Jessica
Jessica had to admit that she liked Zyan. She didn't know if she'd come to the same conclusion if it'd only been the two of them, but seeing him with Ava? It reminded her of her own bond with her sister. They were shouting and poking fun at each other with every death of their characters, every missed jump and shot. It took her back to the time she and her sister had gotten a Nintendo 64 for Christmas.
"My thumbs hurt, and I think I'm starting to feel phantom vibrations in my hands and wrists," Ava stated while the screen flashed the results of their last mission. "I think we should move on to movies and dinner."
"But we just got through King Dice!" Jessica argued. She looked over at Zyan, who'd surrendered his controller two rounds ago to stop her from shouting orders every time they got hit. "Come on! We at least gotta try beating the clown!"
"I'm with Ava," he replied. "You guys want Italian?"
Ava flashed him a smile. "Sure. You cool with that, Jessie?" she asked, already on her way to the kitchen, where Jessica knew she kept her take-out menus.
"Sounds great," Jessica agreed. "But don't forget: no—"
"Yeah, yeah! I know! Damn vegans." Ava muttered the last part.
Jessica grinned to herself before she turned to look at Zyan, currently navigating through the game menu.
"Wanna keep going till the food gets here?" she asked. Zyan cocked an eyebrow at her. "I'm sure Ava wouldn't mind. She wants us to bond, right?"
There was a spark in Zyan's eyes when his lips tugged up in a smile. He grabbed the second controller from the coffee table and threw it into her lap. "You're on, Jessica."
Jessica immediately took them to the rollercoaster, where a ruthless clown started his rampage on their health points. "So…how long have you known Ava?" she asked, in an attempt to make casual conversation.
"I'm sure she's told you that already," Zyan answered as he mashed his buttons.
"You're right," Jessica admitted. "So tell me something I don't know? For example…are you a cat or a dog person?"
"Neither," Zyan replied. "Or both. Depending on how you want to look at it."
Jessica nodded. "Cool, me too, but I prefer cats because they're less work and I'm lazy."
Zyan chuckled, which cost him another health point. "I can respect that."
"You've gotta stop missing those parries, Zavala!"
"You've gotta start taking better care of your teammate, Jessica."
The comment caught Jessica off-guard. She laughed.
Out of all the ways she'd expected this day to go, truly getting along with Zyan somehow hadn't been one of them. She'd thought they might reach common ground when it came to Ava, but never that they could be potential friends.
The entire situation she'd found herself in was…interesting, to say the least. She was sitting here with an immortal person who'd lived through centuries of history, yet knew his way around technology and video game terminology like most millennials. It made her wonder how much of that latter part was Ava's influence and how much came with his field of work.
She knew from Carter that they'd both always done their best to keep with the times in all fields of life, but, unlike Zyan, she'd never gotten Carter into social media. The moment he'd realized the posts didn't appear in chronological order, he'd called bullshit and deleted his accounts. She couldn't blame him.
"What happened to those skills you kept bragging about? You just lost two health on the same attack wave!"
Jessica quickly refocused all her brain power on the screen. "Sorry, sorry!"
"Aw, look at you two," Ava cooed. "Playing video games together like friends."
Jessica felt a smile tug at her lips, but it was quickly vanquished when she died and Zyan had to revive her.
Zyan laughed in triumph. "Look who just brought who back to life! Who's the better player now, huh, Jessica?"
"Sit your cute little butt down, honey," Jessica said with narrowed eyes. "This just got serious!"
*~*~*
When Jessica arrived at Carter's studio, it was almost time for lunch.
She headed into the lounge and made a beeline for the control room, where she knew she'd find him. It was by far not the first time she'd sought him out at work—almost all his coworkers and even some of his signed artists had met her at some point or another—but it was the first time she'd shown up without warning.
When she pushed open the door to the control room, she wasn't prepared for the deafeningly loud music pushing against her eardrums. She recoiled and almost stumbled back out into the lounge before she adjusted enough to enter and close the door behind her. Carter and the formless figure hidden under an oversized hoodie and snapback didn't even notice her as she approached behind them. Both their heads were ducked as they hunched over the mixing board and bobbed along to the music.
Jessica grinned at the sight of Carter tapping his foot and shimmying his shoulders.
"Hey! " she called out.
Carter jumped and whirled around fast enough to nearly fall off his chair.
Jessica bit back laughter. "Are they the new guys?" she asked with a nod at the group of five sitting behind the glass in the live room, chatting and passing around water bottles. "I don't think I've ever seen them before."
Cater threw a glance over his shoulder. "Yeah, it's only their second time here."
Jessica gave herself a moment to take in the music instead of focusing on the sheer volume of it. It was only instrumental so far, but she knew talent when she heard it. "They're good."
"I know, that's why I signed them."
After he finished speaking, the recording cut off and dropped them into silence. Jessica's lips parted as she raised her hands to press against her ringing ears.
"Ten more minutes until vocals, guys!" the person at the mixing board announced over the speakers.
Behind the glass, the band nodded.
"So, tell me, what brings you really here?" Carter asked as he headed for the large black couch pushed against the wall. "Because I know it's not your interest in my work."
"Maybe I came to talk to my best friend about my date yesterday," Jessica said as she followed him.
"Oh yeah, how'd that go?"
"Honestly? Surprisingly well!" She shrugged off her jacket and shoulder bag, which she draped over the armrest before she sat down.
