Narrow Paths

Chapter Eleven

Jeremy pulled into my driveway at ten after ten in his grandma's ancient Cadillac. I yelled a goodbye to my parents who were watching TV in the kitchen and headed outside.

Ed wasn't in the passenger seat so I climbed in. He wasn't in the back either.

"Where's Ed?"

"He's grounded," Jeremy said with a laugh, "got caught looking at porn."

We both began to laugh so hard that Jeremy couldn't pull out of my driveway. We finally calmed down and began to make our way toward Marshall's house.

Marshall's house was already the place to be. Cars were parked on the lawn and across the street. Jeremy parked as close as he could get and we headed toward the house.

The music was actually pretty decent and I assumed that someone had created a mix of genres to keep everyone happy. The alcohol was being served in the kitchen, away from anyone who didn't want to drink any.

Of course, Jeremy headed straight for the kitchen. With the way he handled alcohol, everyone knew this was a bad idea, but nobody ever dared to tell him that. He was an angry, bitter drunk that got so loud that plenty of women had slapped him. Of course, he never remembered this and only heard the stories that had been embellished to make him seem like the life of the party.

I was attracted to the console game that a group of people were playing. It wasn't anything I'd ever seen before. It looked like a badass tower defense game. I sat down in the unoccupied chair next to the couch.

"What are you doing?" One of the guys who was just watching asked.

"The same thing you are."

"No, serious, bro. The booze is in the kitchen."

"I'm aware. That's where my friend went."

He turned toward me and raised an eyebrow. I recognized him as a Sophomore named Harry. We'd never really met, but I'd heard he was a cool kid. He certainly wasn't living up to his reputation right now.

"What? Can't a guy watch someone kick butt at a game that looks hard?"

"It's not all that hard," he said with a smirk.

"What's it called?"

"Redestruction."

"I've never heard of it. Is it new?"

"Yeah, it was created by an indie developer."

"They make some of the best games. Like the Backlash games were made by Hyloa."

"You play Backlash?"

I laughed at how surprised he seemed. I realized that it probably seemed strange that I played video games. I was a star football player, at least according to everyone who cared about football.

"Of course. I went to the midnight release of Backlash 2."

"Dude," he said. His tone changed from resentful to impressed.

"What's it like?" One of the other guys asked.

"Is it any better than the original?" Harry asked.

"Did they screw up the multiplayer?"

I was surprised that three of them now had their attention on me rather than Deconstruction. I braced myself for a bit of social awkwardness and dug right into the description of Backlash 2.

"Yeah, not much has changed. Of course they added new weapons," I answered the questions as soon as they were asked.

I felt more at home at this party than I'd ever felt at any party. I realize that these people, although all of them below me in grade, were pretty cool. Harry had redeemed himself once he learned that I wasn't a jerk and turned out to be pretty awesome.