The whirring fridge, humming lights, and rumbling dishwasher reminded Derek Perez of how loud electricity could be when no one was at his house. Not only had his parents and siblings left, but it was game night with his friends. The pizza guy came half an hour ago, and Derek waited ten more minutes before flipping the box open and devouring a slice. Chips and salsa, fun size candies, pretzels, sodas, cups, and two boxes of pizza gave a tasty cushion around everyone’s character sheets. Derek had sharpened the pencils so much he could use them as weapons.
With a loud sigh to match the whirring fridge, he pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. Twenty minutes after six. Everyone was almost an hour late. True, his friends were often late to game night, but it was rare that not even Tyler Clarke, their game master, was here. Something was happening, and he despised being out of the loop.
He scrolled through his previous messages and saw his passive aggressive note that latecomers had better enjoy cold pizza. The only person who’d seen it was Rafael, which was odd. He hadn’t shown up for a game in almost three years. They’d debated about making a new group chat without Rafael in it, but Derek clung to the hope that their old friend would come back. Since this would be their last session with these characters, hope drifted away.
This was the game. The game they had scheduled and re-scheduled since mid-May. Their final session before the start of his and Nick’s senior year of high school. They wanted to send their characters off right, destroy the bad guys, and finish their six-year campaign.
Derek hung his head, his thick, dark brown hair falling across his forehead. He admitted defeat as he grabbed a bag of tortilla chips. It crinkled in his hands as he pried it open. The chips tumbled into the bowl, filling it to the top. Hunger gnawed at him, and he had an entire table of snacks at his disposal. It was the perfect day, too. His older sister Izzy was finishing up a summer semester across the country. His three younger siblings were gone for the rest of the night to be with their cousins, and his parents left for a party. He and his friends had the entire night to play Choice, Chance, and Consequence. If anyone showed up.
Derek’s brown eyes scanned his character sheet for the umpteenth time. Milo, the mana fusionist, was a character he created to give his twelve-year-old self a challenge. Tyler encouraged him to go for it, as they were both enthusiastic about CCNC and wanted to understand mana more. Sometimes he cursed Izzy for breaking up with Tyler four years ago. Both he and Izzy moved on and started dating other people. Yet despite their break-up, Tyler showed up to be the game master for his ex-girlfriend’s younger brother and his group of friends every time they scheduled a game.
Except tonight. Where the hell was he?
His left hand rested in his hair as his right thumb hovered over the keyboard on his phone. His cousin sent him a fast text in Spanish, and Derek didn’t have the heart to answer it as he remained in the CCNC group chat. He thought about skipping passive aggression and going straight to interrogation when the doorbell rang. He leapt out of the chair, stuffing the chip in his mouth before the salsa slid off and hit the floor. Not that his mother would mind, but the cleaners wouldn’t arrive for another few days.
The summer heat hit Derek like he’d opened an oven instead of the front door. He smiled, relieved, as Nick Larsen stood on his front porch. “You’re here!”
Nick tore his gaze from the hanging plants on the porch and smiled. “Hey, sorry I’m late.” As was always the case, Derek noticed Nick’s scar right off. It wasn’t big, but it made itself known by cutting across Nick’s eyebrow. The thin, vertical scar alienated a third of his left eyebrow from the rest. He was lucky to escape the car crash from three years ago with that scar being his only physical injury, considering how close it was to his eye. No doubt Nick thought the same.
Derek craned his neck to see Nick’s car. “Where’s Evelyn?”
His friend sighed. “It’s why I’m so late. Some friends took her, saying they needed to surprise the incoming cheerleaders.”
“She chose her cheerleading squad over game night?” Derek’s chin lowered to his chest, sighing. “I mean, I’d make the same choice, but I doubt my motivations are the same as your little sister’s.”
Derek stepped aside, letting Nick walk into the cooler house. Nick snorted as he did so. “If it makes you feel better, she looked devastated, and told me to apologize for her.”
