D-Day

Normally I didn’t hear the doorbell ring from my basement lair. Today, I was listening for it. The chime was still playing and I was racing up the stairs two at a time, nearly face planting when my foot caught at the top.

“That for you, Isaac?” Mom asked as she appeared at the end of the hall.

“Y-yeah,” I said as I bit back a curse. “I said someone was coming over early today.”

“Mike?” she asked, not moving from her spot. Of all the times for her to be curious…

“Uh… No,” I said, slowing my pace to give her time to lose interest and walk away. By the time I reached the door, she hadn’t moved.

Shit.

Opening the door, I was greeted by Emma’s smile and… holy shit. Her outfit. Knee-high brown boots, black tights, pleated gray skirt that ended a few inches above her knee, white button down, and a fancy black jacket that hugged her petite frame. I was rendered mute and dumb as I took in the wonder of the world standing in front of me. This was a level above what she wore to school. She even had makeup on, or at least, it was different enough that I was noticing it. Her lips were pinker than normal, and the eyeliner made her blue eyes really pop.

When my brain decided to start working again, I immediately realized I fucked up. I should have told her to dress casual. Really casual. Everyone was going to be in jeans and graphic tees. She looked like she was about to go on a date.

“Hey, Isaac,” she said, giving a coy smile as she stood awkwardly in front of me.

I jerked at the noise, quickly regaining my speech. “Uh, hey Emma,” I said as I stepped aside to let her in. Stepping inside, she glanced around. Closing the door, I looked down the hall and found my mom looking like she was in the middle of a stroke. I suppose I could have warned her that there would be a new person joining us for DnD today. And that the new person was a girl. A girl that looked like she belonged on a fashion magazine, not rolling dice and slaying imaginary monsters with a gang of misfits.

I hadn’t even told the guys yet, not knowing how to break the news. All I told them was a cryptic message that a new person would be joining us.

That was another meltdown I had to prepare for.

“Uh… Mom, this is Emma. Emma, this is my mom.”

“Mrs. Carter,” Emma said with a polite smile. “This is a lovely home.”

My mom had a smooth recovery as she gave her a warm smile. “Thank you, but I’m afraid most of the credit goes to my husband. He has an eye for decorating, even if he refuses to admit it. Are you here for…?”

“Oh, Isaac invited me to play Dungeon and Dragons with his friends. I love games, so I’m really looking forward to finally playing.”

Mom was having a hard time hiding her surprise. I could understand because I was still that way. Not only was Emma the first girl I’d ever brought home, she was uh… out of my league. Like trying to get to the moon on a bike. I suppose if I had some ET help, then maybe something like that was possible. Not that I would try. Emma made it clear going down that path would bring all this to an end.

“I see. Sorry. Isaac never said anything about a new… friend.”

“Well, I kinda invited myself,” she said. “Isaac has been helping me study and do homework after school in the library. He mentioned playing with his friends, so I asked if I could tag along.”

“W-we’ll be downstairs,” I said quickly. Not thinking, I took a hold of Emma’s hand and guided her towards the basement steps. At the bottom, I turned around to find her giving me an amused smile. Realizing I was holding her hand, I jerked away like it was molten metal. “Um… Sorry.”

She was already walking past me, eyeing the layout of the basement. “Wow. You are literally playing it in the basement. Nice.”

“Y-yeah,” I said, glancing down at my hand. Her hand had been really soft. That sounded creepy. Shaking the thoughts from my head, I followed after her. “I spend most of my time down here.” Getting out in front of her, I gestured as I gave her a short tour. “Bathroom is there if you need it. My room is the door next to it. Um, TV and couches. Over here is where we play,” I said, heading towards the table set up on the far side of the basement. Emma didn’t follow, her gaze off towards the bathroom and door to my room.

“Your room is down here?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” I said. “Technically I have one upstairs, but I moved down here… sixth grade? It had a lot more space and I could stay up a bit later watching TV.” Wasn’t going to admit that one of the big draws was being able to watch movie channels late at night when the good stuff came on. I don’t know if my parents knew I was watching that stuff. If they did, they never said anything or put on child locks.

Walking over to one of the couches, she ran her hand over the leather, looking impressed. “I have to say, I knew your family was loaded, but seeing… Wow.”

I blushed. I hated when people talked about that. It wasn’t like I could help it. I never asked my dad to buy me an Audi when I got my license. Actually, I didn’t ask for a lot of things I had. I appreciated them, but I did my best not to flaunt them around. I walked or rode my bike wherever I could. My closet wasn’t filled with expensive name-brand clothes. There were only two areas I splurged. My PC was always top of the line, and I spent a little extra on DnD stuff like getting miniatures and props. There were some real douchebags who had less money than my family and walked around like they owned the entire fucking world. They were my inspiration of what not to be.

