The Assistant Who Fell | Asa Butterfield

Chapter 31 - Clawing with uncertainty

>important A/N at the end<

Chapter 31

"Where are you going?" My sister asked, eyeing on the packets of chips I bought from Coles earlier.

"Florence's house." I replied casually while stuffing the food inside my backpack.

Inside, I was actually feeling really excited. Little did my sister knew that I'm visiting Ace's house and attending our small LAN party. My laptop, charger and the internet cable were already packed inside, along with my phone. I could tell that tonight would be a very intense party, with a lot of shouting and curses going on. I knew what kind of player Ace was; a quite, but tolerant person that would give you advices along the way, and Flo; a person who constantly freaks out when she was about to get killed, tosses you the controller and expects you to take over last minute. Tonight, I wanted to know about Alex's persona in-game. I didn't know whether to be excited or nervous.

Zipping up my bag, I slung it over my shoulders and turned towards my sister, "Tell mum and dad that I'll be at Flo's house, and she'll drop me off at ten or so."

"Cool, have fun."

Waving back, I took out my Transport card and hummed a melody from Ed Sheeran's.

I've never been to an actually LAN party before. I don't know if this counts, but when I was younger, I used to play my Nintendo console with a bunch of friends. We were sitting in a circle while playing Club Penguin: Agents Force multiplayer game and we were doing a dance-off. They were very intense games and just by thinking of it made me feel all nostalgic.

It was fifteen minutes before five when I arrived at their place. Flo haven't message me her whereabouts, so I might be the first to arrive here. Alex wasn't doing his football training on Friday so he decided to join our LAN party as well. You know, the more the merrier right?

I didn't know what happened, but the thick tension between Alex and Flo from before seems to somehow disappear without me knowing. Did they resolve their beefs and became best friends or they were just being neutral? I should stick my nose in their situation so I at least know what's up.

I knocked on the door thrice and waited. My bag was quite heavy by the time I reached at the front of the house, maybe because I realised how heavy my laptop was. The door swung open and from the crack of the hold, Alex's head popped up.

Shit, "Oh, hi Alex!" I greeted politely while blushing timidly. I haven't seen him for a while lately and his handsome feature always struck me by surprise. Damn it Ivy, he's the enemy!

Alex opened the door wider, "Yo Ivy! Long time no see baby."

I chuckled, "Very true. Is Flo here?"

"Nah, you came first." He eyed the bulky bag I was carrying and widened his eyes, "What kind of shit did you bring?"

"Air." I replied simply, which earned me a raised eyebrow, "No seriously. Chip packets mostly contain air so prepare to be farty tonight."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Did I just hear a pun there?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Alright, I'm going to grab some snacks. Be right back."

I dropped my bag to where I usually put it; next to the doorway where the shoe racks were. I took off my shoes and placed it neatly next to my bag, remembering the slight discourage from Ace about taking my shoes off inside. I was about to, but then I remembered hogging his bed and did my part of the project there. Did he seriously want me to wear my shoes on when it had been to many whereabouts? Modesty is key.