Friendship is magic!

"Etan? What are you doing here?" asked John. He was a bit confused to see his best friend in his house. It would not be the first time that Etan would stay for dinner, but John officially introducing his girlfriend and the project that they had were making the situation really awkward. Before the boy could answer though, John's mom arrived behind him. She was wearing a long black skirt and a white blouse, with an apron over it.

"Ohh just in time! Get in and got seat yourselves. Dinner is ready. Etan came to see you John and I invited him to stay for dinner. Just because you have a girlfriend you should not ignore your friends!" replied his mother.

Anna and John exchanged puzzled looks and shrugged. This would totally change the ambiance of the evening. John had planned to be honest with his mother about his relationship with Anna and use it to lead into the revealing of his powers and kingdom... The presence of Etan was making this impossible. John had agreed with the necessity to inform his mother, but he knew that bringing mundane people into this world could be dangerous, it would mark them as targets and they would be defenseless. Informing Anna was a foregone conclusion and it was the same for his mother, June had already been touched with this world without her knowledge so it was logical to bring her in... That both him and his girlfriend wanted her in their bed was also a very strong argument of course. With Etan it was different, his inclusion would create more tensions than benefits. John had no idea how any of the girls would react to his unavoidable advances, their loyalty and love was bound to him after all, they were not controlled by him in any ways. And informing him of that would lead to telling him about John's relationship with his mother and June... More things best known by as few people as possible...

After removing their shoes and jackets, Anna and John put down their school bags in the entrance and walked hand in hand to the dining room. John, perfect gentleman held the chair for Anna to sit before taking the one on her right. Anna was between John and his mother, facing Etan.

Brenda had put a very nice dark burgundy tablecloth that John had only seen on a few occasions, when one of his father's boss went to eat once or for their wedding anniversary. There were small bowls of decorative pebbles and candles scattered around the set of nice plates and silverware. There were already some water in a nice decanter and slices of baguette next to each plate.

"Mom, do you need some help bringing the food?" John asked his mother.

"Don't worry, I have everything ready. I'll be there in a minute. I hope you will like it," she replied.

John tried to find something to talk about to dissipate the awkwardness of the situation, but he was coming short. Until he remembered something, oddly it was weird that he didn't notice it before, after all je was seeing his friend at school every day with all the classes that they shared.

"Say, Etan, I didn't see you at school at all today, where were you?" he asked.

"Hmm you know, I wasn't feeling well. With my bad health it happens sometimes, remember?" replied the pale teenager. John was stuck looking at his ridiculous bowl cut, made even more noticeable by the ginger mane of the boy, he wondered why all these years he never tried to convince his friend to change it, or why he stuck to it for so long. The high prescription glasses that he was wearing were foggy, making looking at him in the eyes difficult and painful if prolonged.

"Yeah, sure. That's right, I forgot about it all the time. So what's up with you? Anything interesting lately?" replied John. He wondered how he could have forgotten such a thing about one of his only real life friends.

"You know, same old, same old. Except that my pal stopped playing video games with me, found himself a stunning girlfriend, don't have time with me and think my life is the interesting thing to talk about! Come on, dude! I want all the juicy details!" he pointed out. John was anxious, he had not told his mother the cover story about his computer being broken, it was an issue I think webs of lies, one can end up getting caught in the one he spun himself.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's been a crazy week! My graphic card has been acting up, my pc crashes if I run anything more demanding than minesweeper and even then a small grid! The free time gave me some time to think about stuff and I realized a few things. I didn't want to stay a loner forever. So when I noticed by accident that Anna actually didn't hate me I ran for it and it panned out," explained John. It was a simple lie, one he could remember and keep telling. There was something strange though. Etan was facing Anna, who was looking at him. Yet he only was looking at John, not a single look in his girlfriend's direction. And he was looking at him weirdly, with some intensity. What was going on?

John's thoughts were cut short by his mother coming back carrying an heavy tray with four plates on it.

"I hope that you're hungry. I prepared a French dish for tonight, I would really like to know what you think of it, Anna. John and your mother can't stop saying how good you are are in the kitchen," she announced. She placed a steaming plate in front of each person. "Escalopes de veau sauce forestière, riz sauvage et son omelette aux champignons."

John was almost drooling as he was breathing the incredible smell of the dish. He looked at the content of his plate with delight. An half inch thick slice of lightly colored yet seared veal meat, covered in a thick brown gravy in which he could spot bits of different mushrooms, from bright orange chanterelles to cream colored porcinis. On the side was a nice portion of rice, a mix of white rice and some black grains, with a spoonful of gravy resting in a well at the center of it. The last element was a crescent shaped omelet, a golden wonder with the smooth surface revealing nothing of mushrooms it was said to contain. A single full chanterelle was stuck in the rice like an orange flower. His mother had pronounced the name of the dish without any accent and no hesitation. She had some family both in France and Québec, and had spent many summers in her youth there.

