Battle Scars

thirty three

Majority rule says old maid wins. Two vs four. Surprisingly, Emily and I have agreed on something for once in our lives, making us the two against the four. I've only played Old Maid once in my whole life with Walt, and never remember enjoying it.

"Fine." Emily abruptly stands. "I'm not playing this stupid game. Have fun, children." She walks away, taking her trail of bad energy with her. I sigh in relief.

"Come back after you've taken your proper chill pills." Laia calls after her. "Damn, that girl's temper is worse than mine. You're still playing, right Amber?"

I nod. "A game is a game."

"Cool. I'll deal."

I still haven't looked Ethan in the eye. Will I? Should I? Can I take the anxiety?

I can't help but peek in his direction every few seconds when he looks down at his knees. Hey, what can I say? Ethan's nice to look at. He's like the one aspect that always stands out in one's favorite painting. Too bad he's a player.

Is he avoiding my eyes on purpose now? He won't stop staring at his knees. I stare at him for a second longer than before. His arms are moving. Is he drawing something?

Stop this, Amber. You don't care, remember?

I shift in my seat as Laia shuffles the cards again. I look around the noisy room and spot Michelle talking with Dr Seltz by Tino and Blaine's room. Both of them wear unnerved looks on their faces. My guess is either Michelle is snitching on somebody-again- or Dr Seltz is freaking out about this missing patient.

I take a deep breath and look back over to Laia setting the cards up evenly in front of all five of us.

"Okay, so we all know the rules, correct?" Laia starts.

We all nod. Claire asks why the maid has to be old and Laia rolls her eyes in response. I let out a small chuckle.

"Obviously there isn't an old lady card, so I left one joker in the entire deck." Laia explains. "Whoever gets the joker gets the old maid card."

I'm the first person to check my cards. No matches, unfortunately. But how? We're using two decks of cards for Pete's sake. Guess its just my minor bad luck of the day; that's something that Ethan would say.

I quietly scoff as I notice the joker card on the far right of my set. Great, I'm the old maid.

Now i know Ethan is definitely writing or drawing something below his knees, because he bends down to place it on the floor before checking his cards.

I look away as he focuses on his set. He doesn't have the old maid, so he has nothing to worry about. Nobody does. I do.

Blaine goes first, and I go last. My drawn card is a 3 of spades. After a few rounds, Laia decides to change up the rotation.

I was horrified and thrilled when i realized Ethan was my next person. He doesn't look me in the eye at first, he just looks at his deck, then at mine. He scratches his chin, which has a noticeably larger amount of facial hair than before. I still don't look him in the eye, and neither does he.

He choses an 8 of diamonds from the left half of my set, then matches it with one if his. When I briefly study his face for the second time, I realize something about him looks different.

My turn. I chose from the right side of his deck. The card ends up being a king, which matches with my other king. I smile as I place both of them next to me.

"You're welcome." I hear in that calm,  cracked voice. I raise an eyebrow without looking at him, sudden adrenaline pooling through my veins.

"Oh, I'm supposed to thank you? Could have gotten a match from anyone else here."

Laia and Blaine both look at me, confused as they've never seen me act so hostile.

"Not with a king. The other two blew away, remember?"

"Its, uh, I think its my turn now." Blaine intervenes. Ethan and I both look at him, and I give him a nod to continue. Am I glad he did? Ethan and I were talking.

The shallow game, as I'm the one stuck with the old maid, makes its way back around to Blaine and I, then back to Ethan and I.

His hand hovers over my set. I assume he's deciding which one is safe to choose. Does he know I have the old maid?

He puts two fingers on an ace, then moves them over to the old maid card. I feel a slight adrenaline rush. Take it. Take it. Take the card. But then they move back to the ace, swiping it out of my set. I sigh in disappointment.

Ethan slides the ace into his deck. So close.

"You remember what I said before, how I can tell when you're lying?" Ethan's speaking to me. My heart starts to race.

"Yeah." I say without emotion.

"You were making that face just now, when I was deciding on a card." He says.

What the hell is he talking about? "What? What face?" I was louder than I intended to be, causing Blaine to shoot me another look. I gesture to Ethan and roll my eyes.

"The face you make when you lie. You always make that exact same face." He says the last part as if he's speaking to himself. He rearranges his cards. "You should work on your poker face a little bit."

I don't take offence to his comment, as it makes sense to why he decided not to take the other card. I take note to nullify my facial expressions the next time he chooses a card, and secretly move the joker to another spot.

I take another quick peek at Ethan's face as he isn't paying attention. He's nipping the side of his lip when I suddenly realize the difference in his feature: his lip ring is gone!

I want to make a comment, or ask why he removed it, but then I remember what I saw on the courtyard; why I'm supposed to be hating him. It all comes back to me at once and I suddenly want to clock him in the face.

"Why are you talking to me like we're friends again?" I say as my heart beats with anger.

"Friends? Is that what we were?" He says. "So what does that make you and Blaine? Super friends?"

"Fuck you!" I spit. Tears taunt my eyes. I force them not to show.

Blaine is different. I don't feel for Blaine the way I felt for you. I want to say. But I don't. I shouldn't and I won't.

"Is everything okay?" Laia looks concerned. "You two need to chill out. Let's switch the rotation."

As I turn my seat to face Blaine, Ethan and I look at each other in the eye for the first time in what feels like forever. I glare while his emeralds cower. He doesn't look assured, proud, or even happy like I expected. He doesn't look at me the way players do when you realize you've been played. He looks upset.

He looks heartbroken.