I watched them, sitting on the couch next to Sheldon Cooper. I knew enough of things to know that his girlfriend was getting mad, and that she was a bit of a bitch. I didn't really mind that she was criticizing me. I didn't like it, but I didn't care. I knew things about acting that she never would, I knew what a bitch it was. Well, it was like anything else, I supposed. It was like those things that you could love when you were young and then you realized that there were people, and groups of people, and an entire industry just ready to suck all the fun out of it. By this time I didn't give a shit, really. Had I wanted to be the next Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt? At one time, yeah. But now I knew better. I knew it was a bunch of games, and power plays, and who knew who. Fuck it. This was just a little silly web show, and I was only here because Sheldon Cooper invited me. Amy could go screw.

Sheldon Cooper. He was a funny guy. I first came across him at that Lords of Ka'ah tournament that Stuart wanted me to go to. I liked that game, and all games like it, Magic and Dungeons and Dragons, all of that. I guess it was just the unabashed nerd in me. I mean, I was in Star Trek for God's sake. If that wasn't nerd cred I didn't know what was. And then there's this guy, and Stuart kind of warned me about him. He said there was gonna be this guy there, Sheldon Cooper. And I said, so? And he said, he's a real genius, I mean like serious beautiful mind shit, his I.Q. is close to Einstein's or something and he works at a university and he's crazy smart. And I said, so he's gonna win? And Stuart said, yeah, but that's not it. Then what's it, I said. And he said, he hates you , man. He has this enemy list and you're on it. And I was all like, why?

I couldn't stop thinking about this. A genius, a serious NASA brainiac genius hated me? I'd never even met the guy. Did he not like Star Trek or something? I didn't like to be hated. I understood a certain type of dislike that was the darker side of fame, especially since the internet. If you're even half way famous do not google yourself, I mean it, the things people say. But there is more good than bad, there always is. There are people out there in love with Wesley and in love with Gordie and who are sort of in love with me as a sort of surrogate for these characters. But now I knew there was a person who I was going to see who hated me. I cringed, the thin skinned child performer that I used to be, eager to please, didn't like this idea.

He was smart, alright. I remembered that tournament at the comic book store, and as I played my games I overheard him playing his, and he knew every card before it was played by some Rainman counting cards shit, and I knew I would lose for sure against such an intellect.

At the table with him he played every card like it was some vendetta against me, but I couldn't help staring at those large blue eyes that were glaring back at me. I couldn't help noticing the way his slender fingers held the cards. I had only one chance, and I was lucky that it worked. Stuart had told me that he was somewhat immune to sarcasm and facial expressions and that he was ritualistic, that he came into the store at the same time every week. That knowledge, combined with my first hand view of his savant skills at cards lead me to believe that this genius may actually be a savant, and if that was the case, they had their weaknesses. I knew. Savants lacked common sense, and cunning. I'd been an actor in Hollywood for years, the cutthroat and subtle social cue capital of the world. Sheldon Cooper's I.Q. might be higher than mine, but there was more to this life than the little circles on those standardized tests. I'd beat him, just like I beat out all those kids vying to play Gordie in Stand By Me. I beat those kids because I understood exactly what was wanted for that role, and what wasn't. I could beat Sheldon at this card game, if I could find his weakness.

I thought of all of that as I sat on the couch and watched Amy get mad at Sheldon, and I watched Sheldon be oblivious to it. They were talking privately, and I could almost make out what they were saying. She basically wanted him to tell me off, but he wouldn't, because he didn't want to. And I could see everything he couldn't see. I wouldn't really care if he told me off just to please her, because sometimes you had to do that to please the women in your life. He was gonna piss her off and it would be nothing to me, and he'd have a whole fight to go through and all of that pleading and trying to please her retroactively. It would be so much easier to tell me off now and get it over with, but I was starting to see that these geniuses, mostly Sheldon but also Leonard and Howard and Raj, they didn't often take the smarter and easier way out of things.