The Boy Who Wore Boat Shoes

16⎜The Game

16⎜The Game

           “So, basically, you just try to talk to a stranger of the opposite gender for as long as possible?” I summed up the essential concept of the game that Scott had just tried explaining to me.

           “Yeah,” he nodded, just as another person magically appeared, floating over to us, and sitting down on Scott’s lap. She hugged his neck, and then planted a quick kiss on his cheek as he recoiled. It was the first time that I had seen her since the party. “Ew! Ira, get off of me! You weigh too much!”

           “Out of the two of us, I think that you’re the one who could really stand to lose some extra chub, not me,” the girl said, smirking at him. Scott stuck his tongue out, rolling his eyes as I merely watched the ease of the interaction between the two. “So, what are you two up to?”

           “Well, if you must know, Ari, I was just explaining to Eric, here, how to play The Game,” Scott told her, attempting push her small frame off of him, but she wouldn’t budge.

           “Wait,” I said, thinking about what he had just said, “the name of this game is ‘The Game’?”

           “Ferociously uncreative, isn’t it?” Ari laughed. She seemed happier than she typically was, but maybe that was just because of Scott’s presence. When Scott was around, she always appeared to be happier.

           “Indeed,” I agreed.

           “So, Scotty, have you explained the point system yet?” Ari questioned, twisting so that she could look directly at the dark-haired boy who had been addressed.

           “I was getting to that,” Scott grumbled with a shake of his head. Completely ignoring the gorgeous girl who was seated on top of him, he looked over to me, and began to explain. “You gain a point for every minute spent talking to the other person, get another two points if you land their number, get three points for contact, five points if they kiss you on the spot, and ten if they ask you to bang.”

           “Why do I have a feeling that the last two ways to earn points don’t actually happen too often…or ever?” I questioned, my eyes roaming around the vast range of people that all possessed their own agendas. Currently, we were just sitting on a quad in the mid-afternoon sun. I had been tanning because it happened to be a Sunday and we didn’t have classes, and then Scott somehow found me, and after talking about the frat like he was trying to convert me to another religion, he posed the idea of playing The Game, as I now knew it was affectionately called.

           “Because they don’t,” Ari said flatly, extending her long, bare legs so that they brushed across the grass. “One time Scott got slapped by some girl, so that got him three points for contact—oh, that reminds me! You can’t be the one to initiate anything but the conversation.”

           I nodded, understanding the basic outline of The Game. “So, you ready to play, Wilson?” Scott challenged, finally managing to push Ari off of him. She rolled onto the grass, not bothering to move for a moment, before reluctantly propping herself up.

           “I think so,” I replied with a shrug.

           “Okay, Ari, you go first,” Scott instructed.

           “No,” she said simply, moving her head back and forth so that her long ponytail of curls swayed with the motion. “Scott, you’re the one who brought The Game up, so you can go first.

           “Fine,” he grumbled, getting up from the grass with as much dignity as he could muster. “Eric, pick someone.”

           “Uh,” I dragged the syllable out as I mentally took a panorama shot of the busy scene before me. My eyes zeroed in on a particular girl. She wearing a large sweatshirt despite the excellent weather, and had short straight hair of a caramel color. From where I was, she didn’t look overly attractive, but she wasn’t ugly, either. Then again, my eyes sucked, so what did I know? She was sitting over in the distance, headphones plugged in as she read through a book. Her lips moved as her eyes traveled down the page, and figuring that The Game was just pure randomness, I elected her as our first unfortunate victim. Discreetly pointing over to the girl, I said, “Her.”