed in you or being a doctor when you don’t want to?” Jay weighed. “Besides, I don’t want you to leave.”

She just groaned. “This is difficult.”

“Life is a journey,” Jay said, “You just have to figure out how you’re going to go.”

“Which inspiration website did you copy and paste that from?” Eniola snarked, which Jay followed with laughter.

“Can I ask you something else?” he asked, and Eniola nodded this time.

“How did you guys all meet?” Jay asked. “Rogue.”

She braces herself to tell him the story. “It was a dark and stormy night. Just kidding. It’s southern California, so it was a bright afternoon right after school.” Jay chuckled.

“Me and Lucia had been taking the bus before we met a younger girl on the train sitting by herself. Lucia being the social butterfly flocked to her because we were the same age and the girl revealed to us she was going to play this game called SCOPE. Lucia didn’t even know what it was about until she asked to come and the girl agreed. We later figured that this girl was Iris.”

“Then we went to the alleyway, and it freaked me out because we were going to this alleyway with a strange girl, but when we got there, we figured it was this huge underground and arena for SCOPE. I was hooked. We started going with Iris after school to this place, and I was obsessed with playing the game. To play you had to make your team, and we wanted to be one, but we needed two extra people.”

“So then you found Theo and Keone?” Jay figured. “How did you meet them?”

“We actually knew Theo. Lucia and I went to the same middle school and high school, and he was two grades above us. Lucia had a huge crush on him, but then when he found out he rejected her.”

“For real?” Jay said surprised. “They’re so lovey-dovey all the time. You’re telling me Theo rejected a girl like Lucia? Mind-boggling.”

“That’s what I thought too!” Eniola agreed. “He was already dating someone. Anyway, turns out he was working at the Puzzle to fund his bike to make a team and we found him. We didn’t become teammates right away, but Theo was passionate about this.

“Then Keone came along,” Eniola said. “He was part of another team, but they disbanded, so he was looking for another one. I was drawn to him at first and then I realized I had a crush on him and he felt the same way. When we discussed having a team. He told me he wanted to join because of me, and then we had a full team. We nominated Theo to be our captain because he was such an excellent leader. But there was still something missing.”

“And that was?”

“A team name. We threw around tons of stuff, but Keone suggested Rogue because we in a way were all rogue from the boxes people close to us had put us. We all liked it, so we stuck with it. We became Rogue, and we barely won and were horrendous players at first, but somehow got to our first championship. We were eliminated quickly and came in 37th place. The next year, we came in 5th.”

“So Keone came up with the name?” Jay asked, and she nodded. “What happened to him?”

“During last year’s championship, Keone began feeling less content and wanted more,” Eniola explained. “I thought he meant more for us, but turns out he meant more for him. Rumours of Howie wanting to put together another official team for California were going around, and she was focusing Keone for the team. But he left for a different reason.”

Eniola stopped.

“Theo and him got into a huge fight right before the Top 3 round came,” Eniola explained. “It got pretty heated to where he just left the championships and SCOPE altogether without warning. I think he was more heated because we “broke up”.” Eniola air-quotes.

“You were dating?” Jay asked although he didn’t seem surprised with the blank expression on his face.

“Kind of,” Eniola said. “I wasn’t ready for a relationship, but he didn’t get that at all, leading to lots of misunderstandings and things like that. I made it very clear that day.”

“What kind of guy wouldn’t like a girl like you?” he says and the thoughts make her cheeks heat. “Would you say you’re ready now? Hypothetically, of course.”

Eniola thought for a while. Was she? “Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Then I’ll wait,” Jay said, then paused. Did he mean to say that out loud? “Hypothetically of course.”

“Right,” she further said, squeezing their fingers together. She turned over for a moment and locked eyes with one another. For a moment, her gaze trailed down to his nose, analyzing the perfect slope and arch that made his nose, and to the tiny moles that had found their way on his nose and above his lip. And then her gaze trailed down to his lips. For a brief moment in time, she wondered what it would be like to kiss him. To feel the smooth caress of lips moving against her own.

“You know,” he whispered. “I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo one day.”

Eniola pulled back in surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, before slightly covering his face with his hand. “You probably think it’s stupid.”

She reached up and removed it, revealing his flustered face. “I think it’s really cool that you want to do that. If it’s what you want, then you should go for it.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said, giving him a smile black that was probably more flirtatious than it should be. They filled the rest of the night with the conversation about nothing and everything.

She definitely didn’t want this to end.

When they got home, Eniola tip-toed back into her room with Iris and Lucia. She had guessed everyone had already gone to sleep as it was midnight.

Holy crap. Eniola was out with a boy until midnight. Her parents would combust.

She slowly pressed open the door that didn’t slowly open. Eniola sighed in relief once she figured the lights were dark.

That was until the lights suddenly turned on, revealing a beaming Iris and Lucia. Eniola jumped in surprise.

“Eni!” Iris exclaimed. “You’re back!”

“Back?” Eniola tried to play dumb, but they could see right through her. “I was here the whole time.”

“Get better at lying,” Lucia said before Eniola climbed onto Lucia’s bed. “How was Jay?”

“I don’t know,” she evaded. “It’s been a while since I last talked to him.”

“We watched your stream,” Lucia referenced, wiggling her eyebrows. “Don’t play dumb.”

“I’m not,” Eniola denied. “We pretended to date to get more donations as you wanted.”

“Sure,” she said disbelievingly. “And your outfit?”

“What’s wrong with dressing?” Eniola tried to say, but they saw right through her. They broke out in laughter.

“Do you like Jay?” Iris asked, and she felt her heart pick up. She said nothing.

“You do,” Lucia realized, studying her. “You like Jay!”

“Shh,” Eniola shushed. “Don’t go proclaiming from the hilltops. It’s just a little crush.”

“Your eyes and body language say otherwise,” Iris told her. Cyborg features. As cool as they were, Eniola wished they hadn’t been here now.

“We’re just friends for now,” Eniola sadly admitted. “The girlfriend thing was just an act. Jay flirts with tons of other girls. I’m no different.”

“Yes you are, girl,” Lucia hyped. “How many of his string of lovers does she take with him to gamer festivals and open up to?”

“String of lovers?” Eniola asked. “You make it sound like he’s some ancient king. And how did you know where we went?”

“Theo told me,” Lucia said. “He took me to this restaurant where people served you food as they danced. It was very intriguing.”

“You’re special to him,” Iris summarized. “Have you noticed he hasn’t been flirting lately? It’s your impact, Eni.”

“Jay doesn’t like me,” Eniola said.

“Yes, he does. You should see how he looks at you. Go for him,” Lucia advised. “It’s better trying than not having done it at all. You’re a wonderful girl, Eniola, and Jay is slightly weird, but I can so see him with you. You deserve it.”

“Yeah,” Iris agreed. “We don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

“Promise me you’ll try?” Lucia asked, holding a pinkie out.

She linked hers with Lucia’s. “Promise.” Although she wasn’t sure if she could keep it. Or keep any promises, for that matter.