Fall (LGBT) ✅

Part 6

6.

Jeremy took two cards from his hand, placing them face down on the pile in the middle of the table. "Two queens."

Duke, sitting to his left, placed a king down before gesturing for the next player to take their turn. She was a course-mate of theirs, looking vaguely familiar but Jeremy couldn't remember her name for the life of him, though he did remember what he'd placed down when she put two queens in the middle, too.

Zoe pursed her lips, looking at her cards before very carefully picking one out. "One queen."

"Someone is cheating," Sam said, somewhat unnecessarily given the fact they were playing Cheat. "There can't be more than four queens in the game."

"Go ahead and call it if you think I'm cheating," Zoe said, arching an eyebrow. "If not, keep the game going."

He hesitated before shaking his head. "Nah, I'll allow it. One jack."

It was Jeremy's turn again and he knew what he was going to play already, putting two queens down and daring anyone to challenge him. They were a little cautious because it was still early in the game and they weren't confident with accusing each other just yet so Jeremy thought he might be able to get away with it.

"That's definitely cheating." Sam announced, bringing his attention over to him, "that makes a total of seven queens."

Jeremy grinned, "Are you going to call me out on that?"

"Yeah, I think I will."

And Jeremy took no small amount of pleasure in flipping over the top two cards to reveal his queens, shoving the pile over to Sam. "Take those and down your drink, too."

"Oh, damn," Sam said, grimacing. "This is going to set the tone for the rest of the evening, isn't it?"

"You're playing against uni students," Duke said, in an attempt to make him feel better, "and we're used to card games. Don't worry, you'll get used to Jeremy's blatant cheating over time and his gameplay will go straight down when he's got a few drinks in him."

"I'm counting on it; I wouldn't want him getting better as he got drunker."

Jeremy laughed, shaking his head. "No, that'd be horrific. I couldn't imagine anyone would want to play with me then."

Sam, thankfully, wasn't one of those card players and he was no better or worse than he was before he drained his cup. To be fair, he was drinking a cider with a four percent alcohol volume but that was because it was still the awkward first hour of the party. No one wanted to drink too much too quickly and Sam had the added disadvantage of knowing just three people there.

Considering there were only ten or so people there, though, that wasn't too bad a figure.

They'd come to Zoe's house a little earlier than everyone else to help set up the snacks and the drinks, but coming so early meant that it didn't feel like a party yet. So they'd brought out cards in an attempt to get people talking and drinking but only half of them had been interested and the others were in the living room, watching TV.

"Okay," Sam said, having finally organised his cards, "four queens."

They all laughed.

The game wasn't particularly fast-paced, not when they had to keep stopping to let people into the house and then fix them up with drinks, but it was exactly what Jeremy needed. He'd only been human for a couple of days and staying in his cat form for a month meant it felt a little odd to use his hands and to look straight at people instead of up at them. Not to mention being able to speak and be understood. He'd worked out most of the little things in his system already but he liked the relaxed nature of the game and it helped to make him comfortable.