Purple&Gold, Red&White(R,C)

Aubrey’s hand had latched onto Richard’s like a vice, pulling him to the left of the dining hall. Richard felt like he was on a rollercoaster as he was pulled toward the northeast corner or the plaza. He saw a signpost listing out destinations the pathway could take them to. They followed the path the post had labeled “meadows”. “Where are we going?” Richard tried to ask as they ran along the dirt path.

“You’ll see in a moment, we’re almost there” Aubrey said, brushing off the question as she led him down the path. Richard hurried to keep up and a few minutes later, the dirt path began to curl as they came to a thin tree line. The path curved and branched as it opened into dozens of small groves. Aubrey took him into the closest of the little groves on the path, where there was a pair of cornhole boards positioned next to a bench with a closed wicker basket.

“Cornhole?” He asked her. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d played, hopefully he hadn’t lost the muscle memory.

Aubrey smiled at her ex-boyfriend. “I thought it’d be nice to start with. It’ll remind us of old times, y’know?”

He nodded as he inspected the board next to him further. It was made of a pale wood, painted a strange combination of colors. The small top hole and the large bottom hole were ringed in a pale pink paint with a respective fifteen and five written into the pink circles. The middle hole in between them was painted a muted brown that felt strangely familiar, with a ten written into the paint. A red stylistic H was painted on either side of the holes, a no-man’s land worth nothing. The entire board was misted with dew. “When did you get out here to set things up?” Richard asked her.

“I couldn’t really sleep, so I just started trying to prepare around 3am. Genet gave me all these when I went to the dining hall. I think that would’ve been just before 5. She made the… she helped me with something else at the same time.

Richard decided not to question that slip. Audrey had always liked to surprise him with gifts, though half the time he had needed to help her pay off her credit card bill a few days later. Hopefully she hadn’t gotten herself into another debt issue here, it felt like it may be harder to bail her out here on the island.

He picked up both sets of beanbags and turned towards her. “Which set do you want, purple or gold?”

Audrey took the purple bags from him. “You don’t remember my favorite color anymore?” She joked as she walked over to the opposite board. “You can take the first throw.”

He got to position next to his board. It was a ten foot distance, he could easily throw that far. He felt the weight of the beanbag, ran his thumb along the bag feeling the texture. He took half a step back and cocked back his right hand. He let go, letting it sail.

It sailed over the board. He hadn’t needed to be worried about what he had been. Yes, he could easily throw it ten feet. His problem was only throwing in ten feet.

“Threw a bit far there Hercules!” She joked to him.

“Let’s see you do better!” He called back.

She smiled and whipped back her beanbag at the board next to him. It sailed through the air and fell cleanly through the top hole. While it’d been a perfect throw, he’d been distracted for a moment by the twist of her hips and her hair

“How was that?” She asked.

“Yeah, that was better than me.” He chuckled. “But we’ve both got two more throws.” His second throw he tried to correct and at least got into the bottom hole. Her second and third throws hit a few inches left and right of the top hole before sliding off, as did his last throw. She collected his set of beanbags from the grass next to her and brought them over to trade back.

“Want a rematch?” She asked.

“I think I can take you this time. I was just out of practice.” He answered, giving her back her purple ones.

And so they played again. He tried to concentrate on just being gentle, aiming for the bigger holes at the bottom to make sure he was consistently getting points. Just like their first game, she only was aiming for the top hole to get her fifteen points at once. She’d made it on the last try, after two earlier shots that ended up slicing too far to the left. His two tens and the five kept him in the lead, and this time it was him that walked over triumphant with her set of beanbags.

“Tiebreaker?” She asked him, as they switched sets. He simply nodded and got ready for the third and final game.

But that wasn’t the final game. The fourth game wasn’t their last either. Nor was the seventh or the twelfth. In truth, he wasn’t sure exactly how many times they played before Aubrey asked for them to rest for a moment on the bench. It just felt so easy to keep going, to enjoy the moment. But when Aubrey finally asked for them to stop, the two of them sat down at the wooden bench.

“So what’s in the basket?” He asked. It’d been sitting on the bench waiting for them the entire time since she’d dragged him away from the dining hall.

“Just some refreshments that I thought we could enjoy after the game.” She said, opening the basket. It was lined with red and white plaid fabric like a tablecloth at a small Italian restaurant he remembered from when his mom was alive. She-

He’d been caught in the memory for too long when he was stirred out of it by Audrey showing him something. She now had the basket in her lap and was angling towards him a tin of crackers in her left hand and a bottle of white wine in her right. She was saying something to him. What was she saying?

