“My nephew is supposed to be calling me in just a few—” Jake cut himself off as the phone rang, and Rye glanced up to see Jake grimacing as he leaned forward and picked up the phone sitting on the coffee table. Jake caught his eye and smiled. “Sorry, yeah. That’s Phil. I need to take this, okay?”
Rye didn’t respond; he just buried his head in his knees. The phone rang one more time, and then Jake answered, his voice taking on some light tone that Rye hadn’t heard from him before.
“Hey, kiddo, I was waiting for your call... Yeah, yeah. Your mom’s still working?... Yeah, it’s a busy night for her, I’m sure. What were you thinking tonight?... Aw, shoot, I don’t know, last time—”
Jake huffed some sort of laugh, and Rye heard sounds of rustling and shifting. His stomach felt hot now. Hot and burning. When he finally convinced himself to look back up, Jake was sitting on the edge of his seat a bit, fiddling with his laptop and then another device, and the TV was on.
“You just want to play that because you know you’ll kick my butt,” Jake said. He was grinning now, though, and he reached to the shelf under the coffee table and pulled out another device.
Rye bit his lip. Headphones . . . ? Headphones, yeah. And . . .
Jake glanced over at him, and his smile widened a bit. “Do you want to play too?” he asked Rye. “Phil pickedMario Kart. But I’ve gotta warn you, he’s ridiculously good. For a ten-year-old.”
Rye heard a high-pitched voice come through the phone, and Jake pulled it away from his ear for a minute, laughing. There was a funny twinkle in Jake’s eye.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, kiddo. I haven’t been able to beat you in at least a couple of years now,” Jake said as he moved the phone back to his ear. “Hang on, I’m gonna switch over to Discord. And I’ll just...”
Some more stuff happened as Jake fiddled with his computer and the... video game? He opted to not use his headset, he called it, and then, a young boy’s voice came through the speakers of Jake’s computer. Loud and laughing and silly. And he greeted Rye happily and also invited Rye to play with them.
Rye couldn’t find any words, although he did manage to shake his head. And Jake assured him that was okay.
Then, things got a bit louder—music from the video game mixed with laughing from Phil and Jake and more talking and joking. Rye’s stomach didn’t really like it much, but healmostwanted to. He tried to. Jake was smiling, and Rye liked that. He scooted himself out of the corner a bit to watch the TV better, although he didn’t make it all the way to the couch. And sometimes, Phil addressed Rye directly, asking him if he’d played before and if he had a Mii avatar and who his favorite character was.
Each time, Rye didn’t answer. But he thoughtmaybehe might have, if he’d had a clue what Phil was talking about.
After a few rounds, even though Rye wasn’t really sure exactly how the game worked, it was clear Jake had been right—Phil was much, much better than him. When Jake lost yet another race, Phil cackled with what had to be joy.
“Aw, come on Uncle Jake. You should have had that one! You had that red shell! How did you even mess that one up?” Phil burst out laughing again, and Jake just groaned, even though he was still smiling.
“I don’t even know, kiddo,” Jake said, grinning, and he sat back on the couch and glanced at Rye. His smile seemed hesitant for a second, and Rye’s stomach cramped up again. He started to push himself back toward the corner, but Jake motioned to the couch and then held up the video game controller. “We’ve got time for one more race before dinner’s ready, I think. Maybe Phil would be nicer to you than he is to me. Do you want to give it a try?”
“Oh, yeah, come on, Rye!” Phil piped in, obviously excited. “I’ll even play Baby Rosalina with the Bandwagon. It’s soooooo slow!”
“Phil, I don’t think it matters which character you play,” Jake said, and he turned back to the TV and pressed a few buttons on the controller. “You’ll win even with the slowest combination possible.”
Rye stared at the small device in Jake’s hands, his chest starting to feel tight. He’d never played before, he kind of knew that. Somehow. And he also remembered that his mom hadn’t been a fan of video games. But that was all he remembered. Just that little piece. Nothing more.
“Here, Rye.”
He pulled his eyes away from the controller and looked up at Jake, who was patting the couch and watching him with one of those really, really kind smiles.
“Phil, switch back to... maybe Toad Harbor? That’s a good one. You’ve never played before, Rye?”
Rye swallowed and then shook his head.
“If you want, you can. It’s pretty fun.” Jake offered the controller again.
And somehow, Rye managed to get his body to move, despite the discomfort of his stomachache. He stood, still with one arm clutched against his midsection, and then, on shaky legs, he took the few steps to the couch.
“You’ll try then?” Jake asked, and he was so clearly excited that for a second, Rye couldn’t not smile. He nodded as he stopped, his eyes darting back and forth between Jake and the controller. “Great! Here, I’ll show you...”
Rye managed to sit on the couch without squishing himself against the armrest, like he had the day before, and he also managed tonotshrink away when Jake scooted a tiny, tiny bit closer and handed him the controller. It was blue and red and black, and there were way too many buttons.
“Yay! Come on, Rye, let’s go!” Phil squealed, and Jake laughed lightly.
“Give him a second here, kiddo,” Jake said. “Alright, it looks complicated, but it’s really not. Okay? So, you can just use my character. I’m playing Yoshi—”
“—cuz he likes to lose!”
