I paused the game and frowned as I looked up. “What?”
She looked at me incredulously. “The power outage, Ramona. It’s not going to be back until tomorrow morning.”
“Oh.”
“Even though the storm has stopped,” she continued.
I glanced at the window, realizing that the rain had indeed stopped falling. “Oh.”
“Did you even notice?”
“Um, yeah,” I said unconvincingly. “Obviously.”
“Hmm,” she said, completely unconvinced by my unconvincing tone. “Well, once your GameBoy battery dies—”
“It’s a Switch.”
Mom gave me a look. “Fine. Once your GameBoy switch dies, you can come downstairs and we’ll work on your resume so you can go out and find a job tomorrow when the power’s back on.”
Damn it.
She left my room and I checked the battery, then groaned. I’d apparently been in Hyrule for longer than I’d thought, and my Switch was far closer to dead than it was to alive. Frustrated, I saved my progress, then chewed on a fingernail as I thought.
No PlayStation, no Switch… what the hell was I supposed to do for the rest of the night? Play fucking Candy Crush until my phone died, too? And the last thing I wanted was my mom “helping” with my resume. If she did, I might get hired at a place she’d approve of.
I mean, I guess I could have read a book or something, but luckily, I chose to glance out the window melodramatically. A car was driving down the rain-slickened street, and after a long moment of staring at its tail lights reflecting off the asphalt, a lightbulb went off.
Well, a metaphorical lightbulb. The other lightbulbs were already off.
Grinning, I grabbed my Switch.
**
“And what are you doing with all this?” Mom asked as I raided the pantry for a bag of chips and a half-eaten package of Oreos.
“I’m going to the car so I can charge my Switch.”
She looked annoyed. “That’s going to drain your car battery.”
“I’ll make sure I let it run for a bit.”
I flung the refrigerator door open and grabbed two cans of Coke. Before she could scold me for letting all the cold air out, I slammed it shut and bounded towards the front door.
Her lack of admiration for my plan didn’t stop me, but it did give me the idea to pull my car off the driveway and onto the street so I couldn’t see her judging me from inside the living room. There, I cracked the front windows, turned the car to accessory mode, and plugged the charger for my Switch into the cigarette lighter before climbing into the back. I stretched along the seat, the bag of chips tucked in the wheel well beside me, and popped one can of Coke open before grinning at my cozy little setup.
I was a genius.
I mean, seriously. I even thought of setting a reminder on my phone for an hour later so I could run the car for a bit to make sure the battery didn’t die.
A frucking genius.
Before you could say “Calamity Ganon,” I was back in Hyrule. The backseat of my car was arguably less comfortable than my bed and the cracked windows didn’t do much to help with the heaviness of the air, but I couldn’t have been happier. Hyrule was a place where I had one simple job: save the world, get the girl. 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.𝘤𝘰𝘮
Or, in this case, save the world, free the princess. You know, since Link and Zelda don’t… well, not usually, anyway. Like, they were a romantic couple in Skyward Sword for sure, but with how reincarnation and all that works in the games, Zelda’s hardly ever the actual love interest. I mean, in Breath of the Wild, they talk about how Link and Mipha were—
You know what, it doesn’t really matter. The point is, in video games, my objectives were clear and simple, and saving the world was far less stressful than putting up with my mom.
When my phone blared out a reminder to start my car an hour later, it jolted me out of Hyrule and back into reality, where the sun had set and the usually unremarkable glow of streetlights was, of course, not present.
Instead of bothering to get out of the backseat and start my car properly, I made the, in my opinion, more efficient and slightly lazier decision to carefully tuck my Switch into the pocket behind the passenger’s seat and get to my knees. Awkwardly, I wriggled between the driver and passenger seats, resting against the centre console as I splayed across the car so I could turn the key in the ignition.
It started, which was good, since it meant my mom wouldn’t be able to yell at me for killing my car battery. Air started blowing from the vents, which was even better, since I hadn’t realized how warm it had actually gotten in the car.
What was less good was the fact that I apparently was not entirely used to the new swerves and curves that made up my body and that I also apparently needed to do some work on my spatial awareness.
Each time I tried to move, something tugged on my jeans, and I wasn’t about to risk ripping my stylishly ripped jeans if I didn’t have to. The problem was that my hips were wedged between the seats, so I couldn’t pull myself forward enough to loosen whatever it was I was stuck on. As best I could tell, I had two options. Either I could somehow contort my shoulder and twist my arm back to my left hip and hope I could unhook myself, or I could unbutton my jeans and try to crawl forward, leaving my pants behind.
