Page 83 of Game Over

He got on his side and shut the door, rattling me from my thoughts. “Excited?” he asked.

Charlie pulled off the curb, the car driving smoothly as we made our way downtown. “I guess.” I sort of was actually. I hadn’t been in months, though I knew what this trip meant.

I rolled the window down, letting the warm breeze hit me in the face. There was always the slight smell of the ocean here, the city being so close, and it was one of the reasons I stayed. That and all of the sun I got.

My hand fluttered into the breeze, the air pushing it up and down. Charlie started the music. It was from the playlist we made one summer during college. We took it road-tripping when we went up to San Francisco. It was on a burned CD back then but was now a streamed playlist that he made a few years back. I would never forget this first track, and I knew he wouldn’t either.

I glanced at him as he put it on. His eyes caught mine for a moment before focusing back on the road. Mine went back to my hand riding the airwaves.

Charlie parked the car when we got there. It had always been impressive to me that he could parallel park such massive cars with ease, never even needing to adjust, and this one was the biggest yet. As soon as the car was in park he unbuckled and hurried out like the place was on fire.

I unbuckled and just before I could open the door, it flew open with Charlie there. His hand gestured out, waving me out like I was about to walk on a runway.

“You’re ridiculous,” I told him as I got out of the car.

“But you like it,” he said easily, shutting the door and pressing the handle on the outside to lock it.

Fancy ass car.

Board City had a large sign in big red letters. The ‘o’ was a D20, and there was a game board at the end of it. There weredisplays of games in the windows, showing off their latest haul, along with collections of different trading card packs.

The bell above the door clanged as we walked in. It was a cute place, with shelves lining the walls, filled to the brim with different games, a cashier at the front with a full food and drink bar, and cafe tables scattered around the space. There were a few people in here playing, but it was a bit early for a full crowd. It seemed a group in the corner was playing a role-playing game of some kind, and there were a few other patrons playing cards or other games and sipping drinks.

“Welcome in, can I get you anything?” The woman behind the counter asked. She had thick black eyeliner and long purple hair.

Charlie stepped up to the counter. “Yeah, two game passes. I’ll take a latte, they’ll have an iced macchiato, and we’ll split…” he glanced over the menu for a moment, “the cheese fries and jalapeno bites.”

Her extra-long acrylics tapped across the screen as he spoke. “That’ll be forty bucks,” she said, her gum popping with her words.

Charlie pulled out a shiny black card that certainly didn’t look like plastic. He tapped it on the card reader before shoving it back. I watched as he added a large tip on the screen.

“Great,” she said, turning her tablet back. “You’re welcome to play any game you want on the wall, if one has missing pieces let us know. Your food will be out soon.”

“Thanks,” Charlie said, taking my hand and guiding us to the wall. It took me a moment to even register he was holding my hand. I knew it was such a small thing, but something about it made me nervous.

“Which one do you want to play?” We were at the shelf labeled “collaborative”. I knew that’s what would happen, but being here again had my emotions running a bit wild.

Trying to ignore that, I looked over the shelf instead. There were a lot of boxes, some worn with age, especially around the corners, and some brand new and barely touched.

My eyes caught on one—a planet builder. It looked to be a sci-fi game, focused on building up your plant’s resources in order to go off and conquer more. “What about this?” I asked as I pulled it from the shelf.

He looked over the box. “Looks great.”

His other hand stayed in mine as he carried the game back to a table. He sat on one side of the table and I went to sit on the other, but he stopped me.

I gave him a look. “It’s always better to sit together for these, so we can view it the same way.”

He was actually right. The last time we played a co-op we sat together, just for ease.

I came back around and plopped myself in the chair next to him, ignoring the self-satisfied grin he wore. These were the times I wished we had that bond, so I could tell what all these faces meant truly.

I opened the box worn by play and took out the instructions, handing them to Charlie. If I needed to learn the instructions I would just watch a video, but Charlie could just read and know exactly how to play. I pulled the pieces out, admiring the artwork on the cards and the pieces.

“Okay, so the goal is to gather the most space rocks as possible. And different colors are worth different points.”

He continued explaining all the rules and I tried to keep up. By the time he was done, I was slow-blinking at him. It was obvious he understood I was confused, and he laughed. “You can learn as we go.”

“I got it,” I quipped.

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