WE ALL SAT IN A CIRCLE INSIDE THAT DREADED ROOM,
This was the ninth official meeting of The Game Club and final meeting of 2030. This meeting seemed to have a lot of importance, but so little at the same time. As club president, Bridget began to speak.
"Okay, so, let's discuss our important matters first. Let's all decide a time to play ROR Online." Bridget said with such vigor that you couldn't even make that one sentence sound anymore positive.
"Why not this afternoon? We could all dive together at my place?" Trevor suggested.
The other two looked less enthusiastic about that, but Bridget still put on a wide grin.
"Wait, dive?" I asked.
"Oh, dive, as in going into the VR game we bought last week," Trevor answered.
"Um, maybe we should dive somewhere else, we wouldn't want to be a bother to your parents like last time," Bridget suggested, still with a lot of charisma.
"Where else would we dive?" Trevor asked.
"Hmm, well I do have an idea." Bridget turned her gaze towards me. "Allan, would you mind inviting us over to your house? You are quite the wealthy one; you have a nice home wouldn't you?"
That came completely out of left field; I wasn't prepared for that question. I tried to answer in the most neutral way possible without leading them on, "I don't have a mansion, I just live in a condo." And with that, it also seemed to come from left field for them, their reactions were very surprised.
"Oh, a condo is where you live? That’s quite the unique choice." Bridget said in a dead tone.
Nia began to speak, "I'd rather do it at your place than at Trevor's. His parents are..."
"Huh? My parents are what?" Trevor asked in surprise.
"They're just a little pushy and all, they sure do love to get into our personal lives." Bridget said, "Granted, I have been a childhood friend of yours, but that's too much I have to say."
"Wow, you guys sure know how to hype up Trevor's house," I said. "I almost want to go there right away."
"Can we just do it at your house, Allan? You bought the game with us last Sunday so there isn't any issue right?" Nia asked.
Does this girl not understand "your actions have consequences".
"You called me a stalker earlier and now you want to enter my home?" I asked. "Besides, I haven't even talked to any of you since Sunday, what makes you think I'll invite you into my home?"
Nia started to speak but in a very menacing tone. "You know, I didn't want to bring this up before, but I guess I have to now."
I was a little worried now.
"Nia, what's wrong?" Trevor asked.
"You know, I have Phys Ed with Allan. We aren't necessarily in the same class, but he's in the gym at the same time as me."
Well, that isn't incorrect.
"We were going to play team dodge ball and we needed to find another partner to play with. I had paired up with my sister, Aki but when I glanced at Allan he just put his back against the wall and watched. He was all alone and was ready to solo all the other teams."
That's not my fault, I can work with anyone. It's just that the class had an odd number of students and groups of three didn't work. Besides, my Phys Ed teacher knows I'm was the most athletic person in that class.
"This made me think: wow, Allan doesn't have any friends. But even without a partner he still won the game, he defeated us all. It made me think, he was venting out his anger. I mean, Allan is so skinny, how could he possibly best even the football players if he wasn't venting?"
"Is this some kind of large insult or something?" I asked.
"Wah no, it's not! I just felt bad for you and all!" Nia apologized very quickly.
I took a deep breath, and let out my rapid-fire comeback. "Y'know I think you lost because you were thinking about me the whole game. Your sister was better than you, and she's skinnier than me. She lost because you were dragging her down. I think if you focused on the game you could've beat me."
"You're so cruel!" She screamed.
"Oh, you're going to tell me that after making assumptions that I was a loner, okay," I replied, halfheartedly.
"What are you then?" She asked.
"I'm my own team," I said, I imagined flames erupting from my eyes.
"Sorry Nia, but Allan really is so good he's considered his own team." Trevor brought up.
"Wha? How? What do you know about Allan, we all met him at the same time didn't we?" Nia asked.
Trevor said, "I've known Allan since the start of the school year."
I rolled my eyes and prepared for Trevor to explain it all.
"We have the same schedule for the most part and all of my seating charts put me and Allan together. Because of our circumstances, of course we'd become friends."
"Acquaintances." I tried to interrupt.
"He's shared a lot of personal stuff with me just because he's bored. Nia, he's done a lot of sports in the past few years. He won #1 in a Karate tournament, #1 in a Judo tournament, #1 in a Taekwondo tournament, #1 in a kendo tournament, and so on."
Nia looked back at me with a surprised face, her eyes were asking the question: "Really?" I nodded.
"He's won a bunch of mini-leagues all over the state. He's won baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and tennis! So he really is strong enough to be his own team." Trevor finally finished.
"So you're not a loner?" Nia asked.
I crossed my arms. "I don't know what you take me for, but while I don't have friends, I can work with just about anyone."
"But how does that explain why you're so skinny?" Nia asked. "If you're this athletic, I'd expect you to have some muscle at least."
"I haven't done anything for over a year. I've become so good at sports that I really don't have fun doing them anymore." They all stared at me blankly, did I say something wrong?
"Well, you've got to have some kind of hobby right?" Nia asked.
"No, I don't have one."
"You've got to be kidding right? What do you do at home?" She asked again.
"I sit in the kotatsu, maybe read a book, and occasionally watch TV. Then I cook dinner, eat, get ready for bed and go to sleep. Sometimes I even go buy groceries. My day is pretty uneventful."
"Wait, kotatsu?" Bridget asked. "What's a kotatsu?"
"I don't know, a table combined with a couch and blanket? It also very conveniently has a heater under the table and is very great to use during the winter."
Bridget jumped from her seat and bowed down with her knees and hands on the floor. "Please let us go to your condominium! Uh er, O-onegaishimasu!"
"Shut up," I said. "Fine, alright, I'll let you come, just never do that again," I said, very annoyed that she used some fake Japanese etiquette.
"it's settled then?" Trevor asked.
"What a relief," Nia said.
"Just, give me your numbers, and I'll text you the address I guess," I said.
I checked my phone, and it was 4:30.
"I got to go, my brother's going to starve to death if I don't make dinner, you guys can come for dinner too I suppose." I grabbed my coat and scarf and slipped on my backpack.
"Oh, you have a little brother?" Nia asked.
"No." Trevor and I both said at the same time."
"Eh?" Nia was confused, not that I blame her.
"I have an older brother." I said.
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