Chapter 21
Twenty-One
“I’ll be there in a jiffy,” he says with no qualms about picking me up from work.
When his gray sedan arrives out front, I wave goodbye to the crew and book it outside.
“Has my grandson become forgetful since turning sixteen?” Grandpa jokes on the drive home.
“Just mixing up his priorities,” I reply as diplomatically as possible.
“Well, you won’t have to waste your afternoon with me and Grandma,” he replies, turning a corner. “Milo and his friends are playing a game in the dining room.”
“You mean in the living room?”
“No, it’s at the table. Some kind of big board game with lots of figurines taking up space.” Grandpa throws a hand in the air with an exasperated splutter. “Beats me what it is. Looks complicated.”
I smirk, tapping my fingertips together. “I’ll have to take a look.”
We arrive home and Grandpa Nelson parks in the garage by Mr. Nelson’s car. Mrs. Nelson’s SUV and Kai’s car are both absent.
“Grace and Steven are both out,” Grandpa informs, referring to Kai’s parents.
“Kai’s at a movie with Tabitha,” I tell him. “I suspect they’ll stay out all day together, just like yesterday.”
Grandpa chuckles as we make our way into the house. “He sure is smitten with that girl, isn’t he? Pretty little thing, she is, and quite a lovely personality.”
Geez, who’d you meet, Grandpa? “Yeah, sure.”
“Do you spend a lot of time with her at school?”
Just when she and her friends are calling me names before, during, and after classes. “Sometimes.”
Grandpa pats my back. “Helps when you’re friends with the person your friend is dating.”
I don’t respond because my fake niceness is stretched too thin.
Grandpa turns into the living room where Grandma waves from the couch over a novel and cup of coffee. I wave back and continue toward the rear of the house, where excited chatter grows louder.
As I approach the dining room, the shouting across the table isn’t any easier to understand.
Milo’s friends argue about rules and lore as they gesture at pieces strewn across the table.
I tilt my head as I stand a few feet away from the table, trying to get a handle on what exactly I’m looking at.
Milo has his back to me, one friend sits adjacent at the head of the table, and the other friend sits opposite Milo.
The friend sitting opposite grows mute the minute he notices me in the room.
“Umm, hi?” I say with a hint of laughter.
Milo turns and gives me an uneasy look. “Oh, hey. What are you doing back?”
“Ah, I live here at the moment. Remember?” I tease.
He rolls his eyes. “I thought you were going to the skatepark with Kai.”
“He ditched me.” I saunter toward the table and glance over the gameboard, filled with mountainscapes, caves, rivers, and land borders. Different colored, shaped, and sized figurines take over quadrants of the board. “What’s all this?”
The boys shift away from my gaze, making noises but not actual words. In front of them are cards, dice, and other tokens. I pick up a card from Milo’s pile and inspect the front and back.
He snatches it from my grasp. “It’s called Draikin Crusades and we’re in the middle of a game.”
I rest a hand on the back of Milo’s chair and pop a hip as I watch the other two boys squirm in my presence. “Well, don’t let me stop you. I need to unwind after my shift and this might be just the entertainment I need.”
Milo’s eyes narrow, scrutinizing to find my intent. “Not buying it. You can go upstairs and play a video game.”
“I’m bored with them.”
Milo divides his cards and places half of them in front of the empty seat beside him. “If you’re sticking around, you have to play.”
Frustrated groans erupt from the other boys.
“But you’re in the middle of a game,” I reply, backing away from Milo.
Milo shrugs. “You play, or you leave.”
“She can’t play,” one of the boys whispers harshly. It’s John Hughes from my math class.
“You’re dividing your army and loot,” the other boy, Ryan, says to Milo. “We’re not giving her anything.”
Milo smirks. “It’s no big deal. I’ll still win.”
Intrigued by the competitiveness shining through Milo, I pull out the chair beside him. “Okay. How do I play?”
Milo gestures at his friends. “You know John and Ryan, right?”
“Yeah, hi,” I say to the guys, having rarely spoken to them before.
“Hi,” they reply in sullen tones. It’s beyond obvious how much they don’t want me around, but I don’t care.
I block them from my view, sending all my attention directly at Milo.
I’m magnetized to his radiating confidence as he explains the game pieces and which player occupies which space on the board.
I took none of it in, but it’s a game. How hard can it be? It’s not even on a TV screen. I bet I beat these boys as easily as I do my friends.
John and Ryan snigger together when they inspect the cards, land, and army Milo gave me. I watch the boys, glance at Milo, look down at my game pieces, and then back at him.
“Did you give me your rejects?” I ask Milo.
