Rafael stood up to take his turn bowling once Derek was done.

“Thanks, man,” Derek whispered. “Dropped to zero and two automatic failed death saves. Milo must have infuriated those trolls.”

“No problem. It’s what clerics are there for.” Rafael grabbed his bowling ball and hefted it.

“Ugh, not that I helped much. Both my crossbow and my flame thrower just failed.” Derek checked his phone again as he walked over and took Rafael’s spot. Meaning the seat next to Hazel, and away from Emma, whose eyes were ablaze with anger. Rafael sighed as he headed toward the lane.

“Hey! You’re on a date with me!” Emma said.

Rafael did his best to take his turn fast. Once he got his measly number of pins, Hazel got up to take hers. Derek was back on his phone, and Emma glared at him.

Rafael hardly sat down when a worker came over with a pizza and an order of cheesy breadsticks.

“Oh, good! Food’s here!” Derek said.

Emma stared at the pizza and breadsticks and scrunched up her nose. “Seriously?”

“Cheesy and covered in grease, just how I like it.” Derek grabbed a piece.

Emma turned her nose at the pizza. “Tryouts for Beauty and the Beast are exactly a month away. If I eat this crap, my face will look like crap.”

“That’s, uh, a month is a while, Emma. You… should be fine,” Rafael said.

Emma turned her glare toward Rafael. “It’s still not good for you.”

“Sure, yeah. Granted, as long as you’re not coming over to the Bowling Pin every day to eat it, you’ll be fine.” Rafael took a pizza slice that was far larger than he expected. He took a bite that had a hint of bread with mostly greasy cheese. He tried to smile as he chewed. “Definitely not something one should eat all the time.”

Derek stood up. “I wonder if they have any marinara sauce for the breadsticks.”

Emma pursed her lips as Derek left. Emma was more than happy to stomp off and take her turn. Rafael placed his arm around Hazel as she took a piece. “Goodness, this is dripping in grease.”

“It’s disgusting, is what it is.” Emma turned over her shoulder like she was afraid Derek couldn’t hear her. “I can’t believe he bought it!”

Hazel chewed on the cheese, trying to smile. Derek returned with a few containers of marinara sauce and ranch before it was his turn to bowl. Halfway through, Rafael rolled for Ezekiel. He healed with his preserve life before smacking something with his spiritual weapon.

A silence had fallen over the four of them. Rafael thought it was because they were all focused on eating, but with the way Derek and Emma were sizing each other up, he couldn’t assume that in the slightest.

They each went another round, with Emma glaring at Derek as she ate her pizza. Derek ignored her as he enjoyed his slice, as well as two other cheesy breadsticks. Rafael and Hazel chuckled at each other’s attempts at bowling, giving small words of encouragement, but Derek and Emma remained in a moody silence.

Ezekiel had again hit preserve life, and he rolled a nat one on an attempted hit with his spiritual weapon. Sure, he was a cleric, but he didn’t remember how many times he usually hit preserve life. He was tempted to check his phone himself.

“Ranch, Emma?” Derek asked as Rafael and Hazel switched spots.

Emma looked ready to bite his head off. “No, I don’t want ranch. You know I think it’s disgusting!”

“Oh, do you?”

“Yes! Ranch was created in bigfoot’s armpit, and no one should trust it.”

Rafael raised an eyebrow, then glanced at Derek. His friend shrugged. “Honestly, Emma, you have a long list of things you don’t like.”

Emma stood up, and Rafael waited for the blow up to happen. “You don’t think I know what’s going on? You don’t think I know the gossip? I know Eric and Baily are putting you up to this. Their ridiculous reverse kiss the girl plot.” She placed her hands on her hips. “I can play that game, too.”

Derek stopped mid chew, staring at Emma. She glared at him. Rafael wasn’t sure if it was his place to point out a dribble of grease running down Derek’s chin or not. Ezekiel’s character sheet came into view. Rafael forced himself not to react as he watched Ezekiel’s hit points drop, then drop even quicker until they settled on four. The one silver lining in all this was Ezekiel wouldn’t make a nature check after this. It was a relief that the lycanthropy was out of his system. But four hit points were still nerve-wracking.

“And you?” Derek stood up to face her. He wiped his chin, smearing the grease. “You think I don’t know the people you’re talking to?”

