I was in a most peculiar position, and still wondering how the hell I got there. In theory I wanted nothing to do with Asa and whatever dangerous baggage he was dragging with him. On the other hand, I couldn't stop wondering what he'd said about me to Cindy.

I figured he never talked about me outside of school. That I was this irrelevant person to him, as I was to the rest of my class, with the small difference that I paid him.

I wished I was just as irrelevant to our slightly trying too hard to be 'hip' mentor, who insisted we call him by his name, Timothy, rather than his surname. He elbowed me in the ribs as I entered the classroom.

"Gabe! You like video games, don't you?" he greeted me with a smile.

"I, uh, kind of?" I replied, glancing over Timothy's shoulder.

Rolf was giving me the stink-eye, while Timothy beamed and was all up in my personal area.

"Kind of is good enough!" he said. "We're hosting a LAN party this Friday in the school building. Because this new game came out? It's, uh, something in space and robots?"

"Oh, yeah, I heard of that," I replied vaguely as if I hadn't been playing and teaching that exact game he was referring to all weekend.

"You should be there!" Timothy said. "We're even hosting a small tournament!"

Don't even dare to think about showing up, Rolf's glare said.

"I'm not sure if I can make it, but I'll see," I mumbled in Timothy's direction before taking a seat at the front of the classroom.

Rolf was always around to ruin school gaming events. It was his terrain in school, and I wouldn't be able to go to any of these events with him around. How ironic would it be if he watched my stream?

I comforted myself with the thought of playing at home Friday evening with my online friends. Which was much better than pretending to be bad at gaming at a school event with Rolf and his friends around to pelt me with literal trash.

As usual, Landon didn't understand the problem.

"I mean," he said between bites of his sandwich, spraying a bit of spit on the table, "It's probably going to be big enough to not run into Rolf and his friends. We just set up our computer at the other side of the auditorium. I don't see the problem."

Randall nodded. "Just fuck 'em," he stated, slamming a hand onto the table surface. "We're not staying away because of them. I bet Rolf sucks and we can take him on in that tournament."

Randal shrugged. "At least Landon, Camilla and I can," he added, blunt as ever.

"Gee, thanks," I said.

Camilla shifted in her seat. She had nothing to fear, really. Rolf never really targeted her, probably because she was a girl - Rolf wanted all girls to like him - and she wasn't 'annoying' like the rest of us.

"I don't think so," I said, hardly convinced by Randall or Landon's words. I didn't ever see them take on Rolf when he told us to scram, and it was all big talk.

"Then just make Asa come with us!" Landon pointed at Asa, who was sitting at the corner of our table and didn't even raise his eyes from his phone screen to look at Landon.

I covered my face with one hand. "I can't afford to bring Asa with us."

"And what if we help paying Asa, huh?" Landon persisted. "Would you go then?"

Randall snorted. "Hey, speak for yourself, I'm not paying anyone."

"Guys, can we not have this discussion about paying Asa right in front of him?" I pleaded. "It's weird."

Asa never did look up from his phone. Landon didn't stop talking about video games.

I left the lunch table early, wanting to get away from all the video game talking. Landon dropped the topic of signing me up, but I still didn't want to listen to it today. It seemed like my stream was haunting me lately. First Asa, now the school deciding to host a LAN party for Double Singularity.

For a brief moment while walking to my calculus classroom, I had some peace and quiet. Said peace and quiet was immediately over when I turned the corner and realised I wasn't the only one who decided to go to the classroom early.

There were shadows behind me, and then a sudden yank on my arm that made me stiffen up.

"Don't even think about showing up Friday Gay-briel," Rolf hissed in my ear.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," I squeaked

I squirmed, trying to break loose, which only made Rolf's vice grip tighten.

"I don't want to see your name on that list anymore when the bell rings," Rolf warned me.

He let me go then shoved me aside. One of his friends rammed his shoulder into mine as he passed, and my heart hammered in my throat.

What the hell was he talking about? What list? The... subscription list for the LAN? But I hadn't--

I quickly navigated to the school website on my phone and scrolled down the list of people who wanted to come. Randall... Landon... Camilla...

Gabriel Hill.

That was me. That was my name. I removed it from the list and pressed save immediately.

What the hell? Who did this?

Landon? No, Landon would tell me straight to my face if he threw me on that list, probably while he was doing it. He'd never been the best at impulse control or keeping secrets. Besides, I hadn't seen Landon as much as touch his phone during lunch.

Then, who?

A jolt went down my spine.

Asa was on his phone all break long. Asa's little cousin Cindy had been pestering me about joining a tournament ever since we met. He didn't care what I wanted and thought I was dumb for not going public. He'd lightly threatened to expose me to the entire school.

My insides churned and twisted. It felt like my skin had been doused in ice water as the panic set in.

That exact moment Asa came sauntering into the hallway.

"Asa!"

I surprised myself with how firm the word came out. Even Asa seemed to sense something was off, because he didn't ignore me like usual. He actually stopped in front of me, raising his eyebrows slightly in question.

"D-did you sign me up for that gaming night?" I asked, hating how I couldn't keep a stutter out of my voice at Asa's proximity. "Because if you did, you can't just treat me like this."

Asa still stared down at me with his scary, impassive expression.

"It's my choice whether I want to publicly stream or not, just like it's your choice that you changed-- uh, did whatever you did."

The intensity of Asa's eyes trained on me made my brain all jumbled. I couldn't keep my mouth muscles under control either. I had stopped myself, but I had stopped myself too late.

Something shifted in Asa's expression. Grew darker. "That I changed what?"

"Uh, nothing."

Asa took a threatening step closer. "That I changed what?" he repeated.

I couldn't come up with anything. A good lie, or words in general.

"Spill it," Asa demanded, but the only thing I was about to spill was pee all over the floor.

"I-I don't know."

In a flash, Asa grabbed the collar of my shirt, scrunching up the fabric in his fist. I felt the heat radiating from his skin.

"Asa Walker!" I blurted, unable to stop myself. I averted my gaze down to Asa's black shirt, which looked a little greyish. Like it'd been washed too often.

"And I know you are- or used to be great at math."

The silence that followed was deafening. Eerie. But then Asa let go of my shirt, slowly lowering his hand.

"How did you find out?" he asked curtly.

"A picture on your linkedIn. You also used it at another place," I quickly replied, glad that was focusing on that fact and not asking what else I knew about him. If I had to lie to his face, I'd be done for. I couldn't trick him.

Another brief silence followed.

"I didn't sign you up for the gaming night," Asa then said.

I dared to sneak a peek at Asa's face. A thoughtful wrinkle had appeared between his eyebrows. His arms were crossed.

For a moment I thought he was going to say more, maybe follow the cliche and threaten me to not say a word, but he didn't. He left me standing in the hallway, moving on in silence.

During calculus class, the picture that had leaked Asa Walker's identity to me was removed.

The mystery of who had signed me up for the gaming night was solved with a text from an offended Landon, who actually had signed me up and didn't understand why I had immediately unsubscribed.

I had made a poor attempt at standing up for myself against Asa for no reason. Though, then again, I had made it out alive. And after my heart rate returned to normal levels and my brain unscrambled, I kinda got why Asa didn't attack me.

By spilling the beans, I had created an impasse between Asa and I. A very odd kind of impasse where I knew something about him that barely anyone else knew, and he knew something about me.

This wasn't going to help any to keep our lives untangled. Had I thought I was in an odd situation and in too deep before, I'd made everything much, much worse.