115–Cards and concentration
As promised, it doesn’t take long for Alex to arrive and the pizza arrives soon afterwards. Actually,
Megan went all out with ordering a variety of pizzas as well as drinks, garlic bread and even some kind
of spicy chicken side that the pizza ce was apparently offering as part of a deal. Wey out all the
food on the coffee table and sit around in the living room to eat. Hmmm, with the addition of Alex, there
are now twice as many guys here as there are girls. This seems kind of unbnced.
“You know, this lunch is very guy–heavy. Why don’t we have more girls to invite?” I wonder aloud.
Megan jumps into the conversation immediately.
“THANKYOU I’ve said it before. I’m always so outnumbered. I always thought it was because Bels
doesn’t love inviting over heaps of girls since that time one of them tried to sneak upstairs to look at his
room.” I raise an eyebrow.
“Uh, WHAT?” I ask in horror. Megan shrugs.
“She wanted to move up the hierarchy a bit, she thought that if she got to know more about Bemy
she could seduce him and yada yada. It was a wasted effort, she had no hope. But after that we
stopped having many female guests.” Megan exins.
“Well that’s crazy. Actually, I know the perfect solution. You guys need girlfriends so you can bring them
along. Then we don’t have to worry about them being weird AND we getpany. It’s the perfect
solution. So, Darrien I already know you’re technically single, for now at least. But what about you
guys?” I ask, Aaron is already shaking his head so I face Alex and Shaun, ignoring Megan’s
embarrassed choking from beside me. Alex immediately shoves a slice of pizza into his mouth in an
attempt to avoid answering. my arms and just wait. Eventually he chokes the food down and shakes his
head slow. 09:21
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“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.” he replies, his voice croaky from swallowing too fast. I turn on
Shaun next and he also shakes his head.
“Nope, nodies on my dance card.” He answers, pauses then continues in a tone that is half joking,
halfpletely serious.
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115–Cards and concentration
“You don’t happen to have any single friends you could bring round do you?” He asks. My immediate
reaction is to shake my head no. But actually, now that I think about it… is Amber single? I did decide
that I wanted to get to know her a little better. Maybe when I get around
to having that dinner party with Maggie, Logan and everyone else I should include her too. I mean, I
don’t know her that well, but I think she and Shaun might get along. I tilt my head and shrug.
“Actually, maybe. I’ll think about it. I have one idea… maybe.” I conclude. Shaun immediately. throws
himself to the floor and begins genuflecting dramatically at my feet.
“Thankyou, THANKYOU. If you help me find a girlfriend I’ll owe you for the rest of my life.” He rambles
on, promising me ridiculous things like his life savings and his firstborn child. I roll my eyes and tell him
to sit back down and eat already.
Once we’ve gorged ourselves of Maggie’s baking and the food is cleared up, Shaun and Alex head off
to get some work done. Alex came during his lunch break and I already interrupted Shaun from
whatever he had nned today with making hime and collect my stuff. Aaron and Darrien both
decide to stay. Only one of them really NEEDS to be here, but Aaron would usually be with me at work
right now and Darrien isn’t going to leave while Megan is still here and hanging out willingly. Megan and
I sit beside each other on the couch with herptop and start working out what needs to be done to
change her sses to all be online. It mostly looks casy except for one ss that seems to have a
face–to–faceponent. After some research we find that if we negotiate with the instructor they may
be willing to let her skip that and submit an additional 2500 word essay instead. The idea isn’t
appealing, but it’s better than dropping out entirely. As Megan and I continue figuring things out,
Darrien and Aaron sit on the floor across from each other one either side of the coffee table and y
an incredibly high energy game of snap with a deck of ying cards that they found somewhere.
I say high energy, but ny percent of that energy ising from Darrien as he gives it his +1
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Bor all but always seems to be the tiniest bitte. Aaron is quiet at usual, although a small smirk on his
face tells me he’s enjoying the win. I suspect the fact that Darrien can’t stop ncing 09: at Megan is
distracting him and giving Aaron that little bit of edge that’s allowing him to continue undefeated. The
more he loses, the more vocal Darrien gets and the more enthusiasm he puts towards the game,
although somehow he seems to be getting
ig worse each round. I briefly make eye contact with Aaron who just shrugs. He might enjoy winning,
but I
don’t think he actually much. Darrien probably only cares because
the game that
cares about
he’s lost so many times it’s actually embarrassing.
After a half hour of this I notice the red thread on my chest re–appear. Bemy must be on
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115–Cards and concentration
his way back, or at very least he’s gotten closer. Sure enough a few minutester he arrives home,
calling out from the front door to announce his presence. He walks into the living room just in time to
see Aaron demolish Darrien in what has to be their hundredth round of the game by now. Darrien
curses and pushes back from the table. Bemy watches him with a bemused expression.
“Uh, you guys can head off now if you want. I won’t be going out again today. Thanks for staying.” He
says, apparently having decided to ignore Darrien’s somewhat childish outburst. Darrien and Aaron
head for the door. Well, Aaron heads off with a wave over his shoulder at us. Darrien stops, smiles and
makes an awkward amount of eye contact with Megan, nudges me in the shoulder as he passes, gives
Bemy a manly nod then chases after Aaron.
“I can’t believe I lost so badly. Next time we y rock–paper–scissors. Or… NO wait, next time we’re
having a karaoke contest!”
Megan heads upstairs to call her university and HOPEFULLY figure out the sses. In the meantime.
Bemy helps me move my bags and pillows upstairs to his room. We work together to unpack this
time, although I’m fairly sure Bemy moves and readjusts almost
every item I put away. I wouldin but he seems to enjoy it and to be honest, he does a
better job than I was doing anyway. Once everything is away and my extra nkets and pillows are
loaded onto the bed, making it seem significantly smaller than it was, wey in the bed and watch a
movie for a while. I’m tired from an emotional day and Bemy seems
tired from his meeting too. We chat about it a bit and we discuss how worried I was about Maggie being
mad and how it was all for nothing. By the end of the movie, I’m all talked out and I’m starting to doze
off. Bemy moves from beside me and tells me to keep resting while he arranges dinner. I nod
drowsily and let my eyes fall closed.