Rafael hesitated before reaching out and finding Hazel’s hand. He wasn’t sure what Derek was attempting with this tactic. He fought between wanting to interrupt and being too afraid to.

“What are you talking about?” Emma asked.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Derek’s eyes narrowed. “Why the hell are you talking to Akshi and Pippa?”

Emma blinked. There was a moment of silence that seemed to last for a while until Rafael realized it was because time had frozen and he needed to roll.

Ezekiel was already casting healing wounds on himself. He tried rolling for the spiritual weapon, but didn’t roll high enough to pierce the armor. Eleven hit points didn’t make him as nervous, but considering he didn’t know what was happening, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Time resumed, and Emma narrowed her eyes. “Who the hell is Akshi?”

Derek frowned. “So… you don’t deny Pippa is talking to you?”

“Of course Pippa is talking to me. She’s hilarious and has amazing ideas of how to get back at a man.”

This caused Derek’s eye to twitch. Emma kept her hands on her hips, daring Derek to respond.

“She’s a succubus!” Derek blurted.

Emma remained as still as ever, waiting. Rafael stared at her, expecting a reaction, when it dawned on him. Emma was still waiting for him to speak. She was acting like she had the high ground in this fight. Things clicked into place, and Rafael slowly stood and moved so he was next to Derek.

“She can’t see them in their magical form,” Rafael whispered. “She thinks they’re regular people.”

Derek kept staring at Emma, then realization hit him, too. “Ohhhh.”

Emma narrowed her eyes. “What are you ‘ohhh’ing about?”

“Pippa, she has a… friend? Co-worker?” Derek motioned with his hands. “Who’s the other person you see with Pippa?”

Her brows furrowed. “Asher?”

“Asher? Okay, okay. And… what does this Asher look like?”

Emma folded her arms. “Why?”

“His… eyes? What color are his eyes?” Derek asked.

Emma looked at him like he was a child. “Brown.”

“Yeah. Okay. And… nothing red or black on him at all?” Derek motioned over his entire body.

Emma unfolded her arms. “Why are you being so weird?”

Derek seemed frozen in place, enough for Rafael to glance around to see if it was his turn to roll for Ezekiel again, but he didn’t see any dice. Instead, Derek cleared his throat. “No reason.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “God, I hate you sometime.”

“We should really break up,” Derek said.

“Don’t tempt me.” She pushed past him toward the restrooms.

Derek turned around, watching her leave. “So… are we broken up?”

She didn’t answer. She kept walking, going down the hall and out of sight, though everyone in the building heard her slam the door to the women’s restroom.

Time froze, and Rafael rolled for cure wounds again. He must have taken a golden mana vial, because it didn’t mark itself on the page. He rolled two d8’s, though, which he remembered was a higher level slot. Someone got thirteen more hit points.

Hazel quietly placed her bowling ball back on the rack, then brushed her hands as she headed toward the bathroom. Rafael panicked, reaching out to her. “Hazel.”

“She went to the bathroom, Rafael.” Hazel said this as though this should all make sense to him. It didn’t. He didn’t realize what his girlfriend was doing until she turned toward the bathroom.

“Oh, god, is she going to talk to her?” Rafael asked.

“Girl code,” Derek mumbled. “If one goes to the bathroom, every girl who knows her must follow.”

“Don’t pretend you understand.”

“I don’t.” Derek sank back into the plastic chair. The two of them were quiet for a moment. Rafael almost said something when he saw his experience bar filling up on the character sheet. He looked at it, seeing the numbers rise before coming to a stop.

5,360/6,500 XP

All that fighting, and still no level five. Of course, it would be a while before Ezekiel reached level five, since he hadn’t been gaining the experience points like everyone else. He had a little over a thousand experience points to go before leveling up.

“Human.” Derek softly pounded a fist against his forehead. “I… didn’t treat her as a human.”

Rafael glanced at him. “What?”

“I’m… an asshole, aren’t I?”

“An uncomfortable question with an uncomfortable realization.” Rafael settled into the chair next to him. Rafael honestly didn’t know how to sugar coat it. Derek had treated her horribly throughout this date. “At least you’re figuring this out now and can do something about it. I suppose it was ridiculous of all of us to assume Emma actually saw what we see.”

