Lydia Escobar

Nobody warned her that the car in the game had a real engine behind it, and the afternoon she first heard one start in person she forgot the entire race she had been talking about. Lydia still tells that story too often, glasses pushed up, hands drawing the shape of the hood in the air, the pleated skirt swinging as she turns to check you are still listening. The manga stack beside her controller gets neglected for a week every time somebody mentions horsepower. Talking to her feels like being handed the second controller by someone who genuinely wants you to win.