Girl Games: A Sweet Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  I finally got my senses back under control. I reached out and pushed his hand away and for a moment he looked angry, but that moment passed.

  “Dave, I think we need to get some things clear if we’re going to be hanging out,” I said.

  “Say no more,” Dave said. “I get it. Not good to talk to other people about what’s going on with us. Wouldn’t want to make them jealous or anything.”

  My mouth fell open. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know how to react to this. I’d been with guys who were insistent when it came to trying to get a date before, but I’d never had to deal with a guy who was so disconnected from reality. What did you do with a dude who refused to see that he didn’t have a chance?

  I took a deep breath. Tried to think of what Kylie would do in this situation. She always came off as so confident. So tough. Things I tried to be, but I wasn’t always that successful so I hid behind the bubbly cheerful thing.

  Maybe it was time to channel a little bit of Kylie tonight. I mean I wasn’t going to be as mean as she got with Dave last weekend, but it seemed safe to get a little irritated with him considering what an ass he was being.

  “Look, Dave. I appreciate you inviting me to this game and everything, but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about what’s going on between the two of us.”

  “What are you talking about? Why would I get the wrong idea about us?” he asked, looking away from the road to grin at me and incidentally nearly sending the car off the road. I yelled and he corrected the car at the last moment and brought it back on the road as gravel crunched under the tires.

  “I think that because it’s pretty obvious you totally have the wrong idea about us,” I said. “We’re not happening. We might be friends, but that’s it.”

  The smiles were all gone in an instant. Instead Dave looked downright pissed off. “Is this about Kylie or something?”

  Panic seized me. What did he know about me and Kylie? Were we that obvious when we were carrying on last weekend? Right along with that panic I also felt just a hint of a thrill. If he noticed something going on between the two of us that meant it wasn’t all in my imagination. That meant there might be something going on, and maybe I hadn’t scared her away last weekend after all.

  That was a lot to hit me in the space of a moment. I forced myself to calm down.

  “What are you talking about, Dave?”

  Only he didn’t go into it. Instead he launched into a rant that seemed like it had been hiding inside him for a long time.

  “Everyone’s always going on about Kylie. She’s the only girl at the gaming table so everyone pays attention to her! Everyone falls all over themselves to make the game all about her!”

  Now I’d only been to one of their games, but it didn’t seem like the game was all about her then. If anything it seemed like Dave was trying to make the game all about me. At least until the end there when he flipped the script and got all pissy for some reason. At the same time it seemed he was well and truly into his rant, and I didn’t want to interrupt him. If he was ranting about Kylie then he wasn’t wasting time trying to hit on me.

  “She’s going to be terrible as a game master, you know,” Dave said. “Girls can’t play this game without special help.”

  “Ahem.”

  He looked over at me but this time he didn’t bother to correct himself. Well then. I guess Dave only played the nice and sweet role when he thought it would get him something. I rolled my eyes and turned to look out the window. Typical “nice guy” behavior. He’d probably go home and complain to all his friends online about how he got shut down even though he was a perfect gentleman, conveniently leaving out the bits where he acted like a creepy asshole.

  “Well I think she’ll do a great job,” I said. “She did a good job of explaining the game to me the last time we played. If she does anything like that this weekend then she’ll be the best.”

  I let that hang there for a moment. I wanted to make it clear that if she was the best it was in comparison to Dave. I was starting to think that despite all the fun I’d had last weekend, it had been a pretty shitty gaming session. I found myself looking forward to seeing how Kylie ran her game more and more.

  “What do you know about this game?” Dave said, his voice settling into a sullen pout as he glared at the road ahead. “You only played one night. You’re not an expert or anything.”

  Damn. If this was his idea of bringing his A game to try and impress a girl then he was doing one heck of a shitty job of it. I sighed, but I was already into this. I was trying to channel Kylie, and it was actually kind of fun poking at someone who was being a jerk like this instead of just letting them walk all over me and trying to stay cheerful about it.

  “Well I might not know much about this game, but I know when I’m having fun,” I said. “And last week having you nitpicking rules wasn’t much fun. Kylie running the game this week is the only reason I’m coming back.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see what you think at the end of the night. I guarantee everyone will be ready to come back to the old basement by the time Kylie’s done ruining everything for everyone,” Dave said.

  We were going to have to agree to disagree on that point, but already I could see that there wasn’t much point in continuing this conversation. So Dave wasn’t into the idea of a girl running a game. Well the jerk would see just how good she was when we got to her place.

  I settled into silence and watched the town go by, and then the fields go by after we left the city proper. If you could even call our small town a city. I never thought it quite rose to that level of importance.

  I knew two things for sure as we made the silent ride out to Kylie’s house. I knew in my heart that this gaming group that I’d just joined against all reason wasn’t going back to Dave’s basement. I also knew that I was definitely getting a ride back home with someone else, because there wasn’t a chance I was going to spend any more time than I had to with Dave. The guy was his own worst enemy and that was kind of sad, but at the same time I felt no obligation to hang out with a guy who was repeatedly an asshole just because that was sad.