I twisted my mouth to the side, considered taking my pants off, and then quickly decided against it. Knowing my luck, that would be the moment my mom decided to come outside to check up on me, and she probably wouldn’t even be the slightest bit impressed that I’d remembered to start the car so I didn’t drain the battery.
Instead, I reached forward and steadied myself against the steering wheel with one hand while I tried to work the other behind me. It was a bit of a balancing act, but I managed to get my arm between my body and the driver’s seat. Carefully, I patted around my waistband, trying to figure out where I was caught.
“Ramona?”
I jumped at the sound of a deep voice floating through my window and pitched forward. Unfortunately, both my hands were otherwise occupied, and I let out a second startled yelp as my head bashed the horn and a surprising honk echoed through the quiet night.
“Oh, shit!” said the voice. “Are you okay?”
“Just peachy,” I said sarcastically, wincing as I pushed myself away from the horn. “This is all going according to plan.”
“What was the, uh, goal of this plan?”
“None of your business, that’s…”
I didn’t finish as I twisted towards the voice. Peering in the driver’s side window was Ashton Halliday, of all people. In the dim twilight, I could just make out the expression of poorly hidden amusement mixed with concern on his face.
That face was slightly different than the last time I’d seen him. It might have been somewhat dark out, but I could still make out the warmth of his eyes and the hint of that easy, melting smile. The boyish roundness of his face had faded into something more structured, more mature, more… well.
Something even more gorgeous than the last time I’d seen him.
If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone knew everyone in Minwack Falls, I would have said that Ashton was the kind of guy who wouldn’t have even known I existed. He was a hockey player who ran around town with the kind of kids my mom forbade me from hanging out with—also known as the cool kids. While I was at home studying for science tests and working on extra-credit projects for optional extracurriculars to bolster the resume my mom insisted I needed, Ashton was skateboarding down Main Street with his friends. While I was hanging out with my friends at The Sword and Dice, Ashton was out at the end of Drum Farm Lane, making out with girls in the back of his dad’s Honda. I was the nerdy girl who enjoyed role-playing games when she wasn’t too busy running for student council or planning a bake sale. He went to parties where people drank alcohol stolen from their parents’ liquor cabinets and got sent to detention for screwing around during class.
He did know I existed, though, and we’d even been friends of a sort, once upon a time. His family lived across the street from mine and we were the same age, so naturally there had been plenty of summer days having water fights and racing our bikes on the quiet streets of Minwack Falls.
That all changed, though. Suddenly, friendship isn’t as simple as being around the same age and in close proximity to one another. One day, friendship is just drawing pictures together in chalk on the sidewalk. The next, it’s getting ready for his birthday party only to have your mom gently break the news that you weren’t actually invited, and while all your friends are out playing laser tag and eating cake, you’re going to be staying home to work on your science fair project.
I didn’t hold it against him. Well, not anymore. At the time, I was devastated, of course. But we had been at that age where kids grow apart and start becoming different people, and even though it was heartbreaking back then, I was an adult now. I was over it.
Sort of.
Still, all that didn’t stop me from thinking he was… there wasn’t even a word. It was a sound. Like a very soft, mumbled, desperately needy “unghhhh” sound.
Luckily, I did not actually make that sound. Instead, I just stared at Ashton like a distracted moron as he tried not to laugh.
“D’you want a hand?” he finally asked.
“I’ve got two of them, thanks,” I muttered as I tried to unhook myself unsuccessfully.
He couldn’t hold his laughter in that time and moved away from the window. “Let me help you.”
“What?”
The back door of my car opened and there was a sudden rush of cool air. “I said, let me help you.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said before I could stop myself. “I’ve seen enough bad pornos to know where this is going.”
“An understandable concern,” Ashton said, so casually that I almost didn’t turn beet-red as I realized I’d just told him I watched porn. “But I’m not your step-brother, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“What are you doing, step-friend,” I said flatly.
“You don’t trust me?”
“I barely know you.”
“That’s very true.” He thought for a moment. “What if I talk you through what I’m doing the whole time and promise you can run me over with your car if I do anything inappropriate?”
