A Simple Life: Chapter 65 (Patreon)

Order is soon restored both in game and out and it is with sky high spirits the new Mayhems march the rescued noble’s son back to his wealthy father, a journey the man would never forget thanks to Hoppy and Horny.  Payment is given, thanks received, and the party finishes the adventure back at Rudolf’s Rest raising a flagon for a job well done.

“Oh my God.”  Riley exclaims as the group begins to pack up.  “It’s past midnight already!?”

“No way.”  Cain checks his phone.  “Damn.  Time flies.”

“That…was…awesome!”  Briar squeals.  “That was so much fun!  Thank you Winona.”

Winona tries to take the compliment coolly but she cannot hide her geeky grin at what was a rousing success of a first game.  “Glad ya had fun Briar.”

“That was the best game I’ve ever played.”  She says.  “Avery!  That Nature’s Blessing was CLUTCH!  MVP of the whole adventure.”

“You saved me pal!”  Kayla hugs me.  “My hero.”

“A-Anytime.”  I giggle.

The others all chime in their agreement, bigging me up for my clever play and quick thinking.  I sit there smiling not really sure how to react to it all.

“And you!”  Kayla laughs and playfully slaps Briar’s shoulder.  “The Scourge?  Where did that big bitch come from?”

“I’ve always wanted to play her.”  Briar says, rather proud of her fearsome creation.  “My other Fable Masters wouldn’t let me.”

“Big things in little packages, huh?”  Kayla nudges her.  “Nearly choked me right out.  Kinky!  Kinda hot though.”

“Pfff!”  Briar blushes.

Meanwhile Cain is teasing his girlfriend.  “What do think of the these babies?  What do you think of these babies!?  Ha ha ha ha!”

Riley was grinning from ear to ear as all of us start laughing all over again at Hoppy Bunbun’s unique distraction tactic.  “Well it worked didn’t it?”

Moods are soaring as we joke and laugh and talk about how excited we are for the next time.

Even Brayden is chuckling.  “You guys are hilarious.”

We’d almost made it through a night without me causing some kind of drama.  Almost.  As Kayla turns to me to say something she suddenly stops, her gaze focusing on my left eye.  All the tears from my laughing must have washed some of the concealer away.  Panicked I beseech her with my eyes not to say anything or call attention to it but she either doesn’t get the message or misinterprets it.

“Oh.  What happened here bud?”

“N-Nothing.”  I cover my bruise.

“Nothing?”  Kayla’s tone softens.  She’d known me long enough to know what that answer meant.  She touches my cheek.  “Aw sweetie.”

“Ah.  Jack came by yesterday and slapped him up a bit.”  Brayden replies, unasked.  “Total sucker punch.”

All the laughter, all the fun, all the upbeat chit-chat…gone.  “Brayden!”  I scowl daggers at him.

“What?”

Winona, who was standing as she put her books away in her bag, had gone stock still.  She looks slowly over at my roommate.  “Jack?  Whose Jack?”

“It’s his eldest brother.”  Kayla says, sympathy in her voice where there had once been mirth.  Cain, Riley, and Briar who had just been quipping back and forth now looked very uncomfortable.  No!  We were having such fun!  Kayla strokes my shoulder softly.  “What happened this time?”

“This time?”  Winona asks, her voice eerily flat.  “This has happened before?”

“It d-d-doesn’t m-matter.” I say, desperate to recapture to good feelings again. “I-I-I’m okay.  Really.”  I look to Winona pleadingly.  “I’m okay.”

Cain’s voice lowers, his expression grim.  “Jack’s a nasty piece of work.  Joshua too, but Jack is worse.”

“Paige is hardly better.”  Kayla mutters.  “With their parents though it hardly…”

“S-Stop.  Stop it.”  I say angrily.  “I-I-It was nothing.  I’m fine.  It’s n-n-nobody’s b-business.”

Any hopes I had of things getting back to normal are shattered as Winona fixes Brayden with a long, hard stare.  “You were here when it happened?”

“Huh?  Uh, yeah but…”

“You fucking sat there and let this Jack…”  Her words cut short as her upper lip begins to quiver.

“Uhhhh…it happened so fast…”

“Winnie.”  Kayla says, her tone soft and placating.  “Calm down now girl.”

Winona doesn’t even hear her.  “You just fucking sat there playing your fucking game!?”

“Jesus.  Don’t put this on me.”  Brayden says.  “I didn’t hit him!  Avery can fight his own battles.”

“Avery can…!?”  Her jaw clenches, her nostrils flare.

“Easy Winnie.”  Kayla says.  “Easyyyy.”

Across from me Cain shifts uneasily.  “Aww shit.”

There’s a moment of tense still before Winona suddenly scoops up her bag.  “I gotta go.”

And just like that she was headed for the door.  She hadn’t even packed up her screen or half her papers.

“Wh-What’s going on?”  I whisper to Kayla, but she was far too focused on Winona.

“Winnie.  Winnie stop.”  She’s on her feet and following.  “What are you doing Winnie?  Where are you going?”  No reply.  “You’re going to get into trouble again.  Winnie!”

Winona was already out the door.  Kayla breaks into a run, her voice still audible through the open doorway as she chases Winona.  “Winona!  Stop.”

