Beautifully Designed

Chapter 15-A Game Between Friends

Annie stared down at the board, face screwed up in a mixture of uncertainty and possibility. Minutes ticked by without a single twitch. To those who walked by, she may as well have been a statue.

Patience seemed to dissipate as I waited for her to move a wooden chess piece. Whenever we would play chess, she would overthink every possibility on the board, even calculating my moves as well. It was rather infuriating, and by the time the game ended I was too annoyed with her to rematch.

I haven't won against her yet.

"Annie, just do something." I said haughtily, earning a deadly glare.

To keep from biting her head off, I turned my attention to the tall oak tree beside us. Sunlight trickled down between the leaves, casting elegant shadows to glide along both arms.

When Annie wanted to play chess, we always walked down the road to a small park near her house. It was beautiful, with a gazebo in the center and flowers surrounding the white woodwork. At the corner of the lot stood a giant oak tree, the one that currently shaded our bodies from the sun.

It was only a favorite activity for one of us, but since she just got home from vacation I decided to entertain her.

Annie shifted, and placed her fingers delicately on the knight. With a final decision she moved it three spaces forward, and once to the left, knocking away my pawn in the process.

"Check." She drawled out, lips curling into a wide-mouth smile.

With a sigh I moved the king diagonal, earning a look of distress from Annie. Once again she slouched in the seat and screwed up her face at the board.

The game usually lasted a half hour.

"You're upset about something. What's the matter?" She asked, eyes still roaming over the board.

A bird chirped from the ground nearby, capturing my attention. "How do you know?"

"Because you don't give a shit about birds. Tell me." Annie said in all seriousness, and I smiled.

The smile faltered as I struggled to find a way to explain. "Jason's parents don't like me, and I don't know why."

Easy enough.

Annie continued staring at the game, and for a second I thought she may not have heard. After a minute she glanced up. "That's it? Don't worry, Sam's parents wanted to stomp on my guts but that didn't stir any problems."

"Well he said that they wanted him to stay away from me, like I was a bad influence or something." I cupped my chin in hand, looking to Annie for help.

She caught the pleading gaze and sat up with a sigh. "Maybe you should talk to them, see what their deal is. It's probably because they don't know you."

My lips pressed in thought. It wasn't a bad idea, but if Jason's parents hated me as much as he implied, they probably wouldn't agree to that. The whole situation was entirely cryptic, what had possibly gave them this idea?

Did I smell bad?

His parents seemed nice enough during the dinner, and that was puzzling. Of course they could have kicked me out, but they didn't. It was after the hospital incident when they refused to let Jason even speak of a female by the name of 'Spencer'.

Just thinking of the hospital made my heart heavy.

Annie was a spectacular distraction, but it didn't always work. Especially when playing a dull board game on a bright and sunny day.

Once again she picked up a wooden piece, this time her queen. She moved the piece gracefully over to my rook, pushing it off the board.

Annie looked up, and upon seeing a morbid expression, softened her need to destroy. "Maybe we should quit before I crush you again."