“I remembered you liked this kind, and Genet ended up being able to get it for me after I described it to her. I figured we could just nosh on them until lunch.”

Richard was pleasantly surprised she’d remembered, although the other part of their snacks was raising questions. “Isn’t it a bit early for wine? It’s only…” He checked his watch. “10:34”

“We shouldn’t get drunk of course, but we can just slowly sip it while we have our crackers and talk." She got two cups out of the basket and poured out some wine for each of them. “Hey Richard, was that what I thought it was a moment ago? It felt like you were back there again.”

He had hoped she was too distracted to notice. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

She put her hand on his thigh. “You know you don’t need to apologize for this. Was it more like the time with the art museum on campus, or like the time at the musical?”

He thought for a moment. “The museum”

She nodded encouragingly at him. “That’s good. Do we need to find Dr.Petrov or do you just want to move on?”

He shook his head. “I just want to move on. How’ve you been?”

“I’ve finally got my own classroom. They’ve got me working with freshmen and sophomores, and I'm doing a History of Storytelling elective. I’d been planning on starting the mythology unit on Monday before all this happened. How about you?” She asked, leaning towards him as she refilled her cup.

“I’ve been working with some guys from Maryland about fishing regulations. One of the committees I’m in has been investigating thirty-two billion in the budget for the Pentagon that they lost.”

“How do you lose that much money?” Aubrey said incredulously. “If our district lost that much money I think someone would be arrested.” As she finished saying that, she topped off her cup again.

“Honestly, this is better than we’re used to. They usually won’t give us a number. But the only way to punish them is to take away their funding next year, and anyone that said that out loud would be done in.” He felt her head start to lean against his shoulder. He knew that he should brush it off, do something more to reestablish boundaries. But he didn't want to, and he couldn’t find the will to. “What’ve you been up to outside of work?”

But there wasn’t an answer. He waited a moment. Maybe she wasn’t sure what to say. But he ended up getting inpatient and looking over, only to find that she was asleep. Her breath slowly rose and fell next to him as one hand held on to his leg. Well, she did tell me she slept less than two hours.

He tried to recork the wine. He hadn’t noticed her drinking, but a third of the bottle looked like it was already gone. He closed the tin of the crackers as quietly as he could, then put them both back in the basket. Those could wait for a better time.

He gently turned her and lifted her up into a princess carry. He left the basket on the bench and walked out of the grove. The path down had gone by in a flash when Aubrey pulled him along, but it took much longer to go back up the bath with her in his arms.

After another couple of minutes, he was able to take her back from the signpost to his new house. He pried open the door with one hand and heard women moaning.

He came into the bedroom and found Hazel sitting in one of his leather chairs, watching the television. On screen, six women were giving identical men blowjobs. He wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. This was his house, but he still felt like he was intruding on something here. He adjusted his feet, trying to balance Aubrey in his arms.

But his shoes were louder than he expected. The sound of them on the floor made Hazel snap to attention and she immediately looked to the door. “Sir?” She met his eyes and turned off the television. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon. I’ll get out of here.”

“It’s alright, I wasn’t expecting to be back so soon either. I told you guys to come in here, then I was the one that surprised you.” He tried to reassure her, still holding his ex in his arms.

She focused enough to notice the blonde in his arms. “Is she alright?”

“I think so, she just needs some sleep. I think she should probably take a nap here, where it should be quiet.” If it mattered. Aubrey had always slept pretty soundly, and the trek up the hill, the moaning on the television, and their current conversation had all failed to stir her yet.

Hazel got the hint and silently picked up her belongings before heading back to the Arrow cottage, Leaving just Aubrey and him in his bedroom This was exactly the kind of situation Helena and Luna had been telling him to avoid. But it couldn’t be helped. He lowered her into the bed, letting his hands rest with them in between her and the bed. He could feel the arch of her back, a shape he’d felt falling asleep himself so many times. A thought came to him. He shouldn’t. He knew he shouldn’t. Helena had chastised him for thinking about it so many times after he saw Aubrey last. But Helena wasn’t here now to talk him out of it, and so he gently kissed her on the lips before pulling away and sitting at one of the chairs, waiting for her to wake up.