“So,” she said, giving a little twirl and leaning against the back of the couch. “You said you had the stuff to make my character?”

My eyes lingered longer than was socially appropriate. I couldn’t help it. It was hard pretending I didn't know what was under that outfit. Well, mostly.

“Err. Yes,” I said, jerking my eyes away. I think Emma knew what I was thinking because she had an amused look on her face as I quickly gathered up what was needed. “Just uh… have a seat,” I said as I gestured to the table.

Emma made a show of walking over to the table. A graceful sway to her hips as she approached. She brushed past on purpose, close enough that I got a whiff of her floral perfume. Oh lord. She was sexy and cute and gorgeous all at once. This was a bad idea. A terrible, horrible idea. All I could think of was the other guys and how they would react. Owen was at the forefront of my mind. The guy had no filter. He was guaranteed to piss her off or offend her.

“Isaac?” I shook my worries away as I focused on her.

“Oh, right. Sorry,” I said setting out her character sheet. For the next two hours, we worked on getting her character in order and me going over the basics. Surprisingly, she seemed to have a decent handle on it already.

“I read up on some things,” she said explained when I asked her about it. “I’m a bit worried coming in mid-campaign and at level eight, but I can’t wait to get into it.” I found myself once more surprised by her zeal. She genuinely wanted to play. I could see the excitement in her eyes as she explained her character back story. A half-elf assassin who used her charisma and wits to charm and bamboozle her marks. The only thing better than her silver tongue was her ability with the dual daggers she carried with her. By the end, I was curious to see where this would lead. Mike usually did the talking for the group, and he wasn’t all that great at improv. Not only did Emma’s character have a lot of charisma, but she also did as well. Enough that I was worried I would be the one floundering. In my mind, I was already fine-tuning the details that would allow her to meet up with the group.

Setting down her pencil, Emma looked over at me and smiled. “Thanks again for letting me join you.”

I chuckled anxiously. “Yeah… Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t met the others.”

“They going to freak out because I have boobs?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. I hated to speak ill of them—most of them—but she needed to have a heads up. “Yeah, probably. I want to warn you we aren’t the most PC of groups. Some of the stuff gets kinda… uh…”

“Perverted?”

“A little.”

She grinned. “Like asking someone to guess whether they spit or swallow after a blowjob?” My face went red as she laughed. “Relax, Isaac. I’ll be fine. I’m not easily offended. Who knows? Maybe I’ll fit right in.”

That was a scary thought. Before I could say anything, the doorbell rang.

Well, it was time to find out how things were going to shake out.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Sure.”

Upstairs, I opened the door to find Mike. “Okay, so get this,” he immediately said as he flew in past me. “Since we got a new guy coming today, I decided to splurge on the good stuff,” he said as he held up two containers of IBC Root Beer. “I figure, two each, though I’m willing to give up one of mine if the new guy is cool and all. Have to make some impressions.”

“Ah, Mike,” I said, rushing after him as he immediately beelined for the stairway.

“Hello, Mike!” my mom called out from the living room.

“Hey, Mrs. C! Sorry in advance if we get loud!”

I heard laughter. “Have fun,” she said as I chased after him.

“Hey, wait. Wait for a second.”

“So you know what this new guy is rolling? Jesus, I hope it’s not a caster. Fucking noobs always want to lob fireballs everywhere.” He laughed to himself. “Remember when Trent went wizard junior year? What a fucking shit show. What we really need is a—” I caught up to him just as he rounded the corner to where our gaming table was set up. Emma was radiant as always as she greeted us both with a smile.

“Hello,” she said as she stood up. “I’m—”

She didn’t get to finish as a wide-eyed Mike spun on his heels. He practically swatted me with a container of bottles as he pushed me back the way we came. At the base of the stairs, he looked over his shoulder like a balhannoth was creeping around.

“What in the Nine Hells is Emma fucking Wright doing here?”

“She’s… our new player?”

“Da fuck.”

“Calm down,” I said, shushing him. It was my worst fear. What a childish reaction, and Mike was one of the more mature of the group.

“Calm down? Calm down? Isaac, we don’t operate in the same solar system as the people in her social group.”

I shrugged. “She wanted to try it out. What’s the harm?”

“Harm? Come on man. You know what we are like. It’s going to be awkward with her here. She’ll probably have a good laugh at our expense with all her friends on Monday.”

I frowned. “She’s not like that.”

“Yeah? And when did you get all buddy-buddy with her?”

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Just… give her a shot, okay? Please?”

He stared at me. Even though I could see he wasn’t happy, I knew he was calming down. “Fine, I’ll be your wingman even though I know we are both going to crash and burn.”

“Not like that, Mike. Really. She is just here to play.”

“Right,” he said, shoving one of the packs at my chest. I took it from him, cradling it in my arms as he walked back towards the game area.

This was going well.

One down, three to go.