AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I made Zach and me a plate of snacks to share, and he added some of what he liked to it. Before I could pick the plate up and walk out with it, Zach grabbed my shoulders and turned me around in his grip, so that my back was to the counter. He leaned down, leaning on the counter and effectively caged me in.
"Thank you for inviting me tonight," he said, brushing a strand of hair from my face.
"I'm glad you were available. And without you, I would never have won my first game ever."
"You've really never won before?"
"Really. I'm actually just so bad at games it isn't even funny. But I still love playing."
"Maybe you just needed me as a good luck charm," he quipped, smirking down at me as he leaned in. We hadn't kissed yet, but my stomach turned over, thinking about kissing him. It wasn't that I didn't want to, it was just that tonight didn't feel like the right time.
A high-pitched giggle at the entrance to the kitchen stopped Zach's movements, and he stood up straight, taking a step away from me. He grabbed my hand though, keeping us in contact. Both of us turned to look at the commotion, seeing Tiffany pulling Landon down to her level for a kiss. Immediately, I looked away, not wanting to watch her obvious display. Grabbing the plate of food, I looked back at Zach. He cleared his throat, and Landon's spine shot up straight as a rod. He looked over at us, his hands trailing down to our joined hands, and I could have sworn I saw anger flash in his eyes.
There was no way he was mad that I was holding hands with Zach when a second prior his lips had been Tiffany's. I rolled my eyes, pulling Zach to walk out of the kitchen. We barely squeezed past Tiffany and Landon because neither of them even took a step to the side. The whole time, Landon stared down Zach as though he was doing something wrong.
Finally past them, we went back to our seats at the table, where Andrew and Cooper were arguing over what game to play next.
"Perfect! Zach, break the tie. Should we play Dutch Blitz or Uno?" Andrew asked, looking up at Zach as he took his place.
"Well, if you don't want to lose, we should probably play Uno because I'm a professional Blitz player." Zach shrugged, his fake arrogance making everyone laugh.
"Well, now we have to play Blitz to put you in your place," Cooper decided, throwing the Uno card to the side. There were two packs of Dutch Blitz out, perfect for eight players. When Landon and Tiffany joined us again, oddly silent and weirdly behaving, Cooper passed out everyone's stack of matching cards.
"Landon, you have some major competition here," Andrew said, motioning to Zach.
"Please, no one is competition in Blitz," Landon scoffed, glaring at Zach. And though it was just a card game, I knew the glare had nothing to do with it. What Landon was so mad about, though, I had no idea.
"May the best Blitzer win," Zach teased, and if it were possible, I was sure that steam would have rolled out of Landon's ears.
This game was extremely cutthroat and fast-paced, everyone racing to get rid of their solitaire cards with community suit piles in the middle of the table. We were all standing up and throwing cards across the table, screaming at each other when someone beat the other to the stack they wanted to discard on. It was hilarious and stressful all at once, but we loved it.
Usually, Landon did win. But that didn't make the rest of us want to play it any less. Because the few times that someone else did beat Landon, we all celebrated.
"Blitz!" Both Zach and Landon yelled at the same time. But Zach had placed his final card down first, technically.
"A tie!" Andrew said, laughing with everyone else at the table.
"It wasn't a tie. Obviously, I put my card down first," Landon insisted, staring at Zach.
"No, you didn't," I snorted, rolling my eyes at his behavior.
"I did!" Landon said with a raised voice. Everyone's laughter died immediately.
"It's fine," Zach said quietly to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me into him. He placed a kiss on my head and started sorting all the cards. "We'll just play again."
From that point on, it was just incredibly awkward. No one really said much, and the second game was nowhere near as fun. When Landon yelled out Blitz with a smug expression directed at Zach, no one really responded or reacted. We all just quietly started picking up the cards.
"I think we should call it a night," Mandy said to Cooper, her eyes flicking over to me.
Sighing, I agreed. I thought it would be best for this terrible game night to just be over, because it was just too weird and awkward now. It made me mad, to be honest, because it wouldn't have been this way if Landon hadn't made it so.
And I knew I was also partially to blame. I was so mad when I saw the text from Landon saying that Tiffany would be joining. Knowing that would make me an uncomfortable seventh wheel, I'd called Zach up and asked him to come over too. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty because I realized that I shouldn't have done that. But how was I supposed to know that Landon would have a major problem with him?
"Yeah, baby. Why don't we go to my place and watch a movie?" Tiffany asked, pulling Landon in for a kiss. When she pulled away, I didn't miss how she looked over at me with a grin.
"Sure," Landon responded, obviously mad still.
Silently, everyone packed up their things, and I started to clear the table of the snack plates and bowls. Zach helped me, and we took everything to the kitchen. When we emerged, everyone was grabbing their bags and getting ready to walk out the door.
