Read Online Geek God (Forever Geek Trilogy #1) by Victoria Barbour - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Victoria Barbour
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question, I’m getting invited to watch him play Dungeons & Dragons.
“Can’t. I have work to do. I have to grade these essays.”
“Is that for 3288?”
“No, 4400, so I really have to read them.”
I love that he knows my course numbers and what the class is about. He’s even reading some of the books on the syllabus.
“But you don’t have that till next week. Why don’t you come? Please?”
This is different.
Normally it’s a “Come if you like” request. He’s never specifically asked me to come. I’ve gone a handful of times. It was a lot of fun. And I look forward to hearing about the campaign after the fact. The amount of storytelling involved is impressive. Melanie really does her work to make the world they play in come alive.
“Fine, but you have to let me roll all of your skill checks. And if your character is attacked by centaurs, I get to try talking your way out of it.”
“It’s not likely to happen. The last time we fought those was a few months ago.”
“Still, just in case.”
Who am I to resist an evening out with him? I think it’s a great sign of how well this relationship is going when I still want to spend all my time with him after what, nearly six months together?
We head to Mel and Sam’s, and the evening is more fun that I’d imagined. Not as much role-playing tonight as Melanie is weaving a story. Evan and his fellow adventurers have found their way into an audience with a king and are getting some sweet rewards for all the heroic deeds they’ve done over the campaign. In game-time, this group has been together for about a year. In real life, I learn they’ve been playing this particular game for about four years. Four years playing one game? I hadn’t realized.
I’m so caught up in listening to all the things the group has done that I don’t notice at first when Evan slides a small, worn leather bag about the size of a coin purse across the table to me.
He nudges it towards me.
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
It’s tied shut with a thin leather cord.
Inside is a set of dice in various shapes. There’s a pyramid-shaped one numbered one to four. A twenty-sided die. And all the others that make up a set of gaming dice. They’re opaque with swirls of blue and pink and purple.
“Are these mine?”
Of course they’re mine. I know they’re not his. They’re the dice I’d seen at the local gaming store about two months ago and said how pretty they were. Evan had just laughed at me and said he preferred his dice nice and simple. His red clear dice had done him for years and he had no need to invest in more.
“The campaign is over. We’re taking a couple of weeks off and then we’re going to start fresh with a new world and new characters. There’s an opening if you want to play with us.”
Around the table, I notice Evan’s friends smiling.
“We used to have a no girlfriends policy,” Tony says.
I can’t tell if his tone is mock-grumpiness or the genuine disgruntlement of someone who’s seen every one of his friends find a girlfriend while he remains single. Maybe I should try setting him up with the geography prof I see wandering the halls of the Science building. Something tells me they might be made for each other.
“Yea, way back before you had the best DM in the universe,” Mel says. “The day Sam invited me to play, I thought these guys were going to hyperventilate. Now, I have them doing my bidding once a week.”
Once a week. For possibly years to come. The implications are starting to set in. Evan wouldn’t be asking me to play, and his friends wouldn’t be happy about it, unless they all figured I’d be around for a while.
You know how some women need a ring or a house key to feel like they’re getting a sign of commitment from a guy? Turns out what I need is a set of dice and an invitation to play Dungeons & Dragons. Don’t you hate it when you find out something about yourself that you never thought possible?
Some
“Can’t. I have work to do. I have to grade these essays.”
“Is that for 3288?”
“No, 4400, so I really have to read them.”
I love that he knows my course numbers and what the class is about. He’s even reading some of the books on the syllabus.
“But you don’t have that till next week. Why don’t you come? Please?”
This is different.
Normally it’s a “Come if you like” request. He’s never specifically asked me to come. I’ve gone a handful of times. It was a lot of fun. And I look forward to hearing about the campaign after the fact. The amount of storytelling involved is impressive. Melanie really does her work to make the world they play in come alive.
“Fine, but you have to let me roll all of your skill checks. And if your character is attacked by centaurs, I get to try talking your way out of it.”
“It’s not likely to happen. The last time we fought those was a few months ago.”
“Still, just in case.”
Who am I to resist an evening out with him? I think it’s a great sign of how well this relationship is going when I still want to spend all my time with him after what, nearly six months together?
We head to Mel and Sam’s, and the evening is more fun that I’d imagined. Not as much role-playing tonight as Melanie is weaving a story. Evan and his fellow adventurers have found their way into an audience with a king and are getting some sweet rewards for all the heroic deeds they’ve done over the campaign. In game-time, this group has been together for about a year. In real life, I learn they’ve been playing this particular game for about four years. Four years playing one game? I hadn’t realized.
I’m so caught up in listening to all the things the group has done that I don’t notice at first when Evan slides a small, worn leather bag about the size of a coin purse across the table to me.
He nudges it towards me.
“What’s this?”
“Open it.”
It’s tied shut with a thin leather cord.
Inside is a set of dice in various shapes. There’s a pyramid-shaped one numbered one to four. A twenty-sided die. And all the others that make up a set of gaming dice. They’re opaque with swirls of blue and pink and purple.
“Are these mine?”
Of course they’re mine. I know they’re not his. They’re the dice I’d seen at the local gaming store about two months ago and said how pretty they were. Evan had just laughed at me and said he preferred his dice nice and simple. His red clear dice had done him for years and he had no need to invest in more.
“The campaign is over. We’re taking a couple of weeks off and then we’re going to start fresh with a new world and new characters. There’s an opening if you want to play with us.”
Around the table, I notice Evan’s friends smiling.
“We used to have a no girlfriends policy,” Tony says.
I can’t tell if his tone is mock-grumpiness or the genuine disgruntlement of someone who’s seen every one of his friends find a girlfriend while he remains single. Maybe I should try setting him up with the geography prof I see wandering the halls of the Science building. Something tells me they might be made for each other.
“Yea, way back before you had the best DM in the universe,” Mel says. “The day Sam invited me to play, I thought these guys were going to hyperventilate. Now, I have them doing my bidding once a week.”
Once a week. For possibly years to come. The implications are starting to set in. Evan wouldn’t be asking me to play, and his friends wouldn’t be happy about it, unless they all figured I’d be around for a while.
You know how some women need a ring or a house key to feel like they’re getting a sign of commitment from a guy? Turns out what I need is a set of dice and an invitation to play Dungeons & Dragons. Don’t you hate it when you find out something about yourself that you never thought possible?
Some
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