by Kitty Parker
I blinked a few times and stood up, making my way over to the door. "Talk…outside…yeah…"
If Tully was at all weirded-out by my trance-like behavior, he didn't let on. He just led me down the hall and the stairs before stepping out of the dorm, holding the door for me as I followed.
"Thanks," I mumbled as we began to make our way across Rawlings Green. "Um…where are we going?"
"Beebe Lake."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Privacy."
Oh shit.
We were going to have The Talk.
I didn't want to have The Talk. I wanted nothing whatsoever to do with The Talk.
Then again, it wasn't as though I had much of a say in the matter. What was I supposed to do, turn tail and make a run for the Mews? That would almost certainly make things worse, not to mention the fact that Tully was at least twice as fast as I was and could easily stop me from getting away.
I decided to suck it up.
When we reached the lake, Tully sat down on the grassy bank and patted the ground next to him, indicating that I should join him.
I did so, albeit hesitantly, then waited for him to speak. For a good few minutes, he said nothing and simply stared out across the glass-like water at a family of Canadian geese swimming around near the center. Their slow, graceful movements created ripples in the otherwise placid lake that moved outward in concentric circles before disappearing altogether. It was the type of peaceful scene that artists strived to capture with their watercolors, oil paints, and cameras, knowing all the while that their efforts were in vain; no one could convey the beauty of simple movements with a still medium.
"How are you feeling?"
"Um…I'm…better, thanks," I replied unsurely.
Tully nodded. "Good, good."
There was a prolonged moment of silence. I got the impression that my companion was taking some time to gather his thoughts.
"I, um…I sort of…heard…" he confessed.
I was confused. "Heard what?"
He hesitated. "About your, uh…your dream."
My eyes widened. "Amory told you?" My ex had been the only one I'd mentioned the dream to and then only because he'd threatened to withhold my DVDs of House if I didn't tell him what I'd done to his roommate. That threat always worked. I needed my Hugh Laurie time.
Tully rushed to Amory's defense. "No! No…I, um…I knew he'd talked to you about me, and I kind of…bugged him until he told me. It…actually explained a lot."
I was impressed. Getting Amory to betray secrets would've taken some pretty intense pestering skills.
Tully and I slipped into an awkward silence…again.
"I'm sorry," he finally whispered.
I didn't reply, not quite knowing what to say to this.
He ran a hand through his dark red hair - a habit of his when he was nervous or frustrated. "I…messed things up. A lot. And if…if I could do it over again and fix things, I would, you know."
He seemed genuinely remorseful, which was certainly a plus, but I really didn't want to launch into an analysis of what had gone wrong - it would open up too many old wounds for my liking. It was better to just pick up where we'd left off.
I inhaled deeply. "Can…can we just…move on? Forget it ever happened?"
"It's not exactly an easy thing to forget about," he pointed out with a somewhat bitter smile.
I sighed. "I know. Let's…let's just not talk about it. We won't ever mention it, and we can just move on and…and be…friends again."
He perked up. "Friends?"
"Yeah."
He thought this over before nodding. "I think we should give it a shot."
"Good."
I was stumped as to what I should do at this point. Were we supposed to shake hands like we'd made a pact? Hug like we'd actually resolved our issues instead of agreeing to ignore them? Ask the Senate to approve our treaty?
I was a chronically indecisive person. Seriously, if someone put a gun to my head and asked me "paper or plastic," I'd have a hard time coming up with an answer. Luckily for me, Tully was well aware of this tendency and took the initiative, shifting around to face me.
"Hug?"
"Hug," I affirmed, holding out my arms for him.
Giving me that lopsided smile of his, he pulled me into a warm embrace. He certainly seemed happy that we were on speaking terms again, anyway.
"Oh," he added as an afterthought. "Sorry I was such a moody ass last weekend. I guess I was just pissed that you were ignoring me again."
