just pretend

.13

"Okay. We'll see."

If I'm being honest, last time I played was last time I went up here with my parents last September and my mom beat me. We played five times throughout the weekend and she beat me four times. My father is easier to beat. He's smart and strategic but too impatient. Luckily mom taught me how to play.

We begin playing and it's slow going. He takes forever to ponder and think out his moves. I suddenly feel like my dad playing chess with my mom. I don't think he's ever won a game to that woman.

As I'm impatiently waiting without my phone, which is still on the dock, I watch him. His hair is damp and curly, fallen over his tan skin as he thinks. He reminds me a lot of Keanu yet so different. They're both stubborn as hell and can be real annoying brats when they're in a mood yet both have really silly happy moods. On a physical scale Leo's taller but for the most part they look pretty similar. Same tan skin, brown eyes, black curly hair and eternal bitch face.

"What?" He asks. I tilt my head confused. "You're staring."

"Yes bored out of my mind cause you take forever."

"Exactly why I'll win and why you have lost every game we've ever played together." He doesn't even look at the board to jump my pawn. Not a big move but how calm he always is scares me.

I make my move which I've been waiting ten years to do and it's back to him thinking.

I lied. The two are a lot alike but also a lot different. Keanu couldn't beat me in any game, she doesn't read nor appreciate the little things the same way he does. He's very perceptive which naturally makes him quieter then her. In other words, he's a lot smarter.

He makes his move and I realize I haven't been thinking of my next move.

"Chop chop," he jokes to mimic me harassing him to hurry up.

"Shh," I mutter as I look at the mess of a board. Already almost all my pawns are gone.

"You're not very good."

"I said shh."

He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. I make a random move and sigh dramatically. When I'm not winning it's not as fun.

Eventually he beats me and goes off somewhere to draw. I soon regret not going on the boat because boredom starts to eat me alive. I go to a cupboard under the TV. A good majority of the space is taken up by disks and board games so I move on to the book shelf filled with dusty old books my parents read as a kid.

Time Tangle. Chrysalids. 1984. The GoldFinch.

I run my finger along the books as I read out random ones.

Mom was always into classics which I never got.

The Great Gatsby. Catcher in The Rye. Animal Farm. The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Found them all to be very boring. Actually didn't know Animal Farm was about communism back when I read it as a twelve year old.

I close my eyes to pick out a book and I pick up a book called On The Road.

I end up putting it back a half hour later because I find it impossible to comprehend. I just wanted an easy read but of course knowing my mother every book on this shelf is some deep story that English teachers like to over analyze.

I go to find where Leo went off to but he's not anywhere in the house. Like last time I assume he's down on the dock.

When I get all the way down the stairs he's doodling on the pad in his lap with his right hand and holding a cigarette in his left.