“Well, plenty of people think that’s a cruel assessment of Sim’s character,” says Maxima. “My writers‌—‌”

“Oh, is that what they think? That if you don’t believe in character assassination, you’re just a big meanie?” Della shakes her head. “It is a neutral fact. Stop romanticizing him, people! He’s not going to change, because he can’t. Chip or no chip, he’s a machine. It’s crystal-clear from Episode 1: He was built to follow orders, not fall in love.”

“Ouch,” whispers Abel.

Ouch, says my stomach.

“Besides, isn’t that the fun of slash fiction? It plays off subtext,” says Della Wolfe-Williams. “If they really got together, guys‌—‌wouldn’t that ruin everything?”

***

“We try to make peace with Maxie, and she publicly humiliates us!” Abel’s pacing in the CastieCon exhibit hall, right next to a display of coffee mugs with the Hell Bells etched in silver. “That’s just‌—‌that’s not cool.”

I blink at the rows of mugs: green, orange, stop-sign red. He’s not going to change, because he can’t. I don’t believe that about myself, not anymore. So why can’t I stop replaying it?

“Ugh, here she comes. Look blasé.” Abel hooks his thumbs in his pockets and studies the ceiling, whistling off-key. Miss Maxima zigzags through the crowd. Her pillbox hat bobs in a sea of shaggy hair and baseball caps, and her big round face radiates smug, as if the sun had a secret.

“Hello, young lovers!” she sings.

“Hey.” I stare at her lip. I think the mole is drawn on.

“Sorry it took so long to wend my way over; I was having a fascinating talk with Ty Savarese‌—‌you know him? Big name fan, co-moderates the forum?”

“Why’d you tell the whole room we write Cadsim fic?” Abel sticks his hands on his hips.

“Oh! Well, I was just having fun. I didn’t think you’d mind, with your little conversion and all.”

“We still have standards.”

“Pardon me? Two of our Cadsim writers are Iron Quill winners, so you can drop the snobbery anytime.” She takes out a vintage snap-case with some old-timey dominatrix on it and selects a long brown cigarette. “Now, don’t you worry about Della and her nos; she overthinks everything. Lenny Bray’s opinion matters most‌—‌make sure you pin him down in Baltimore. Obviously he won’t give spoilers for next season, but I’ll bet he’ll drop some solid Cadsim hints. See how much you can get him to spill.” She passes Abel an antique silver lighter. “I bet you’re charming when you want to be.”

“Excessively.” Abel flips the top of the lighter and holds a steady flame to her cigarette.

“So our lunch. I was thinking the hotel café, just to make it easy?”

I glance at Abel. “I think‌…‌we might take a raincheck.”

“Yeah. We’re tired.”

“You do look pale. Especially you, Brandon. But sorry, you can’t back out now.” She beams a sweet, nasty smile at us. “I’ve invited a very special guest.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Miss Maxima marches us to the Illuminations Café & Grill to the right of the hotel lobby, where she makes us buy her a fruit and yogurt parfait, an egg salad sandwich, and a gourmet iced coffee the size of a Big Gulp. The whole time we’re waiting in line she’s edgy: looking around, checking her Betty Boop watch. When we settle at a table, she doesn’t even unwrap the sandwich. She just takes tense little sips from the coffee cup until she spots someone a few tables away, hiding behind a menu.

“Excuse me,” she sighs.

She clacks over in her leopard heels and yoinks the menu. It’s the kid with her face, from the Q&A. Maxima’s a few yards away now, but her theater voice travels.

“Chelle, what do you think you’re doing?”

The kid mutters something to the paper placemat.

“Family drah-maaah,” Abel says. He chomps his Spicy Santa Fe wrap.

“What’s she up to?”

“Lord knows. Should we make a break for it?”

“She’ll get us back if we do.”

“Oh, Brandon‌—‌”

I smack his arm and point. Maxima’s hissing at the girl now: “You better, and right now, or I swear I will tell Mom what you and Daphne‌—‌”

“You’re such a hosebeast, Missy!”

“Maybe.” She spits out something else; it sounds like But I’m right.

Then she grabs the girl by the wrist and drags her over.

“Abel. Brandon. May I introduce my sister, Michelle.”

“Hey, Michelle.” Abel wipes a glob of salsa off his hand and sticks it out. She just whispers “hey,” her knuckles blanching on the chair back. She’s probably twelve or thirteen, but already she looks like the kind of person who shuffles through life expecting the worst. Her brown hair is cut in a messy bob and her lips are thin and grim and she has cute freckles that look like they landed on the wrong face.

“Let’s get comfortable, shall we?”

Miss Maxima sits and starts daintily loosening her sandwich from the plastic wrap. The girl drops into the chair next to hers and knots her arms. She’s wearing a giant ring with a bug trapped in amber. She shoots Maxima a filthy look, the same one I gave Nat the time she told her hot friend Mark that I wet the bed until I was nine.

“It’s egg salad, Chelle,” says Maxima.

“Uh-huh.”

“Remember the time you put a worm in my egg salad and I couldn’t eat it again for three whole years?”

“No.”

Maxima takes a big deliberate bite. She chews slowly, looking back and forth between Michelle and us. I wonder if this is some kind of twisted summer homework assignment for her college improv class. She’ll assign us characters next: Abel the rowdy drunk, me the rookie cop.

She swigs her coffee monstrosity and folds her hands on the table.

“So the thing about my little sister is, she’s always playing a big joke on me,” Maxima says. “See, she absolutely cannot let me have anything nice without messing it up‌—‌been like that since we were kids, right Chelle? Remember my Fairy of the Forest Barbie?” The girl glares at her lap. Her cheeks are on fire. “Anyway, this is how it is. Her stuff was always broken and dirty because she never took care of it, and my stuff was always nice because I did, and she never could handle it, so now she takes every opportunity to mock and undermine everything I stand for. Prime example: When I ran for senior class president, Michelle had to run for freshman rep too, and with this stupid Free Goldfish for All platform.” She narrows her eyes. “I guess it was a short leap from there to here.”

“Shut up, Missy,” Michelle mutters.

“Unfortunately, what she didn’t seem to get,” says Miss Maxima. “was that creating a fake fan shrine to her sister’s arch-rivals just might have larger repercussions than pissing me off.”

Under the table, Abel’s nails bite the back of my hand.

“I think you owe them an explanation, Chelle.” Maxima leans back. “Excuse me: hey_mamacita.”

Abels’ hand grips mine harder. I yank it away. This doesn’t make sense. None of it does. It’s a joke, a mean trick. She got this kid to play-act and later she’ll slip her a fifty while they snicker about our ashen faces, and when we get back to the RV the real hey_mamacita will have posted. So so sorry Abandonites, family emergency. I’m BACK! Here’s the next chapter.

“Don’t you have anything to say to them?” Maxima swirls her yogurt around. “I mean, you and your minions pretty much used these two pathetic souls like paper dolls and now look at them. They think they’re in love. See, this is why my FJ hates real-person-shipping; the fourth wall could crumble anytime, and then you’ve got a huge embarrassing mess on your‌—‌”

“Sorry,” Michelle whispers.

“That’s all?” says Maxima.

Michelle’s eyes flick up at us, just for a second.

My breath catches in my throat.

Then she shoves her chair back, throws her balled napkin at Maxima, and rushes for the exit.