"It's alright. Water under the bridge and all that." I had a sudden thought. "Hey, do you want to come over to my room to play Monopoly with the girls and me tonight?" I inquired, figuring that it would be a step in the right direction to partake in friend-like activities with Tully.
He grinned. "You mean the Three E's?"
"Yeah," I chuckled, already feeling more at ease (Tully's grin tended to have that effect on people). "You can bring Amory, too, if you think there's going to be too much of an estrogen overload."
"That sounds good. What time?"
"I'm actually not sure," I replied. "I'll have to talk to Elizabeth. She's the one with the game. How about I come get you from your room when we're ready?"
He smirked. "Only if I get to be the cannon."
"Deal."
* * *
"You owe me three hundred dollars," Amory declared, smug grin in place.
Grumbling some choice words under her breath, Elena forked over the money. Her poor little iron had unfortunately landed on Pennsylvania avenue, which happened to be owned by my ex.
The six of us (Dorianne had insisted upon tagging along) had been playing for half an hour on the floor of my room. Elena was already losing. Dorianne (the top hat) seemed to have absolutely no idea what she was doing and had resorted to gazing at the board with her hazel doe-eyes in a rather pitiful manner whenever it was her turn. Tully (the cannon) and Elizabeth (the dog) were doing alright for themselves. Amory (the battleship) was, of course, making money hand over fist. He was an incredibly shrewd trader.
As for me (the thimble), the game had been going fairly well - I owned three of the four railroads, which raked in a healthy profit. It was going to be hard to keep that up, though, since Amory owned both Park Place and the Boardwalk…and had built hotels on both of them.
"It's your turn, Dorianne," Elena announced, handing the French pain in the ass the dice.
Dorianne frowned at them for a moment before tossing them onto the board.
"Neuf (nine)," she needlessly read, picking up her miniature metal top hat and moving the appropriate number of spaces. She landed on Marvin Gardens, which had not yet been sold. Cocking her head to the side in a way that reminded me rather strongly of an ostrich, she stared blankly at the tiny square with the yellow border.
"Tully," she simpered with a slight accent, wearing a grin that positively dripped with unnecessary, syrupy sweetness. "You are very smart. Will you tell me what you zink? Should I buy zese…Marvin Gardens?" She batted her eyelashes a few times for good measure.
I had to work incredibly hard to keep a straight face when Tully turned to her with the classic "deer-in-the-headlights" expression. He probably hadn't expected Monopoly Night to turn into Swinging Singles Mixer Night. I was honestly surprised that he hadn't noticed Dorianne's advances earlier; the rest of us had been shooting each other knowing glances (and trying not to laugh) for at least ten minutes.
"Uh…" he droned. "I…have no idea. Er, ask Amory. He's good with money."
Seeming somewhat miffed, Dorianne turned to my ex and gave him an expectant look. I tried to send him telepathic signals to give her bad advice.
Reading my gaze, Amory subtly shook his head. His reputation as a future Wall Street mogul was at stake, after all. "You should buy it," he confirmed. "You hardly own any property as it is, and you have cash to spare."
Rolling my eyes, I handed Dorianne the deed for Marvin Gardens in return for the necessary
money. She, in turn, handed the dice over to Tully, whose face lit up like that of a small child on Christmas. He'd always loved playing Monopoly when we were younger, even though I'd nearly always kicked his ass.
"Oh, wait." He put the dice down on the board and picked up his property deeds. "I'm going to make a trade first. Evie, I'll give you both the utilities - you know, gas and electric - if you give me your three railroads."
I looked at him as though he'd sprouted tentacles. "What are you, insane? No way! Then you'd have all four of them!"
"But you'd have the utilities," he argued. "You'd get ten times whatever someone rolls."
"Yeah, but what if they roll a two or something? At least with the railroads I know I'm going to make money."
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "How about if I throw in New York Avenue?"
I glared at him. Like hell was I going to let him have all four railroads!
Switching tactics, he gave me his signature lopsided smile. "Pleeeeease? Because you love me just that much?"
