“Trust me. I know. Just wait until Kansas and Colorado.” I regretted the words almost instantly, back muscles stiffening. Even saying the word Kansas was enough to call up a lifetime of memories of the little town that had been home right up until it wasn’t. But if Alden picked up on my sudden angst, he didn’t show it, concentrating on the road as we followed the signs to merge back onto the correct highway for Indianapolis…muttering under his breath about the goat in the back seat blocking his rear view and the afternoon traffic impeding our efforts to make good time.
Because Alden was so focused on the road, I occupied myself getting nosy about which apps he had on his phone. Oh, I didn’t go snooping through his email or anything like that, but I was curious about what games he had and stuff like that.
“Dude. How is it that the only game you have on here is Odyssey online? You’ve got a brand-new phone. I’d be downloading all sorts of things.”
“Restrain yourself from adding anything, please.” His tone was dry and tight, not joking, and I couldn’t tell whether it was the road or me messing with his phone that he didn’t like. Maybe both. “I don’t like clutter on my phone. And it’s the one game I like. I don’t need others.”
He made it sound so simple, that kind of one-track loyalty, that I envied him his commitment. “Odyssey is my favorite too, but I still play lots of others. Sometimes just to be social, but also sometimes I get bored and need a change.”
“I’ve noticed. I’m surprised you’ve stuck with Odyssey this long, to be honest.”
“Gee. Thanks.” Appreciation for his loyalty went out the window at that.
“How did you even get into the game? I would have figured a guy like you would have been super popular in high school—parties, sports, that sort of thing, with no time for tabletop gaming.”
“I thought we already established that I’m not the party animal you thought I was.” I couldn’t help sounding wounded.
“We did. I meant more…” Alden coughed and his neck turned pink. “Everyone likes you. You look like…you belong more on the varsity baseball team than hanging around with the geeks. You’re not exactly the nerd stereotype.”
I had a feeling that with all his blushing and coughing, Alden was trying to imply that I was better-looking than most Odyssey players. The implied compliment made me shift in my seat.
“Uh. Thanks. I think.” We were approaching the Indiana state line, and traffic had finally lightened up, but we still had a way to go to Indianapolis. Something about the time stretching in front of us loosened my jaw, made me share more than I intended. “I might be tall, but I was never that much of a jock. Really disappointed my dad. Asthma kept me out of a lot of sports. I was okay at soccer, but I had no real interest in any of the other sports he tried to push me into.”
“I can sympathize. My mothers tried to get me into countless extracurriculars. Most were torture.”
“Yeah. Exactly. If it’s not your idea, it just sucks. But Dad was super set on me playing football. That was our first big disagreement, when I put my foot down before high school.”
“You must have been super brave.”
“Or super stupid.” I half sighed and half laughed at my own naiveté back then, assuming that me quitting sports had caused the worst argument we’d ever have as a family.
“No, it was brave,” Alden insisted, voice as earnest as all the endless green fields we kept passing. “I…uh…don’t do so well at standing up to either of my moms.”
“Yeah, but they seem so cool. I doubt there’s that much tension—”
“‘Seem’ being the operative word.” His tone became weary, worn down like old tires.
“Sorry. Now I’m the one making assumptions. And I should know better. Everyone at my dad’s college and our church and stuff thinks we are the perfect family. Even strangers tell me how lucky I am to have him as my dad.”
“And they’re wrong?”
“You have no idea,” I groaned. “He’s…not always the nicest.” As always, I chose my words carefully, thanks to a lifetime of tempering my speech where my family was concerned. It was a constant push-pull between not wanting to sugarcoat my reality and wanting to protect my family all the same. “And anyway, that’s how I got into the game. He was so angry about me not doing any high school sports that I started escaping to this little game store near our house. Even before I was old enough to drive, I was allowed to bike up to this strip mall—mainly to get sodas at the convenience store, but I started going into the game store. The owner was nice. She gave me a free intro deck.”