Break it Up (Ron Weasley)

20. Card Games

We headed into the basement of the burrow to find Fred, George, and Ginny sprawled out in a circle on the floor.

"Mind if we join?" Ron asked, sitting down next to Fred and Ginny. He didn't bother to make room for me.

Ginny noticed this and scooted over herself. I smiled and took the spot next to her.

"What are we playing?" I asked, trying to decipher the way the cards were laid out in the middle.

"Bullshit," George answered.

I looked up, confused by George's random swearing, only to see everyone laughing.

"That's the name of the game," Ron said to me in a tone that implied I should've known that already.

"Oh," I remarked quietly. "How do you play?"

Fred and George took to explaining the rules while Ron just rolled his eyes the entire time. Why was he being so stand-off-ish all of a sudden? What happened to the Ron that have me his sweatshirt when I was cold only last night?

"Basically, you go around the circle putting the cards in number order. For example, I'll have aces, and put in all my aces. Then Ron will have twos, and so fourth," Fred explained.

"If you don't have the card though, you can lie and say that it's the right card," George went on.

"Yeah, but if you think someone's lying, you call bullshit. If they are lying, they have to take the whole deck of cards for themselves," Ginny said smirking.

"But if you call it and they weren't lying, then you have to take them all," Ron added.

"Okay, I think I've got it," I said. "Let's play."

Ginny dealt out the entire deck and I picked up my cards. "Who has the ace of spades?" she asked.

"I do," I responded, throwing the card in the middle.

"One two," Ginny remarked, tossing a card face down.

Silence. No one called bullshit yet. And I didn't think she was lying. I didn't want to risk it.

"Two threes," George said, placing two cards in the middle.

I looked around again. No one called anything.

"One four," Fred said.

"One five," Ron said quickly after.

I looked down at my own deck. I had four fives sitting right there in my hands. There was no way he could've put in a five if I had them all.

I looked up at his face. He was looking down. Clearly trying to avoid eye contact.

He was lying.

"Bullshit!" I exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look at Ron, who's face was now red. "Damn it!" he yelled, reaching in to take all the cards from the middle.

The rest of us laughed.

"This is fun," I said.

"This is fun," Ron repeated, mocking me with a high pitched voice.

I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"Easy there, Ron," Ginny said.

"Relax, I'm just messing around. Let's keep playing," he answered, nodding back at the cards.

We continued placing cards in the middle, and no one called bullshit. The pile was really building up, as was the tension.

"One seven," I said, placing my card in the center.

Silence fell over everyone as I glanced around to see if anyone was going to say anything.

Ginny looked down, as did Fred and George. Ron just eyed me suspiciously.

"Well?" I asked, getting impatient.

"Hmmm," was all he said, still studying my face.

"Just call it or not," George shot, leaning back on his hands.

Ron looked at his own deck and back at me one more time.

"Bullshit," he finally said.

I looked back at my deck and up at everyone for dramatic effect. I slowly reached into the deck to reveal the card I had just thrown in.

"Nope," I said, holding up a seven of hearts.

Ron's jaw dropped as the rest of his siblings laughed. "No way," he kept saying. "I had three sevens!"

"And I had the fourth," I responded.

Ron couldn't believe it and slammed down his hand on the huge pile in the middle, dragging it toward him. The rest of us couldn't stop laughing.

"Y/n's gonna be sad tonight," Fred whispered to George. Ron shot him a death stare.

"Whatever, let's keep playing," Ron said, organizing his newly acquired cards.

"Yeah, so I can beat you more," I shot. If Ron was going to have an attitude right now, then so was I.

"Woah, woah. Calm down, both of you," Ginny said while laughing.

Fred and George made eyes at us. "Yeah, don't make this awkward for us," they said together.

I looked up at Ron who was looking everywhere but at me. "We're fine," Ron said through his teeth. "Can we just keep playing?"

"Did something happen?" Ginny asked, genuinely concerned now. She looked at me. "Y/n?"

I swallowed hard and looked at Ron who was still avoiding eye contact. "Not that I know of," I huffed.

The four of us turned to look at Ron, who finally looked at me. "Nothing happened. I'm just..." he trailed off. "Hungry."

Fred and George laughed at his excuse. "You're always hungry, and you're never this grumpy," Fred observed.

Ron slammed his cards down on the floor now. His face was red with anger. What had gotten into him?

"I just want to play the God damn game!" he yelled. "Y/n and I are fine! Great actually!"

The four of us leaned back a little, surprised by Ron's sudden outburst.

"Aren't we fine?" he asked, holding his hand out at me.

"We're fine..." I answered while nodding slowly.

"Great. Now can the three of you accept that?" he asked his siblings.

Fred, George, and Ginny nodded too, unsure of how to respond.

He took a deep breath. "Thank you." He sat back down, his face still red from all of his yelling.

Ginny kept looking at me. She was studying my face, trying to figure out what had caused Ron to react in the way he just did.

"Your turn, Ginny," I said quietly.