The Rivalry of Renegade X
Page 14
I sit up and set my phone on my nightstand. “You can’t believe what? I’m just promoting the video you guys made. I thought you wanted more publicity.” Even though that stupid video has over 800,000 views on it, which I only know because Amelia keeps a running tally that she announces to everyone every chance she gets.
“No, you didn’t. And this isn’t me!” She points to the paused video on the screen, where I’m sitting on one end of the couch at Kat’s house, and Amelia—or at least Kat shapeshifted to look like her—is sitting on the other. I’m holding some index cards with interview questions on them.
I pretend to study the image. “I don’t know, Amelia. It sure looks like you.”
“But it’s not! I know that’s Kat, and I know you made her do it, because she would never do anything like this to me. You made me sound so stupid!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just needed content for my new channel I’m making, and I thought you’d be too busy for an interview, what with your newfound fame and all. But luckily it turns out I didn’t actually need you to be there.”
She sucks air in through her nostrils. “You’re just doing this to get back at me.”
“Why, Amelia, whatever do you mean? What, exactly, do I need to get back at you for? Because, according to you, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
She scowls at that. “You asked her what Team Glitter stands for, and she said we stand for wearing makeup and gossiping about boys!”
I shrug. “And from my observations, that’s about ninety percent of how Team Glitter spends their time, so…”
“That’s not true! And that’s definitely not what we stand for. We’re all about sending a message. For change?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’ve told you that, like, a million times.”
“Wow. Almost as many times as people have viewed this video.” I tap the side of the phone. “It definitely has more views than your dance video, and I only posted it a few hours ago. Who knows how many it’ll have a week from now?”
Her nose wrinkles. She swallows. “Team Glitter is all about raising awareness of the big issues, but now everyone’s going to think we’re idiots!”
I smile. “Promo is promo.”
“No, it’s not! You asked in the video how many times I brush my teeth every day, and Kat paused for a really long time, then said she tries to do it at least once every other day, but that sometimes she forgets. Except she looked and sounded just like me, and now everyone’s going to think it really was me! People from school are going to see this!”
“Correction. People from school already have seen it.”
“And you asked what inspires Team Glitter’s dancing, and instead of saying the real answer, which is that we want to express ourselves in a way that feels really meaningful and can change the world, you said it was because we were desperate for attention!”
Kat had a really hard time saying that part with a straight face. We had to do a bunch of takes, and even then it took some careful editing to make it look like she was serious. I almost start laughing now at the memory and have to stop myself, but I’m pretty sure Amelia notices anyway. “Well,” I say, once I’m fairly certain I’m not going to burst out laughing, “aren’t you?”
“No!”
“You could have fooled me.”
She clenches her fists and makes an angry noise in the back of her throat. “This isn’t fair! We worked really hard on our video!”
“So did we.” The editing took hours, partially because we didn’t really know how to use the software, and partially because there was a lot of footage of us laughing that we had to cut out.
“You made me look like an idiot!”
“And you didn’t make me look like one?”
“That was different. We didn’t make your character as dumb we were originally going to, because it was other you who was in the video, though I told Melissa and Hil it was because you weren’t being as mean to me as usual. And it’s Other Damien who’s in the video, not you, and he volunteered.”
“Kat also volunteered to be in my video. And she just happened to be shapeshifted to look like you at the time, so it’s not my fault if people mistake her for you.”
Amelia’s mouth drops open. “But obviously they’re going to! Everyone’s going to think it’s me, but it’s not! They’re going to think I said all those stupid things! They’re going to think I don’t brush my teeth!”
“And that you won’t use recycled paper products—only ones that actually killed a tree.”
She gasps, her face turning red. “What?!”
“You didn’t finish the video, did you?”
She puts her hands to her face, which looks completely devastated. “I would never say that! I love saving trees, and now everyone’s going to think I’m a horrible person and they’re all going to hate me!” Her eyes actually start to water. “That wasn’t me, but nobody’s going to be able to tell that, and now everyone’s going to think I’m someone I’m not!”
I tap my chin, immune to her emotional outburst. “Hmm, why does that remind me of something? Did something like that happen really recently to someone else we know? It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I just can’t think of it.”
“I hate you,” she mumbles.
“This”—I point to the paused video on her phone—“is exactly what you did to me, and now you know how it feels. The only difference is you actually posted yours and I didn’t.”
“What?” She sniffs and swipes her hand across her nose. “But it has almost a million views and over a hundred thousand likes.”
“It’s a fake page. We just made it look like a bunch of people had seen it.” If she’d tried to actually click on anything, she would have figured that out.
“You mean, you didn’t make the whole world think I don’t love trees?”
I sigh. “Nope, I didn’t. I could have, but I didn’t, and I’m not going to. At least, as long as you don’t commit any more acts of identity theft. Otherwise, all bets are off.”
