Queens of Geek

by Jen Wilde

  She nods, but seems unsure. “It makes sense.” She comes and sits next to me on the couch. “But only because this is still new. If whatever this is becomes something more, I don’t want to hide it. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She reaches out and takes my hand, smoothing her thumb over my palm softly. “And I really like what’s happening here, too.”

  Her gaze lingers on mine, and I feel my heartbeat picking up. A mix of emotions swirl inside me like a whirlpool. It’s confusing, exciting, and terrifying all at once, and I don’t want it to stop. I feel like a giant mess of contradicting thoughts and feelings, all moving so quickly I can’t grab hold of any of it.

  Whatever this is between Alyssa and me, it’s glorious, it’s unexpected, and it’s all happening so fast—and yet not nearly fast enough.

  My phone buzzes. It’s Mandy. “Sorry, one sec.” I get up and walk over to the window to answer it. “Hey, Mands.”

  “Charlie, can you meet us at the front of the con? Entertainment Now wants to do a piece on you and Reese going through the new Rising live-action experience.”

  I glance over at Alyssa.

  I don’t want to leave. But I have a job to do. “Sure. Be there in ten.”

  When I hang up, Alyssa is frowning. “You gotta go?”

  I pout. “Sorry. I’ve got some more press to do.”

  “That’s fine. I’ve got a new script to read, anyway.” She stands up and takes my hand. “I’ll see you tonight. Pick you up at eight?”

  “Sounds perfect!”

  I give her my hotel and room number, pack up my laptop and filming equipment, and start to leave.

  “Can’t wait to see you again.” She kisses me, and now I really don’t want to leave.

  She walks me to the door, opens it, and leans casually against the frame. I have to force myself to step into the hallway. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Later.” She watches as I walk away. I know because I look over my shoulder way too many times to still be cool. I step into the elevator and wait until the doors close before I swoon all over myself.

  CHAPTER 17

  TAYLOR

  I’m buying a Rey action figure in the Star Wars aisle when we get a text from Charlie.

  Charlie: Hey! You guys free? Studio wants me & Reese to do The Rising live-action experience. Wanna join? It’s got zombies!

  I text her back: That. Sounds. AWESOME! Where? When?

  Jamie and I meet Charlie outside the entrance to the maze. I’m still buzzing after making it through to the next round of the SupaFan contest. Usually, running through a maze with zombies on my tail would probably be something I’d say no to. But I feel like I’ve chugged five Red Bulls, so I figure, what the hell?

  “Hey!” Charlie beams when she sees us. “How’s your day been?”

  “I entered the Queen Firestone SupaFan Contest!” It comes out louder than intended, and I laugh.

  Her jaw drops. “And?”

  “I made it through to round two!”

  “That’s bloody awesome, TayTay!” Charlie high-fives me and hangs an arm around my shoulders. She gives me a weird look, like she wants to tell me something, but then glances quickly at Reese and decides against it.

  I poke her in the stomach. “What?”

  She takes me and Jamie by the hands and pulls us near the doorway to the maze, away from everyone else.

  Jamie is standing close behind me, leaning a hand against the wall. “You’ve got big news, don’t you?” he asks with a cheeky grin.

  “The biggest!” She makes a squealing sound in the back of her throat. “Alyssa kissed me!”

  Jamie and I gasp. I grab her hands and squeeze my lips shut to suppress my scream. “Seriously?”

  She nods. “And that’s not all. She asked me out. We’re having dinner tonight!”

  I look up at Jamie. His eyes are shooting out of his head and his mouth is hanging open into a smile. “You’re going to dinner with Alyssa Huntington?”

  “I am.”

  We want to talk more, but Mandy calls us over.

  Charlie squeezes our hands. “Don’t tell anyone yet. Not even Mandy. I don’t want this getting online, not after the circus I’ve been living in since me and Reese. I really, really like Alyssa, and I don’t want the media or the fans involved until I’m ready.”

  We nod. “Of course,” I say, sliding my thumb and forefinger over my lips in a zipping motion.

