A Simple Life Ch. 27-35

"I was just wondering what kind of tea you would like Avery."

"Th-The green chai would be nice."

"Good choice. That's what I'm having." Briar says. "Milk and honey?"

"Yeah. Thank you B-Briar."

"No problemo Avereeno." She says, trying way too hard to act cool and casual. God did I know that feeling. "That's how I like it too. Sweet and milky and...yeah. Like that."

"Hey." I say. "Y-you play FoF?"

"Um, well, I used to." She says. "I haven't found a group since moving here for college. But I sure miss it." She hesitates a moment before blurting out. "Are you looking for a player?"

"I think so." I say. "We'll have to talk to Winona. She's the Fable Master."

"That would be so awesome!" Briar does little lift from her toes, sort of like a hop without leaving the ground. "I can play any role. I know all the rules."

"I'm a nature wizard." I say proudly. "Elf."

"Nature wizard?" She says. "Cooool!"

I giggle and she giggles too.

"Oh my God, you two are such nerds." Kayla says with a good humored tease. "Here." She puts frosty glass of mock mojito into my hand. "Go cast this at your Fable Master, mister wizard."

"Ahem!" I stand tall and raise my chin. "That's madam wizard, thank you very much." As Briar laughs and Kayla cocks her head curiously I spin on my heel and take the drink to my date.

***

Chapter 31

I walk around to the front of the sofa. Riley, Cain, and Winona pause their conversation as I come up to offer the drink. With a smile Winona takes it from me.

"Thanks Sprout." She pats the open cushion beside her. I was going to go back for my tea but I wasn't about to ignore the invitation. As I sit down at her side her grin brightens just a little more.

"Sprout?" Riley laughs.

I grin. "I-I-I like it."

"That's adorable." Kayla says as she leans in from behind to pass Riley and Cain their mojitos. "I still can't get over you two are going out."

"J-Just a f-first date." I correct her.

"When he asked I couldn't resist." Relaxing back Winona shoots me a little lingering glance as she takes a long sip of her drink. "Avery's been such a big help to me. A one man Ehkolie welcoming committee. Helping me move in, joining my Fables group, he even helped with my sofa decision. He is a total sweetheart." She hides a grin behind her drink and quips just before taking another sip. "Plus he's fuckin hot."

My whole face warms with a pink blush as Riley and Cain chuckle. As they laugh I unconsciously scooch closer to Winona, as if from some weak need for protection, and without hesitation she slides her near arm around my shoulders. For a moment I freeze up at this unexpected show of public affection so soon, but I welcome it and after a moment quickly melt into her side. Settling into the nook of her arm, unable to wipe the silly smile from my face, I blush even harder and laugh along with them.

Feeling bolstered I look up at Winona. "H-Hey have you m-met Babe yet?"

"The doorbell?"

"Oh, he's much more than that." Kayla says.

"Babe." I say up toward the ceiling. "This is Winona Crow."

"Good evening Miss Crow." Comes the AI's melodious voice. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Winona gives the ceiling a weird look. "Uh...hi?"

I giggle. "H-He'll talk with you if you want. Listen. Hey B-Babe. C-Can you guess where Winona is from?

"Based on her accent I would guess Miss Winona was raised somewhere in the Northern Great Plains area of the United States, Minnesota, or the Prairie provinces of Canada."

Winona looks at me, astonished. "What?"

"Why d-do you call her Miss and not Ms or Mrs?"

"Based on her age, appearance, her lack of a wedding band, and preferences chosen by Kayla I opted for Miss." He answers. "Though I will address you however you wish Miss Crow."

Winona looks at her hand and back up. "It can see me!?"

"And what is Winona drinking Babe?"

"Miss Crow is drinking a virgin mojito." Babe answers. "Kayla makes a mean mock mojito."

Winona looks around at us in surprise. "It's listening to us!?"

"Listening, watching, sensing movement and temperature, taking note of preferences, monitoring vitals in case of emergency, and so much more." Briar says as she comes around with two steaming mugs of tea. She offers me mine which I accept gratefully. "The MD/O AI monitors and manages everything happening within the Meadow. Babe is just this pod's expression of the master computer. Each user chooses their own pod's personality."

I look up, taken aback at Briar's unexpected knowledge of the subject. "MD/O?"

