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Asher
I watch Becca as she looks at her bottom two cards, but her face gives nothing away about whether they’re good or bad. I take a deep breath, then look at my own bottom two cards: a 6 and a 7. Not too bad, but I can’t help but wonder what my top two cards are. It’s so hard to know whether or not to change them out. I guess we’ll see what I draw for cards. I flip the top card from the draw pile over to start the discard pile. It’s the 2 of hearts. I wonder if Becca will take that, or draw a new one? “Ladies first.”
Becca shakes her head, as if to clear it. She must have been strategizing over there. When she’s thinking really hard, she sticks her tongue out, just a little, in between her lips, and she just slid it back into her mouth. I wonder what it would feel like to have those lips on mine…
Where on earth did THAT thought come from?! I mean, I guess I’ve thought about what kissing Becca might be like before, but she was in a relationship with that douche bag, Trip, for what seemed like forever. And although she finally broke up with him three or four months ago, she still doesn’t quite seem like she’s back to being the girl she was before she dated him. He was kind of controlling, and treated her like crap, as far as I’m concerned. I should know, because I was one of the first people he said he didn’t like her hanging out with. And although I saw her practically every day (that’s what happens when you have four classes together, and go to the same church) I didn’t actually get to spend any real time with her anymore. She even left our study group for humanities to study with a group of all girls. And she eventually stopped coming to Pizza Study with our youth group while she was dating him.
“Umm, Asher? It’s your turn.”
Oh great. See what happens when I let my mind wander into Becca territory?
“Sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment.”
“Thinking about what?”
Oh, hell no. Not going there. Oh yeah, Becca, I was just thinking about you, and your d-bag ex-boyfriend. “Nothing important.” I look down at the discard pile. Becca must have taken the 2 that was laying there before, because there is only one card there now, a queen. I’m definitely not taking that. Before Becca could argue that it was definitely something important, I change the subject. “I forgot to ask before. How was All-State? I still wish I would’ve made it in with you.” I draw a card from the pile. I really do wish I had made it into the All-State Choir with her. Not only would camp have been a lot of fun, but it would have been an extra week straight to spend with Becca this summer.
“Camp was alright. It probably would have been more fun if you had made it in too. It was kind of weird, not knowing anyone. But I loved getting to sing for seven or eight hours a day. And my roommate was really nice, and kind of shy too. So we mostly just hung out with each other in our dorm room when we weren’t in choir rehearsals.”
I do a little mental one potato, two potato, and decide to trade my new card out with my top right card. “I’m glad you had someone else to do things with while you were at camp. It’s too bad we actually have to take our core subject classes. I’d be okay with a full day of band and choir.” After deciding which card to trade, I slowly flip it over before putting it in the discard pile—crap!—it’s a king! Well, there’s no way on earth Becca is going to miss that opportunity!
I look up at Becca’s face, which has a happily surprised expression on it. “Wow! I can’t believe my luck so early in the game!” She grabs the king, and switches it with her bottom right card, which happens to be a queen.
“Well it ain’t over yet.” I grab the next card from the draw pile. It’s a jack, and I decide to just dump it straight onto the discard pile. Becca draws one more card, and switches it with her top left. When she flips it over, it’s a 9. I’m about to reach for the draw pile when Becca knocks on the table. “Already? You can’t be serious, Becca.”
“I am. Now, draw your last card.”
Oh, this had better be a good one. I grab the card from the deck, and turn it over. A three! I quickly switch it out with my 7. “Alrighty. Shall you flip your cards first, or shall I, m’lady?”
Without saying a word, Becca flips over all four of her cards, revealing a 2, a king, a 5, and a 3. Well, there’s no way I’m going to beat that hand! I carefully turn mine over: an ace, a 3, a 6 and a 10. Score: twenty to ten. Man, she just kicked my butt! It’s a good thing we’re playing nine hands, and not just one, because ten points can be a lot to come back from.
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Becca
Asher is shuffling the deck for our last “hole” of golf. I can’t believe it is all coming down to this last hand. Our third game, we went through all but the last six cards on the draw pile before Asher finally knocked signaling that he was ready to show his cards…which he was smart to do, since he won. I think we both tried out the “know what all four of your cards are, and make sure they’re all low” strategy that round. Then during round 6, Asher knocked before I even drew my first card…and he kicked my tush because he had TWO kings as his bottom two cards. And now, Asher is only beating me by ONE point. The score is 90 to 89.
Just as Asher is dealing the first card to me, my mom hollers down the stairs, “Supper will be ready in five!”
“We’ll be up shortly!” I call back.
“I guess we’d better make this last hole a quick one.”
“Oh, no. We will take as long as necessary to play this round out,” I say, raising my eyebrows at him.
“Alright, alright. Don’t get your undies in a bunch.” Asher finishes dealing out our cards, flipping the first card to the discard pile, revealing a 5. After I carefully arrange mine, I look at my bottom two cards. A jack and a 2. Not too shabby. I’ll never trade my 2 away, and the jack will be the first thing to go. I look over to see if Asher is ready for me to draw, and he has this great big smile on his face, and I can’t tell if he’s trying to throw me, or if he really has something to be happy about. I pick that 5 right up off the discard pile, and trade my jack for it. Asher draws but immediately discards a 10. Well, I definitely don’t want that card.