"We played video games, ate take-out, watched a buncha movies. It was, like, two in the morning before Zyan said his goodbyes, which I've been told is unusual for him."
She gauged Carter's reaction to the name-drop. His eyes widened a fraction and his lips parted for just a second before he got control of himself. If she hadn't known him, she wouldn't even have noticed the small shift.
"After that, Ava invited me to stay over, so I did," Jessica went on. "She wanted to sleep on the couch, so I could take the bed, but then I was like 'hell no,' so we both slept in the same bed and it was nice. She smells really good and her pajamas are so soft."
Carter raised an eyebrow. "I didn't need to know about that last part, but okay."
Jessica smirked. "Then I'm sure you don't want to hear about this morning, when we had some nice and steamy morning se—"
"Nope! No! Na-ah!" Carter cut her off. Part of her was expecting him to put his fingers in his ears and start to sing—sadly, he didn't.
Jessica laughed as she sunk further into the cushions. "It's okay. I'd rather keep my bedroom activities in the bedroom, anyway." They hadn't even had sex yet, but Carter didn't need to know that.
"Good."
Jessica lifted her hand and started to inspect her fingernails. "So…about her best friend, Zyan."
When she glanced up, Carter squinted at her. "What about him?"
"He seems like a pretty cool dude," Jessica said nonchalantly—or at least, she hoped it came across that way. "Ava and I thought it might be nice to get together as a group and—"
"Please tell me you're not actually trying to set us up."
Jessica dropped her hand. "What? No. I'd never—"
Carter raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine," Jessica said. "I might've done it before, but this time, it's different. Ava wants you two to meet because she still has hopes to become part of a friend group like the ones in those nineties sitcoms."
Carter snorted. "Good luck with that."
Jessica smiled a little. "Does that mean…?"
Carter sighed. "Yeah. Fine. I'll meet the guy."
Jessica beamed at him. "Awesome! I've gotta tell Ava." She fished her cellphone from her bag.
"Did you literally just come all the way down here to ask me that?"
"Yup!" Jessica responded as her fingers flew over the screen to inform Ava of the good news. Once she pressed 'send,' she dug back into her bag and pulled out a paper bag. "And I brought you a cheese croissant."
Carter snatched it out of her hand. "Oh god, I love you!"
"You're welcome."
"Hey, Jess, you wanna stay for the rest of the session?" The question came from the figure at the mixing board, who'd now turned to face them.
Jessica looked up and felt a smile blossom on her face as she recognized who had been sitting there the whole time. "Tiffany? Damn, I almost didn't recognize you in that hoodie."
"My girlfriend's," Tiffany replied.
"Nice. And yeah, I'd love to, but my shift starts in two hours."
"Pity. That girl's got the voice of an angel."
"No worries, I'm sure my high-up connections will make sure I hear the finished product."
"Yes, he will," Carter butted in.
Tiffany chuckled, completely at ease in the presence of her boss. And rightfully so. As far as Jessica knew, Tiffany was the only one who'd been with Carter since the start of the company, which had earned her the position of being in charge whenever he wasn't around.
Jessica's phone buzzed. When she looked down, she saw Ava's name flashing on-screen. "Oh, I've gotta take this. " She jumped up and headed for the door. "Be right back," she called over her shoulder.
Out in the quiet of the lounge, she accepted the call, but before she could say something, Ava was already speaking.
"Hey, you, you still at Carter's?"
Jessica looked at the framed newspaper clippings and records on the walls. "Well, I'm in his recording studio."
"Really? Can you send me pictures? Can you get me autographs from the band?"
Jessica laughed. "You don't even know them! They're just recording their first album."
"It's the principle of the thing, Jessie!"
"Okay, I'll see what I can do," Jessica promised. "Did you get my text?"
"Yeah, and that's great, but…he was never the problem. Getting Zyan to agree to it—that'll be the hard part."
"You got him to agree to meet me," Jessica pointed out.
"And that was already hard and painful to achieve! This? Now this is off the charts. This is gonna require tears and blood and—"
"Calm down! You make it sound like you'll have to summon a demon or something."
"If that's what it takes."
Jessica chuckled at the dramatics. "Let's keep it to nicely asking and maybe some bribery with baked goods."
"Baked goods?"
"It worked with Carter."
"Oh man, these guys better get married again after this, or I'm gonna be highly disappointed."
Jessica huffed a laugh and leaned her head back against the wall. "I'm with you, Smartie."
"This nickname-snack-thing we've got going on is starting to get pretty ridiculous," Ava commented.
"Really? I think it's pretty adorable."
"Those two things don't necessarily cancel each other out," Ava replied.
"Good. Because I don't intend to stop until I've run out of ideas."
"Oh man, I really love you." Ava's words were followed by a heavy silence. "Uh, I mean…I…I've gotta go. Bye!"
The one that followed seemed even more pregnant. "I love you too," Jessica said softly before she lowered her phone.
She tried to call her back, but Ava had either shut off her cell, or was calling somebody else. The second one was more likely, since Ava had a tendency for calling her siblings when her anxiety was spiking.
With a heavy sigh, Jessica leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She knew Ava would call her back soon enough, whether it be to freak out and take it back, or start ranting about how she'd meant it, but hadn't planned for it to come out like this. Jessica hoped for the latter.