Joe Keery Imagines

Blue Shirt Girl-Keys

"I have three words for you: Blue Shirt Guy. BFG is leveling up and at a record pace by playing the hero. It's got people all over the world asking 'Just who is this guy?'"

Click.

"This colorful character is the video game, Free City, has been turning heads by being the good guy. Piper?"

"Who is Blue Short Guy?"

"You're absolutely right. Blue Shirt Guy. Who is he or she, indeed?"

I rolled my eyes as I turned off the tv. When I did this, I didn't think Blue Shirt Guy would blow up the way he has.

About a year ago, my best friends Walter and Millie sold their game Life Itself to Soonami. That douchebag Antwan claimed to have shelved their game when he actually turned it into Free City.

Now I just have to find their code to prove it.

I've tried talking to them, but neither one of them believes me. At first. As time went on, Millie slowly realized I was right. I tried to help but since I was just an art student and not an MIT graduate like her, she didn't think I could help her.

Since Walter works for Soonami, I didn't include him in this. He could get fired if Antwan found out what he was doing. Millie didn't care about that part.

After my third failed attempt to help Millie find their code, I decided to do it on my own. I hacked into the game and took over some bank teller NPC. I didn't do anything for a few days so the people at Soonami wouldn't notice something was wrong.

When I did start playing, I befriended Molotov Girl. I was well aware that Millie was Molotov Girl but her account is unhackable. I should know. I tried.

As I've played, I've gotten close to finding Walter's code. I rolled my eyes when Blue Shirt Guy started his day the way he always starts it: waking up, saying 'Good Morning' to his fish, eating cereal while watching the news, and the weird habit he has of opening and closing the blinds.

My eyes widened as I scooted closer to the screen. When the blinds were half-closed, I paused the game.

"Holy. . ."

I jumped when there was a knock at the door. I hesitated before standing up and walking over to the door. The second I opened the door, my breath got stuck in my threat.

"Walter?" I stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"I know what you're doing."

"What do you mean?"

"You hacked into Free City," he explained. "You hacked into Blue Shirt Guy and have been leveling up by being the good guy."

"That's not what I was doing," I sighed. I opened the door and gestured for him to walk in. He studied me for a second before walking in. When I followed him into the other room, he was pacing back and forth.

"If that wasn't what you were doing, then why did you go through the trouble of hacking an NPC?" Walter asked as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I mean, did you hire someone to hack into the game? Did Mouser help you?"

"No," I sighed as I sat on the couch. "I did it myself."

"You hacked Free City?" Walter asked. His eyes widened when he heard how that came off. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I just thought. . . Well, I didn't think that you were into coding."

I cleared my throat and nervously started picking at my nail polish that was already chipping.

"I wasn't," I said, still looking down at my hands. "But you went off to MIT and when we talked, you always talked about it. It never made sense to me, so I started learning how to do it. Turns out, I'm pretty good at it."

"You learned how to code for me?"

I looked up, my heart jumping into my throat when I saw the way he was smiling down at me.

"Maybe," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "I started to feel like. . . like I was losing you."

I couldn't take how he was staring at me so I looked back down at my hands. Walter walked over and sat next to me. He reached over and put his hand on top of mine.

"Why?" He asked, his voice soft. "Why would you go through the trouble of learning how to code, hacking into the NPC, and basically messing with the entire game?"

"For you," I blurted out. I quickly added, "I mean. . . For your code. Millie and you kept saying that your build was buried in the game, so I've been searching for it. And I think I found it. Every day, for no reason, Blue Shirt Guy opens and closes his blinds. It turns out that Antwan never. . ."

Walter cut me off and pressed his lips to mine. I was too shocked to really kiss him back. He slowly pulled away with a big smile on his face.

"You amaze me," he whispered, giving me goosebumps.

He reached up and gently cupped my cheek. The butterflies in my stomach went crazy as he rubbed his thumb on my face. He cleared his throat before finally lowering his hand.

"You were saying you found something?"

"Yeah," I stuttered. "Every morning, Blue Shirt Guy opens and closes his blinds. It turns out that Antwan never scrubbed the reflections. Your original build is past the barrier at Hitman's Beach. All we need to do is build a bridge and cross it. That should break down the barrier and reveal your build. And if we stream it live, even Antwan can't lie about stealing it anymore. Do you think you could build a bridge? If Blue Shirt Guy jumps through the barrier. . . What?"

"I still can't believe you did all of this. Learning to code, hacking into the game. All of it to reveal my build."

"I'd do anything for you, Walter," I blurted out.

Walter smiled as he reached up and grabbed my face. When he pressed his lips to mine, I kissed him back this time. Our lips moved in sync, slowly getting more and more heated. We finally broke apart when neither one of us could breathe.

"You know," he whispered as he leaned back, "you're the only one who calls me by my real name."

"You've always been Walter to me."