"Municipality Directing/Operating. MD/O, Meadow. Get it?" Briar forgoes the empty chair and sits down cross-legged right on the floor in front of the television, cupping her tea in both hands. I catch a mildly weirded out look between Cain and Riley which makes me smile. I think I liked Briar. She continues. "She can direct power for optimal energy usage, water lawns and gardens for minimal wastage, contact authorities in case of unauthorized entry, the list goes on. And we're just starting to tap her potential. She is a prototype for now but if this works out you're going to see Meadows begin popping up all over the country." Briar looks around at the confused faces staring back at her. "Oh, uh, she is why I'm here. My field is AI development."

"Wow." I say. "Can you believe that?"

"I can believe it." Winona shifts uneasily. "Not sure I like it."

"Well I don't know about any of that stuff." Kayla says as she comes around to settle into the chair to my left. "All I know is that Babe is a godsend. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have him to look after me. Love you Babe!"

"I love you too Kayla." Comes the computer's warm yet sterile voice.

"Hey Babe!" Blurts Riley, way too loudly as always. "Do you watch Kayla fuck?"

"Pfff!" Kayla throws her head back. "Ha ha ha ha!"

"I monitor all activity within the pod." He says. "But I assure you that data collected is protected, encrypted, anonymized..."

"Yeah, but YOU still watch." Riley chortles. "You perv!"

"I am a computer and have no sex instinct." Babe replies. I swear I catch a hint of offense in his tone. "It is impossible for me to be a perv."

"Bet he pops a virtual boner." Riley lowers her voice to normal volume as if that would keep Babe from hearing. "Total perv."

"I don't care." Kayla says with a devious grin. "I'm glad he watches. Makes it more...nasty."

Winona shakes her head. "Kinky Kayla hasn't changed a bit I see."

"She's only gotten worse." Cain says.

"Worse...or better?" Kayla quips. "Whose to say?"

"Who isn't to say?" He retorts. "Besides Briar you've had the rest of us. Or has she gotten you too?"

"No." Briar shrinks small, blushing just like I had moments ago, hiding her bashful grimace behind her tea.

"Not yet." Kayla winks, causing Briar to squirm.

At my side I sense Winona tense up. She laughed like the rest of us but her body told a different story. It must have been hard to hear about somebody that you fell in love with sharing themselves so freely, even if you were over them.

Wanting to provide a distraction for both the embarrassed Briar and uncomfortable Winona I say. "Hey! Um, B-B-Briar plays FoF."

"Oh really?" Winona sits up.

"Yes!" Briar says, clutching to my welcome lifeline. "Avery mentioned you might be looking for a player?"

"Players." Winona confirms. "So far I've only got Avery."

"Well count me in." Briar says. "If you'll have me."

"Heck yeah! Welcome aboard."

Briar sits up tall, a huge grin on her face.

"Hey! FoF?" Riley cuts in. "That's what that Cryptical Soul group you watch plays, isn't it?" She looks to her boyfriend and pats his hand. "He acts like a bad ass but he's actually such a geek at home. He watches those game streams. He tells his buddies he's watching soccer! HA!" She grabs his arm and gives him a shake. "They just sit there talking for hours! It's so BORING! I don't know how he can stand it."

"YOU watch CS?" Winona guffaws. "No way. You?"

"Yeah, yeah." Cain rolls his eyes. "It's your fault. I started looking into Fables after hearing you talk about it. Seemed kinda cool so I looked into it. Caught the show live once and...I got hooked."

"Nice. Well, do you have a group yet?"

"Nah." He shakes his head. "I don't actually play."

"HEY!" Shouts Riley, a step behind the rest of us. "Winona's making a group!"

He laughs. "I heard Riley."

"YOU could join!" She shakes him again, harder. "You're always watching. You could actually play!"

"I've never played." He says. "I wouldn't even know how honestly."

"Bullshit." Winona says. "If you watch CS you're way ahead of the game Besides, Avery is new too."

"I'm pretty damn busy with work nowadays." He says. "Besides..."

"I'm playing too!" Riley insists with a flounce and a jiggle. Social creature that she was if there was one thing Riley couldn't stand it was to be left out of something going on. "If he's playing, I'm playing."

"I haven't even..." Cain protests, only to be cut off again.

"Kayla." Riley says. "Join us! Don't leave me alone with the nerds."

"Me?" Kayla glances behind her as if someone might be hiding there that Riley was talking to. "Me!?"

"You always said you'd try it some day Kay." Winona says. "Nothing saying you have to stick with it."

"I don't know." She says dubiously. "FoF? Elves and dwarves and shit? Not really my kind of fantasy."

