[1/2]
They bump into each other for the first time at a gaming convention. As in, they literally bump into each other - right between the giant booth selling t-shirts and the guy selling Skyrim posters. Alyssa trips over her own feet. She catches herself just in time but her arm has already reached out to the nearest bystander, making contact in a motion somewhere between grabbing and hitting.
"Sorry," Alyssa says, finding her balance again and straightening up.
"Are you okay?" The person asks. It's a woman and she looks slightly familiar - Alyssa's definitely seen her before. She's also really pretty - like, really pretty. Like the kind of pretty that has Alyssa wondering if she's the incarnation of Aphrodite. She's that kind of pretty. She's also being really calm about the fact that Alyssa nearly knocked her over into a crowd full of video game nerds.
"Yeah," Alyssa replies quickly, "Yeah, I'm-"
Before she can even finished the words, the woman's brow furrow. "You are Louis's friend, yes?"
Alyssa can feel her cheeks getting red - a blush creeping up her face. She looks away and shrugs, playing with the hem of her oversized Final Fantasy hoodie. 'Cousin with a propensity to let himself into her apartment even when she tells him not to' is probably the moniker that she would used to describe the big teddy bear that is the football star Louis - who just so happens to be related to Alyssa through her mother and his father. But she doesn't exactly know how to explain that to this extremely attractive near-stranger. So, she just nods. "Kind of, yeah."
The woman sticks out her hand. Her skin is soft when Alyssa takes it. Her fingernails are filed short and painted light blue. As they shake hands, Alyssa shoves all inappropriate thoughts of this woman's fingers out of her head.
"I am Eva," The woman says - no, she practically purrs her name.
"Alyssa." She glances away. "Have we met? You look a little familiar."
The woman - Eva - wrinkles her brow in concentration and her tongue peaks out of her mouth. "Were you at Louis's birthday party?"
Alyssa nods. She remembers that birthday party clearly. Louis had burst into her apartment and insisted that she threw on a pair of jeans and went to his house for the party. She remembers arguing that she had an exam coming up for her Masters degree and that Louis hadn't taken that as an answer and threw her over his shoulder and walked her out to his car and drove her to his place - where she promptly went straight up to his room and played on his PS4 until he let her go home but not without having her sit on his shoulders and taking an obligatory picture.
"That's why you look familiar!" Eva exclaims, "I did not actually talk to you but I never forget a face."
"Well," Alyssa says, "I'm glad that you don't. But, if you're one of Louis's friends, what are you doing here?"
She makes a gesture with her hand that's meant to encompass the entire convention - where custom keyboards are being sold, where crappy hand designed t-shirts are being sold, where the hardcore gamers who live, breathe and sweat video games are lining up for the latest game demos. It just didn't seem like the type of place that any of Louis's friends would go to - excluding, of course, Louis himself because he's been to just as many as Alyssa has because he's almost as much of a video game nerd as she is.
Eva just laughs and Alyssa's heart thumps erratically in her chest. "Would you believe that I am here on my own time?"
"I've met Louis's friends," Alyssa teases, "They don't have free time."
Eva is still laughing as she looks at Alyssa again. "I took some time off," She says, "I've been wanting to go to one of these in Boston for a while."
Well, that explains the slight accent that Alyssa can hear - the way that Eva's lips curl around each letter like she's purposely making sure they all sound perfect.
"Well," Alyssa says, "I hope it lives up to your expectations."
Eva nods and fiddles with her fingers. She steps a bit closer. "What are you here for?"
Alyssa shrugs. "The atmosphere," She says, "And I've been meaning to check out the demo for the new Assassin's Creed game."
Eva's mouth drops open and she grabs onto Alyssa's hand. "Oh Alyssa," She says as she leans even closer until they're practically nose-to-nose, "I think we are going to be very good friends."
**
Alyssa knows seven things for certain about Eva.
1) She's got an Olympic gold medal in Fencing which means she's an athlete - which is how she knows Louis.
2) She likes gaming just as much as Alyssa does.
3) Her favourite kind of pizza is a pepperoni one with extra mozzarella and a side of garlic bread from a place in her hometown back in Canada.
4) She wears jeans and t-shirts like they were custom made for her.
5) She's almost as good at Tetris as Alyssa is - and Alyssa won the world championships of Tetris when she was twelve and still holds the title.
6) The first game she ever played was Mario on her DS when she was a kid.
7) She laughs at Alyssa's jokes.
Alyssa knows all of this and she only met Eva this afternoon. They started walking together and didn't separate since. But now, they're both walking towards the exit.
Alyssa knows that she's lingering - she's pretty sure that Eva is lingering too because she's rocking back on the balls of her feet like she wants to say something.
"This has been fun," She says eventually, "My teammates don't really understand this kind of stuff."
"Yeah, well," Alyssa teases, "You are athletes."
Eva rolls her eyes. "Shut up," She says back but she's smiling so there's no bite to her words, "Hey - what are you doing right now?"
"Now?" Alyssa repeats, "Hanging out."
"No, I mean - after now. Like, after the convention."
Alyssa shrugs. "Nothing - I've already finished my project for class and I don't have any tests coming up."
Eva clears her throat. "Well...I know this nice diner down the street. I was wondering if you'd like to get some food with me."
Alyssa glances away and her voice goes embarrassingly high-pitched. "Y-Yeah. That'd be cool. Yeah."
"Great." Eva's face goes a little bit red. "That's...That's great. Awesome. Super cool." She laces their fingers together.
"Super cool," Alyssa echoes.
"Yeah."