I posted this to Tumblr last night and people seemed to like it, so figured I'd cross post it here as well.
"Sylvester should be back from the school in less than a half hour," Paige said. "I do feel bad that he had to take time away from you."
"No, don't be," Megan said. "He and Ralph were so excited for him to come to the game day, I would have none of him missing it."
"You know Ralph was just excited because the two of them would beat all the other kids and their friends at chess."
"Hey," Megan said, smiling, "heart wants what the heart wants, right? Sometimes the heart wants to pummel other seventh graders at chess." She leaned back against the couch. "God, it feels good to be allowed out of bed for reasons other than going to the restroom."
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Paige said. "Walter texted me, he said he should be here soon, really soon. What can we do for you in the meantime?"
"I don't know," Megan said, biting her lip as she thought. "You have any good stories?"
Paige thought a moment and "You want to hear something about your brother?"
Megan raised an eyebrow, already looking amused. "Always."
"Okay, well we'd been dating about eight months at this point..." Paige started, "and we were waking up from a nap up in the garage, and we were sort of mumbling to each other, I don't even remember about what, and then I put my head on his chest and told him that I'd been thinking about the two of us maybe, eventually, taking our relationship to the next level."
"And by the next level, you mean the other kind of sleeping together," Megan said.
Paige pointed at her. "Exactly. But you know what your brother said in response?"
"What?"
"He tipped his head down to look at me and said, completely seriously, 'you want to go up to the roof'?"
Megan burst out laughing, holding her sides as she leaned back, squeezing her eyes shut to prevent the tears from leaking. "Oh my God!"
"I know!" Paige had a hand to her mouth, "I felt bad laughing because he so clearly had no idea what I was talking about...but at the same time..."
"He had no idea what you were talking about!"
"Exactly." Paige coughed and smiled over at Megan. "I tried so hard to not let him know I was laughing, but I was laying against him and shaking so hard trying to keep quiet, he figured it out pretty quick. Then he realized what I'd really meant and oh God." She shook her head.
"I have a story," came a voice from the doorway. Paige and Megan turned to see Happy striding toward them. "Remember a few months back when that explosion messed with my eyes?" She pointed at her eyes as if they didn't know what she was talking about.
"Yeah," Megan said, shifting her weight.
"Well, Toby comes into the room after I took the bandages off – the nurses had already been there and checked to make sure my vision was improving – and he asked how I was doing. He hadn't seen me in a few days since he and Paige and Cabe had gone to D.C. I very seriously informed him that I was seeing other people."
"Pffffft." Megan snickered into her hand. "What did he say?"
"He got the most panicked look in his eyes, grabbed my hand...and asked what had happened. I told him the nurses had come in to test my vision, and great news, I was able to see them. Then he realized what I'd done and rolled his eyes. Then he said 'well, I see you're feeling like your old self'."
"Hey."
Megan's eyes didn't appear as if they could light up any more, but they always gave off a little extra at the sight of Sylvester or her brother. In this case, it was both of them. "My two favorite guys!"
"Hey Meg," Sylvester said, walking toward her and holding out a small trophy. "Ralph and I won the game competition. This one is mine. You can have it."
"Aw," she said, smiling up at him, closing her eyes briefly as he leaned down to kiss her. "Thank you."
"They keep you entertained?" Walter asked, sitting down next to Megan and kissing her forehead. "Like I asked?"
She grinned. "They did an…excellent job." She giggled. "Trust me."
"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world." ~ Phillip Pullman