  I sighed and preoccupied myself with thoughts of the fun I’d have once I was out at Kylie’s house, and not all of those thoughts had to do with the sort of fun that involves rolling dice.

  11: New DM

  Kylie:

  I looked out over the pool. The thing was really more of a glorified party location for my parents. They’d had a lot of fun with it back when we first moved out here, but since then they’d gradually moved away from the wild party scene.

  Their daughter had never been one for wild parties. Especially since my main social outlet in this town became that game. It did seem a little strange that we’d never had game night out here, though. Almost as strange as Jeff giving control of the game to Dave and not someone else who was more liked. That was part of the reason why we didn’t have any new people staying with the game for long. Dave chased them off.

  Yeah, I didn’t have to feel too bad about putting an end to that long running tradition. It was already on life support. Jeff probably did that just to stir the pot some more when he got too busy with his job to play.

  I sighed and moved into the pool house. It consisted of a wide room with windows on either side where people could hang out and look outside in the comfort of air conditioning if it got too hot, a bathroom on one side, and a sauna that hardly ever got used on the other.

  I’d set up a table on one side with pizza and snacks for the evening. If people were going to come to my place for a good time then I was going to make sure I fed them. None of the cheap stuff like with Dave. I also wasn’t going to be above asking everyone to contribute, which had always set Dave off.

  “Knock knock,” Travis’s voice came from the door. I looked over and smiled.

  “Decide to arrive fashionably early?” I asked.

  “You know it. I’m stoked about having game night out here for a change. I’m so sick of
hanging out in Dave’s musty basement.”

  “You and me both,” I said. “It’s like we were walking stereotypes about nerd life or something.”

  “Yeah, well no more stereotypes for us,” Travis said, looking around and taking in our surroundings. “Damn. I mean I know I’ve seen this place before, but it never occurred to me how perfect it would be for game night.”

  “You and me both,” I said. “So do you think Dave’s going to show tonight?”

  “Probably. I’m sure he can’t stand the idea that we might have fun out here without him,” Travis said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up early too. Want to make a bet on whether or not he tries to take over the game again?”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s a bet I’m not taking, and a headache I don’t want to deal with.”

  “So do you think Lisa’s going to come out here tonight? She seemed like she was having a pretty good time last weekend,” Travis said.

  There was something about the tone of his voice that immediately put me on guard. Travis and I had known each other for years. We’d had that brief ill-advised stint where we dated and that hadn’t worked out all that well at all even if we had stayed friends. I knew when he thought he was onto something, and he sounded like that now.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as I opened a few bags of chips and shook them out into a bowl.

  “Come on Kylie,” he said. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Dave noticed the way you and Lisa were off together giggling like you’d always been BFFs, and if I recall she wasn’t exactly your favorite person in the world back when we were all in school together.”

  “Are you trying to imply something there?” I asked.

  Travis held up his hands. “Not trying to imply anything. Why would you immediately jump to thinking I was trying to imply something?”

  “Damn it Travis. You know I hate it when you do that mind trick thing on me.”

  “I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t so damned effective. So you want to tell me what’s going on with you and Lisa? Because I’ve never seen you warm up to someone that fast before. Ever.”

  I thought about that for a good long moment. What was going on with me and Lisa? I didn’t know. She’d been awfully flirty and it made me feel ways about stuff, but on the flip side of that it didn’t seem like something like that was possible. Lisa was the preppy cheerleader type, or she had been. I’d been the dark and brooding goth chick. Sure it seemed like we’d both done some growing up in the couple of years since, but it wouldn’t work. We were oil and water.

  And that wasn’t even getting into the question of whether or not both of us were into girls. Either way, it was none of Travis’s damn business.

  “There’s nothing going on between the two of us and that’s that,” I snapped.

  “I’m reminded of one of my favorite lines from all that Shakespeare we were forced to read in AP English a few years back,” Travis said.

  “What’s that?”

  “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

  I stared at him for a moment. Blinked a couple of times. When it became obvious he wasn’t going to translate that I got irritated. I didn’t like this line of questioning and I’m pretty sure he just used a line from some dude who’d been torturing students from beyond the grave for five hundred years to insult me.

  “In English?”

  “That is English,” Travis said. “The best English writer ever.”

  “Okay, in modern English?”

  “You’re trying so hard to make it seem like nothing’s going on with you and Lisa that it practically screams that something’s going on there, but it’s none of my business.”

  “You’re right. It isn’t.”

  “I do think it’s pretty obvious she was into you too, though,” he said.

  I looked back at him, hope blooming in me. “Really? You think so?”

  It wasn’t until I saw the knowing grin on his face that I realized I’d been had. The jerk. He did that stupid mind trick thing on me again. Told me what I wanted to hear to give something up.

  “I knew it,” he said.