I WILL resist that grin…
"Not happening, dude," I resolutely maintained.
He stuck out his lower lip. When winning a game was involved, even someone as proudly masculine as Tully wasn't above begging.
"You suck in that lip of yours, McFadden."
He scowled. "Fine, Kaiser." Giving up on his trade offer, he picked up the dice and gave them a roll, winding up landing on the pile of money on the Free Parking square. He shot me a triumphant "So there!" look before handing the dice off to Elizabeth, who rolled a seven.
"Ha!" crowed Dorianne, pointing a triumphant finger at her roommate. "You must pay ze income tax!"
"No, a seven puts me one square in front of it," Elizabeth corrected.
"It does not!"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Yes it does."
"Non!"
My friend shot me a pleading look as her roommate started in on a rant in French.
"Dorianne," I sighed. "You don't count the square you're already on."
"Yes you do!" she insisted. "You always count zat square!"
"No you don't," Elena chimed in.
"Well, ze way I play - ze way we play in France - you do!"
Did they even play Monopoly in France? It seemed more likely to me that Dorianne was simply making up her own rules, which was actually a huge pet peeve of mine. I had an eight year-old cousin who did that and it drove me completely insane. He'd even once attempted to make up his own rules for tic-tac-toe!
"Well, we're not in France, are we?" I quipped. "We haven't been playing like that in the game so far, and we're not going to start now. That wouldn't be fair."
Harrumphing loudly, Dorianne muttered to herself in French, probably saying some rather rude things about the rest of us. That was the impression I got from Elena's face, anyway. She was the only other French speaker in the room and she didn't appear particularly pleased with the words flying from her companion's mouth.
Amory and I shared an eye-roll.
The game rolled merrily along for another hour or so. The first player to run out of money was Dorianne, who seemed to blame me for her misfortune, though it was hardly my fault that she kept landing on my property. In my opinion, she simply had no business skills whatsoever. She'd come out on the losing end of every trade she'd made (the rest of us had found duping her rather amusing, though we'd tried not to let on). After losing the last hundred dollars she had, she gave an angry toss of her brown locks, stood up, and marched out of the room.
I raised my eyebrows. "Wow, talk about sore losers…"
"Pft," Elena scoffed. "Good riddance, I say."
No one objected. The game went on.
Elizabeth, whose luck had taken a turn for the worse after Amory had bested her on a property trade, was the next to declare bankruptcy. Unlike her roommate, she accepted her loss with grace and dignity, staying on to watch the rest of us duke it out. She did send a nasty glare or two in the general direction of a certain brunette, though. He merely smirked at her.
After landing on Atlantic Avenue (owned by yours truly) and the Boardwalk on her next turn, Elena was forced to step down. She blamed the horrible luck she'd always had when it came to games.
It was down to three, just the boys and I.
"How about a bathroom break?" Tully suggested, shooting me a significant look.
Catching his meaning, I seconded the motion, and the two of us scampered into the hallway, shutting the door behind us.
"Alright," he whispered. "Here's the deal. There's no way that we can beat Amory by ourselves. He's just two damn good."
I raised an eyebrow. "It's not like you to admit defeat, Tully."
He grinned. "Oh, I never said we were going to lose. I just said that we can't win by ourselves."
"So what are you suggesting?" I inquired.
"We gang up on him," he explained. "We can make trades that'll give us control of the board. I'll keep the utilities and give you the last railroad and the properties you need to have monopolies on the red, orange, and pink blocks, and you give me your yellow, light blue, and purple properties so I'll have monopolies on those. Then we can build a shitload of houses and hotels to drive up the prices."
"Amory will still own the entire right side of the board," I pointed out. "And those are the most expensive ones. We'll go bankrupt if we keep landing on those."
"Yeah, but if we own three sides of the board and he only owns one, he's more likely to land on our property than his."
"True," I conceded.
"So what do you say?"
I nodded. "Deal."
