Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – Natalie invites a boy to her apartment

Mere seconds after I texted Hugh my address, I regretted it. He'd really helped me out last year and I totally owed him, so, when he contacted me asking for help with something that he left very vague, my immediate thought was, "It's early Friday afternoon. My classes are all over for the day and I have the weekend to study. Sure. Come on over."

Then I realized I'd just invited a boy over to my apartment. I'd never had a boy in my apartment before. I'd never even been alone in a non-public setting with a boy before.

Of course, the fall semester of my freshman year had just started, and I'd been in the apartment for less than a month, but, still, I'd never even imagined that my first ever visitor besides my parents would be someone of the opposite sex.

I mean, I wasn't afraid that he'd try anything inappropriate. He'd always been super nice and had never given any sign he was interested in me at all in that way. No boy had. I was beyond surprised that he'd texted me in the first place, shocked that he even remembered I existed, really.

It was just that I felt weird inviting a boy over. Too many connotations. I thought about texting back and asking him to meet me in a nearby coffee shop.

Argh. I was being silly. There was nothing wrong with Hugh coming over. I was in college now. Boys and girls could be alone in a room. No parents needed.

I glanced around my tiny efficiency apartment. Ugh. Clutter. And, eep, underwear on the floor. I'd be mortified if he saw that. I hustled to tidy up until I heard a knock.

"Hey," I said, feigning cheerfulness as I opened the door.

Hugh muttered something back, barely looking at me. He appeared to be even more uncomfortable than I was.

"Come on in," I said. "You can sit on the couch."

Not counting a small closet, my apartment was only two rooms – a bathroom just large enough for a shower and one big room that included an area for my bed, a small seating area, and the kitchen. He did as I'd told him and I sat opposite him on my bed.

I suppressed a grimace. More connotations.

Silence stretched for a while, and I had to speak before it became unbearable. "So you needed help with something?"

It was completely obvious that he did not want to be here asking me whatever it was he was about to ask, which made me really curious about what was so important that he'd force himself to overcome such obvious reluctance.

"Have you ever read litrpg?" he asked.

I shook my head, not even knowing what the term meant.

His eyes darted around, never landing on me. "Ever play video games?"

"Uh... Super Mario?"

"That makes things more difficult." He exhaled sharply. "There's this fiction genre where people have access to game-like abilities. They get experience by doing quests and killing things and use that experience to level up. The increasing levels allow them to add points to attributes like strength and they instantly grow stronger."

Okay. This was starting to make sense. He was probably trying to write a book and needed a female perspective on a character or something.

I could understand that. I wrote an urban fantasy novella about a shy girl who nobody paid any attention to. Then one day, this new guy came to school, and he saw the beauty inside her. He was rich and handsome and had superpowers and, somehow, he noticed her. They fell in love, defeated his enemies, and lived happily ever after.

I have never and will never let anyone at all ever read it. My cheeks heated just thinking about it.

I nodded to Hugh that I understood about this subgenre that I’d never heard of, and he promptly lapsed back into silence.

It occurred to me that the scenes he might be struggling with were probably related to romance or even sex. It totally made sense why he was so reluctant. This conversation could get really uncomfortable for both of us.

Not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to help him anyway. It wasn’t like I had any experience at all with those things. I had to try, though.

"You can tell me." I smiled warmly at him. "If not for you, I might never have gotten my SAT score high enough to be admitted here. You were so patient having me work through problems and pointing out what I was misunderstanding. I really am glad for the opportunity to help you in return."

He sighed. "I might be having some kind of psychotic break."

That was not what I expected him to say.

"What?" I asked.

"These litrpgs that I read? They have systems that give quests and let the characters see their statuses."

"Okay."

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"A couple of days ago..." Hugh looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I woke up and saw a blue screen in front of my face."

The ramifications of what he was saying were not lost on me. He was probably in for a bad time in the coming months and years. Doctors. Medicines. I felt horrible for him.

I couldn't help but wonder what any of this had to do with me, though. Not that I wasn't willing to help in any way possible, but I wasn't a psychiatrist, and he and I were only "friends" in the loosest definition of the word.

"You're probably wondering why I came to you about this," he said.

I would have thought he was good at reading my expression to so quickly figure out exactly what I was thinking, but he'd never even glanced at my face.

"I've been too scared to even search my symptoms on the internet. The worst cases are constantly on my mind. Schizophrenia. A brain tumor." He wiped at one of his eyes. "I completely understand that the absolute most likely scenario is that I'm destined for a padded room while they try to figure out the best dosages for whatever they're going to prescribe to me."

He was right. There wasn't really anything I could say.

"There is a chance, though," he said, his tone pleading, "admittedly a tiny, infinitesimal one, that what I'm seeing is real, right?"

I tried to keep all skepticism out of my tone as it was obvious he needed to hang onto this possibility. "Makes sense."

"So the system says that I have one skill, Invite, and I have a quest about sending an invitation."

Now what he wanted from me become clear. If he sent me an invite and I saw it somehow, then he wasn't crazy.

God. This sucked. Telling him that I didn't see it was going to have to crush his last hope for his health, his sanity.

"Not that I'm not willing to help," I said, mainly just to delay the inevitable, "but why me?"

Hugh did have friends, and I knew that at least one of them was enrolled here as well, the university being the one closest to our hometown.

"The quest specifies that it has to be a girl," he said.

Ahh. Well. No getting around it then. Hugh was as introverted as I was, maybe even more so. I actually couldn't help but wonder if he was a little bit on the spectrum. I was probably literally his only choice.

"Got it," I said. "Go ahead, then, I guess."

He muttered some words under his breath and then the weirdest thing happened. A blue box opened in front of me.

To be honest, a part of me suspected that this was some kind of scam or prank. In my experience, people can be mean.

I swiped my hand in front of me. It went through the blue area, but nothing otherwise changed.

I took off my glasses. The screen remained, and it wasn't even blurry, though everything else in the room was.

As far as I knew, the technology to make me see something like this just hovering in front of me didn't exist. Besides, the pain in Hugh's voice and written on his face had been too real. If he wasn't being honest, then he was either the best conman in the world or he needed to go into acting.

"You see it?" he asked. "You really see it?"

"Yeah. I do." As I put my glasses back on, a question occurred to me. "What does ENF stand for?"

He tensed visibly. "I was afraid you were going to ask that."

"And..." I said when he didn't continue.

"I think it stands for Embarrassed Nude Female."

My jaw literally dropped. Those three words combined together definitely had connotations. A lot of connotations.

"I don't want you to accept the system," he said quickly. "I just wanted to know if you could see it."

My eyes narrowed. "I think it's time for you to leave."

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