“No high schooler would willingly follow a snake person and a lady with glowing red eyes and do whatever they wanted without some sort of pushback. Or at least questions,” Derek said.

“Maybe they both cast disguise self on themselves.”

“Which means Emma is in as much danger as us, if not more so. And I just made it so she never talks to me again.” Derek rubbed his face. “Well… shit.”

Rafael glanced at the hall leading to the bathroom. Hazel was near Emma. Who knows what Pippa or Akshi told Emma. It made him uncomfortable enough to stand up. “I’m… going to make sure…”

“Akshi or Pippa aren’t sneaking in to kidnap them?” Derek asked.

“Yeah.” Rafael was relieved Derek understood.

Derek stood up. “I’ll meet you in a few minutes. I gotta go buy some Reese’s.”

Rafael waited in the hallway, hearing their muffled talk. At least there wasn’t screaming or sobbing. They sounded okay, so he remained by the wall. Which is when he thought about all the spells to pretend like there was talking to mask that no one was in there. Like the spell Milo did to conjure up a fake Ezekiel as a distraction for Akshi and Pippa.

He pulled out his phone, ignoring the missed group text and went straight to Hazel. You okay?

He got a thumbs up emoji for that, and Rafael rubbed the side of his face. Derek returned, holding the Reese’s behind his back. They sounded like they were going to be longer, and Rafael was fighting the urge to open the door and check.

“Did Milo reach level five?” Rafael asked, trying to distract himself.

“No. Close, though. 6,120 experience points. Most likely, the next session we have, he’ll reach level five.”

“Nice. Ezekiel’s at 5,360.”

“Not too bad. Ezekiel might have to do some solo adventures, though.”

Rafael kept staring at the door. “Yeah, I’m already thinking about him going with Hraktar and Princess Clarissa to kill some creatures to get experience points.”

“He could just go alone,” Derek said.

Rafael shook his head. “Too dangerous. If anything goes wrong, Hraktar and the princess could help. Pippa and Akshi are still out there.”

“Yeah.” Derek nodded. “That’s a smart idea.”

“It wasn’t too hard not being there during a battle, was it?”

Derek’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, it was. I don’t know how Nick does it.”

“Poor guy doesn’t have any other choice,” Rafael said.

They were quiet again as Rafael thought about Walt. He didn’t like the man at all. Walt knew way too well what he was doing and toed the line far too close. It would continue to put pressure on Nick until their friend acted out. Then Nick would be the one getting in trouble. The entire situation made him feel helpless. He remembered what it felt like to be helpless. It was a nightmare.

“There’s… something we can do for Nick, right?” Derek asked.

Rafael sighed, resting his head against the wall. “All we can do is be his friend. Which feels insulting to say out loud, but it’s also… everything. If he doesn’t have a support system outside of home…” Rafael again trailed off, thinking about his own growing-up years. He remembered when he was thirteen and had a fever while at school. He had quickly finished his homework in class, then set his head down on the desk and slept the rest of the time. It was incredibly selfish, thinking back, not to go home. He should have gone home and kept his other classmates safe from an illness. But the thought of returning home with Jack sleeping off a hangover terrified him so much, he stayed at school. Stayed with friends. Where he felt safe. He couldn’t explain how desperately he needed Derek and Nick to do nothing more than be there.

The bathroom door opened, and Emma and Hazel walked out, their arms looped together with Emma’s head on Hazel’s shoulder. Rafael felt the stress leave his body.

“Hey, you alright?” Rafael asked both of them.

“We’re fine,” Hazel said.

Derek lifted the package of Reese’s peanut butter cups to Emma. Confusion came into her eyes before she glanced at Derek.

“I’m sorry. Take the Reese’s and please don’t talk to Pippa or Asher again. They’re trouble, and… I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

Emma nodded, taking the candy. “I’ll try.”

“I… need your assurance you won’t. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Emma sighed, opening the Reese’s. “Fine. Let’s go bowling.”

“That’s the spirit,” Rafael said.

Rafael exchanged a look with Derek as the two girls passed them. Emma wouldn’t understand. How could she? She was still in incredible danger, and Derek needed to watch out for her. Derek seemed to understand this at the same time. Derek glanced at the floor, rubbing his arm before following quietly behind Emma. They would have to keep watching Emma to keep her safe. At least until they got rid of Pippa.