Page 13 of I've Walked Where You've Been
“I think we should invite Ethan to do something with us,” Matty said as he sat down at the cafeteria table.
Carly, Josh, and Jessica looked at each other.
Matty looked back at them. “You know, to be friendly.”
“Right.” Jessica nodded. “Friendly.”
“What? Itisfriendly.”
“Sure. You want to watch a movie or something?” Carly suggested, keeping a very straight face.
“Well, maybe not a movie. That’s, like. You know. He won’t get to know you guys or anything.”
“Oh, you’re introducing him to us. That makes sense,” Josh said.
Matty looked at him suspiciously. “What? Yes, it makes sense.”
“I just said it did!”
“Yeah, but you look weird.”
“That’s just my face.”
“I mean, I’m not gonna argue with you having a weird face.”
Josh rolled his eyes as Carly jumped in. “Okay, so what do you wanna do?”
“I don’t know. Something he’d like, like…a board game or something.”
The way the three of them raised their eyebrows in unison would have been funny if it weren’t so annoying. “Okay…” Carly said slowly. “What kind of board game?”
“I think he liked those war board games. Like, The Warriors of Catalan.”
“I think you mean Settlers of Catan.”
“Exactly.”
Jessica snorted. “Do you even know how to play that? We don’t even have the game.”
“Andrew has the game; we can borrow it from him. And I can learn how to play a dumb board game, Jess. Are you guys in or what?”
Carly nodded. “Sure, Matty. We’re in. We’d love to play Settlers of Catan with your bondmate.”
“Stop calling him my bondmate—he has a name.”
The three of them exchanged amused glances, which Matty steadfastly ignored.
“Sorry,” Carly said. “We’d love to play Settlers of Catan with Ethan…your bondmate, who you want to be just friends with.”
“Great, and also, shut up.”
This was going to gosowell.
**********
Ethan had been weirded out when Matty finally scrounged up the courage to ask him to hang out. Not that Ethan was obvious about it, but Matty could feel the surprise through the bond.
“I mean…” Ethan paused for a moment, just looking at Matty. “Sure? I didn’t even know you played Settlers of Catan.”
