I laughed a little, feeling the weight of my braid swinging and realizing I felt a little freer with this hair style. "Not this time, Nancy. I got him good after he did this to my hair."
"Snow to his face?" Her eyes met mine again and they no longer appeared sympathetic, she was trying to make me smile.
I laughed a little and nodded.
"All right. He's off the hook this time. Go beat them in some of those video games." With that, she turned a corner and disappeared.
I made my way down the hallway and found both Jax and Jay sitting in the middle of their rec room, two empty plates beside them as they played a video game.
I moved to grab the plates to take them to the kitchen. Littered with crumbs, those plates would have been grounds for a fight in my home.
Jay grabbed my arm and yanked me down. “We’ll clean up later.”
I stared at the plates for a second longer, willing away the itch to clean it up. When Jax pushed another controller in my hand, I welcomed the distraction. "If you pick the character Peach again, I swear I'm going to make it my mission to throw every question mark I get at you," he mumbled.
I smiled, realizing that neither of them were going to comment about the hair incident.
I didn't care that both he and Jax got annoyed with me picking to be Peach every time. I didn’t care that they would tease me the whole time. I only cared that they would be my friends knowing my faults. It mattered that they acted as if my panic attack hadn’t happened at all. Real friends accepted you for who you were, not who you pretended to be. "You're just mad because I beat you every time I play her."
Jax groaned when I picked her as my character, like I always did. "Do you want to be her or something? We at least switch our characters. You are obsessed with her!"
Truth was, I wouldn't mind being her. She was a princess. "Whatever."
After a round I lost, Jax leaned toward me. "How's it feel to be losing, Peaches?"
I scrunched up my face. "Her name is Peach, and I'm not her."
"No. You're not. You're Peaches." He laughed to himself as he focused back on the screen. Jay started to laugh along with him.
"Peaches kinda fits you,” Jay said.
Jax groaned. "Find your own nickname for her, man. Quit copying me."
"It's not a nickname!" My voice came out high and irritated.
"You kinda screech like her too."
"You want me to call you Bowser?" I said trying to get the upper hand, but as he crossed the finish line in first place, I slumped.
"No, Peaches. You can just call me winner."
I glared but kept my eyes on the screen. “You’ll always be last place in my book. L.P. L.P. rolls off the tongue quite nicely too.”
He grumbled something about showing me what could roll off my tongue nicely but I ignored him, so happy with my quick work on a degrading nickname for him.
We bickered and played again and again. Before I knew it, the sun was setting. I finished in first place only to throw my controller down, "I gotta go!"
Jax rolled his eyes. "You can't leave just because you finally won."
"Get over yourself,L.P. I won like ten times in the last hour."
He stood to his full height and crossed his arms, trying intimidation. "Peaches, let's be realistic."
Maybe it was the way everyone backed down from him or the way he commanded everything around him but I never wanted to give in to him, to let him have anything without a fight. I put my hands on my hips and stood a little straighter. “L.P.,”—I mimicked his tone—“realistically, Jay beat you last time, and he's the worst."
"Hey!” Jay jumped up. "I'm way better at Jax in most things. He plays this way too much."
I patted Jay's arm and glared at Jax for making me indirectly insult Jay who always stood up for me. He was the sweet one, the one I would call my friend. I held Jax's eyes. "Of course, Jay. We both know you're better than Jax at mosteverything."