  Mandy comes over. “Everyone ready? Entertainment Now is here. They want to film you running through the maze. It’ll be great publicity for the movie.”

  “We’re gonna be on Entertainment Now?” Jamie asks.

  “Well, maybe in the background. The cameras will be on Charlie and Reese.”

  Jamie’s shoulders sink in disappointment, and I elbow him in the side. “Cheer up! You’re about to be thrown into a zombie apocalypse! This is your dream!”

  He chuckles. “True.”

  Mandy drags Charlie away to do a quick premaze interview with Reese and the EN reporter.

  Jamie taps my shoe with his and tilts his head toward mine. “You sure you want to do this?”

  I put my fists on my hips and stick out my chest, striking a Wonder Woman pose. “I can handle it. I’m SuperTay!”

  He presses his lips together and puffs out his cheeks a little before bursting into laughter. “More like SuperDork.”

  I glare at him, holding my pose and trying not to laugh. “I could survive in there longer than you.”

  He lifts his chin and raises an eyebrow. “You wanna bet?”

  “Let’s do it,” I say.

  The corner of his mouth lifts into a half smile. “Okay. We’ll race. The winner gets to hijack the loser’s Twitter and tweet something embarrassing.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. I have way more followers than he does, and I’m not exactly fast on my feet. My reputation in the fandom could be at stake. But I’d love to smash that smug look off his face, and right now I’m feeling pretty invincible. “Deal.”

  Five minutes later, Reese, Charlie, Jamie, and I are standing in a dark room with the EN crew, waiting for the double doors to open into the maze. Creepy groaning and gurgling sounds are rolling out of speakers in the ceiling, and shadows are moving slowly over the boarded-up windows. I’m already scared, but I’m determined to make it to the end of the maze ahead of Jamie.

  “Ready?” a voice calls from outside the doors.

  “Ready!” Reese calls back.

  I roll up the sleeves of my coat and move my weight from one foot to another, staring at the door. Jamie is next to me, glancing down at me every now and then with an evil grin. He’s trying to psych me out. The sound of metal scraping against metal startles me, and the doors blow open with a loud whoosh. Light floods in, and Charlie is the first to launch into the maze. Reese is hot on her heels, with the reporter and cameramen racing to keep up.

  Jamie and I make a run for it, trying to push each other out of the way and take the lead. I’m so focused on what he’s doing that I don’t see the zombie waiting in the wings. It leaps out at me from the right, and I jump back into Jamie’s chest, screaming. He holds my shoulders and pulls me away, turning me around so he’s between me and the zombie, which is chained to a wall and out of reach.

  “Whoa,” Jamie says, crouching slightly to look into my eyes. “Are you okay? Do you want to go back?”

  I shrug his hands off me and hold my chin up high, acting calm even though my heart is pounding. “No. I’m fine.” I smile up at him wryly. “And I’m going to kick your ass.”

  I burst into a sprint, leaving him behind. I glance over my shoulder to see him still standing there with a dumbfounded grin on his face. Then he starts running after me, and I scream a little, surprising myself. Charlie and Reese are nowhere to be seen, but I spot a cameraman running awkwardly ahead and assume he’s following them.

  We’re in an alleyway—or a set that looks exactly like an alleyway, at least. Faux brick walls
on either side of me, Dumpsters and rubbish bins every few feet. Broken windows and graffiti all around me. I keep running, knowing zombies could be anywhere and Jamie is gaining on me. The alley divides into two, and I stop to decide which path to take. They are identical, like mirror images of each other. I hear Jamie coming up behind me.

  “What took you so long?” I turn around to see a gross, rotting face glaring down at me. One of the zombies. Even though I know it’s only an actor wearing incredibly impressive makeup, I still scream. My feet start moving, and I choose the alley on the left.

  It’s a dead end. The far wall is a huge billboard-style image of the Sydney Opera House, the kind they must use in movies to make it look like they’re in Sydney instead of on a Hollywood set. A lightbulb goes off in my mind, and I realize this is an exact scene from The Rising. In the scene, Charlie’s Ava gets cornered by a horde and has to squeeze through a gap between buildings to get out.