Me and Kat are in my room Saturday evening, watching a movie. On my bed.
Except mostly we actually are watching the movie this time, or at least she is, because I can’t stop thinking about how it’s been three whole days, and Riley still hasn’t spoken a word to me. Not since he left my house all pissed at me on Wednesday afternoon.
I mean, I expected him to be mad, but I also expected him to calm down after a while and realize what a good friend I really am to him. Or that even if I’m a lousy friend, at least I’m his lousy friend, and that he missed me or something. But so far, nothing.
Kat’s leaning against me, with her head on my shoulder. She slides her hand across my chest, then slowly starts kissing my neck, tentatively, like she’s not sure if I’ll be into it. I turn and kiss her back, because of course I’m into it, even if I am also still a little distracted. But I try to push those thoughts away as I slip my hands under Kat’s shirt. She sighs as I kiss her, and I feel her muscles move when she smiles.
And then my phone chimes with a new text, and I stop everything and reach for it on the nightstand.
Kat sighs for a completely different reason and folds her arms across her chest.
The text is from Zach. I mean, I was pretty sure it would be, though part of me still hoped it was Riley, telling me that despite several days of absolute silence, he’s over it and everything’s cool. But of course it’s not that.
I texted Zach earlier, asking him on a scale of one to ten, how pissed at me Riley was. My stomach twists as I grab my phone, dreading the answer. Because even if I know I did the right thing and that Riley will get over it—someday—him being that mad at me still makes me feel kind of sick.
But instead of answering my question, Zach says, The two of us can still hang out, right?
Which could mean anything, really, or at least that’s what I tell myself.
Kat presses pause on the movie while I’m still staring at my ph
one. “Maybe you should just call him.”
I consider turning my phone off, but I can’t quite bring myself to do it. I put it on mute instead. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She raises her eyebrows at me. “You’re obviously worried about the whole mess you made with Riley.”
“What mess? I have everything under control.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re checking your phone every two minutes. If you’re too distracted to watch the movie, maybe I’ll go watch it with—”
“Do not say Amelia.”
“—Amelia. And why not? I thought you fixed things with her?”
“Just because I taught her a lesson doesn’t mean we should go back to hanging out with her.” After all, didn’t we learn our lesson that she can’t be trusted? “Besides, she and other me are practically joined at the hip, and that means you’d have to watch the movie with him, too. You don’t want to put yourself through that.”
“Well…”
“Kat! You don’t.”
She grins, like maybe she was just teasing me, but then she shrugs. “He’s not that bad.”
“Uh, he wears body spray and goes around looking for orphans to save. You know that costume I wore on my dad’s show? He actually wanted to wear that. That’s not somebody you want to have anything to do with.”
“He told me it wasn’t nearly as cool as the one he wears back home. And also that after seeing it on you, he was kind of glad he wasn’t the one wearing it, even though everyone would think it was really you either way.”
I gasp. “What?! When you have even been talking to him?!”
“I don’t know—I see him around when I’m here. And he was at Sarah’s when I stopped by the other day.”
“Okay, two things. One, I don’t know why you’d ever speak to other me if you didn’t absolutely have to, and two, since when do you just ‘stop by’ Sarah’s house?”
She jabs me in the chest. “Since you pissed off her boyfriend and made everyone mad at you. I was trying to feel out the situation, you know? Anyway, I was there for about twenty minutes, and Other Damien didn’t even say anything letterist to me.”
“Wow, what a great guy he must be to go twenty whole minutes without being the worst. That doesn’t mean he’s not still a douche.”
“Yeah, maybe, but he’s not really that bad, especially when you’re not around. Plus, he’s easy on the eyes.” She smirks at me.
I put a hand to my chest. “Oh, my God, Kat. I can’t believe you said that.”
“What? He looks just like you.”
“Hardly. And if you go hang out with him and Amelia, you’ll be missing out on making out with me. Plus, you know, other things.” I raise my eyebrows suggestively at her.
She rolls her eyes. “I’m already missing out on that now. Just call Riley already.”
I would, except I’ve already called him, like, ten times in the last couple days. And every time he doesn’t answer or call me back or text or literally anything, it makes the pit in my stomach feel that much worse, which is getting harder to ignore. Hence me being distracted.
But I don’t tell Kat that, because I don’t want to see the look on her face when she realizes how bad that is and that maybe Riley really does hate me.
So instead I kiss her and tell her we’re going to have to postpone movie night until later because I suddenly remembered something I have to go do.
Aliens vs. Dinosaurs IV is paused on the TV when I get to Riley’s house, and there are two controllers sitting on the couch. Zach must be in the bathroom or something. Or maybe he figured it was me at the door and didn’t want to witness whatever’s about to go down.
Riley stands there awkwardly for a second, then asks, “What are you doing here, X?” His tone is cautious and wary, like there’s no chance of him inviting me to play the next round or anything. Not that I expected him to.
