"Just Friends"

19

(1940 words)
"Alright so teams are me, Jake, Brandon, versus Ash, Calvin, Stephen." Ally explained, putting a baseball cap full of folded papers that we'd all written things in on the coffee table. "Everyone ready?" We all nodded our heads.

I was sat between Stephen and Calvin, and had been making awkward small talk with the former since he'd arrived. He had two siblings, was born and raised in a New York suburb, had never broken a bone before, and had met Ally at a work conference. He was a tall, lanky man with fluffy hair and had a small nose that supported thin wire frame glasses. He also looked exactly like someone else I knew. I wondered if Calvin and Stephen could see it, but if they could they didn't mention it. Calvin had barely looked at Stephen all night.

Ally flipped the small hourglass and Cal jumped up to grab one of the papers. He quickly began to act out a swimming motion and then kissing.

"Shape of Water!" I said. He tapped his nose and pointed at me, picking up another paper. All he did was air guitar and clasp his hands next to his head like he was sleeping before I shouted
"Enter Sandman!" Will picked another paper up.

He flapped his hands. "Chicken Little!"

This time he pinched his nose. "Ally's cooking!"

"Okay, I know who wrote that one." Ally frowned and punched Brandon's arm.

"You don't use enough spices," Brandon put his hands up defensively, and Stephen stiffled a laugh.

Cal continued to act out more and more of the papers until the last grain of sand dropped and Ally cut us off. By the end of the round, we had 9 points in just one minute.

"Wow," Stephen scratched the back of his head. "You two are really good at this."

Cal put his arm around my shoulder and shook me playfully, smiling with his molars and saying "We just have a good connection, that's all," before letting his arm fall to his side.

"I forgot I can't play this game with you two." Ally grumbled, writing our score down on scrap paper.

It was their turn, but they only managed 4 points because Ally was stuck after not being able to mime "Impeachment".

"What was with that hand waving?" Jake laughed.

"Like saying goodbye!" Ally complained.

While the game progressed, Calvin and I continued to sweep the floor and our friends continued to complain about it. Eventually I got a text from Ally.

Sweet 'ums: So? Do you like him?

Me: Um... I don't know. I told you I'm not really looking for anything.

Sweet 'ums: You haven't even tried to get to know him. He's just sitting there, you don't even give him time to guess!

Me: We wanna win the game! He should just be better at it <3

Sweet 'ums: No <3 Please try

Me: When the game ends I will, I'm not giving up a win streak

As soon as my message was marked as read, Ally stood up, cutting off Jake who was struggling to act out "Bad wifi connection".

"Alright, I think they've clearly won," she said, ripping up the paper that had our scores. "I baked cookies and brownies! Ash, Stephen, will you go get them?"

"Sure," I said, we smiled at each other and began to stand up.

"Nonsense!" Cal said, clapping his hands together. "Don't make the guest fetch things, Ash and I can get them." He stood before Stephen could and started briskly walking towards the kitchen.