  A screech echoes behind me, and I spin around. Five zombies are closing in on me.

  I run to the end of the alley and search for the elusive gap, finding it tucked away in the corner. It’s dark, but much wider than the gap in the movie. I start running through it, discovering it’s more of a tunnel than anything else. After turning a sharp corner, I suddenly find myself in some sort of factory or warehouse. The only light is from flickering fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Shabby wooden walls are on either side of me, and I swear I can hear heavy breathing coming from somewhere. Something drips onto my forehead, and I look up to see a prop corpse hanging from a chain attached to a pipe.

  “Ew!” I gasp and wipe the fake blood from my face. I edge forward, my arms outstretched in front of me to guide my way. I hear a shrill scream and recognize it instantly: it’s Reese. I laugh quietly to myself and make a mental note to watch the next episode of Entertainment Now so I can see his face.

  A hand grabs hold of my shoulder and I jump five feet into the air. I try to run, but it’s got my arm. I hear a groan in my ear and feel warm breath on my neck.

  “Raar!” the voice says. “Brains!”

  I squeeze my eyes shut as a series of loud shrieks burst out of me.

  “Tay!” Jamie says, laughing. “Relax! It’s just me.”

  I turn to face him, exhaling a long sigh. “You scared the crap out of me, you asshole!”

  I clutch my heart and feel it racing in my chest, then punch him in the arm.

  He bites his bottom lip to stop his laughter. “Sorry.”

  I keep walking, and he squishes in alongside me. “How freaking awesome is this? I never want to leave.”

  “That’s good,” I say. “Then I’ll definitely win.”

  A bald zombie with a disgusting gash in his skull leaps out from behind a corner, and Jamie and I stumble backward, screaming and grabbing hold of each other.

  “Fucking hell,” I say as the zombie disappears.

  “Hey,” Jamie says, still clutching my arm. “I know we’re racing and all, but how about we call a truce on that? Just until we get out of this maze section. I don’t want to go through this alone.”

  I nod repeatedly. “Yes. A thousand times yes.”

  Our fingers dig into each other’s sides. Even with the threat of zombies all around us, I’m keenly aware that this is the longest Jamie and I have ever held on to each other.

  Sure, sometimes we flirt—or attempt to flirt—but we generally avoid physical contact. As we huddle together through the shadows, I decide to let myself enjoy it. Even if it’s just two friends helping each other through a fake apocalypse.

  After all, SupaCon is about having fun.

  CHAPTER 18

  CHARLIE

  “I think we took a wrong turn,” I say as Reese and I fumble through the darkness. A minute ago we were running down a replica Sydney street, now I’m not sure where we are. But it’s dark. And we’ve lost the Entertainment Now crew. And I’m stuck with Reese.

  Again.

  “It’s a maze,” he says, his voice flat. “They’re all wrong turns.”

  I roll my eyes even though he can’t see it. “There’s at least one right way to go here.”

  “Whatever.”

  I bite my tongue, resisting the urge to ask him what his problem is. I hope he’s being extra snooty because he’s still slightly hungover, and not because he’s bitter after I turned him down.

  “I thought about what we talked about yesterday,” he says, and I cringe. “And I’ve decided I don’t want you back.”

  I roll my eyes again, this time so hard it hurts. “Good for you.”

  “It is good for me,” he says, the sarcasm so thick I can feel it. “You and me, it was fun while it lasted. But it wasn’t enough.”

  I hear what he’s trying to say: I wasn’t enough. Not so long ago, hearing those words would have cut me deep. But I can see through him now.

  “You’re right,” I say. “It wasn’t enough.”

  His silence tells me he wasn’t expecting me to react that way.

  He takes another swing. “Yeah. You just looked so hot. I had to take another shot.”

  He wants to break me. I won’t break. I am unbreakable.

  I spin around in the dark, looking up at where I think his face is. “Shut up, Reese. Don’t talk to me like that.” I clench my fists together. “I don’t get why you do shit like that.”

