Chapter 19: 19. Intermission: Dates and Dragons

Dad lowers his face behind a trifold screen, mouth hidden. He darts squinting eyes between Mom and Avery. "The moon's full face shines twilight across the sky and peeks through cracks in the dense, leafy canopy. During your travel, you come across a camp. Smoke still curls up from the fire pit built in between six or so empty, unfurled bedrolls. It's clear this fire went out but a few minutes ago."

Excitement floods through Avery's body, sending tingles shooting through her arms. A fight! Finally! She thrusts a fork full of homemade pasta toward Dad, dripping with marinara sauce. "I ready my bow!"

Mom springs across the table with a napkin. "Avery! Be careful!"

A pang of shame reels Avery's hand back over her bowl just in time for a drop of sauce to plop into the tomato-based sea of vegetables and pasta. She puts the fork full in her mouth. "It's Ayda of the Grey Woods to you, you hulking green monster."

Mom wipes a splotch of marinara sauce off the table that Avery didn't notice. "That was out of character, and Mordah is a cute orc no matter what you say."

Dad raises his face above the screen. "Focus! Roll a perception check you two."

Finally! Avery picks up a sparkling purple twenty-sided die and dumps it out of her hand. It tumbles along the tabletop, plinks off a glass serving platter of sweet potato casserole, and continues along. There's nothing like rolling dice. Avery dips her head after the die, following its shifting result until it comes to a stop near the edge of the table. "Sixteen! What do I see?"

Mom brings her shaking fists to her chest. "Twenty!"

Dad arches his eyebrows one after the other, shifting his gaze between the two of them. "You both see a shadow looming in the distance, taller and wider than any man or beast you've seen before. Then comes the quivering ground underfoot. Each step the shadowy form takes rocks your legs like you're a newborn goat trying to find its footing."

Odd pain throbs in Avery's chest, like the pain she feels hearing a woodpecker hammering away outside her window for an entire day. Her concentration falters. "Their footing."

He stops his dramatic eyebrow shifting. "Hmm?"

"'Their', not 'its'. Goats aren't things."

"Ah, yes. Sorry." His eyebrows resume their strange dance. "Like a newborn goat trying to find their footing. What will you all —"

Oboes and clarinets sing about a new message from one of the pockets of Avery's basketball shorts. Avery's heart flutters along the waves of sound, dancing through her chest with irregular beats and weightlessness. She plunges a hand into her pocket and yanks out her glossy brick of a phone.

A spell of silence falls on the space. Mom and Dad stare at Avery with raised eyebrows and eyes full of... something. Expectations?

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Avery lowers her phone back toward her pocket. "Sorry. It can wait."

Mom swipes a stray bundle of hair out of her dark-circled, puffy eyes. "We can excuse it if you finally ask this person out on a date. It's been weeks at this point." With a grin, her eyes dart to Dad with the odd sparkle of knowing something she shouldn't. "Surely you've all got a good idea about each other."

Warmth rushes over Avery's face. Sweaty, humid warmth that radiates from her cheeks. She casts her eyes to the side. "Dad told you then."

Dad raises a hand to the back of his head and scratches at an itch that definitely isn't there. "Well, I figured you wouldn't mind. You don't, do you?"

A huff slips out of Avery's throat and she flops her phone between her hands. "No. It would have been nice to surprise her myself though."

Mom picks up a crumb of the casserole that found its way onto the table and drops it on her empty plate. "You can just surprise me with how the date goes. Right? I'll stop mentioning if it's not something you want, but..."

Her throat won't conjure words for a moment, her mind blank. Avery flops her phone over once more, then unlocks it with a few swipes over a three-by-three pattern of nodes. "No, I want to do it. I will do it."

Yellow flashes across the phone: the now familiar dating app. Thumb quivering, Avery taps a couple more times. Her message history with "MaybeYourPenpal" scrolls past until it reaches the most recent one.

MaybeYourPenpal: How'd the game go? I've been wanting to try an RPG like that for a while, but I can never find a big enough group.

Avery's heart flutters anew, sweeping up into her throat and back down into her stomach. Goodness. She taps out a message.

AveMarie: It's still going! Great. Dad actually does such a great job running it. Anyways... Do you want to plan a date for coffee or something? I know a place. Or we could go to a place near you? Or somewhere that's neutral ground? or something else im not good at this

Mom and Dad smush their heads together ear to ear, beaming ridiculous grins at Avery.

Warmth from embarrassment and glee spill over. Cheeks glowing a bright red, Avery presses send and buries her head into her crisscrossing arms on the table.

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