Friendship

Still, it felt nice to be able to leave the house on Saturday without looking over my shoulder. I knew at least one of them would be too tired to beat me, and he was by far the strongest and fastest. Plus, he had made a promise, which would hopefully happen soon.

Wanting out of the house before the sluts got up, I thought I would grab my bike, but realized the seat had been stolen since the week before. Who the hell steals a bike seat? A walk it was. Instead of going deeper into the rundown area, I walked toward Emma’s house, not to meet her, but it was safer. Like I said, two blocks can make a difference.

I did see her exit her house with Brad, or Chad, or something like that. Super popular kid at school. Way above my social circle, but way below my intellectual circle, which Emma could join, admittedly. As I said, she is smart, probably lower half of the top ten in our class.

Seemed, Chad was still wearing his school clothes, guess Emma had fun last night. I kept walking, only to notice them fly by in his car. Amazed he had the balls to park it in this neighborhood. I just walked my way over to Isaacs neighborhood, stopping in one of the many nice parks near there to wait until it was time to play D&D. And to rest. It was not a short walk.

Our group was a mixed bag that just seemed to work. It was great we found each other freshman year. Perhaps, some people would say we got together because we had no one else, but truthfully, we had a lot in common. Not even including D&D, three of us were in the chess club, four in the top of our class. Like almost all kids our age we gamed a lot.

I kind of knew Ben the best. We had been acquaintances around the neighborhood and became best friends after I stood up for him sophomore year. The other three didn’t really get that bond all the time, but I had his back, and I knew he had mine, at least emotionally. He wasn’t a fighter, or an arguer. I could respect that. We had plans to room together in college. Same school as Mike and Isaac actually. Back in freshman year we had made the promise. Ben had worked incredibly hard to keep the promise. He was the most fragile of the group, the most bullied, and the least stood up for in school. I had seen Mike and Isaac ignore a few instances freshman year, too scared to do anything. Trent also, though he told me it was because he was always taught to be non-combative by his mother. I understood them, high school was a bitch for everyone. Even the popular kids.

Trent was a stud. Boy would slay if he wanted to do so. However, he had too many things going on at home to worry about that. During chess club he once confided his father was sometimes verbally abusive and overly religious. A bad combo, in my opinion. He had been banned from dating while under his father’s roof. He was just as horny as the rest of us, but he had zero outlet, even though he easily could have one. Shame to be him really. I respected the fact he listened to his father and didn’t sneak behind his back. I would kill for some parental love, even misguided. Trent was going to a nearby Christian College.

Mike was great, overall. He could really dish it out amongst the guys, take everything I threw at him and send it right back at me, tit for tat. The other three I had to go lighter on. He probably got along with Isaac the best, both coming from relatively decent families. He was a bit conscious of his weight, but it was really nothing a few weeks of diet and exercise couldn’t handle. Sometimes I did wonder if he liked me. He seemed to get overly angry at me if I made the same joke Isaac made. Guess being Mr. Money-buckets greased some wheels in that friendship. Maybe he just let things slide because they were closer, I’m not sure, but I do know Isaac gave Mike cash quite often and never offered any to the three of us.

Isaac was average in everything but intellect. He was a genius and he worked hard. It was hard not to admire him for that. He was also way too serious. He would probably also do well if he just relaxed a bit. If anyone needed their pipes cleaned it was Isaac. He suffered from the burden of expectations, I think. I wouldn’t know. I was jealous of his life. I think we got along OK, he never really gave much of a reaction to any of my jokes, but I think he respects me.

I honestly loved hanging with the group. It was a great outlet that had been together for four years, with shared interests and even at our most argumentative, we patched things up quickly and got back into the next game, or study session, or game. We may have played a lot of various games.

Tonight was the same as always.

Me giving it and Mike dishing it back, interspersed with quips and witty remarks from the others. Isaac was the game master and tonight we were going to finish this quest. It had been a doozy, Isaac had not gone easy on us.

“Let’s see,” Ben muttered as dice clattered against the table. “Shit. My rolls are terrible.” Leaning over, Mike looked at the dice and wrinkled his nose. “I do a whopping… twelve damage.”

“Slapping them with my dick would do more damage than that,” I said with a chuckle, eliciting grins from the rest of the table, aside from the stoic Isaac.

“I rolled two ones and a two,” Ben said with a helpless shrug.

