Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley

CHAPTER 12

Lily drove down to Ponto Beach Friday morning. She’d told Tobin she’d be there early—she didn’t want to hit too much traffic, either the mess in Los Angeles or the tail end of San Diego’s nightmare, so she left at five and got there by seven, seeing the sunrise on the way. She half expected him to still be asleep. She didn’t muck around with doughnuts this time. She did pray he had coffee ready to go, though.

When she got there, she saw the lights were on, the soft glow edging around the living room curtains. She went up the walkway and knocked.

There was a pause—ha, I’ll bet he was asleep!—and then she heard the dead bolt unlatch. Then he opened the door. She started to talk, then stopped abruptly as she took in what he looked like.

He was wearing basketball shorts and a T-shirt that was pulled tight across his chest. His hair was damp with sweat. In some ways, it was less suggestive than when he’d greeted her sleepy and bare chested. In other ways, it was hotter, although she wasn’t quite sure why.

She sighed at herself. This was ridiculous. She made a mental note to ask Mikki if he knew any cute boys she could play with. She didn’t even need to keep them. She just needed to take the edge off, and a hookup was probably the best solution, even if it wasn’t something she practiced regularly. Honestly, she hadn’t had a hookup in at least . . . what, a year?

“Sorry,” he apologized, sounding sheepish. “I didn’t know how long we’d take filming, and I try to fit in cardio in the mornings, and I thought I could sneak in a workout before . . . anyway. Um. You’re right on time.”

“Always,” she agreed faintly, kicking off her canvas espadrilles by the untidy rows of shoes to the side of the front door.

“I lost a little time, got a little sidetracked getting ready, so I got off to a late start. Anyway! Let me just take a quick shower and get changed, and then we can get going. Okay?”

“Mmm,” she said, nodding like a bobblehead.

He really did look good.

She frowned. “Okay if I use the bathroom?” she asked.

“Sure!” he called, as he disappeared down the hallway. Then he popped his head out of what she assumed was his bedroom. “Oh! And if you could just turn the coffee on? It’s all ready to go.”

She went about her business—a must after the long drive—and then got the coffee started, sighing with happiness at the scent. By the time he emerged from the bedroom, the pot was full. He rubbed a towel over his head, his face alert and bright.

He’s got good skin,she noted clinically. He filmed well, something she’d picked up on when she was going through his content. She’d now gone through more of his past content. She wasn’t into all the video games he played, and he yelled kind of a lot. Not in an angry way, but in a silly, staged kind of way. But apparently it worked for his audience, so who was she to complain?

When they both had coffee, she followed him to his office—“where the magic happens,” he said with a grin and a wink—and settled into the second gaming chair he had set up. Like her bedroom, it had noise-absorbing material on the walls. It was a bigger room, though, complete with a small couch by the window and a bunch of bookshelves. He had a swanky computer setup, too, a weird neon affair that she knew was supposed to be one of the best gaming computers in the world. And his lighting setup was different from hers, since it was more important for him to film his screen than, say, capture his face and the application of makeup.

She felt a little frisson of nerves bubble through her, surprising her. This was important for her career, granted, and it was something she had no experience with. Still . . . it was Tobin. She’d known him since second grade, when her parents had moved from Taiwan to Ponto Beach. For God’s sake, they’d been around each other in one capacity or another for . . .

She did the math. Twenty-one years. Holy crap.

“So,” he said, leaning back in his own chair with a smile, “we’re going to be playing a dating game, okay? Like The Sims.” He paused. “I’m assuming you’re familiar with The Sims.”

“Yes, I know The Sims,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I played that for hours when I was in college. For a while, anyway.”

“Oh?” He fired up his computer. “Why’d you stop?”

“I realized I was spending hours working, cooking, going to the bathroom, and studying,” she said. “I was basically doing what I did in real life . . . in a game.”

“Yeah, I burned out on it too,” he admitted. “Did a few playthroughs, but it wasn’t really my bag. Still, some fans like it.”

