Better Off

22

"And that's how it's done!" Violet cries loudly, slamming her last card down onto the table in front of her, setting it down on top of all the other cards in the pile. I shake my head in defeat, watching as Violet jumps up from the ground and does a little happy dance, collecting the cash off of the center of the coffee table and begins to count the bills.

Violet just won a very heated round of Uno going down between herself, Charlie, Jay, and I. Jay looks utterly astonished that he just lost, his mouth gaping open as he stares up at Violet. Charlie smirks in a way that tells me she's not so upset about the fact that her girlfriend just beat her at a child's game. I just sit on the carpet, pursing my lips and knowing that there wasn't a chance I was going to win, anyway. Thorne and Wells have long since wandered off into the kitchen, having yet to return.

"I can't believe it," Jay mutters, studying his cards with narrowed eyes. "How did that just happen? Did I really just . . . lose?"

"Suck it!" Violet cries, dancing around him in a circle. "The cash is mine! I've finally defeated the undefeated!"

I pull myself up off of the ground, stretching my stiff joints. I'm not too surprised by the fact that I lost, because both Jay and Violet are con artists. It doesn't seem to matter what game I play with them, it's always one or the other that ends up winning. Charlie and Jay rise, too, and Charlie asks, "Who wants cake?"

"Is that even a question?" Violet screeches, flaunting into the kitchen with her money. She lets out a high-pitched scream as soon as she enters the room, startling me. I walk into the kitchen behind Violet to find Thorne and Wells sitting at the table, Charlie's cake in front of them, eating it with two forks. No wonder they never came back into the living room, I think, covering my mouth with my hand so that I don't start laughing aloud. 

"You hooligans!" Violet throws her hands in the air as she stares at Thorne and Wells in horror, obviously angry about the fact that they got to the cake first. "Ever heard of sharing?"

"Grab a fork," Wells says with his mouth full, only adding to Violet's frustration.

"You could have asked me before you just started eating my cake," Charlie mumbles, rolling her eyes. The smile she's trying hard to hide tells me that she's not as upset as she is amused, which is only natural. It takes a lot to rattle Charlie, as I've come to learn.

"Not cool, guys," Jay grumbles. "Not cool." He looks nearly as miffed about Thorne and Wells eating the cake as he did about losing Uno to Violet.

"You guys are so lucky I have ice-cream." Charlie makes her way to the freezer, pulling out a container of Ben and Jerry's.

Violet immediately perks up, walking over to her girlfriend and asking, "You have ice-cream?"

I watch from a distance as Charlie starts to scoop ice-cream into a few bowls, rolling her eyes good-naturedly as Violet snatches the whole container away from her, also stealing her spoon in the process. Jay and Violet start fighting over the ice-cream container, and Charlie stands in the middle of it looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. Thorne rising from the table catches my attention, and I wait patiently as he walks over to me, a faint smile on his lips.