Even though he’s being sneaky, his smile is too dang adorable for me to be mad. He taps his cards and shrugs. “You didn’t think I’d give away anything important, did you?”
I giggle. “You butthead.”
He laughs. “Hey, you’re joining the game late. It’s your loss.”
John and Ryan exchange glances as Milo and I laugh together. Their brows furrow as they decode our dynamic.
“Sabotaging someone is almost like cheating.” I look at John pointedly. “You’d know about cheating. Wouldn’t you?”
John’s expression falls, muttering wounded sounds.
Milo shifts in his seat. “What are you talking about, Jamie?”
It makes sense Milo wouldn’t know about John cheating on his math homework. They wouldn’t be friends otherwise.
“Never mind.” I clear my throat, straighten up, and scoop a pair of dice in my hand. “Okay, what number do I want to roll?”
Milo points a finger, circling an area on the board with ridged mountains. “Only a nine or higher will get you out of that mess.”
I clasp my hands together, shaking the dice inside my palms. I drop the dice onto the table and find a two and a three staring up at me.
The table erupts in laughter. My eyes slit as I look around at the boys enjoying my failure. Milo instructs me to pick up a card. When I turn it over, more laughter occurs. I already have two of these cards in my pile, which were deemed terrible picks.
“Maybe you guys think no one can win when occupying this area,” I say as the laughter dies down, “but you’ve never seen me play.”
John rolls the dice. “Yeah, and you’ve never played, period. You can trash talk all you like. It doesn’t mean you can change the way the game works.”
Ryan quickly makes his move after John. He rearranges his army and invades one of John’s domains. “And you have a tendency to forget to cover your weak points.”
John groans. “What the heck? I hate you.”
Milo laughs. “It’s your own fault for leaving yourself wide open.
You know Ryan will always swoop in when you don’t evenly disperse your warrior orcs.
” Milo rearranges his cards and examines the board.
He then nudges me, saying, “The good thing about your crummy hand, is I don’t think you need to worry about anyone invading. ”
I grin. “That’s a good point. I can just work on moving onto other territory.”
John scowls at me. “Don’t even think about it.”
Milo makes his move, and nothing seems to change on the board. But considering the ease in Milo’s body language, I’m guessing he’s planning a low-key strategy which will pay dividends later. I pull at my shirt collar. Oh boy, his air of cool confidence is really making my blood pump harder.
As the game continues, I make some ground. However, anytime I try to conquer, I’m swiftly knocked back a peg or two. Milo tries to give me pointers, but the other two guys shoot him down, constantly repeating, “This is war.”
The seriousness about this silly tabletop game has me in stitches. Milo continues to conquer more ground, building his army. The other two boys complain, but Milo keeps his cool. Seriously boy, could you sizzle any hotter?
“Hi there, Kai. How was the movie?” Grandpa’s voice echoes from the living room.
The distinct click of the garage door closing follows. “It was good, thanks. Is Jamie around?”
“In the dining room with Milo.”
My back seizes, and my lungs constrict. I squeak, forcing oxygen in as I turn my head on a stiff neck. From the corner of my eye, Milo notices me rapidly shifting into freak out mode.
Oh my gosh, this was a huge mistake. Kai can’t catch me playing this game.
Kai enters the room and immediately holds his belly in laughter. “Oh, good lord. What do we have here? The nerd brigade and their dweeby tabletop game?”
Milo huffs at his brother. “Can’t you just move along?”
“James, what are you doing?” Kai asks, ignoring his brother as he moves closer to me. “Are you actually into this weird game?”
He gives me the look we normally share. My best friend mocking me for something this lame is cringe-inducing.
An indignant snort pours out of me as I leap off the chair. I push away from the table, grimacing as I shake out my shoulders. “As if. What do you take me for? Some kind of loser?”
Kai laughs as he hangs an arm around my shoulders, guiding me out of the dining room.
My back cramps with knots. Regret fills me with queasiness as the word loser ricochets around my head. Why did I say it? It just slipped out as if it were on autocue. I just didn’t want Kai to give me a hard time. The easiest thing to do is deflect.
Ugh. I just walked out on Milo after dropping the L-bomb. My heart breaks. I feel like crap as I march up the stairs with Kai.
“Did you hear me, Jamie?” Kai asks as we hit the upstairs landing.
“Huh?”
“I said I’m sorry,” he replies. “For like the millionth time. Are you really that grumpy with me?”
“Oh, no. I’m over it,” I say, flopping on the couch. Kai hanging out with his girlfriend is small potatoes compared to what I just did to Milo.