During the brief pause in the conversation I slip in a jest. "You could p-p-play a succubus!"

Winona grins and Briar snorts tea from her nose as she laughs mid-slurp.

"A suck your butt!?" She jokes right back. "What kind of game has ass suckin? I just KNEW those weird dice had to be anal beads."

"NO!" I peep. "Succubus!"

"What are you talking about?" She looks up. "Babe! What is a Succabis?"

"A succubus is a demon or supernatural entity in folklore, in female form, that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity."

"A dreamy sex demon!?" Kayla perks up, not only not insulted but deeply flattered by my suggestion. "Now you're talking my language. I could totally do that."

Briar and I are killing ourselves with laughter.

Kayla looks across to Cain. "I'll do it if you'll do it."

"He's doing it!" Riley exclaims.

"What do you say man?" Winona asks him.

"HE'S DOING IT!"

Cain looks around at us...and quickly caves. Deep down he wanted to play. "Alright, fine. I'll give it a try I guess."

"I told you!"

"Well." Winona says happily. "That was easy." She looks at me. "I guess we've got ourselves a group Sprout."

"B-Best group ever." I smile.

"Sexiest group ever." Kayla adds. "That is for damn sure."

***

Chapter 32

We listen to tunes and chat a bit more about Fables of Fantasy and even get a tentative date set for our first game. As we talk a really nice energy was already developing among us, a sort of instant chemistry of just the right sort of disparate personalities clicking into place with each other. Winona was the leader and visionary, Kayla both the social glue and lubricant, Cain the practical one and stoic wiser head, Riley was pure enthusiasm, Briar the brains and passion, and me...well, I was just the lucky sap who was happy to be tagging along for the ride. The more we talked the more I really liked this group. I was already smitten with Winona, Kayla was my oldest friend, Briar and I had hit it off right away, and after all these years of knowing each other the more popular Cain and Riley were actually starting to warm up to me as I gradually felt confident enough to open up little by little. It was nice! And I was really looking forward to my Althea meeting all of their alter-egos.

Eventually snacks are broken out and the subject of the movie comes up.

"Let's go with a fantasy movie to get us in the mood." Winona suggests. "It might get your imaginations fired up. Help you figure out what you might want to play."

"Fine, but I'm not sitting through some three hour snoozefest." Insists Kayla. "Babe. Let's see what we got."

"Yes Kayla."

"Can't go wrong with Tolkien." Briar says excitedly as the television screen lights up behind her with a host of fantasy options already listed for us. "Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit would be good."

Out of the corner of my eye I catch Winona give the ceiling an annoyed glance at Babe listening in and responding as it had. The AI interpreting the conversation and reacting to it appropriately clearly bothered her.

"I'm not sitting through some three hour snoozefest." Kayla repeats flatly.

"She's not kidding. I tried to get Kayla to watch Fellowship three times." Winona says. "She fell asleep every time." She pats my knee and gets up. "I'm gonna grab my specs."

Leaning forward, elbows on his knees, Cain peruses the options. "Sucks. Trash. Dog shit."

"But tell us how you really feel." Chuckles Kayla. "What a critic!"

"Cain is soooo picky with his shows and movies." Riley says. "Yet he watches that game of his for four hours a week! Such a nerd." Without even looking Cain reaches over and tweaks one of Riley's nipples through her shirt. "OOO! Ha ha ha ha!"

Cain's serious expression cracks into a little grin as he continues to look. "Nope. Not bad, but meh. Too long."

Back from getting her glasses from her jacket Winona flumps down beside me. For some her glasses might have spoiled the cool look she had going on, but for me she looked even sexier. Her left arm slips right back around me where it had been before. In her easy, natural way she runs a hand up and down my back like we were longtime lovers. I liked that. I liked that a lot. I liked everything about everything right now a lot. "See anything you like Sprout?"

"Oh! Um. I-I'm good with whatever you g-guys want to watch."

"I got it." Briar says after shifting around to face the screen. "The Princess Bride. Something for everyone. Fantasy, action, comedy, romance." She smirks at Kayla. "Plus it's short."

"Romance? I'm sold." Kayla brightens. "What do you say Cain?"

"A classic." He shrugs. "Sure."

"You heard'em Babe."

Babe takes it upon himself to lower the blinds and dim the lights as everyone settles in. Kayla shifts her chair to sit directly to the left of the sofa. "If everyone gets cozy there's another spot on the sofa." Kayla says to Briar.

"I can give you the chair." Cain offers.

