This was why you shouldn’t neglect discussion boards—because then maybe I would have known that Oliver had landed an acting role at a local theater festival. I could have prepared myself for the possibility that I might run into him. While I was inside a tree. You know how it goes.

“Ronnie was right; this is a waste of time, and I can’t get out of here quickly enough—”

Honestly, he looked like a villain: storm-darkened eyes; a muscle in his jaw that twitched with anger; arms cut from daily skating workouts. His skin was deep olive and practically glowing—I knew they had to hydrate a lot on Power Jam, but this seemed like a whole ’nother level. And he was my age! Oliver was the sole teenager in a group of actors who were playing teenagers but were actually in their twenties. The fact of the matter was, it was hard to look sexy and scary in a helmet and elbow pads, but Oliver somehow pulled it off, gave his character this gritty, rough-and-tumble vibe that you couldn’t look away from when he was on-screen, even when he did horrible thing after horrible thing.

“—and someone was outside my window this morning trying to get my autograph. I thought no one would know me here. Do you know where I am right now? I’m in the middle of the woods, like some godforsaken hellhole, and I’m not even sure that’s safe enough—”

Ah. Ah. This was very bad. I ducked back into the tree, tried to make myself as small as possible.

“Hold on—I’m losing you—”

I heard him walking around, his footsteps growing closer, the do-you-hear-mes getting more and more agitated the closer he got. I flashed briefly on a scene where Oliver’s character threatens to strangle someone—obliquely, but still—with a pair of laces. Sure, it was a TV show, but he was physically strong and angry. I’d heard he was actually very nice in real life, but I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of being discovered, especially when he’d already encountered one stalker today.

Mercifully, though, he passed right by the opening of the tree, and I shrank back into the darkness. I couldn’t believe how close I was to him, this character that I’d loved to hate for a year and a half of my life, this character who’d prevented the jammers from falling in love, who bullied the fresh meat and said things like, “If you’re not here to get hurt, get out of my rink.” I could see the acne scars on his cheeks and the brow I’d watched sweat drip down so many times—and then he was gone, past the tree, still trying to make sure the person on the other end of the line could hear him. He was far enough away that my body relaxed.