Our family dinner flew by with suspicious ease, my moms maintaining that firm wall of motherly hospitality and doting love. It had to be some kind of front, but then they rarely discussed important things with me over dinner. It didn’t matter. I had plenty of homework for the weekend and they wouldn’t try to hold me back from wanting to get ahead on it.

The minute things start going south here‒‒the second I see Tina start to go for that back hall closet‒‒I’ll just dip. No need to argue. No need to yell. I’ve got homework, moms. I’m sorry.

Tina cleared the table of our plates. They yelled at me in unison for trying to help clean up, insisting I stay at the table and wait for dessert. I was beginning to get nervous, the fight or flight nerves starting to bubble up from my gut.

“Gosh darn,” Tina seemed to scold herself from the other room, but something about it sounded fake. “Silly me, I thought I grabbed another Ben and Jerry’s at the store last night.” No, this wasn’t right. Tina sounded like she was down the hall, past the kitchen. I don’t even think I heard the freezer door open, but then I could hear her shuffling house slipper approaching the doorway between the kitchen and the breakfast nook.

Tine poked her just her head and shoulders over the wall, “I guess you’d have to say that I’m really, really…,”

No. Fuck damn it, no! They trapped me. They induced a low-grade food coma and trapped me. I can’t but barely move with all this food inside me!

Beth lifted the tattered, old copy of that wretched, old board game over the wall for all to see. Beth had the nerve to act surprised. “Oh Gosh, Tina! You didn’t.”

Desperate to complete her pun Tina continued on, putting a delirious level of emphasis on every cheesy word from her mouth, “I guess you’d have to say I’m really… Sorry!!!” She gave the box a few garish excited shakes before returning to the table.

Beth had sneakily removed all of the ornate table decor to make way for the games. I watched as they playfully bantered to each other, avoiding eye contact with me, setting up that obnoxious yellowing square of laser-printed cardboard, shoveling four of the equally obnoxious little chess-like pieces over to me. The blue ones. My one demand for board game nights was that I would always be the blue color, no matter what game we played.

Blue was never my unrivaled favorite color, but it at least made me feel like I had some sort of agency in the sordid embarrassment of an average board game night. Because the first rule of board game night is that board game night is not about the board games.The two of them stared intensely across from me, that smile they shared felt almost like a dagger at my throat, and yet I still couldn’t tell what they wanted out of all this.

After an awkward silence, Tina finally spoke up. “Ya know, your mom and I were just sayin’ to each other earlier, it’s been too long… Ya know?” She stared into me imploringly, but I wasn’t giving in that easily. “For a game night,” she soldiered on, “ya know? And we thought… Well, maybe‒‒‒and only if you want to, sweetie! But maybe, just maybe we could talk a little while we‒‒‒”

“Umm,” I had to cut her off. The game was already out on the table. I might not have another chance to save myself, “Actually, I have a lot of homework for the weekend, plus I need to get started with my portion of the research for mine and Kash’s project.” I started to lift from my seat and scoot my way out the breakfast nook, a process that never seemed to take so arduously long as it did in this one tense moment of family compassion and understanding.

“Come on, Remy! Please stay!” Beth batted her eyes‒‒a sort of parental power move she saved only for when she was exceptionally upset.

Alright, now this is getting suspicious.

“What's going on, Mom?” I replied nervously, shaking where I half-stood at the edge of the nook seating.

“What do you mean, what’s going on?” Beth replied, trying to act clueless. But then it only made her seem more manic. “We’re just trying to have some wholesome family time with our favorite son.” She tried stretching her smile as far across her face as she could manage. I swear I could hear capillaries popping inside her face.

“Well I'm your only son… It’s not like we need to schedule board game time to talk about things at school or whatev‒‒”

“Ohh!!” Beth sang out into the house as if she were Catherine O’ Hara on camera, “So now he’s just an open book! We can talk to him whenever we want. Ya hear, that Tina?”

Tina shot Beth a scolding glare. “What did we agree on about Long Island Iced tea, my love.”

Oh my. Beth,‒‒lit,‒‒at board game night? Maybe I should stay for this.

“You said no more than one before five pm,” Beth’s voice lowered to a comically audible whisper. “But you made no specific exemption on what kind of alcohol could be used.” Beth procured a travel-sized bottle of Russian Standard from her apron pocket and waved it around. Tina gagged at the sight of it. I couldn’t help but giggle, but I realized I should probably say something so we could all just simmer down.

“You two do remember that the last time we had family game night, you told me we were moving to Rosewood Creek. And the time before that, it was to announce we would stop using Amazon prime,” I glanced back and forth between the two of them; I had apparently caught them slightly off guard with that.

“Remy dear, you know how I feel about lining the pockets of the rich,” Beth managed an inadequate reply.

“Mom, come on. You know that wasn't what I was referring to,” I replied, rolling my eyes. Beth was such a bad liar, but it was still comical to see her try.

“Beth, let's just tell him. He knows we are trying to butter him up,” Tina sighed, adjusting her brown glasses up the bridge of her nose. It seemed her more lighthearted sensibilities on display for dinner theater, had quite suddenly left the room.

“Fine,” she huffed. “Tina, would you? I clearly can’t use my words right now.” She almost got up from the table, perhaps to finish the dishes, but then seemed overcome with composite physical and mental exhaustion as she collapsed modestly back to the table, her hands massaging the beating temples on her forehead.

“Remy, we booked an appointment for you to see a psychiatrist in town next week. We wanted to wait until you got adjusted to Rosewood before we found you a new one,” Tina said with nervous sincerity.

They were right to butter me up so much. I hated talking to them about my condition. Why did they have to bring this up now? I sat quietly, not responding to their announcement. My mind was racing. I didn’t want to see a new therapist. I didn’t want to see anyone, to be honest.

“It's important we continue your treatment here. We just want to make sure you have all the resources you need to adjust here,” Tina tried to prod the conversation along, but the tension in the room now was too thick to cut through with words alone. I almost felt betrayed that they would do that without informing me first.

“Okay,” I acknowledged my moms. My response was flat and dry. I knew they had the best intentions, and I didn't want to seem ungrateful for them taking the time to look out for my mental health. But I didn’t want them to know. I didn’t want anyone to know. The dread of speaking about my dirty secret consumed my thoughts. I was not looking forward to sitting in one of those stuffy offices to talk about my “feelings” but I guess I would have to face at some point or another.

“Thanks for understanding kiddo. Now let’s play some games,” as Tina gestured to the tower of boxes.

“I want to be red! I’m definitely going to win this time,” Beth grabbed all of her pieces and arranged them on the board, trying her best to erase the tension in the room.

“Sure you are! Because the color definitely determines whether you win the game Sorry!,” Tina teased her.

“Whatever! I just had some bad luck last time. This time, luck is on my side!” she argued.

I chuckled at her plan. She was going to lose and it would be just as funny as last time. I couldn't stay upset with my parents for long. I helped set up the board and shuffled the deck of cards. We continue on with our family game night, laughing at Beth’s poor attempts to cheat. The atmosphere eased the heaviness of the previous topic, peace soon returning to our home. 

A/N Short chapter but I wrote too much so I thought this would be a good segway for the next chapter! What do you guys think about Beth and Tina? I just love how any difficult conversation they need to have, they use family game night as the perfect medium. They are just so cute. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! And make sure to subscribe for new updates!