"I'm good." Briar says as she stretches out on her side on the living room rug, her head propped up with her right hand while her left starts picking away at the bowl of popcorn she'd been given.

"Lights, camera, action." Kayla points at the television and a second later the title fills the screen.

As a group we are engrossed as the movie plays. The others laugh and gasp and talk to the screen at all of the appropriate parts. For me though I sit and watch in wide-eyed silence. The movie is an absolute roller coaster of emotions. The grandpa, the grandson, their bond, the tragedy of a true love found and parted, the triumph of it united again, the group of misfits and their struggles, the quest to avenge a father taken too early, and to top it all off the beautiful blonde princess who was named...Buttercup! Every line, every scene, every joke and story beat felt as if it was created just for me.

In the princess I saw the most perfect damsel, the very woman I wished I could become in those times when the mood struck me. In the hero I saw a man wise enough to know that true love was the first and most important thing and was brave enough to act on it. In the giant I saw the outcast, the loner, who had found a family that accepted him. In the Spaniard I saw a noble man brought low by the loss of a beloved father figure, a state I would find myself in far too soon. In the prince I saw a vain man caught up in looks and appearances over substance. In the wicked six-fingered man I saw the cancer that would take my grandpa away from me and my own cowardice at not trying harder to make him give up smoking when there was still time. And even in the Sicilian I saw the clever fool who thought he had it figured out but ended up with his face in the dirt. With each of these characters I saw some aspect of myself reflected back at me. But what got me, what really got me, was the grandpa and grandson. The grandpa might not be cool or as exciting as a baseball video game, but he loved his boy more than anything in the world. It was so beautiful, but right now it was a lot to deal with. Too much. With my chest already tight and tears blurring my vision I am trying so hard, SO HARD, to hold myself together as the movie comes to its conclusion. Already exhausted from dealing with so many other people for an extended period of time I had not the reserves to deal with this. I was not strong enough. The final "As you wish" shatters me completely.

The credits roll and the lights brighten as the others are all smiles at the movie we'd just witnessed. The totally normal reaction of normal people for such a heartwarming tale. As for myself...I let out a loud gasping sob then bolt for the door.

"Avery!?" Kayla calls after me.

In sock feet I run from the house, my frantic eyes searching for somewhere, anywhere, to hide. What I see instead are a pair of Kayla's neighbors looking at me as if I were a crazy man. Retreating from them I dart around behind the house. I needed to be alone. I just needed to be alone!

Out back there was an open field but I spot a chest high hydrangea bush alongside the back wall of Kayla's pod and that it is what I make for. I rush in behind it and squat down into a little ball. Covering my face with both hands...I weep.

Only now, now that I was alone and hiding my shame behind a bush, again, do the other thoughts come. Everyone was having such fun...and I had to go and make that big scene and ruin it. I didn't mean too, I never mean too, but I just didn't know what else to do. I ruined the mood, the movie, the party, the FoF group, my new friendships, and every good thing that had happened these past few hours. Why did I think I could do this? People like me don't do parties. Worst of all though, I just ruined my first date with Winona. It had started out so good. I really liked her. She actually liked me! I thought there was magic happening. She could have been the one. All that was gone now because I wasn't even strong enough to watch a nearly G-rated family film.

I ruined everything.

I realized then how hopeless it really was. I couldn't even get through a first date without messing everything up, what hope did a loser like me have at finding love. I was alone because I deserved to be alone. I didn't deserve that kind of happiness. Grandpa will be so disappointed in me.

***

Chapter 33

It is not long before my feelings sink even lower. Around the front of the house I can hear Kayla looking for me.

"Avery?"

"He ran around back." Says one of the neighbors I'd startled. "Dude was freaking out."

Hunkering down deeper I peek around through the lush, leafy branches of the shrub and see Kayla run about ten yards out before stopping and scanning the open parkland. My heart sinks further as I see Winona walk swiftly out to join her. The greatest mercy I could have received right now was if the Earth had opened up there and then and swallowed me whole. Oh how I wished they'd just go away.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know." Kayla says.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know." Kayla's shoulders slump. "He's always been...different." Bringing her hands to her mouth she calls out. "AVERY!"

"He couldn't have gone far." Winona looks around and, like I had moments ago, her eyes soon catch sight of the only hiding spot in the area. Studying the bush closely she turns and starts walking my way. OH NO! I shift deeper behind the cover though I knew it was hopeless and cover my weak, crying face again. "Here you are."