I sit there scared and confused as Cain, Riley, Briar, and Brayden all look at me and my ugly eye which started it all.  “Shit.”  Cain grumbles.  “We better get out there Avery.”

“Um, y-yeah.”

I fumble out of my seat and around the table, feeling the others eyes following me, and at a swift walk Cain and I hurry down the stairs and out the front doors.  There we find Kayla standing in front of the driver’s door of Winona’s truck trying to placate her angry friend.

“Just tell me where he lives Kay.”  Winona says.  “I’ll find out one way or another.”

“Winnie, you need to calm okay?  Please.  Think.  Nothing good is going to come of this.  You’re not a full resident yet…”

“I’m just going to go have a talk with him.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

“You saw what he did!”

“Winnie…”

“KAYLA!”  She her sharp voice cracks like a bull whip just as Cain and I arrive at the truck.

“Oh!” I startle backwards at the aggressive tone.

Winona notices me and in an instant her tone softens, her expression one of regret when she sees me recoil from her.  “Sprout?”

“Um.”  I swallow.  “Y-You said we’d hang out after the g-game.  Are you leaving?”

“I was…um…I was just…”  She looks back and forth between Kayla and I.  “…just going to talk…”

Reaching out I offer my hand.  “Stay?”

Her protective anger was powerful…but her desire to be with me even more so.  She takes my hand and as she does so all that energy and boiling tension bubbling inside of her body begins to drain away.  As she rubs my soft hand in hers and gazes into my eyes she she relaxes even further, then gives me a warm smile.  “I’d like that.”

“Come on.”  I pull her back from her truck.

She comes up beside me, her arm sliding around my shoulder, and together we start back for the apartment.  “Sorry about that Sprout.”  She whispers.  “I didn’t scare you, did I?”

I cuddle to her side, grateful that she decided to stay.  “I’m okay.”

“Well ya scared me!”  Kayla quips.  “I’m glad you’re on our side.  Geez!”

Cain follows along and chuckles.  “I don’t envy Jack.”

Back on my floor we enter the hall to see Riley and Briar peering out the door of my suite.

“Everything good?”  Riley asks.

“We’re good.”  Winona says, clearly embarrassed.  “Sorry guys.  I, uh, I didn’t mean to make this awkward.”

“Not awkward.”  Riley assures her.  “I was hopin you’d kick his ass!”

Some tense but relieved laughter ripples through the group.  To my surprise it doesn’t take long before we are chatting it up again like nothing happened, though at this point it is all ushering toward the inevitable goodbyes.  Cain and Riley are the first to go, before they go Cain expresses his gratitude to Winona for letting him experience how the game is played firsthand.  “Even better than the show.”  He says.  Riley is already planning what she’s going to bring for the next game.

Briar is next to get ready, all dressed up in her bright yellow raincoat.  Her praise for Winona is absolutely effusive and her questions and commentary about the world, characters, and story never ending.  After a bit Winona has to cut her off.  Patting her arm she says.  “It’s late.  We’ll talk later.”

“Okay!”  Briar says merrily.

“Need a lift?”  Kayla offers

“You don’t mind?”

“No trouble at all.”

Winona and I shoot a knowing glance to each other.  Kayla would have happily given the ride regardless, but we also knew she wasn’t going to let the opportunity to be alone with the nerdy college cutie slip by without taking another chance at bat.  As she follows Briar down the hall she shoots an impish look back our way.  “Good night you two.  Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

We laugh and wave our goodbyes.  The door swings shut leaving just three.  The worst kind of crowd.

Winona and I clean up the dining room area, her occasionally fixing Brayden with a stony stare, before she excuses herself to the washroom.  She walks right in front of him in a way that invited him to say something to her.  He doesn’t say one word until the washroom door closes.

“She hates me.”  He says, his voice lowered so she wouldn’t hear him.

“She doesn’t hate you.”  I say.  “She j-just angry.”

“She doesn’t know Jack.  He woulda kicked my ass too!”

“N-N-Nobody blames you.”  I say.  “I w-wish you hadn’t said anything though.”

“Sorry man.”  He glances toward the washroom.  “He’ll fuck her up too if she’s not careful.”

“I know.”  I whisper, truly fearful of just such a thing happening.  Had Kayla not been able to slow her down I shudder to think what might have been.  “I-I-I’ll protect her.”

“Yeah.”  He sighs and rubs his hair.  “I’ll get out of the way before she comes back.  I got work in the morning anyhow.”

“Oh yeah!  Hey, g-good luck with that.  You’ll do g-great.  You’ll see.”

“Thanks Avie.”  He shuts down his game and puts down the controller.  He looks to the now empty and quiet dining area.  “Ya got cool friends.”

“Yeah.”  I smile.  “I do.  Th-Thanks for letting this happen.”

“No sweat.”  He stands, quiet for a moment, then says.  “Seeing Kayla fuck that goblin might be the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”

I giggle.  “They were so silly.”

“Silly…yeah…whoooo!”  A grin slowly grows as he remembers back to Riley and Kayla’s lewd overacting.  “Anyway…off to bed!”

“Good night Brayden.”

As he retires for the night I head back to the kitchen to finish tidying up, counting the seconds until Winona and I could at last be alone again.

Chapter 66