“But this is a dating game?” she asked, puzzled. “I haven’t played one of those.”

His grin was like quicksilver, bright and fast. “Then this’ll be fun,” he said, his eyes shining. “The goal is to find the guy you want, snag his attention, build the attraction, then close the deal.”

She startled, glaring at him. “This isn’t a sex game, is it?” Because eww.

“What? No,” he said, giving her an “Are you crazy?” look. “I might cuss a lot, but by and large I keep it more on the ridiculous side of the spectrum. I’ll play some violent games, on occasion, so there’s some gore. But I don’t feature, like, porn.”

“Well, I didn’t know,” she grumbled. “So we’re going to play this game, and I need to get a boyfriend.”

Story of my life.

She frowned. Not that she needed a boyfriend, she quickly chastised herself. Who had time to maintain one of those, anyway? She couldn’t keep a plant alive.

“You’ll pick out clothes and put on makeup,” he continued. “It’s a game I found, released out of Korea, with English translation.”

“Sounds up my alley,” she said. “How does it work? How long will it take?”

He looked at the ceiling, like he was doing mental math. “Well, I think the full game play, depending on the choices you make, takes about six hours.”

“Six hours?”she yelped. “We’re going to be filming for six hours? Do we have to do the whole thing?”

“We’re not going to air the whole thing, obviously,” he said. “But . . . yeah. You’re going to be playing for a few hours. Then I’ll edit it down to something workable, somewhere between twenty and thirty minutes, maybe.”

“Oh my God,” she said, staring at him. “My beauty videos take a while, but . . . six hours?”

“We can even split this into two different videos, if it works,” he said. “But we can at least get the first two hours or so, I’d say, and that’ll be a good start.”

“Only two hours, huh?” She bit her lip, thinking. “Okay. Why don’t you turn it on, I’ll do a bit of practice, and then we’ll go.”

“Practice?” He blinked at her, then shook his head, laughing. “Hell no.”

“What?” She bristled. “But . . . but I always do at least one practice run when I do my videos.”

“Sure. When you’re doing your videos,” he said. “These are reaction videos, Lils. Viewers want to see the unvarnished, unpracticed responses to whatever you’re playing. They want to feel what you’re experiencing, as you’re experiencing it.”

“I’m sure I can recreate it,” she said, feeling nervous.

“You mean you’re sure you can fake it?” Tobin blew a raspberry. “Yeah, no.”

She crossed her arms.

“I told you this was gonna be messy,” he pointed out in a low voice. “Trust me, when it’s your turn to do a video—if you even still want to—then you can practice and plan and overthink it to your little anal-compulsive heart’s content, okay? But you came to me first, and if we’re doing my content, it’s like I said: my house, my rules.”

She scowled at him. She wanted to complain. But this was her deal, wasn’t it? This was what she wanted. She set her jaw, nodding. “All right,” she conceded. “Let me just freshen up my makeup, and we can start filming.”

He nodded absently, already getting his camera in place and adjusting lighting. She sighed, touched up her eyeliner and lipstick. Then he got them started.

“Hey-oh! It’s GoofyBui,” he said, in that bouncy, hyperhappy way of his. “Today I’ve got a special collab. Everybody, please say hi to EverLily, one of the hottest beauty YouTubers around.” He paused, and she swore he blushed. He turned to her. “Is it okay to call you that? I meant, like, popular. I can always edit that out.”

“It’s fine,” she said, feeling her own cheeks heat. “Let’s keep rolling.”

“Okay. Well, gang, today we’re going to be testing a sim that I’ve heard a lot about. It’s called Mr. Perfect, and it’s by a little indie game company—details and link in the description, okay? Oh, and there will also be a link to Lily’s channel. We’ve been friends since forever, but I thought I’d introduce her to the wild and wonderful world of gaming. You ready, Lily?”