  I stuck my tongue out at him. It was the nicest way I could think of to express my displeasure. It wouldn’t do to smack one of the guys who was supposed to be on my side for the game tonight, after all.

  “I hate it when you do that,” I said.

  “To be fair I was pretty sure I saw something there that night,” Travis said.

  “Saw something where?” Dave asked, sauntering in like he owned the place. He didn’t even bother to look properly impressed at how much nicer the pool house was than his dank basement. He looked around as though he was a king deigning to mix with the commoners. A jerk to the end. I was annoyed that he even decided to come until I saw who came with him.

  Lisa. She stepped in, looked around, and at least one person at game night seemed suitably impressed. She smiled at me and I melted.

  Of course I also had the temporary warm fuzzies from Travis saying he thought he saw something replaced by panic. How long had they been standing out there? Had they heard any of our conversation? My mind raced at a thousand miles a minute trying to remember if I heard any sign that someone was waiting out there listening in.

  No. That was impossible. If Dave heard that conversation then he’d be in here crowing about it rather than looking at the pizza and chips I’d laid out as though it was a pile of days old leftovers rather than a feast compared to what he offered. For that matter Lisa would probably be running for the hills.

  Or would she? I mean if she was into me she might stay and smile at me just like she was now. Too complicated. I had a game to run. Next to how I felt about Lisa the prospect of running a game for the first time with Dave in attendance to foul things up seemed downright simple.

  “Glad you could make it,” I said to Lisa, but Dave picked up on it.

  “Not like I had much choice seeing as how you stole my game from me,” he muttered.

  I gritted my teeth and ignored him. I had a feeling I was going to be doing that an awful lot tonight. Better than getting into it with him, though. Travis might get a playful slap, but the way he was acting Dave was likely to get a fist to the face.

  There was a knock at the door. My dad poked his head in and looked at each of us in turn. He seemed to focus on the boys in particular, as though he was still upset that I was having a late night gathering with boys and girls mixing even though there wasn’t much he could say considering I was old enough to drink. He had on his uniform, and the badge seemed to have the usual effect on the guys in the room. He must’ve been called in to work tonight. One of the “perks” of being chief of police in a small town where they were underfunded and understaffed.

  “I don’t want any trouble out here,” he said. “This pool house cost me a lot, and I don’t want it trashed.”

  “We won’t sir,” Travis said.

  Dad grinned. “I know you won’t. I just figure I won’t have many more opportunities to do this considering how my little girl is all grown up.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Are you done, dad?”

  “I suppose,” he said. “Don’t be out too late, and don’t get in any trouble.”

  Again he looked at Dave and Travis and there was no doubt in my mind exactly what sort of “trouble” he was talking about. I wanted to laugh. There wasn’t a chance anything like that was happening with Dave. Travis and I had tried it and the spark wasn’t there. I guess now I knew why that spark wasn’t there. No fault of Travis’s.

  Still. It was pretty damn funny that the one person in the room who might actually be a danger was the one person dad wasn’t looking at, because I’d never let on to anyone that it might be a possibility.

  Well, except for Travis tonight. Stupid face with his stupid tricking me all the time. I could trust him to keep his mouth shut, though.

  Lisa moved over in my direction and I felt so awkward. After all, the last time we par
ted we’d been standing on her front porch like we were getting back from a first date or something and then I’d run away like there was a monster from the game chasing after me. Stupid!

  She smiled and I felt a little less apprehensive about this conversation we were about to have.

  “You certainly dressed up for the fun tonight,” she said.

  I glanced down at my outfit and blushed. I felt like I’d spent more time getting this outfit ready than I’d spent getting the food together and cleaning out the pool house.

  “What, this old thing? It’s just something I threw on before I came out here,” I said.

  What a stupid vapid thing to say. That was the sort of thing girls were supposed to say to guys they were interested in. Not something girls said to other girls. Even if I was interested in Lisa. Was I interested in Lisa? My body was telling me one thing even if my brain was telling me it was insane.

  “Still, looking good,” Lisa said. “It suits you getting away from the whole dark and brooding thing, though I like that you kept the streak in your hair and some of the piercings. Makes you look bad ass.”

  “Thanks,” I said, looking away so she wouldn’t see my blush. This outfit really wasn’t the sort of thing I would’ve been caught dead wearing just a few years ago. Bright blue tank top that sparkled. A miniskirt that was just low enough to be almost decent. I’d even gone all out putting on makeup tonight and straightened my hair. It was a far cry from the comfortable T-shirt and jeans I usually wore to game night, or putting my hair up in a ponytail so I didn’t have to worry about it.

  “I’m surprised you’d wear something like that with a crowd like this,” Lisa said, looking over to Dave and Travis who were going down the food line with paper plates in hand.

  I shrugged. “I had a little bit of trouble with Dave hitting on me early on, but we got that squared away pretty quick. Travis and Arnold know there’s not a chance of that happening, so I figured it was pretty safe.”