"This looks delicious, what a beautiful presentation. And it smells wonderful," said Anna, and then dipped a bit of bread in the gravy to taste it. As soon as it was in her mouth, she closed her eyes and smiled, twitching on her seat. "Marvelous! I need the recipe! And the texture of the gravy is so good and creamy!"

Three people were smiling and couldn't wait to eat the delicious meal, but the last one had a wholy different reaction to it. He was looking at his plate with disgust, almost like he was about to puke.

"Etan! Are you alright, pal? You look like you're going to be sick," asked a worried John.

"No, no... I... I just don't eat mushrooms. But don't worry, I snacked all of the afternoon, so I'm not really hungry."

"I'm so sorry, we weren't expecting you and I should have remembered it when you arrived. Let me go get some nature rice for you, sorry that it won't be as good as a full meal." Brenda returned from the kitchen with a plate of rice and some ham. It was a shame to serve this after having cooked such an elaborate dinner, but she wouldn't want to have one guest with nothing to eat.

Most expectations were frustrated this evening. The meal was delicious and between other points of conversation, Anna was asking Brenda about the preparation and recipe. The young couple was unable to lead the conversation the way they wished, preparing to reveal their secret to Brenda. Brenda was unable to ask the questions that would expose the juicy details of her son's love life, not in front of a third party. Etan, as awkward as ever had trouble understanding that John would not speak about his girlfriend like a piece of meat and explain his sex life to him while she was sitting there and in front of his mother.

John found it strange that he could not recall Etan eating, even if his plate was empty at the end of the meal. His friend was acting strangely... Well even more strangely than usual. He was asking tactless questions with total lack of regard for any social norms. One more thing was really strange. Brenda was by any standards a beautiful woman, with a massive pair of tits, and Anna was cute and full of curves, yet Etan was barely paying attention to either of them. He was only looking at John. He was beginning to think that there might be an explanation for this, one that eluded him for all these years: maybe the reason Etan was so close to him was because he was in love with him!

The possibility that his friend was gay and into him was giving sense to many things, like his affected attitude when talking about women, or his deep interest in him. John, for himself had no feelings of this kind for Etan or any other boy. It was the pivotal point, revealing things to him now would be a very bad idea.

After a lot of awkward moments and some ice cream for dessert, it was time to leave the table. John would have liked to send Etan away, but he could not find an excuse to just kick his best friend out that would not make his mom angry at him.

Once in the living room John could only think of one thing to do. He had stopped buying consoles once older with the advent of on-line gaming, but he still had his old one plugged to the TV. The three teenagers were soon sitting on the floor, their backs to the sofa in the time honored position and going at each other in a furious kart race. If it was true that his life in many ways looked like a video game now, at the edge of a fantasy RPG and a dating Sim, it had been a week since he played a real game, and it used to fill most of his free time before.

Once again, Etan seemed strangely distracted, he was playing really badly tonight. And he was constantly checking John out. They switched games a few times, from races to old school side scrolling fighting games and rage inducing platformers. All three were having a lot of fun. And it was a total surprise when Brenda entered the room to discover that it was nearly 1:00am and that it was time for the two guests to go home.

John planned for a moment to argue with her and get the permission for Anna to stay for the night. But it was something that he should have thought about in advance. Officially, Anna didn't have a fresh uniform or even clean underwear for the next day, and her parents were expecting her to come back. Even asking now would reduce the trust that his mom and Anna's parents had in him as a responsible boyfriend.

John took advantage of Etan going to put his shoes to make out with Anna in a very obvious way that would not escape the attention of his mother. He fully intended to meet her in Arcadia as soon as she would get home, but it would be strange of him to act in any other way without knowing that.

"John, it's time. Say goodnight and let her go, tomorrow is a school day." his mother was the voice of reason in this case, but it didn't make it any easier to hear or to obey her.

John followed them to the garage and kissed Anna a last time through the open window of his mother's Buick Regal.

He had about half an hour before Anna would be home and an hour before his mother came back. He would be supposed to be asleep when it happened, and his mother might check it, which would add another difficulty. On top of that, Anna still needed as much sleep as before, so even with the extra time that the kingdom afforded them he would have to be careful about timings.

His mother had cleaned the table, but strangely the floor around it was really dusty. John used Clean on it multiple times and dropped the dust collected in the kitchen's garbage bin. With Move and his game knowledge he would probably be unbeatable at most games now, being able to have perfect control over each key of a controller or keyboard at once, but on a night like this he had chosen not to do it. It would have been unfair to use it to beat his friend and girlfriend.

He had so many plans, so much to do... Finding the right way and time to do them was beginning to be a real challenge.