Pete had only been to Abraham's house once. He thought about using Google Maps to get there, then decided that would be kind of pathetic considering how small town was. The only thing he remembered about it was that it was next to a church, because Abe's dad was a preacher.
Abe's family also apparently had the lowest home improvement bill in history, because the house looked like it was falling apart. It wasn't small and cramped looking like Baker's, it just looked like half the boards were loose and it desperately needed a new paint job. "Took you long enough to get here," Abe said. He was standing on the porch, leaning against the wall. "Collie and Ray are already inside." Oh. Right. Ray was here.
The Stand was still sitting on the shotgun seat of his car, so he picked it up and decided to take it in with him. Maybe he and Ray could talk about it. Or something. Unlike in front of Olson's house, there was tons of parking in front of Abraham's, so he just shut the car off and stepped out. The little white church next to his house looked like something out of a Western novel.
"Hey, Abe. The house isn't gonna fall down, is it?"
"It's a good little place," Abraham said defensively, leading him inside. "When I was little, my friends used to have sleepovers in the back church rooms. My dad would get really pissed."
"Hey, McVries!" Parker clapped him on the back. "Haven't seen you since you and Baker sneaked off to fuck in your car last night!" Pete didn't bother telling him that the right word was 'snuck.'
"We didn't fuck, Parker. And way to bring up a sensitive subject, man."
"Oh." Parker looked a little ashamed, or at least the most ashamed Parker could look. "You wanna talk about it?"
"Not really."
Ray appeared from out of what was probably the bathroom. "Oh...hi, Pete." From the look on his face, he had not been told that Pete was coming. He glanced at Abraham, who was looking like this was all part of some master plan of his.
"So, now that we're all here, I'm gonna make some nachos. You guys go upstairs or something. Just don't go in my parents' room."
"Aw, Abe, your folks love me," Parker said, chuckling. "Your daddy called me son one time."
"He'll like you a lot less if you poke around in his stuff. He says you'd make a great son-in-law, don't ruin it."
Pete felt mildly like a third wheel, but then remembered Ray was there. Maybe Parker and Abe had some scheme to out-gay him and use his competitive nature that would inevitably force him to make a move on Ray. He figured he was probably over-thinking this. "So, upstairs," Ray said, clearing his throat.
"Right," Parker said, leading them up the the carpeted stairs and down a hallway to a door that was presumably Abraham's room. "Abe doesn't have any video games, fuckin' pansy, but he has Monopoly and UNO. I dunno. What do you all want to do?"
"UNO sounds okay," Ray said. "I don't play many video games anyways. I have a DS, but Mario Party's about all I can do on it."
"I make a mean Mario Kart opponent. Never tried Party, but I'll keep you in mind next time my sister lets me use her 3DS."
Parker was staring at them like they were speaking a foreign language. "I only know Call of Duty and Halo."
"Oh, come on, Parker, you have four little sisters. You play Cooking Mama and Nintendogs regularly." Abraham had appeared in the doorway with a plate of cheese-covered Tostitos. He set them down on the floor and sat down in front of them. "So I hear the verdict's UNO. I'm down for that." So they got out Abraham's UNO deck, which was one of the fancy new versions that had some kind of weird card-spitting machine that came with it.
Pete had a wild card and a blue +2 card in his cards. The first card was red, which happened to be the only color he didn't have, but everybody else apparently did. He decide to save his wild card. Ray was really terrible about hiding his excitement when he drew a card from the deck. He definitely had a wild card.
"So, I really called you all over here 'cause I feel like we're all a little sad," Abraham slapped down a blue 3 on top of the red 3. "I feel like we should all just have some fun. PG-rated fun."
"I'm fuckin' here, Abe. It's gonna have to PG-13 for language fun."
"Whatever." Pete looked at Parker and Abraham like he was examining a lab specimen. How could they be so happy and natural? Pete was pretty sure they were into each other, but it didn't get between them. How did that work?
"I'm not sad," Ray said. "Not really, at least." Pete felt his chest start to ache a little. Ray wasn't even fucking sad. Of course it was just him. Ray was breaking his heart and he didn't even know.
"Well, I haven't been great," Pete added, unable to stop himself from shooting what could pass as a look of contempt in Ray's direction. He put down a blue +2 card, which made Parker start cursing as he took two more cards. "Look, Abe, I know you want to talk about our problems, but I don't really want to. If you don't mind."
"Suit yourself. Your ex-girl Priscilla has been flirting with me, Pete. It's weird."
"Priscilla flirts with everybody. Just ignore her."
"Actually," Ray said, his tone a little softer than usual. "Actually, she's my girlfriend's best friend, and I dunno, I get this...feeling about her. I don't want to get between their friendship or anything, but..."
"Priscilla's probably the worst person I've ever met. Tell your girl to get better friends." From the way Ray's face fell, he regretted saying it.
Abraham broke the moment by yelling "UNO!" triumphantly. Parker put down a yellow card, and it was pretty clear that if Pete continued this, Abe would win. So he put down his wild card. Abraham looked like he was about to commit situational murder.
"I change it to blue."
Ray put down another wild card. "Green."
In the next turn, Ray got rid of all his cards but one. Apparently green was his lucky color. And then the card on his next turn was a green 4. He flashed a smile at all three of the others and put down his red 4.
"Goddamn!" Parker cried.
"Who knew you were so good at cards, Ray?"
"I play a lot of classic stuff, like Hearts and BS and Solitaire. I guess I just got good." He looked down bashfully.
"Do you guys wanna stay for dinner?" Abe asked.
All said "sure," except Parker, who said "Fuckin' yes! I love your mom's cooking!"
Maybe Abe was right. Maybe Pete did just need a little PG-13 for language fun.
This chapter was just cute and fun, which is kind of unusual for this fic. I have a whole outline for how this will go, so even if it seems like I'm bullshitting my way through it, believe me, I have a plan. To give you a taste of what's coming, the next couple chapters are sort of Pete making peace with bad parts of his life. Like Barkovitch. Hint hint.