“I appreciate the thought.” Derek closed the door, the coolness combating the warmth. Arizona heat was oppressive, especially in August. It didn’t matter what time of night it was.
“Again, sorry I’m late.” Nick’s blue eyes glanced at his watch. “I needed to re-convince my dad I could come.”
“Ah. Well, I’m glad he listened to you.”
The scarred eyebrow pulled as Nick’s brows furrowed. “Yeah.”
Derek didn’t know what else to say. The relationship between Nick and his father, Walt, was a deteriorating mess everyone expected would implode before April, when Nick turned eighteen.
They walked to the dining room table. Nick scanned the room, confused. The unnatural quiet was back. He ran his hand over the table before picking up his character’s sheet on the table. Years ago, after Evelyn’s fifth time forgetting her sheet, everyone agreed to let Derek keep and distribute them.
“Where is everyone?” Nick asked.
“They went to play with cousins on the other side of town and my parents are at a party.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Oh. Yeah. I also meant… where is Tyler? Alejandra?” Nick opened his ancient flip phone, no doubt just getting the texts Derek sent. “Have you been alone this whole time?”
Derek waved a hand in the air, like it would make the embarrassment leave with it. “Don’t make it sound so pathetic. I figured someone had a good story about why they weren’t here.”
“But…” Nick glanced at the head of the table. “Not even Tyler?”
Derek stared at Tyler’s spot as though it could give him the answers he needed. “Yeah. Him I’m worried about, because he’s usually early setting up the minis.”
With a twitch of Nick’s fingers, the flip phone snapped shut, and he slipped it in his pocket. “Sorry for being late. I thought I’d be the last to arrive.”
“No, man, you’re good.” Derek eased into his spot at the table. “Heard anything from Alejandra?”
“You’ve got the more reliable phone.” Nick sat across from Derek, glancing at his character sheet. There was an old timey chirp from Nick’s pocket, and he pulled his phone back out. Derek hoped it was someone from the group, but deducing how Nick’s eyes hardened, it could only be two people. Either Walt, or their old friend, Rafael. Since Rafael hadn’t talked to anyone in years, and Nick’s dad was in constant contact, it wasn’t hard to guess.
Nick’s fingers tapped against the old keypad as his hard eyes turned dark. “Speaking of reliable phones, can you take a picture of us and send it to my dad?”
“Will do!” Derek knew better than to dig into it.
“Thanks.” Nick moved out of his seat to sit next to Derek. “Evelyn would’ve done this, but she’s not here.”
“It’s no trouble. Let’s pose with our characters!” Derek picked up the snake-like rogue figurine, complete with hood, as well as the human cleric, and dropped them into Nick’s hands. Grizzizzik the rogue was his original character, and a humanoid snake. Derek’s 3D printer only had snakes with the option of doing the lower half of the body as a serpent instead of the legs Nick envisioned. Derek ended up 3D printing a humanoid lizard, and Tyler cut off the tail from the figurine. The small figurine still had the shifty look of a rogue with his hood up. The human cleric, Ezekiel, was a lot easier to print since he was a regular human with a book in hand. It used to be Rafael’s character, but Nick took over once their old friend bowed out.
Derek picked up his mana fusor figurine. Even though his character Milo was human, it was hard to find a 3D printing option that made a nerdier character. Derek always imagined his mana fusor as one constantly wearing suspenders and rolled-up sleeves. When he researched figurines for a CCNC character, all the suggestions depicted people with jacked bodies and gigantic swords. Milo was a nerd, and Derek loved his character for it. Which is why he was thrilled when Tyler emailed him a figurine that had “nerd” as the title. A nerd without glasses, even. It was perfect.
With a bit of fiddling on his phone, Derek made sure they could see themselves on the camera before he held his smiling figurine thumbing his suspenders. “Say CCNC!”
“CCNC.” Nick glared at the camera, holding his hooded rogue and happy cleric. Derek snapped the pic. Nick dropped the figurines, moving back to his seat, the glare prevalent on his face. He stuffed his hand in the bowl of tortilla chips and shoved them in his mouth.
