Free Strong Signal (Cyberlove #1) by Megan Erickson, Santino Hassell Page B

of screaming children amplified. I raised my shoulders up above my ears as we passed a group of loud teenagers, but ordered myself to be cool. It was just one last store. No big deal.
    In GameStop, I thought about buying something for Garrett but I wasn’t sure what he needed. I didn’t want to clutter up the small area he had to live in with crap he couldn’t use. I reasoned with myself that the dog was totally, absolutely needed.
    While Shawn browsed used and new controllers, I checked out the wall of discounted games. A blond dude and his redheaded friend approached the wall and stood near my side. The blond picked up a copy of
FWO
. “You play this yet?”
    “Nah. Heard it needed weekly patches just to get through the first twenty levels, and it’s still full of bugs.”
    That was wrong. That was really wrong. There had only been one major patch to correct a glitch in the catacombs, and some minor issues with a quest mob not spawning. I bit my lip and focused on the games, but I had a hard time because
someone was wrong about
FWO.
    “How about
Kill Zone?”
Blondie said.
    “I played that over at Trace’s house. It’s good.”
    Oh God, I was going to explode.
Kill Zone
was shit. Total shit. Graphics were shit, soundtrack was annoying as hell, and the gameplay was a choppy mess. Just shit. They had no idea what they were talking about.
    Ignoring the tightness in my chest and the sensation of ants racing over my skin, I turned to them, placing a hand on my hip. “I’m going to have to correct you here, bros.
FWO
has had one major patch. One. It came out a year ago and fixed the issue. It’s the best MMO on the market for your money. Next—that game,” I pointed to
Kill Zone,
“is shit. If you like playing a game that looks like my grandmother designed it and has a crosshair that jumps all over the screen because it’s so sensitive to motion, then go ahead and buy that.”
    When I sucked in a breath and looked away, I saw Shawn standing behind the guys with a GameStop bag in hand. “What’s going on?”
    The two guys looked from me to Shawn before the redhead spat, “It’s not cool that your little boyfriend thinks he knows everything.”
    Shawn jolted, maybe because he hadn’t expected the tone, or maybe because he didn’t like the implication he was gay. And shit, I was regretting this all now. Coming here and opening my big fat mouth. Having shit hurled at me was one thing, but Shawn didn’t deserve it. Too bad I was too breathless to say anything more.
    Shawn stepped around the redhead, grabbed my arm, and tugged me to him. “Come on, uh, sweetie. Let’s go home. I’ll watch your Twitch stream along with your thousands of subscribers.” He glared at the two guys. “Later.”
    He strode out of GameStop so fast, I had to jog to keep up. My head spun and my ribs felt like they were crushing my organs. “Shit, Shawn,” I panted. “We gotta go.”
    We pushed our way through the other shoppers and burst outside where I gulped fresh air. He led me to car, opened my door, and then sat in the driver’s seat. Once the car was rumbling and music was playing, the tension in my chest eased. All that remained was the tremors.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I think…I think I had a panic attack.”
    Shawn turned down the radio. “Yeah, I thought so. You okay?”
    “I will be.”
    He rummaged in the bags until he pulled out the dog. “Here you go.”
    Laughing weakly, I hugged it. “I shouldn’t have said anything to those guys. But they were wrong, Shawn. Like, really wrong. About
video games.”
    Shawn nodded solemnly. “The probably worship Satan too.”
    I pushed his shoulder. “I should have kept my mouth shut though, I…I don’t know.”
    “Is that why you don’t go out much? Because of jerks like that talking shit to you?”
    “No, that’s not really why.” I sighed. “Online is easy for me. I decide who sees what. I can block anyone who pisses me off. It feels safe and secure. I