Game Night

Ex...wait. "The high school girlfriend?"

Kristine nodded. "The one who never returned."

So that was why the name sounded familiar. Mark and I didn't talk about her much, as she was the one who was in his life before we met, and was gone from his life soon after we became friends. If I remember correctly, the day of their break-up was the time he invited me to play with him at the arcade at the mall near the school and we played House of the Dead until both our game cards ran out of credit. Thank goodness we killed the final boss on our last swipe.

"And we don't like her."

"Haze, Kristine," Mark said with a sigh. I looked at him carefully, and when he finally met my gaze, he gave me a wan smile. "I've moved on from her years ago, okay. You girls can move on, too."

"We have and we still don't like her," Kristine said, shaking her head. "Like how we don't like all your other exes.

Wow, this is a side that I've never seen from them. I looked at him again, and he just shrugged. Then he stood up and said, "I'm going to go see what's taking Joel so long. Be right back."

I scooted closer to the table to give him room to pass, and he touched my shoulder lightly as he did. I watched his retreating back, wondering if I should follow him too, so I can ask, until his friends brought me back to reality.

"And that is a classic Mark exit," Vincent said, crossing his arms. "You girls should stop doing that to him."

"What?" Kristine replied, defensive. "He knows we don't like her."

"But he also doesn't like it when you talk black propaganda against his exes."

"It's not black propaganda! We're just looking out for him."

"He's old enough to look out for himself," Vincent said, picking up the deck of cards from Joel's spot and shuffling them idly. "You guys were especially harsh on his last one."

I was just a spectator in their conversation until Vincent said that. "The last one? You guys mean Cams?"

Hazel glanced at me. "Oh yeah, Mark mentioned he met her through you," she said. Then she turned to Vincent. "We were not harsh. Mark isn't saying anything about it! We're just concerned that he's not letting it all out."

"Maybe he just doesn't want to talk about it. He's not one to talk about his relationships, remember?"

That I could confirm. Especially now.

"But he talked about the first ones, why not her?"

"And it's been months. Why can't he tell us about it?"

Vincent shook his head. "You girls, he'll talk about it if he wants to. You all act like Mark is the injured party here. What if he was the one who broke up with her? Have you ever thought about that? I'm sure Mark has his reasons why he's not talking about it. Let him be."

Before Hazel or Kristine could say anything else, Mark and Joel returned with a tray of drinks and the chips that Kristine asked Joel to get. I watched Mark carefully as he passed the drinks around, trying to see if he was affected by the earlier discussion. But I couldn't see anything - either it was hard to see, or he was really just not affected. He smiled at everyone, as usual, and as he went back to his seat, he squeezed my shoulder again, like the conversation earlier never happened.

* * *

Later that night, when we were about to go home, I found Kristine and Mark talking quietly by his car. Joel, Vincent and Hazel had left a few minutes ago after we had helped Kristine clean up, but I had to take a little restroom break before going. They seemed to be in a serious conversation, so I slowed down a little, not wanting to disturb them. But right then, Mark looked up as if he sensed me, and he smiled, prompting Kristine to turn around.

"Ready to go?" Mark asked, as I approached. I nodded.

"Thanks so much, Kristine," I said, turning to Mark's friend. "I had fun."

"Thanks for joining us tonight, too," she replied, giving me a small hug. "You should join us more often."

"I will. If Mark invites me, of course," I added the last one in jest, nudging Mark playfully. He just smiled again.

"Oh, I'm sure he will," Kristine said with a wink. Then she looped an arm through Mark's, and continued. "Seriously, though. You should be with Mark more often. This boy seemed so out of it last week that he was almost a party pooper. He's like a different person today."

"I'm not," Mark argued, but I saw his cheeks redden slightly in the darkness. I looked at him, then at Kristine, trying to understand what she meant but also not really. Of course she could mean so many things, and there could be so many reasons why he's different then and now...but a warm and happy feeling invaded my stomach as Kristine said the next words.

"I don't know what you did, Rain, but thanks for making our Mark happy."