A Coup

"Look man, it's nothing personal, it's just that things have gotten stale. With some of us missing sessions, and Emma coming in so late, the whole thing is totally inbalanced. Our characters are spread so far apart that it'll be at least three sessions before anything interesting happens. Besides, it's been ages since you were a player, surely you miss it?"

Mike made a good case, but Isaac was still fuming at the audacity of it. Sleep deprived, incredibly irritable, and feeling like a shell of a man after witnessing Emma's "reward" the night before, the trio of Mike, Owen, and Ben could not have picked a worse time to propose such a radical change to their DnD sessions. Isaac was sitting alone at one of the cafeteria tables, half-heartedly gnawing at his lunch whilst contemplating the events of the week so far prior to their interruption of his musings. In all honesty, Isaac had little patience for any of them right now, even for Mike; he just wanted to be left alone.

Lifting his head from the meagre meal before him, he realized that the three boys before him had no doubt conspired to make this proposal as painless for Isaac as possible, such as to minimize his hurt feelings. Clearly, this was something that they had undertook with some consideration. Mike's face was one of compassion, his best friend had expressed concern about Isaac's wellbeing to him this morning, to which Isaac had had to carefully assure his friend that he was okay without going into too much detail as to the events of the last week. Perhaps Mike thought this change would alleviate some pressure from Isaac. Ben, for his part, managed to sound sincere in supporting the change of administration of their Saturday sessions, a surprising act from typically the most immature member of their group. Finally, there was Owen, who seemed to have lost his typical smirk, although Isaac was certain that at any moment the corners of Owen's mouth could curl themselves back to their natural state. Not that this effort mattered anyway; regardless of its expression, Owen's face remained in a constant state of punchable.

"Look man, if she does a shit job of it then we'll just go back to your campaign. No big deal." As Mike finished his speech, waiting expectantly on Isaac's response, Ben and Owen nodded in agreement.

"So, Emma will be the DM?"

"Yes," the trio responded in unison.

"Why didn't she come to me with this herself?", Isaac asked hotly.

First, Emma made Isaac fall in love with her only to continually to tear him apart, and now she decides to turn his own friends against him. Like a bull in a pen, Isaac was beginning to turn despair into rage, ready to charge stupidly into whatever next angered him. Dungeons and Dragons was his, not hers; couldn't she just let him have this one thing? What's more, the audacity to go around his back to make it happen. A fucking coup.

Sensing Isaac's growing resentment, Mike pedaled an explanation.

"She wanted us to tell you, so that you could know that everyone is on board. If you say no, that's okay. It'll be like nothing ever happened."

For a moment, none of them dared speak. The hubbub of the cafeteria around them served as a comforting white noise as Isaac attempted to calm himself.

"Fine," Isaac snapped, "have it your way. Just leave me alone to eat."

Their mission accomplished, the three friends departed, with Mike giving Isaac a guilty glance over his shoulder.