“Well the guard doesn’t go down,” Isaac said with a devious smirk. “Quite the opposite. Now he is screaming in pain and you can hear it echo down the tunnel.”

Trent looked sad as he shook his head. “Looks like this is going to be a fight after all,” he said in a near-whisper.

“Fuck it. I say we slaughter them all. Bastards have it coming. Besides, wasn’t that the plan anyway?” I said with fervor, trying to rally the troops.

“Well, yeah,” Mike said with a sigh. “But not all at once.”

“We can take them.”

The fight was quick, I led the charge, we quickly dispatched the lone guard. Isaac barely let us breathe before dropping the hammer. “You hear shouts coming down the hall and the sound of armor clanking together.”

“We need to prep for this,” Mike said, cracking open another soda.

“I can stand in front of the door,” Trent said in his whisper voice, glancing down at the crude map Isaac had set in the center of the table.

Ben was nodding, joining him in looking things over. “Between his plate and shield, and with Mike healing, we can hold the door for awhile. Whittle them down one by one.”

“Or you could just fireball their asses and I’ll finish them off,” I said cheerfully to lighten the mood.

“I want to save spells. No idea what the leader is going to have.”

“Meh. Won’t matter much if we don’t live long enough to get to the boss.”

I heard Isaac’s phone ping and him pick it up, ignoring us completely. Figuring it was important, I continued my discussion with the group, trying to get them to see my point of view on how to use our remaining spells. Looking up at our game master to get a hint of what to do from his reactions, I heard his phone ping again and his brows furrow. He seemed to have zero interest in our discussion anymore. Either he had us beat, or whatever was being texted was more important.

Mike was really getting into it, arguing we should go slow and steady, or something. I admit I was focused on Isaac and may have repeated myself, which Mike yelled at me about, saying I was distracted. All I could do was helplessly point at Isaac when his phone pinged again. Everyone turned and could see his pale face and shaking hands.

“Isaac. Earth to Isaac!” Finally, he looked up from his phone, face still pale and eyes somewhat haunted. “You okay there?” Mike asked. I didn’t think he was, and was a bit concerned.

“Sure, just…” Isaac shook his head seeming to negate the weak assurance he gave. “Anyway, where were we?”

With concern I asked. “Who were you texting?”

“No one,” He said, extremely defensively and slightly shaking.

All the jealousy I had left my system, as concern flooded my senses worried about my shaken friend, and I asked. “We are all here, so it wasn’t one of us... It wasn’t Emma, was it?”

Isaac looked even paler, sick, like he was running a fever.

“Emma?” both Mike and Ben said at the same time.

“Yeah, Emma Wright,” I said, my eyes never leaving his face, trying to ascertain if he would faint. “I heard through my contacts that she’s been hanging out a lot with Isaac after school.” OK, a small white lie, but I wasn’t going to say I checked in on them.

“Wait, that Emma? The stupid hot one?” Mike looked at Isaac with a shocked and betrayed expression. “Dude.”

Isaac finally moved as he held up his hands, defensively. “It’s not like that. She wanted some extra help studying, so that’s what we’ve been doing.” Fortunately, he seemed to steady himself.

I agreed, and I didn’t because I had seen her run to him. Whether he knew it or not, it wasn’t just studying to her. “Right. ‘Studying.’” Maybe a bit jealous, but also trying to give him some hope.

Isaac frowned, glaring at me, why was he glaring.

I would be overjoyed if my friend thought I had a shot at Emma. “Believe whatever you want, but I’m telling the truth. Every once in a while she joins me in the library and we do homework and look over notes together.” Jeez he either had his head so far in the air he couldn’t see it, or he was being way too defensive. Before anyone else could say anything more, Isaac gestured to the map in the middle of the table. “How about we focus? What did you guys finally decide?”

It was a bit of a struggle, but our attention slowly turned back to the game. Isaac went through the motions, but anyone with half a brain could tell he was thinking about Emma and her texts. Good for him, hope he hits a homerun. I could only lament I was cheering on my friend to get with my crush.

I didn’t know why Emma had sent the texts, but I wasn’t going to comment after Isaac got angry about me suggesting they did anything other than study. I hoped she wasn’t playing him too badly.

Monday after school I skipped chess class and did the one thing I hadn’t done in a long, long time. I sought out my sister to talk to her. I wanted to help my friend get the girl, or protect him from the girl and who better to ask than a girl. Even if she was a slut. Family is family in the end.