“You know Asher, I think you’re really going to like The Doctor.” I pick up the next card on the pile, and it’s a 5. I decide to take a risk and trade it for my upper left hand card. Crap! It was a 3! I really hope I didn’t just screw myself over.
“I don’t think we’re going to find out. I can’t wait to eat some of your awesome cooking on Monday night!” Of course, Asher grabs my 3 right up, trading it for his top right, which is revealed to be a 9. This does not bode well for me. I take the next card on the draw pile. It’s a 10, and I immediately discard it, blowing out a heavy sigh.
Asher leans forward across the table. “Getting a little worried there, Rebecca?” That smile is back on his face, the one he had after checking his bottom two cards.
“Of course not,” I snap back at him. I probably shouldn’t be getting so worked up over this, especially considering what we’re playing for isn’t really a big deal. But I am.
Asher draws his next card, and trades it for his top left card. When he flips it onto the discard pile, his smile gets a little smaller. It’s a three! So my mistake earlier can be fixed, right now. I pick that lovely little 3 up, and trade it for the 5 that’s on my bottom left. I decide to take a risk, and knock on the table, hoping my upper right card isn’t too big.
Asher’s eyes go wide. “Did you actually just knock? Like this is my last chance to draw?”
“That’s right, my friend. Pony up.” The words come out much stronger than I’m feeling.
“Okie dokie.” He picks up his last card from the draw pile, and frowns, tossing it onto the discard pile. It was a queen. Please, Lord, let me not have made a mistake knocking so early! “Alright, Becca. I say we reveal one card at a time. I’ll go first.” He flips over his bottom left card, which is a 5. Then I reveal my 3. Next is his bottom right, which is a king. Well, that’s why he was smiling so big when we started. I reveal my 2. When he f
lips over his upper left, which is a 4, I start to panic. I know I have a 5 in my upper left, but no clue what is in my upper right. I show my 5, and anxiously await him flipping over his last card.
It’s a 4, and I’m about ready to cry. There is no way my last card is small enough to beat him. He only has thirteen points, and he was already ahead by one. “I’m trying to decide for sure what I’d like to eat on Monday.”
“Ha, ha,” I say, not-so-enthusiastically. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and slowly flip over my last card. “Is it awful?”
Asher doesn’t answer. I peek open my left eye, looking straight at him, not my cards. He looks dumbfounded. “What? What is it?”
Without lifting his eyes from my cards, he says, “Maybe you should look for yourself.”
I open both my eyes, then slowly move them from Asher’s face to my cards. It’s an ace. That’s…three plus two is five, plus five is ten…eleven. Eleven! “Did I seriously just win by one point?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” Asher sighs. “Looks like we’ll be watching Doctor Who this evening.”
“After we sing during our campfire,” I remind him.
He smiles. “Yes. After we sing.”
“It will be a performance worthy of the religious festival in The Rings of Akhaten.”
“Huh?”
I grin. “You’ll understand when you get to season seven.”
Chapter Five
Becca
I love campfires. The smell of burning wood, the warmth it gives off, the crackling noises it makes. Mmm, and s'mores. Delicious.
I especially love them with Asher’s family and mine together. Between my mom, Robert, Asher and I, there are three guitars and a banjo around our fire. You’ll never believe this, but the banjo is what I’m playing this evening. Call me corny, weird, strange, whatever. I don’t care. My grandpa taught me how to play it before he died. I had let it sit by the wayside for a while, during the six months or so that I dated Trip. He didn’t like it, and it was bad enough that I played flute in band, and took piano lessons, so I let him talk me into putting it aside for a while. After all, it was a small price to pay to get him to really like me. Compromise, right? But that was really stupid. This is actually the first time I’ve picked it up since I started dating Trip. It was Mom’s idea to bring it along, and now that I think about it, she probably knew it would be therapeutic as well.
“Okay. What song is up first?” Robert asks.
“Oh, can we please sing ‘Grandma’s Feather Bed’ first?” my sister begs.
Everyone else starts laughing. “Well, if you’re so anxious to sing it, your wish is my command,” Robert replies. “What key are we all playing in?”
“In G?” I ask. “That’s where I usually play it for her.” Although, usually is probably a bit too strong of a word, considering it’s been over a year since I’ve played it for her.
“Sounds good to me,” Asher answers.
Robert counts us in, and we begin: When I was a little bitty boy…
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Asher
We’ve been singing around the campfire for almost an hour, when Becca jumps in and says, “Asher promised to sing “Silhouettes on the Shade” with me earlier, and he’s going to play.” I’m pretty sure my face is turning red, but I hope, now that the only light is coming from the campfire and the almost non-existent moon, that nobody else can tell. Becca doesn’t know this, because whenever we’ve sang this song at a campfire, we’ve ALL sang along, but “Silhouettes on the Shade” is sort-of my mom and dad’s “song.” The first time they ever sang together in high school, they sang this song…and they’ve been singing it together ever since.
