Player 2 arrives.

Based on the post of MsCherylTerra, in 3 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at My First Time.

At no point in the history of time or space would I have thought I'd end up geeking out over The Circlet of Nianus with

Ashton Halliday. I mean, at no point would I have ever thought I'd end

up sitting in the backseat of my car, chatting excitedly about games

we'd recently played and upcoming ones we were looking forward to. There

was no reason for me to think we'd get into a heated debate about

which Final Fantasy was best, or that he'd have bad enough taste to claim that Final Fantasy VII was better than Final Fantasy VI.

"Next you're going to tell me you think Wheatley is a better villain than GLaDOS," he groaned.

"Of course not!" I said indignantly. "Wheatley's hilarious, but he's a moron. GLaDOS is smart enough to be an actual villain. But the real question is, do you think Cave Johnson is funnier than both of them or are you wrong?"

Ashton threw his head back as he laughed. "We're in full agreement on that."

"Phew," I said, leaning against the door. "It's a good thing you said that, otherwise there's no way we could be friends."

"Are we friends?" he asked.

My laughter faded as I met his eyes. There was still a half-smile on his lips, but his eyes studied me seriously.

"I mean; we aren't, you know. Not friends," I said.

"Yeah, but we used to be, like, actual friends."

I fidgeted nervously. "We were kids."

"Doesn't mean we weren't friends," he replied. "I don't really know why we stopped hanging out, Ramona."

I

swallowed hard. There was no reason for his words to sting so much;

we'd stopped being friends because he hadn't invited me to his ninth

birthday party. It was stupid. It was petty.

And it bothered me that he didn't remember.

"I need to turn the car off," I said. "You can keep charging, just; I don't want to waste gas."

Before

he could respond, I opened the door. The rush of night air was a relief

against my flushed skin and I took my time walking around the vehicle

and turning it back to accessory mode before returning to the back seat.

"Ramona; " he started when I got in.

"Do you mind getting the dome light?" I interrupted. "It'll drain the battery too fast."

He

paused, then reached up and turned the light off as I shut the door. As

I adjusted to the sudden darkness that fell over us, I realized how

small the inside of my car felt.

"I

believe you've got some Pokemon to master," I said, just for something

to fill the silence. "And Zelda's not going to free herself from

Calamity Ganon."

"True," Ashton said lightly. "But I have a proposal for you."

I closed my eyes and sighed. "I don't want to talk about; "

"Mario Kart."

I paused, then frowned. "What?"

Ashton's face was barely visible in the darkness, but between his tone and the glimmer in his eyes, I could tell he was smiling.

"Mario Kart," he repeated. "Let's play it together."

"You want to play; Mario Kart?"

"Okay, full disclosure?" he said. "I fucking love Mario Kart and no one ever wants to play it with me, and it's not as fun as a single-player game. Since we're hanging out anyway, let's play together."

I

was relieved that we were back to video game talk, though my confusion

about his sudden dropping of the whole "friends" thing was slow to fade.

"Okay," I said slowly. "One problem, though."

"I'll buy you the game if you don't have it," he said immediately.