Derek searched his contact list, finding Walt Larsen’s name, and pulled up previous chats. Most of them had pictures of a glaring Nick with their CCNC group. It gave the impression Nick hated CCNC, but he loved it almost as much as Derek and Tyler.
With a click, Derek posted the recently taken picture with Nick’s usual glaring face. Nick’s light brown hair was cropped short, a demand from Walt. His blue eyes were stormy with hate. Nick held his two figurines in such a way that suggested an obscene gesture pointed right at the camera. Derek glanced up, failing to hide his smile. “Subtle. I like it.”
His moody friend didn’t answer as he glowered at his old flip phone. The scar cutting his eyebrow seemed more pronounced whenever he glared. Derek started texting.
Hey Mr. Larsen! Nick’s here, and we’re about to destroy the lair of the MED.
He sent the text. “It’s stuff like this that makes you the best rogue in the group. Every rogue needs some daddy issues to get them up in the morning.”
“Yeah, well….” Nick trailed off. He grabbed a tortilla chip and dipped it in salsa before stuffing it in his mouth. He sputtered, the glare softening. “How many peppers did your mom stick in this?”
“Enough to make it delicious.” Derek leaned over, taking a chip with some salsa for himself. With a twist and a hiss, the soda opened under Nick’s fingers and he downed half of it in one gulp. Derek shook his head. “Milk’s better if it’s too hot for you.”
The storm eased out of Nick’s eyes, but he still shot Derek a glare. “It’s not too hot.“
“Don’t worry. We ran out of my abuela’s salsa yesterday.”
Nick grumbled, but said nothing intelligent.
Derek’s phone made a soft musical cord as Mr. Larsen replied.
What does MED mean?
Derek’s fingers flew over his phone. Mega Evil Dude. Acronym for the main bad guy in a campaign. We’ve been waiting years to destroy this guy.
Derek’s phone announced another text from the main group chat. He glanced at it. “Oh, Alejandra can’t make it. Someone called in sick at McDonalds, and she has to fill in.”
The disappointment in Nick’s eyes was so apparent it was almost comical. “Oh.” Derek shook his head, a slight smile on his face as he saw Mr. Larsen’s three dots appearing.
Thank you. Let me know once he leaves.
Derek sent a thumbs up emoji. He never knew what to text Walt. Derek didn’t want to mention to Walt that Grizzizzik, Nick’s character with major daddy issues, was about to break into Torraq’s lair because they needed to find more information about his father, Akshi. The evil snake man, the king of crime and a master of mana, on a mission to hunt down and kill Grizzizzik. Nick’s character had no reservations about slitting his own father’s throat. Clearly not a projection at all.
“Don’t worry, Nick. School will start soon, and you’ll see Alejandra again. Word of advice, you’ve got to ask her out before you turn eighteen. Things get messy once that happens.”
It took a great effort for Nick to lose the lost puppy look. “What?”
“Alejandra. You obviously like her. If you don’t ask her out now, you might have to wait until she turns eighteen.”
Nick’s glare was back, but not as moody as the one he gave the picture. “Shut up, Derek.” That was enough to bring him back to the present. “Seriously, where is Tyler? He’s usually here by now.”
“Do I detect annoyance in your voice?” Derek asked. Nick’s nose wrinkled, his head cocking to the side. “Is it because you hate acknowledging your feelings for Alejandra?” Rafael’s younger sister? It was the unspoken phrase hanging between them.
Nick’s eye twitched. “Seriously, man?”
This situation was ripe for teasing, but when Derek opened his mouth again, his special ringtone went off. “Make a choice! Take a chance! Receive! Your! Consequence!” It was a popular line from multiple CCNC tie-in novels. It was a cheesy catch phrase only the eighties could produce, which was why he adored it.
Derek flipped his phone over to see Tyler Clarke.
“Finally!” Derek swiped it, placing the phone to his ear. “Hello, dealer of consequences! Where are you?”
He heard a brief sigh. “Alright, so… this might be bad news for game night.”