  “Do what?” His voice is strained, defensive.

  “Act like such a macho prick!”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t you hear the nastiness in some of the things you say? Do you forget that I know you? That I know who you are underneath all that bravado?” I poke him in the chest. “I know you, Reese. Better than most. You don’t have to play this with me.”

  “I’m not playing. It’s not some macho act. I’m a guy.”

  I push out a frustrated groan. “You’re infuriating, that’s what you are.”

  His incessant need to “act like a man” was something we fought about when we were together. He would be sweet, sensitive, and emotional with me when we were alone. But the moment we were around other people, he’d turn into some wannabe jock character straight out of a teen rom-com.

  There’s nothing more disheartening than thinking you know someone—on a deep, soulful level—only to find out they’re someone else entirely. I started questioning everything. I didn’t know if the Reese I knew was real, or if the Reese I saw at parties and in the press was real. To make things worse, every time I brought it up with him, he would say it was all in my head. He had me questioning my own sanity. But once I learned he had cheated on me, I knew it wasn’t my imagination. I realized he was too caught up in society’s game of fitting in, and that’s a game I’ve never been willing to play.

  No one ever wins.

  He breathes out a long, slow exhale. “Look, whatever, I’m sorry. You know how much pressure I’m under. People are watching me all the time. All the roles I play are big, tough guys. I gotta live up to that.”

  “Reese, being mean to people doesn’t make you any more of a man. It just makes you mean.” A creepy growl echoes through the building, and I lower my voice. “And you’re not the only one under pressure. It’s no excuse to act like everyone else is beneath you.”

  He exhales through his nostrils in a huff. “I don’t do that.”

  “You do. You know, you’d be much happier if you just stopped caring what other people think and were yourself.”

  The hypocrisy of my words hits me hard, and I get an icky, squirmy feeling in my stomach.

  Reese groans. “How about you just stay out of my head?”

  “Believe me,” I say. “I’d love to stay away from more than that. And once SupaCon is over, I can.”

  “Good.”

  “Great.”

  A bright white light shines directly on us. I squint and cover my eyes with my arm.

  “There you two are!”

  It’s Candice, the Entertainment Now reporter, and her two camer
amen. “We lost you!”

  My eyes adjust and I see I’m standing just inches away from Reese, so I take a step back.

  Candice pauses a few feet away, eyeing us suspiciously. A pleased smile creeps across her face. “Did we catch you two canoodling?”

  “No,” we both say, our voices stern and obviously irritated.

  She flinches a little, but quickly recovers with a smile. “Shame.” She waves us over. “Come on, what are you waiting for? Let’s find our way out of this zombie-infested maze!”

  The tension between us is thick, but neither of us lets it get in the way of our work. Reese and I catapult ourselves through the maze. A zombie leaps out, and Reese screams so loud it hurts my ears. He laughs and pulls out his phone to Snapchat while we run.

  “Is this bringing back some happy memories?” Candice asks.

  I can’t hide the contempt from my face, and she sees it as an opportunity to bring up our relationship yet again. “Or perhaps some sad memories, Charlie? Is it tough being back here with Reese after such a public breakup?”

  I bite my tongue, resisting the urge to throw a sarcastic comment in her face. “No, it’s fine. We had so much fun filming The Rising, and this is just as fun.” I smile, right on cue.

  “What about you, Reese?”

  He flashes her that pearly grin. “Charlie and I had some good times together on sets like these. Lots of great memories. And even though things with us didn’t work out, we’ll always have those memories.”

  Candice looks at him like he’s the sweetest pear on the tree, then looks at me like I’m so lucky to be in his presence. “Don’t you just wish all exes could be as great as him?”

  This time, I hide my contempt but not my amusement. I laugh, shaking my head. “Yeah. He’s something.”

  Three gross zombies appear from around a corner, and I’m grateful to them for saving me from this conversation.

  CHAPTER 19

  TAYLOR

  “So,” Jamie says, peering down at me and clearing his throat. “I think I’ve come up with the perfect Twitter hack.”