The Pointe Of The Game

Chapter 18

Charlie Williams

I'm in the kitchen with my birthday breakfast when I hear the doorbell ring. I pull open the door to see a huge colorful bouquet of flowers shoved in front of my face. I take the flowers and as soon as I do I get a surprisingly energetic hug from Ollie.

Things have been going so well for us this past month. I'm still watching her eating -discreetly of course- and encouraging her every now and then. We still haven't kissed yet which is really bumming me out because every time we get close to kissing, she pulls away from me.

She pulls away and says, "Happy Birthday!" with a huge grin on her face. I give her another smile and tell her thankyou before I wrap my arm around her shoulders and close the door before walking into the kitchen. My parents both greet her with a hug and she sits down with me as I finish my breakfast, which is pancakes dyed all colors of the rainbow with strawberries, blueberries and syrup on top.

"So are you ready for today? You're hanging out with the guys in a little bit right?"

"Yeah at eight. Wanna come?" I ask her

"No silly. You go hang out with the boys and you can hangout with me later. Promise." she answers

I finish my breakfast and put my plate in the sink before going back to my Ollie and give her another hug before walking her back to the door. I give her another hug and she walks back to her house before I have the chance to do anything else.

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The guys are taking me to an escape room and I'm actually really excited. I've never been to an escape room so this should be interesting especially with a bunch of guys who are used to running and jumping around on a big court. When we arrive, the employee assigned to us brings us to a pirate themed room and tells us our goal is to solve all the riddles and puzzles to find the code to the door. If we don't finish before the time runs out then they will unlock the doors for us and we fail. So pretty much we have to finish in the allotted time. We get to work on the puzzles scattered all over the room and slowly we solve them. By the time we have five minutes left, we have all the riddles and puzzles solved except one: what is a four letter word that can be written forward, backward and upside down and can still be read left to right? This was the one we've all been stuck on for at least twenty minutes. We finished all the others in about half an hour but this one has us all stumped. A buzzer sounds and we groan in unison. The door unlocks and the same employee comes inside and lets our gloomy butts out of the room. We go to a pizza place after because it's about lunch time and we're all starving from all the problem solving. We order 5 pizzas and we eat every single piece of it. By the time I get back home, I'm blissfully happy and fired up and ready to run a marathon.

I text Ollie and ask her when she's coming over and she tells me at three. Deciding that I couldn't wait till three, I go over to her house and knock. Ollie opens the door and I maul her in a hug and wobble on my feet like a penguin to walk backwards with her still in my embrace. "I couldn't wait to see you so I'm here now" I mumble into our hug. She disentangles herself from me and goes to close to the door before turning back to me. "How was hanging out with your boys?"

"Fine, Ollie girl but it would've been better if you were there" I say with a smile on my face. She rolls her eyes and walks into the living room where the kids are playing. I follow her and see all of her siblings playing with legos and Sofia in a playpen with her own toys and babbling happily. Ollie goes over to the playpen and grabs little Sof before setting her on the changing table and changing her diaper. After she's done, she walks into the kitchen and grabs Sof a sippy of water. I sit on the floor and start to build legos with the kids and Emma, the youngest before Sofia, comes over to me and holds up her lego creation to my face. I give her a bright smile and carefully take it from my hands to examine it and say, "This is beautiful Em, I love it!" she gives me another smile and brings me some more legos to help her build onto it. She eventually climbs into my lap and we start building another creation together.