Hey man, pokr game 2nite. Me mairead grace jerry stef & prob a few others will be in the pot. Wonder if ur interested? Were not playing 4 money ne more - not after wat happened at pauls last time. Wud b gud 2 c u.
Ryan stared at the screen and sighed. He never actually enjoyed Texas Hold'em, even when it wasn't sabotaging his wallet, yet these gatherings were becoming frustratingly common among the group. It wouldn't have been so bad if he could just casually turn down all of the invitations, but he was spending less and less time with Declan lately, and the guilt was piling up. People are supposed to spend time with their best friends, right? Even if it is just time playing a ridiculous card game.
"It's been your move for seventy-five seconds now and you still haven't put down your phone yet." The bored, monotone voice came from Cole, sitting on a hard-plastic stool at the opposite side of a table covered in miniatures, dice and hand-cut polystyrene. He was holding a short plastic ruler between finger and thumb, flipping it over and over again, impatiently. His fifteen bright red dice were pushed together into a triangle in front of him, every one of them showing a 6.
Ryan glanced down at one of his squads, sheltered among trees in the north-west corner, and picked up the measuring tape.
"Sorry, just checking that text. Was Declan - apparently they're holding another poker game. At his and Stef's place, this time."
"I don't like poker. It's just probability. Too easy."
"I wish I could say the same myself, but...."
Ryan's voice trailed off while he measured out the movements of his north-west squadron. It was a long-shot, but he was already on the back-foot and needed to try something drastic if he had any hope of turning the battle around. Getting a quick flank on Cole's berserkers before they could go on the offensive was probably his best-
"That won't work. Your archer's maximum range is 10 inches. That's enough to hit the near side of my battalion but the latter side reaches 11.65 inches away. Even with a roll of maximum damage, half my troops will be left standing."
The smugness made Ryan's teeth grind. It would have been less annoying if he wasn't always right, but numbers were basically Cole's 'thing.' There was no point in arguing with him. Ryan picked up a handful of his cut-bone dice and rolled anyway. They came up mostly 2s and 3s.
"Figure out the damage yourself - I should reply to Declan."
While Cole plucked models from the cluster that had just been ambushed, Ryan went back to his phone. At least he had a good excuse for not making the poker game. He hated not being there for Declan, but tonight he was spoken for. Nobody else was going to mind Cole, after all.
"Is Máiréad going to be there tonight?"
"Yeah, he mentioned her in the text."
Hey man - I'm sorry to say...
"When do you think he's going to stop being her cuckold?"
...I'm gonna have to give tonight a miss...
"Cole, I don't even know what that means."
"I know you don't. I mean the way he chases her around when she obviously isn't interested."
...but maybe we'll get together soon?
"He doesn't torture himself on purpose. He has feelings for her."
"What else is new."
Message sent.
"Just take your turn."
The berserkers, now only three-quarters of their original number, moved up to meet the archers. Scooping up his dice, Cole began the inevitable massacre. The tumbling cubes battered the terrain mat without even a hint of mercy.
"4, 8, 13, 18, 24..."
He took so much pleasure in announcing Ryan's destruction. It was sadistic.
1 New Message: Declan Gorman
"Take your time pulling my army's legs off there. I've got another text."
Cole leaned across the table and flicked one of the archers up off the map with his ruler. It hit the wood of the window ledge with a painful thud before landing on the floor. The ruler moved over to another archer.
Aw really? Wat u doing? No prob neway we can meet up l8r. Hav sumting I wanna talk 2 u about.
I'm spending time with Cole. He's slaughtering me, as usual. If you want to talk you can always come here and- Crack!
A third model collided with the back of the phone. He didn't even look apologetic - just moved on to model number four. Ryan glared at him, but the gesture was futile.
hang out for a while?
Pressing the 'send' button, he began retrieving his models from the floor. Only a single archer remained on the map.
"I think, just maybe, you've won this game."
"You've got to play it out to the very end."
The response snapped back before he had even finished his sentence. Cole was insistent that they never quit playing before the bitter end, even if he outnumbered the enemy 100 to 1. Just another way he could bring his sadistic streak out.
"Fine. But this is the last game of the evening, okay?"
He moved his single remaining archer onto elevated terrain, rather than back into the cover of the trees. Then, he measured out movements for his cavalry, over on the eastern side of the map. He settled for running them right along the floor of a small valley. Neither move would do anything to drag out the fate of his troops, but at this stage he wasn't interested in keeping them alive. He just wanted to pretend he was still trying, to keep Cole happy. Higher ground gave the archer a boosted damage roll. The cavalry could travel further if they didn't try to scale the valley wall. Too bad both were surrounded by Cole's berserkers.
"Your turn."
Cole cried out with malicious glee and began moving the berserkers down into the valley, surrounding the cavalry on all sides. Seconds later, he began his ritual of flicking the miniatures off the table once more.
1 New Message -
No tanks man. No offens but i dont think im up 4 hanging out with ur stepbro 2nite. U no he makes me feel weird.
Glancing at the mess of models now on the floor, Ryan muttered toward his phone "You and me both, mate...."
He picked up the model of the unfortunate last archer. The paint was chipped, from having been battered off the floor five times in as many hours.
"C'mon Cole. Let's go paint more miniatures or something. I'm done making bad decisions for the day."
No comments:
Post a Comment