Page 14 of I've Walked Where You've Been
“I mean, it’s new.”
“Sure. Okay. That sounds…good.”
Turned out that Settlers of Catan wasn’t as easy to learn on the fly as one might have thought. Matty, Josh, Jessica, and Carly stared at the board with all its million pieces as Ethan explained the rules, not even pointing out how weird their lack of knowledge was when it’d beenthemthat had invitedEthanalong.
“We should play in teams,” Matty suggested. “I choose Ethan.”
Ethan shot him a surprised look. Jessica rolled her eyes. “We have an odd number of players. That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“Well, whatever, then. Let’s invite Andrew.”
“He’s at movie night.”
“Urgh, fine. Let’s play this dumb game.” Matty tensed, looking at Ethan. “Not that it’s a dumb game, it seems fun. I just meant, like. Let’s go for it.”
Ethan raised his eyebrow slowly. “Uh. Okay. I mean, I’ll help you if you want, it’s fine.”
“No, no. Let’s do this.”
To say that Ethan trounced them would be an understatement. He wasn’t even ruthless about it, pointing out when someone’s strategy was going nowhere, but the four of them were justthatbad. Matty especially found it difficult to even concentrate on all the stuff that was happening.
“I’m committingseppuku, man,” Matty groaned. “Put me out of my misery.”
“You’re not doing that badly,” Ethan assured.
“I’m never being a war general.”
“Damn,” Jessica said. “Really? you’re going to give up on your lifelong dream of being a war general?”
Josh snorted. “You need tobelievein yourself, Matty. You’d make a great war general.”
“That, or the general manager of Bed Bath and Beyond,” Jessica laughed.
Matty rolled his eyes. “I’d be a great general manager at Bed Bath and Beyond, so…suck on that.”
“What do you think, Ethan?” Carly asked. “How good a manager would Matty be?”
“Uhm…I mean, if that’s what he wants, he’d be great. He’s great with people, so. Yeah, he’d be a good manager.”
Matty felt something deep and neglected twinge inside him. “Uh, thanks.”
Ethan shrugged, smiling a little. “I mean, I doubt you’d love it. You should probably choose something a little more active.”
“Like what?”
“Dunno. A P.E. teacher?”
“Urgh, kids.”
Ethan laughed. “A park ranger?”
Matty frowned. “That’s actually not a bad idea. I mean, I kinda want to be a mechanic, but that’s good too.”
“Oh, yeah, you’d be great at that too.”
Matty could feel himself blush.
“I mean, I dunno. But thanks.” Matty turned his head to see Carly, Josh, and Jessica staring at them. “What, you freaks?”
