Book Six, Chapter 5: By the Slice

On-Screen.

“Get away from the door,” Isaac said as two upperclassmen stood too close to the entrance. “The pizza will be here soon, and I have to answer it because this is my house.”

The guys gave him a strange look.

“Cassie, your little brother is being weird again,” Ramona said from the couch nearby.

The house party was in full bloom: “high school” students, red plastic cups, a keg in the laundry room. Everything Hollywood had taught us to expect from those classic teenage get-togethers.

“Don’t harass the delivery worker,” Cassie said. “It’s not her fault your pubescent hormones have turned you into a little pervert.”

Isaac sneered, but only took his attention off the door for a second.

I sat alone in a wingback chair in the corner. I would have sat with Ramona, but she was on the couch next to Nathan, her character’s long-time boyfriend.

She smirked at me from across the room.

Camden was playing poker with some NPCs in the dining room. They were gambling with actual Carousel money.

Anna and Evan had paired off. I could hear their conversation from where I was. Evan had pursued her romantically in Delta Epsilon Delta, and he pursued her here.

“I really did write this song,” Evan was telling her, referencing the catchy song playing over the living room’s sound system. “I can’t believe you think I would lie about this.”

Anna was genuinely giggling at his banter. “This song came out when you were five.”

Evan nodded. “I thought you would say that. My age at the time speaks to the impressiveness of the feat, not the veracity of the claim.”

“Oh my god,” she said. “Debate club has ruined you.”

He shrugged that off.

My attention wandered around the room.

“No, you have no idea,” Cassie said to a group of NPCs. “He has spent every penny of his allowance ordering from this same pizza place, just hoping she will show up. I don’t know what I am supposed to do about this. Men are disgusting.”

The girls echoed her reaction.

“You should be happy for me,” Isaac said in a dull, John Cusackian meditation. “How often does someone find true love in this world? Life is nothing but a black pit of tedium and longing until you find who you were meant to long for.”

“Oh, shut up,” Cassie said, walking back toward the dining room and the poker game with her friends.

Isaac continued to peek through the blinds on his tip toes nervously.

I decided to circulate. I might find out I was dating one of the NPCs. Who knew?

I glanced at Ramona as I made my way into the dining room poker game, where my luck could really turn around.

The stakes were low, a few cents here and there, but watching the participants, you’d think it was the Carousel Tournament of Poker.

Camden was cleaning up. That might’ve been his stats doing the work, however.

“Do we have another victim?” Camden asked as I walked into the room. “Care to try your luck?”

I shook my head.

“I know my luck pretty well, and I’d rather not try to do anything with it,” I said.

“Pansy,” Ruck sang out as he pushed his chips all in. “Got to risk money to make money. I’m all in.”

Camden looked over at him for a few seconds, then said, “I call.”

“Dammit,” Ruck said, getting up from the table before even showing his cards.

He moved past me, patting his husky paw on my chest a couple of times as he went by. The last time I’d seen him, he was skewered. I wondered what would happen to him here.

Unlike in Delta Epsilon Delta, he wasn’t an obnoxious brute. Well, not to the extent that a bunch of people wanted him dead.

He high-fived people as he lumbered through the living room and sat next to Ramona and Nathan.

“She’s here!” Isaac called.

“Who’s here?” Ruck asked.

“The pizza girl,” Nathan answered. “Cassie’s little brother is in love.”

“Don’t call it love,” Cassie said sharply.

A knock came at the door.

Isaac had it open wide before a second knock could follow it.

The music subtly shifted to proper, beautiful-woman-entry music, as in the movies.

The room turned to stare at the much-anticipated pizza delivery person. The poker game halted, and people crowded the door where I was standing to get a look.

And Avery knew how to play that moment. I knew she was attractive, but I still associated her with the sickly caged werewolf she had been when we first met for some reason.

Instead of struggling with all the pizza boxes, she’d sat them down on the bench on the porch.

The boys were agog. The girls turned up their noses. Textbook teen movie stuff.

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It wasn’t like she was wearing a fancy dress. She was in a company tee, knotted at the waist like that was just part of the uniform. Black bike shorts, clean white sneakers, and a red visor pulled down low over her eyes. Her fiery auburn hair was up in a ponytail that bobbed behind her as she walked–efficient, confident.

She was dressed for the era.

She smiled at Isaac and said, “I was wondering if you had people over. You got so much this time.”

He stood in front of her, lovestruck.

“Yeah, it’s a party if you want to come. Or stay, I mean, because you’re already here,” he laughed. “If you want to stay, that would be cool. Or whatever,” he managed to get out.

She laughed like he was telling a joke.

“I would, but I’m actually working,” Avery said with a smile.

“You should quit,” Isaac blurted out so fast it was hard to parse.

“What?” Avery asked.

“Nothing. So you go to Carousel U, right?”

Avery stood awkwardly, glancing around the room.

“Yep,” she said. “I’m a psychology major.”

“I love psychology,” Ruck announced from the couch a bit too loudly.

People in the room turned to look at him. He blushed.

“My parents made me talk to a counselor after I flunked out of school last year. Guy made me look at psychological pictures and stuff… so yeah, I love it,” he added.

Avery nodded.

“Okay, that’s… nice,” she said. “Does someone here have money?”

“Yeah,” Isaac said. “My parents are loaded. This is my place. Well, my parents’ place. They’re out of town, so I’m having a party. These are my sister’s friends.”

He nodded his head, then, suddenly realizing what she was actually asking for, said, “But you probably need money for the pizza. Sorry about that. I was just talking, you know. Talking. Here you go.” He handed her a clump of money. “All those dimes and nickels are for you. A little extra, you know. For college.”

Avery grabbed the wad of money and said, “Thanks so much.”

She turned to walk away, but not before flashing a brilliant smile at Isaac and the guys behind him.

Isaac closed the door and turned around. He fell back against it, sliding down to his butt.

“Pizza girl is hot,” a random male NPC said.

Isaac just stared ahead blankly.

“That’s not a pizza girl,” Ruck said. “That’s a pizza woman. I want to settle down and have little baby pizza children with her.”

“You guys are nearly adults,” Cassie said, hitting Ruck with a throw pillow. “This is disgusting. At least my brother has the excuse that he’s fourteen.”

“Fifteen almost,” Isaac said. He leaned his head back against the door and looked up at the ceiling, dazed. He pressed his hands firmly over his heart.