We shook on it, then headed back into the room, ignoring the suspicious look our adversary was sending our way.
"I believe it's my turn," Tully announced. "Evie, I'll give you the Reading Railroad if you give me Atlantic Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, and Baltic Avenue."
I pretended to think this over, nibbling on my lower lip and furrowing my brow. "Only if you throw in Virginia Avenue, New York Avenue, and Illinois Avenue."
"That's pretty steep, Evie," Tully commented, playing his part well.
I smirked. "Take it or leave it."
He gave me a long, thoughtful look. "Deal."
Grinning, we swapped the aforementioned properties.
"Hey, wait a second…" Amory began. "That gives you guys control of three quarters of the board!"
I pretended to look surprised. "Really? Wow, that was lucky."
Tully gazed at the board, then at his property deeds. "Hey, cool. I think I'm going to build houses on my yellow block, then."
Elizabeth, who had apparently picked up on the little conspiracy, shot me a grin. She seemed incredibly pleased that Tully and I were plotting against Amory. "Alright, Evie, your turn," she chuckled.
I examined my property, feigning a look of pleasant surprise. "Hm, it looks like I have a few monopolies. I'm going to build some houses on them, too." Depositing the appropriate amount of money in the bank, I placed a green, plastic house on each square of all three of my blocks.
Amory seemed to have caught on. "That's cheap, Evie," he griped.
I gave him the most innocent look I could muster. "Why, whatever do you mean, Amory?"
"You shouldn't accuse Evie of foul play just because she has better luck than you, Amory," Elena chastised, grinning from ear to ear.
Glaring, he snatched the dice from the board and gave them a roll, coming up with eleven.
"Oh dear, it looks like you've landed on States Avenue. And look," I pointed out. "It has a house on it, too. I guess you owe me some money, Amory."
"That's too bad," Tully commented as his roommate grudgingly handed me one hundred and fifty dollars.
To avoid inadvertently landing on our opponent's property, Tully and I used our turns to build more houses on our monopolies, using the money we were raking in from Amory to pay for their construction. Under normal circumstances, Amory would have built up his own properties as well, but he had already reache
d the maximum number of hotels possible on both of his blocks.
So the pattern continued: I would build houses, Tully would build houses, and Amory would move and pay rent (or occasionally land on Chance, Community Chest, or his own property), only making income from passing Go every once in a while. His funds slowly but surely dwindled down to nothing. Half an hour later, he was finished.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen!" Elizabeth laughed.
Amory pouted. "I feel completely cheated."
"Tully and I simply made a trade that was in our own best interest," I insisted. "There's nothing wrong with that. Adam Smith would have approved."
Unable to argue with that, Amory sniffed haughtily and sat back with his arms folded across his chest.
Satisfied, I turned to Tully, my intense game-face in place. "Alright, McFadden. It's game time. Hit me with your best shot!"
* * *
Exactly forty-seven minutes later, I let out a whoop of triumph as Tully mortgaged his last property.
"I just owned you!" I crowed, doing a little victory dance.
"Yeah, what else is new? Rub it in, why don't you?" he grumbled.
Elizabeth shook her head in pity, though not without an amused smile. "She beasted you, dude."
"I always do," I declared proudly.
"Except for that one time in seventh grade," he reminded me.
I scowled. "That was a fluke! I still think you cheated, too."
He grinned. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Evie."
"Speaking of sleep," Amory interrupted. "It's already past one. I'm going to head to bed."
"If he doesn't get nine hours, he gets cranky and winds up making bad investments," I explained.
He gave me a look. "Thanks for elaborating."
"You're welcome," I replied, smiling brightly.
"You coming, Tully?" he inquired, turning to his roommate.
Tully nodded, standing up and making his way over to the door. "Night, guys." He gave the three of us a friendly wave and a lopsided smile. We returned the pleasantry.
"Amory," I called. "I wish you pleasant thoughts of a lovely, booming stock market. May the Dow of your dreams rise by five hundred points!"