boston {h.s.}

trente.

"THE RULES ARE simple," Wheeler says, giving me the oddest sense of déjà vu as he shuffles the cards. Automatically, I think back to the drinking games that we played together when camping in September. Bracken had been the one explaining the game to us then. Satisfied with his shuffling, he lays the cards in a spiral around the unopened can of Corona that sits in the middle of the table. "We'll go around in a circle. Everyone picks a card on their turn. Ace is a waterfall, two is you—"

"Who is 'you?'" I interject. Naturally, I am the only one present who has never played kings before—something that brought everyone present a great deal of shock. Twenty-five years I've been alive—twenty-five years I've been related to my brother—and never once has he ever made me play kings.

"Whoever picks the card gets to pick someone to drink. Three is me. Four is floor; that means that everyone points to the floor and whoever is the last person to do it has to take a drink. Five is guys. Six is chicks, so, you'll be the one drinking for that," Wheeler gives me a sheepish shrug as though to say what can you do? Back to our roots tonight, it's only my brother, Bracken, Wheeler, and Harry at Rooney's apartment tonight. No significant others or other friends joined tonight. I hadn't wanted to come in the first place, but, my brother was my ride home from his game. It's a Friday night, so I figured that I might as well have some fun. "Seven is heaven; everyone points upward and the last person to do it has to drink. Eight is date; that just means that you pick a person that has to drink every time that you do. Nine is bust a rhyme and that just means that the person to pick a card has to pick a word and we go around in a circle until someone can't find a word to rhyme with it anymore. Then they have to drink—"

"That's no fair, Margeaux has an unfair advantage," Rooney pouts, crossing his arms over his chest. He's sitting beside me and playfully nudges me.

"What advantage do you think that is?" I whirl on him, the confusion written on my face.

"You're an English teacher—I think you know more words than the rest of us combined."

"Not how that works, sweetheart, but I appreciate the sentiment," I say, bringing my drink to my lips. I'd been nervous coming over, figuring that Rooney would only have beer for me to drink. When I walked through the doors, I was very endeared to find out that he had purchased some of my Malibu for me on the off chance that I ever did come over. He knows that I only drink beer when I have to. I found it very sweet that he had done that at all.

"I don't even know what sentiment means."

"I'll teach you sometime," I toss back easily, lowering one eye in a playful wink.

Harry sits on the other side of me. Loudly, he clears his throat. "Wheeler was explaining the rules," he says, his voice hardened. There's something to it—something bothering him. Though, I don't quite know what. Not anywhere near the mood that he was in when he called me on the night that he fucked me in his car, I can't help but wonder if we are rapidly approaching that level.

Before turning my focus back to Wheeler, I try to catch his gaze. He refuses to look at me. After a second, I give up and turn back to look at Wheeler who is sitting across from me. "Sorry, you were saying?"

Unlike Harry, Wheeler is unbothered. Most, if not all, of my brother's friends are very used to the playful quips that I use. My banter with Rooney is hardly exclusive to just Rooney. It's second-nature now, something that we've all grown used to as I have established myself as something of a consistent member of this small pack. "What was I on?"

"You just did nine," Jack answers, not looking up from his phone. All night he's been teased by the guys about it. Apparently, after practice they'd all gone out and he had met a girl. He's keeping it very low-key for now as he tries to figure out whether she is genuinely interested in him, or in dating a hockey player. Not anywhere near the serial romantic that Rooney is, my brother is definitely not the type to settle down. His reaction to the mystery girl makes me very curious to see whether she will be the one that makes him want to settle down.