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“Your brain is made of fat,” I replied. “You need fat for your brain.”
North smirked, rolling his eyes.
Silas laughed, and massaged my neck and scalp with one hand. “She’s right. She cooks and she’s smart. Let’s keep her.” His big hands were rough and not as precise as Kota’s or as soothing as Gabriel’s, but I enjoyed it.
As I cooked, Silas and North asked what I needed, and found things for me quickly. When I was almost done, I added barbeque sauce to the mix.
“How much are you adding?” North asked. “Are you measuring?”
“Not really,” I said.
“How do you know when it’s enough?”
“When it tastes good.” I stirred the sauce into the mixture of ground beef, bacon and beans. “There. Let it stew for a while. It’ll taste better if you let it sit.”
North gripped my hand over the spoon. He brought the spoon to his mouth, holding my hand as he took a bite. He let go and licked at his lips. “It’s simple, but it’s good.”
“What are we having?” Erica asked as she came into the kitchen.
“Cowboy stew,” Silas replied. “Sang’s recipe.”
Erica beamed. “We’re going to have to get together and swap recipes.”
I blushed. “I wasn’t sure what else to make. There’s so many people here.”
Erica waved me off. “Sometimes I just order pizza for them or we grill out. We’re flexible.” She bent over the pot, smelling deeply. “I think I’ll make cookies.”
“Should we help?” Silas asked.
“Nope. You’ve made dinner,” she said. “I’ll take care of dessert. You three go have fun.”
We tried to insist we could help or at least clean up but she wouldn’t allow us to remain in her kitchen.
Back in the living room, North and Silas went back to the couch. The others were playing some car race game on the big screen.
Luke was sitting alone in one of the bean bag double chairs. He waved me over to him. I slipped into the chair beside him. With the way the bean bag chairs worked, we were tilted in together, our hips touching. It felt more intimate.
Luke swept a finger across my cheek and brushed a lock of hair from my face. “So how do you like it?”
I blinked at him, confused.
“I mean the chairs,” he said. “The ones we got.”
I’d only sat down for a minute, but it was cozy. “It’s comfortable. I bet I could curl up in one and take a nap.”
“That’s perfect. We’ll keep them.”
I laughed, dropping my fingers across my mouth. “Would you have kept them if I said I didn’t like them?”
“Nope.”
“Is my opinion that important?”
“Yes.”
“But...” I hesitated, remembering what Gabriel had said about girls sometimes dissing themselves, but this was different. “I mean, what if you like them? You bought them so you should feel comfortable in them and not worry about my opinion.”
“All our opinions matter,” he said. “You’re one of us now.”
“Sang!” Gabriel’s voice cut through the chatter and the game music. “Come race the cars.”
A controller was tossed at us. I was teamed up with Nathan for the game, racing against Victor and Gabriel.
Nathan took one look at me and mouthed the word: cheat.
Easier said than done. Swimming cheating was one thing. How was I going to cheat now?
To start, I climbed away from Luke. Victor’s chair was closer to the screen, and I plopped down next to him. Victor beamed. He leaned into me, his side pressed to mine. My arm, because of the way I had to hold the controller, was neatly tucked under his.
The game started and I had plenty of trouble trying to figure out the right controls. As it was, I was dead last from the start. Nathan wasn’t doing too badly.
I tried bumping my car into Gabriel’s, and taking dangerous cuts across the street in the game just to be a block for Victor but it wasn’t helping. Every move I made just pushed me further behind.
Out of desperation, I nudged my elbow into Victor, hoping to distract him.
“Hey, hey,” he said in a low voice. He started nudging me back.
Well, if he’s going to do it...
I moved my hand from the controller, poking him in the stomach. His muscles flexed out of reaction. He laughed, nudging me over with his elbow and practically leaning over me, trying to get me to stop and trapping my arm against my body.
He managed to take the lead in the game. I went for curling my fingers and tickling.
“Sang!” he called out, cracking up. He kept leaning on me but I had given up trying to beat any of them so I left the controller in my lap.
My hands sought out his sides and I brushed my fingertips against his red polo shirt. “Yes, Victor?”
He grunted and dropped his controller, reaching for my hands and drawing them together until they were over my head. I struggled but he collected my wrists in one hand and his other moved over my stomach and he started to tickle.
“No!” I squealed, laughing and trying to twist and pull away from him. It didn’t help. His fingers found my sides and he traced delicately along my stomach. I was howling with laughter and in near tears. In order to find any relief, I was pressing myself close to him to trap his arm between us. His breath fell against my ear as he giggled.
“Hell yeah!” Nathan shouted, dropping the controller in his beanbag chair. He pumped his fist in the air. His car spun on the screen, declared the winner.
“God damn it,” Gabriel said. He glared over at us. “What the hell are you guys doing?”
“She’s cheating,” Victor said breathlessly through his laughter. He let me go but I was still in a fit of sniggering.
“That’s my Sang,” Nathan said. He leaned over in his beanbag with his hand up in the air. I slapped my palm against his for a loud high five.
“That’s it,” Gabriel said. “She’s on my team now.”
“Fine,” Nathan said. “Then I get Kota.”
“I’ll play,” Kota said. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor. He patted his palm to the spot next to him. “Sit next to me, Sang.”
“Watch out,” Nathan said as I pulled myself out of Victor’s chair. “She’ll get you. She fights dirty.”
I crossed the floor and sank to my knees next to Kota, sitting on my heels. I tried to give Kota my most innocent smile.
“She won’t cheat around me,” he said, his eyes narrowing at me but there was a slight curl to his lip. “She wouldn’t dare.”
“You get him, Sang,” Gabriel ordered.
I bit my lower lip a little and grasped the controller.
When the game started, I did nothing but play the game. Since I knew more about how the controls worked this time, I wanted to try to win. Unlike swimming where the boys were stronger and faster, video games kept us on an even field.
For a while, I was in the lead. I took a lot of risks, cutting corners with my car and driving on the wrong side of the road for extra speed bonuses. No matter how fast I was going, though, Kota was always right behind me. He was the hunter, I was the hunted.
I leaned into him, nudging my elbow into his ribs, hoping to gain a stronger lead. It made me uncomfortable that he was so close.
“Stop it,” he growled at me. A smirk slipped from the side of his mouth.
In the middle of the second lap, Kota’s car dashed around mine, claiming first place. I thought I could retake the lead by nipping his bumper and cutting around on the opposite side of the road and then take off. He seemed to anticipate this and instead of simply trying to move faster or work around me, he half slammed his car into mine, causing me to spin out of control. My car crashed into a tree and he took off.
“Huh,” I groaned at him.
He grinned but kept his eyes on the screen.
I was already far enough behind now that I wasn’t going to catch up. I poked Kota in the ribs, trying to tickl
e him.
“Sang,” he said in a warning voice. No matter how lightly I traced against his stomach, he wasn’t stopping. Just grinning.
“Do it,” Gabriel said. “Get him.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to do. Tickling wasn’t working. Gabriel’s car was right behind Kota’s. Out of desperation, I yanked the controller from Kota’s hands, tossing it behind me quickly so it rolled across the carpet. I returned to the game, pretending to be totally focused on it and innocent.
Silas and North hooted with laughter.
“Oh that’s it,” Kota said. He grabbed me around the waist and pushed me to the ground until I was on my stomach. I squealed, laughing and trying to wriggle free. He sat square on my butt, pressing my hips to the floor. He snatched my controller and tossed it away. Silas caught it, and took over my car, turning it the opposite way along the road, and purposefully smashing it into trees.
