Real Life Sucks!

14

Rory put the entire affair behind him for the rest of the day. Alice finding out, through his own idiocy, that he once (still) liked her, her falling in love, the demand to rejoin the group, that she, too, had received an invite to the launch party. The mini competition. Everything. Put aside. Behind him. If 'behind him' and 'put aside' meant that he didn't stop thinking about it at all.

He managed to find a distraction in the vast assortment of panels and events that occurred throughout the convention. The talks about the world-building within Dragons' Forge, how they had built up, over several games, the deep and detailed lore surrounding the game world. The market space, where sellers had a huge amount of merchandise for a number of games, which Rory wanted. All of it. Even for the games he did not play and had no intention of playing. It was all cool stuff.

And, by his side throughout the day, Katie stood. Except she wasn't acting very Katie-like at all. Rory felt he should feel a little concerned about that, but supposed she had indigestion, or constipation, or some other ailment that ended in 'tion' that he wasn't aware of. She had become quiet. That's how he knew something was wrong, but she was far more worldly than him. She'd know what to do, whatever 'tion' bothered her.

He enjoyed the talks from the developers and the actors the most and it reminded him of his university days. Sat at the back, near the doors in case he needed an emergency escape route if anyone tried talking to him, he sat in rapt attention, itching to ask questions but intensely terrified of bringing any attention to himself.

Kevin and Michelle joined them at some panels, not at others, but Katie remained. He couldn't say it was all thanks to her, but her contribution to making all of this tolerable could not be downplayed. If not for her, he would never have set foot outside his house, to think about getting in the car to even consider coming here. Katie made it possible and he couldn't say how much he appreciated it. Literally. The very thought of thanking her caused ripples of terror to flood his body, even though he now knew he hadn't forced Alice away by liking her. He still didn't want to ruin things by saying something stupid.

"Are you constipated?" That didn't mean he couldn't say something else stupid, however. "It's just you're, you know, quiet? I thought maybe you needed the loo. I get quiet when I need the loo because people might think I'm weird. More weird."

"I'm fine." Another forced grin to go along with the forced words. She wasn't fine. Even Rory could see that. "No loo break required. Not yet. So, what now?"

Rory frowned. It was Katie that had set up an itinerary that she had timed to the nanosecond. If Rory remembered it right, this was time for afternoon snacks before watching a presentation for a new game coming out. In theory, this was going to be a Dragons' Forge beater, but Rory scoffed at the very thought of it. If Katie wasn't feeling well, he didn't mind missing that, even though he really wanted to see the presentation and point out all the points where the new game would fail.

"Well, if you're not feeling well, we can ..." As he spoke, he saw Katie's eyes widen before he felt someone draping their arms over his shoulder. He felt great pride in himself that he didn't scream.

"What's up, ma bitches?" Alice rested her head on Rory's shoulder, shouting in his ear. "I'm off for some scran and then I'm going to insult this new game. Who's up for it? Rory?"

"You go! I'm ... I'll ..." Katie stepped back, her head drooping, looking away. "You go."

Before Rory could say anything, Katie had practically raced away, her black skirt flapping about her ankles. He supposed she needed to get to the loos fast. That had happened to him before. Alice removed her arms from his shoulders, moving around in front of him, shaking her head at the disappearing figure of Katie.