Pretty Please Don't Pinch Me

39. Charades

You know that things are completely hopeless when you're only comrade is Brooklyn. Feeling entirely isolated in this, I drop my fork suddenly when Harry's hand rests reassuringly on my knee. No one else seems to pick up on his gesture, and I glance over to him, noticing a tiny smirk forming on his lips in our little secret that only we know. The tension slowly melts away, though his hand firmly remains.

"So are you two planning on staying after dinner for a round of charades?" my mother asks us, as dinner is drawing to a close.

Harry's face immediately lights up at the mention, and I can just tell by his body language that he wants to stay.

"Yeah," I smile. "I think we might."

He looks slightly startled by my reply. I hear him mumble, "You sure?" quietly, and I nod my head.

"Of course, it's no drama. We can leave shortly after that," I whisper back.

"Thank you," he quietly replies, squeezing my leg.

"Besides, I want to see your sad little face when we beat you boys," I confidently state, this time addressing the entire table.

"It's on," Brooklyn challenges.

"What did I say about trash talking at the dinner table? Mum warns.

I hear a beeping from the box, and I'm surprised to see Dad rush up to get it. He has a lot going on at work though, so I'm not surprised when he takes the call.

"You're hopeless Ben," my mother calls out jokingly.

We finish up with dinner and head to the lounge room area. Marnie explains the rules briefly, to ensure everyone is on the same page.

"The person who is 'up' has to describe the word they select from out of the hat. They need to describe as many words to their teammate with one minute on the clock. You can't pass on a word. No rhyming, or writing things out, but you can talk. Got it?"

"Sounds pretty straight forward," Harry says as he claps his hands together, while leaning forward in preparation.

Mum tells us to play without us while she helps Dad in the kitchen, and we agree to play girls versus boys. We agree to let the boys go first, and I laugh along as Harry furiously acts out eating a lollipop, skipping rope, Batman, playing the drums, the movie Pretty Woman, and lastly, chopsticks, that Brooklyn couldn't figure out. Harry catches my eye while he acts it out, and I blush, knowing exactly what he's trying to enact.

Brooklyn guesses all but one, giving them a solid score of 5.

They're so going down.

I get my game face on and turn to Marnie seriously. I take the first word from the hat, and a deep breath before Brooklyn calls 'go' to start. My speed of my talking increases significantly as we go through each word on the list.

"One of your favourite movies..."

"Titanic!" she calls out.

"You hate this," I say.

"People who bite their nails?"

"No... think foods!" I say with urgency.

"Mushrooms!"

"Yes! Okay, what we used to do on Christmas Eve!"

"Um... Play the piano!"

"What you're allergic to!"

"Cats!"

"20 seconds," Brooklyn calls out, giving us a time warning.

Shït!