“Ready as I’m going to be,” she said, trying to match his energy. She was usually much more placid, and she felt weird, but she wasn’t going to let it stop her.

With that, he started the game. It was cute, and surprisingly realistic. It started with her choosing her avatar, kind of like making a character on The Sims. She tried not to take too long creating it, which she made match herself as much as possible. Then Tobin guided her through using the controller, moving her character, interacting through the world. She chose the “first person” mode, moving through the college campus where her Mr. Perfect was presumably waiting. She got to interact with her friends, choose different dialogue options to “flirt” with different characters, and even go shopping for things for her avatar. It was more fun than she thought it would be.

“Okay, now you’re going to meet your candidates for perfect boyfriend,” he said.

The choices were varied, all members of a fraternity. She eventually picked a guy who was cute, Asian, and sort of sporty. A bit like Tobin, she realized. And felt herself blush at the realization.

“Thirsty?” Tobin asked.

She turned back to him, as if he’d read her thoughts. “Excuse you,” she said.

He burst out laughing. “I’ve got water here,” he said, handing her a water bottle. “It’s got ice and some lemon slices. Sometimes when you’re talking a lot . . .”

“Oh! Right. Right.” She took one of the containers, removed the lid, and chugged some down. He was right: her voice was tight from talking so much. She wasn’t used to doing it for this long and consistent a time frame. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Okay, you’ve hit an achievement,” he pointed out. “Hottie McSexyPants has asked you to the fraternity’s Halloween party! What are you going to wear?”

More choices. She finally settled on “sexy baseball player,” which was the least provocative of the outfits. It even had a little hat and bat. She smiled.

“All right. To the party!” Tobin said, rubbing his hands together. “Time to charm the pants off of McSexyPants!”

She rolled her eyes. This wasn’t quite what she was expecting, but it wasn’t too bad. She wasn’t sure if it was going to be all that exciting for viewers to watch. She was almost positive it wasn’t going to go viral, something that made her wonder about how viable this partnership was going to be.

Just keep going.It was too soon to make a judgment. And she was all about working hard until you made it.

“Oh, here we go. Look! He thinks you look beautiful, and he wants to take your relationship to the next level,” Tobin said, and she looked over to find his eyebrows wiggling. “He wants to invite you up to his room. Says he’s going to get things ready, and for you to meet him up there. You gonna go?”

She groaned. “You promise this isn’t, like, porny . . .”

“No, no,” he reassured her. “Nothing like that. You’ll probably just make out or something. Serious kissing. No biggie.”

“Okay.” Using the controller, she navigated through partygoers and various scary Halloween decorations, through the convincingly spooky “haunted house,” until she got to McSexyPants’s room.

“All right, this is it,” Tobin said. God, he was good at this. He could take something as simple as a dating game and make it sound riveting.

Why can’t I do that?

She was pondering this as she opened the door . . . then stared blankly at something that made no sense.

Her “perfect boyfriend,” Hottie McSexyPants, was lying on the bed in the center of the room, wearing only a pair of shorts.

Also, he was decapitated and disemboweled. His legs and arms were no longer attached to his body.

“What the absolute fuck?”she yelped, as she processed what she was looking at.

Without warning, something—some creepy, shaky-motion creature—jumped out of the closet, holding a scythe, wearing a sadistic smile. She froze, genuinely terrified.

“Oh shit!” Tobin yelled, snapping her into action. “Run, Lily! Run run RUN!”

Letting out a squeak, she quickly moved as best she could, helping her character flee with the controller, bumping into walls, bursting out of the room. There was now carnage everywhere, the partygoers getting murdered left and right. She ran into the haunted section again, but the lights were now flickering, making the whole thing hard to see. Her heart was beating in her chest like a jackhammer and she felt like she had more adrenaline than blood in her veins.

“Look ou . . .”

A face popped up, covering the entire screen. More skull than face, with floating eyes. It laughed, its razor-toothed mouth going wide.

She couldn’t stop herself. She shrieked.