Plus, what happens to the guy in the beginning of the song kind-of actually happened to me once. The tennis team was out for a run last March, around town. As we passed the local bakery, Becca walked out, carrying a paper cup of coffee and a bag of donuts. I was about to wave to her when Trip walked out behind her, grabbed her around the waist, and turned her around to kiss her. His eyes were wide open, and he looked right at me. It felt like I had been punched in the gut.
“Just the two of you?” Livvie asks, her brows scrunched together.
My dad shoots me a knowing look, and I’m sure my face is looking like a tomato about now.
“Yes, just the two of us,” Becca says quietly. I look up at her, wondering if she’s changed her mind. But she has the most shy, beautiful smile on her face. This boosts my confidence a little, and I begin to pluck out the intro chords to the song.
“You’re singing harmony, right?” I ask, just to make sure.
“Of course,” she answers, as if to say would there BE any other answer to that question? I smile, looking back down toward my guitar, and come in on the next bar.
When I get to the part where I'm wondering why I'm not the person whose shadow is next to hers, I look up at Becca. As we’re singing the next line, about tears, it almost looks like Becca has tears of her own in her eyes. But why would she be crying right now? I guess I’ll have to ask her about it later.
I focus back on the song, and then it’s like the whole world disappears, except for Becca and me, our voices mixing together to create something beautiful. Becca closes her eyes and we continue to sing.
As I strum the last chord, our surroundings come back into focus, and I look around the fire to see smiles on our parents’ faces, and my mom is openly letting tears fall down her face. Livvie starts clapping, and then our parents join her. I look back at Becca, and now she’s the one who looks embarrassed. The thing is, she shouldn’t be. Anyone would love to sing with Becca, because she is that good. I just happen to be lucky enough for her to choose me to sing with her.
She shakes her head, then smiles and looks around the campfire. “Now that we’ve totally embarrassed ourselves with our song, Asher needs to come inside with me to fulfill his part of our bet from earlier today.”
I grumble, but then start laughing. I had forgotten all about what she had won in our last bet. I stand up and move my guitar to my back. Then I reach for Becca’s hand and help her stand up. “We’ll be in the game room if anyone needs us.” I start thinking about what I want to grab to eat before being subjected to the great and powerful Doctor Who.
But two words that Becca said keep repeating themselves in my head. Our song. And even though it’s my parents’ song, and she probably didn’t mean it that way, maybe it can be our song too.
Or maybe we can find a new song, all our own.
Chapter Six
Becca
I finally made Asher drag his happy hind end back into the cabin after we were done singing around the campfire. I know he’s not looking forward to watching Doctor Who with me, but I told him since he’s never actually watched it before, he’s not allowed to make any more judgments about it to me. At least, not until after the three episodes I make him watch tonight. Nobody else really knows this, but Doctor Who and library books are what have been getting me through the last few months. I guess when you sort-of alienate your friends for a guy, they don’t put their lives on pause, waiting for you to come back around. And it’s not like I wanted to sit around and gush to them about all the crap that had happened to me while I was dating Trip. In fact, I’d rather keep that all to myself, thanks. So I continued to hang out alone.
It’s only 9:30 right now, so we should be able to finish the episodes by about midnight or so, which really isn’t that late for us. We used to pull all-nighters at church lock-ins together, and we even stayed up all night once to cram before a humanities test last year. So this should be no problem.
I already know which episode we’re going to watch first. It’s the first episode that I was told to watch, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I turn around as I hear Asher clunking down the stairs. He walks into the room, his arms (and the pocket of his hoodie) loaded with television-watching sustenance.
“I’ve got popcorn, Twizzlers pull-n-peel, chocolate covered raisins, two Diet
Cokes, and I even brought you a little surprise.” He pulls the popcorn bowl off of a smaller bowl to reveal melty, gooey nacho cheese. I’m pretty sure I now have the dorkiest grin ever on my face.
“Where did you get that?” I ask, wondering how on earth he could have not only gotten his hands on it, but also remembered that’s how I liked to eat my popcorn.
“Well, when your mom gave my mom a list of everything that was already up here for us to do over this nice, long week, she mentioned that there were a few gaming systems hooked up, and Wi-Fi. So I knew we would have access to Netflix while we were here. I didn’t know for sure that it would happen, but on the off-chance that we would be watching a movie this week, I thought I’d bring it, and some popcorn, with me.”
“How did you even remember that? We haven’t seen a movie together in what, a year? Not since our whole youth group went to the drive-in in New Haven last summer.”
“Ah, but don’t you remember? They had to figure out how much they were going to charge you for the extra cheese. Nobody had ever asked them for a side of nacho cheese with their popcorn before.”
“That’s right! But still, I can’t believe you remembered that well enough to come prepared for me to want it this week.”
“Well, there are a lot of things I came prepared for this week. Did you forget? I was a boy scout for a whole three months when I was eight. And a boy scout is always prepared for anything.” I don’t know what he means by that, but I have a feeling I’m going to find out over the next few days.
All of a sudden, Livvie pops into the room. I didn’t even hear her coming down the stairs. “What are you guys doing?”
I know four little words that will send her running: “Watching my favorite show.”
Our Song Page 4