I swallow and tell myself at least he’s still speaking to me. And at least he let me in, even if we’re both just basically standing by the door. “You didn’t call me back.” I shrug, trying to make it out like it’s no big deal, even though obviously it is, since I came over here. “I thought…” I trail off, unable to bring myself to say I thought he hated me. That I still kind of think that, despite us maybe being on speaking terms. Because I don’t want to admit it, and even more than that, I don’t want it to be true. Especially since I actually might deserve it this time.
“Oh.” Riley exhales and takes a small step back. “I’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, right.” The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop myself. I look away.
“I have.” He sounds annoyed.
“If you’re not talking to me, then just say so.” My insides go tense, and I hold my breath as I wait for him to respond.
“No, really. I’ve been super busy the last couple days.”
His tone is sincere. Not that Riley goes around lying all the time or anything, but it sounds like it’s more than just an excuse. I wrinkle my eyebrows at him. “Doing what? I cleared your schedule.”
He winces a little at that. Then he folds his arms across his chest and takes a deep breath. “I’ve been doing volunteer work.”
“What? What does that—”
“There are all these places that need help all over Golden City. I mean, they really need it. They were so happy to have us. You should have seen the look on the volunteer director’s face when I told her I could stay longer yesterday when we—”
“Are you serious?!” I can’t believe him. “After all that work I did to get you fired?! You’d seriously betray me like this?!”
Riley’s expression darkens. “Me volunteering isn’t a betrayal. Not like what you did. And this is the worst apology ever.”
“Apology? What are you talking about?”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“Why would I do that? I didn’t do anything wro—”
Right as I say that, Other Damien comes out from the bathroom.
An icy feeling runs down my back. I take in the situation again. Other me being here, the second controller, the game that me and Riley always play paused on the screen. And if I thought he’d betrayed me before, that was nothing compared to how I feel now.
It must show on my face, because Riley suddenly looks uncomfortable. Well, even more than he already did. “X—”
“You replaced me.” I say it quietly. It’s not a question.
Riley opens his mouth, but no words come out.
“He didn’t replace you.” Other me marches over to us. He stands in front of me, leaning forward a little, like he’s about to get in my face. “He got an upgrade.”
“What the hell?”
“I didn’t replace anyone,” Riley mutters, not making it sound too convincing. “We’ve just been hanging out.”
“You’ve just been hanging out,” I repeat. I look at other me. “A week ago, you couldn’t even be in the same room together.”
Other me shrugs. “We ran into each other at Sarah’s house again, and it turns out he’s nothing like the Riley in my dimension.”
“If he’s nothing like him, then why are you trying to be friends with him?”
“X,” Riley says, but we both ignore him.
“He’s still Riley,” other me says, “but in this dimension, he doesn’t care who my mom is. He’s not a letterist jerk.”
“And let me guess,” I tell him. “You’d never do anything crazy, like—”
“Like get my supposed best friend fired? On purpose?” He gives me a disgusted look. “Some of us know how to be supportive. I suggested we do some volunteer work. It turns out we work super well together, and we’ve been—”
“You what?!”
“These places don’t have nearly enough volunteers,” Riley says. “They really appreciated us being there. It felt like we were actually making a difference. It made me feel like I… like I had a place. You know how important that is to me.”
He huffs at that. “We’ve spent the last three days helping people.”
“Also known as avoiding your problems, but whatever.”
“We volunteered at a soup kitchen yesterday,” Other Damien says, his smug, patting-himself-on-the-back tone impossible to miss. “They were so excited to have us.”
Riley nods. “They really need people. So does the animal shelter. And the wildlife sanctuary. And the library.”
“And the retirement homes. We helped out at one today.”
“Er, not the one Sarah volunteered at,” Riley quickly adds. “A different one.”
“Right,” I say. “I’m guessing it was one that didn’t have supervillains?”
Riley looks sort of guilty and glances over at other me.
“We need people to know we’re heroes,” Other Damien says. “We can’t be seen helping supervillains.”
I grit my teeth, trying not to let sparks light up. “Is this about what Ted said the other night? Because he’s a total douchebag. You shouldn’t listen to him.”
He gives me this really dramatic sigh. “I’ll try to explain it, but I’m not sure someone like you will understand. You’re not a hero like us.”
“Try me.”
“Wait,” Riley says. “I never said you’re not a hero, X. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Heroes have a reputation to maintain,” Other Damien goes on. “Especially me. Everybody back home knows I’m half villain, and I’ve spent my whole life trying to outlive that. No matter what I do, it’s like everyone’s just waiting for me to screw up, for my villain side to make an appearance, so they can say they always knew I wasn’t a real hero.”
“Make an appearance? It’s not a split personality. And you are half vill—”
“I’m not. I can’t be. You don’t get it, because you don’t care what people think. Or maybe you want them to think you’re a villain.”