I laughed unexpectedly. “Um…”
“Or, I mean, I can leave you here and like, go get your mom or something.”
“Ew,” I said. “No. Just… okay. Yes, I need help. Please.”
He climbed in the backseat and turned the dome light on.
“Okay,” he said after a moment. “I’m not an engineer yet, but it seems to me the problem is that you’re stuck.”
“Wow. Your powers of observation are incredible.”
“I know. It’s one of my many talents,” he said. “It looks like the easiest way to get you unstuck is probably to unhook this ice scraper from your belt loop.”
“Oh, that’s what that is!” I said.
“Yes, the loops are there to hold your belt in place.” He chuckled at his own joke as I groaned. “Okay, in all seriousness. I’m gonna untangle it.”
Despite his warning, the feel of his hands nudging between me and the seat surprised me. It was probably a good thing, since it made me jump a bit and that little twitch hopefully covered the involuntary shiver that ran through me as Ashton’s fingers moved against my hips. I bit my lip as his hand accidentally brushed against the exposed skin just above my waistband, the closeness of his body both unfamiliar and enticing.
“There,” he said after a moment, and I felt the tension on my jeans release at the same time the tension in my body did. “It’s unhooked.”
He steadied me as I shimmied slowly out from between the seats. The redness on my face hadn’t quite faded by the time he guided me onto the backseat. I brushed my hair off my face, subtly pressing my fingers to my face in the hopes that they were cool enough to soothe my flushed cheeks, but my hands were as warm as the rest of me.
“Thanks,” I said shakily.
“Anytime,” he replied. “I’m glad it was you, to be honest.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I was fairly sure this was your car,” he said. “But I was a little surprised to see a blue-haired woman stuck between her seats when I expected to see the girl who grew up across the street from me.”
“Sorry for the confusion.”
“Don’t be. You look great, Ramona.” He grinned as he caught my eye. “Love the piercing, too.”
Any of the redness that had faded from my cheeks came rushing back as my stomach fluttered. Mentally, I kicked myself for letting the compliment give me that weightless, fuzzy feeling.
“What were you doing creeping up on me, anyway?” I asked to distract myself.
It was Ashton’s turn to chuckle awkwardly.
“Okay, well, I promise it’s not as creepy as it’s going to sound,” he started.
I raised both eyebrows at him and he grimaced.
“I swear! I was just sitting in my room.” He gestured towards his house. “Bored out of my fucking mind. Power’s out, my parents are away for the weekend, and none of my friends are back in town. Then I happened to look outside and see this weird glowing light on the street. It took me a sec but I realized it was someone sitting in their car on their phone or something.” 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.𝘤𝘰𝘮
“Ah,” I said.
“So I was like, well that’s super smart,” he continued. “But I don’t have a car and my parents took theirs, of course, so I’m stranded here. So as I’m squinting out the window I thought, hey, I think that’s Ramona’s car, and maybe she’ll possibly—”
“—let you use my precious car battery to charge your phone?” I finished.
“Ah, not quite. My phone’s battery is pretty much full.” A flash of embarrassment crossed his face and he dug into the pocket of the hoodie he was wearing. “Don’t laugh, but—”
Oh, but I laughed.
“I know it’s geeky,” he said, then shook his head. “Forget it, I—”
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said, giggling as I reached for the pocket on the back of the passenger seat. “You just surprised me. I didn’t think you played.”
He burst out laughing as I revealed my still-plugged-in Switch, tilting his own Switch at me.
“What are you playing?” he asked.
“Breath of the Wild. You?”
He smiled sheepishly. “Uh… Pokemon.”
I pressed my lips together in an attempt not to lose it and he sighed but smiled good-naturedly.
“If I let you say it, will you let me charge my Switch?”
“Deal of the century.” I yanked the charging cable out of my Switch and passed it to him. “Did you catch ’em all, Ash?”
He plugged his Switch in as I dissolved into giggles.
“I might not have caught them all, but I’ve definitely heard ’em all,” he said. “That’s what happens when you’re the token gamer on the hockey team.”
“Really? You?” I asked, shocked.
“Why’s that so surprising?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t picture you being a gamer, and if you were, I figured you’d be more into like Call of Duty or Halo or something. Or like, any of the EA Sports titles.”
“I mean, sometimes.” He shrugged. “I’m more into RPGs and stuff, to be honest. I’ve been playing The Circlet of Nianus but—”
“Seriously?!” I blurted, completely unable to stifle my uncontrollable excitement. “Me too!”
