Out of My Shell

FIVE

When Heather finally got us all in the house, we all went to the living room and sat around looking at each other. Heather was in the kitchen starting lunch.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Hudson asked.

"We could play cards," I suggested.

"That's a good idea. We could play strip poker!" Stephen exclaimed.

"You really want to play that with your sister and her boyfriend?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said and shook his head awkwardly.

"We could play war...?" I suggested.

"Um, sure," Hudson said. He opened up the drawer of the side table and pulled out a deck of cards.

We all sat in the floor in a triangle. I ended up leaning against his chest, our legs entwined, before he'd even finished dealing our cards.

The first few rounds, Hudson seemed to be on a winning streak, until the end of the hand and Stephen and I hardly had two cards.

"I call fowl play," I said, slamming my cards down.

"Yeah, you obviously stacked the deak, you cheater!"
"I would never. I must've just gotten lucky. You watched me shuffle the cards, didn't you?"

"I don't know how you did it, but you did and I don't believe a word of your lies!" I exclaimed.

"You know, someday I lie might save your life," he said.

"Although cards is irrelevent to a life changing moment, I still don't believe in lying."

"How do you go to parties then?" he asked.

"I don't, it's not my scene," I said.

"Well, we're going to make it your scene Friday night. I know where there's a party and we're going," he said.

"I don't want to!" I whined.

"Too bad, you need to live a little anyway. It's like you've been stuck in a hole all your life."

I slapped him across the chest and he laughed. I gave him a mean glare. "You're such an asshole, you know that, right?"
"I'm sure you've already told me a million times," he said and wrapped his arm around my waist.

"Um, hey guys, right here," Stephen said. We both looked up and he waved his hand.

"I think I'm going to take today as an opprotunity to get in better shape. Um, I'm gonna go for a run and then lift and stuff at home. So I'll tell Heather and I'll be on my way," he said.

"Give me your keys," I said.

"What?" he asked.

"You don't go anywhere without the keys to your bike. I want to make sure you don't leave so give me your keys."
He sighed and fished through one of the pockets in his jeans. He tossed me the keys and I caught them.

"See you guys later," he said.

"Well, you don't play cards nice, so what do we do now?" I asked.

"I don't play nice?"
"No, you cheated," I said.

"You have the vocabulary of a five-year-old, and a stupid one at that," he said.

I stuck out my tongue at him.

"Why don't we go hang out in my room. We can talk and whatever in a more private setting," he said.

"Um, sure," I agreed.