“Yeah?” he said, his eyes brightening. “Have you gotten to the end yet or—”
“Ugh, yes,” I groaned. “I’ve played that battle probably eighty times now.”
“It’s so fucking frustrating!” he said. “I can’t get over the hole in the floor and onto the—”
“—platform, yeah,” I finished. “I finally did it. Mashed the fuck out of the controller and didn’t get sucked through the floor. Landed and shot Izzon three times.”
“And?” he urged, completely entranced.
“The power went out.”
Ashton’s face fell. “No.”
“Yep.”
“Mid-game?”
“I cried.”
“Shit,” he said. “I would’ve, too.”
At no point in the history of time or space would I have thought I’d end up geeking out over The Circlet of Nianus with Ashton Halliday. I mean, at no point would I have ever thought I’d end up sitting in the backseat of my car, chatting excitedly about games we’d recently played and upcoming ones we were looking forward to. There was no reason for me to think we’d get into a heated debate about which Final Fantasy was best, or that he’d have bad enough taste to claim that Final Fantasy VII was better than Final Fantasy VI.
“Next you’re going to tell me you think Wheatley is a better villain than GLaDOS,” he groaned.
“Of course not!” I said indignantly. “Wheatley’s hilarious, but he’s a moron. GLaDOS is smart enough to be an actual villain. But the real question is, do you think Cave Johnson is funnier than both of them or are you wrong?”
Ashton threw his head back as he laughed. “We’re in full agreement on that.”
“Phew,” I said, leaning against the door. “It’s a good thing you said that, otherwise there’s no way we could be friends.”
“Are we friends?” he asked.
My laughter faded as I met his eyes. There was still a half-smile on his lips, but his eyes studied me seriously.
“I mean… we aren’t, you know. Not friends,” I said.
“Yeah, but we used to be, like, actual friends.”
I fidgeted nervously. “We were kids.”
“Doesn’t mean we weren’t friends,” he replied. “I don’t really know why we stopped hanging out, Ramona.”
I swallowed hard. There was no reason for his words to sting so much; we’d stopped being friends because he hadn’t invited me to his ninth birthday party. It was stupid. It was petty.
And it bothered me that he didn’t remember.
“I need to turn the car off,” I said. “You can keep charging, just… I don’t want to waste gas.”
Before he could respond, I opened the door. The rush of night air was a relief against my flushed skin and I took my time walking around the vehicle and turning it back to accessory mode before returning to the back seat.
“Ramona—” he started when I got in.
“Do you mind getting the dome light?” I interrupted. “It’ll drain the battery too fast.”
He paused, then reached up and turned the light off as I shut the door. As I adjusted to the sudden darkness that fell over us, I realized how small the inside of my car felt.
“I believe you’ve got some Pokemon to master,” I said, just for something to fill the silence. “And Zelda’s not going to free herself from Calamity Ganon.”
“True,” Ashton said lightly. “But I have a proposal for you.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I don’t want to talk about—”
“Mario Kart.”
I paused, then frowned. “What?”
Ashton’s face was barely visible in the darkness, but between his tone and the glimmer in his eyes, I could tell he was smiling.
“Mario Kart,” he repeated. “Let’s play it together.”
“You want to play… Mario Kart?”
“Okay, full disclosure?” he said. “I fucking love Mario Kart and no one ever wants to play it with me, and it’s not as fun as a single-player game. Since we’re hanging out anyway, let’s play together.”
I was relieved that we were back to video game talk, though my confusion about his sudden dropping of the whole “friends” thing was slow to fade.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “One problem, though.”
“I’ll buy you the game if you don’t have it,” he said immediately.
“How am I supposed to download it? The power’s out and I don’t know what kind of fancy Honda your dad drives, but my car isn’t equipped with WiFi.”
“One step ahead of you.” There was a rustling sound as he fiddled around for a moment, then I winced as the sudden brightness of his phone lit up the interior of the car. “I’ll hotspot my phone. And we can do local play once you download it so we won’t even need to stay connected.”
I looked at his phone, then up at the excitedly twinkling eyes gazing at me in the ghostly glow of the screen light.
“You’re really into Mario Kart, eh?” I said, amused.
“Come on,” he said, grinning. “I’ll even go easy on you. At first.”
