"Oh wow, that's cool." I almost struggle to recover from my spiral of missing the casual interaction mark from both sides.
Quiet is only safe when I’m home, alone. Every other part of my life is meant to be loud. Concerts, shows, festivals, even driving on the bus from one place to the next are full of my bandmates and management team chatting.
I’m sure I can recover this and reconnect with Duncan’s friends, for his sake.
I just need to figure out what to open with.
"Should we fire up a round of BRUNO?" Duncan asks.
"What's BrUNO?" I ask.
"Nobody talks about BrUNO." Felix whispers before he turns around to tell the group to gather around.
Emmett leans in as Duncan walks away. "It's Uno but with a few different rules, you'll catch on."
Chapter thirty-one
Duncan
What’s under that kilt Rhys?
"Ifyouplayaneight right now we're screwed." Caroline says to Felix who is sitting to my left. She's down to one card, so is Emmett. Rhys has two left and for being a newcomer, he's caught on to the game pretty quickly.
With so many of us playing I shuffled up two decks.
"C'mon Cap, be a good teammate and volley up the assist." I say as my thumb rubs along the blue nine in my hand. Then I'll be down to two cards, one wild and one yellow skip card.
Felix makes a show of looking through his hand. He's clearly losing this round with a full fan of options but I know my captain, he's a team player and he's here to boost up his guys whenever he can.
My teammates might be groaning but all I hear is the heavens singing as he drops a blue eight on the pile.
I slap my nine down and stand up. With a dramatic throat clear I ask the room, "What do you call a guy with a rubber toe?"
Aiden just tosses his hand down to the table. The rest of the group tries to think it through and I am buzzing with excitement to tell them this one.
"Bouncy something" Caroline tries.
"Give up?" They all start reaching for their cards before I even get to deliver the punchline. "They call him, Roberto."
"Fuck you." Johnny says before he chuckles.
Rhys has been pretty quiet throughout the game but I think he's just focused on getting the hang of it. He shakes his head a little as he examineshis cards and I can't help but like how intense he is. He smirks along with everyone else as they pick up their cards.
Next to me Emmett plays a three which gives him two extra turns because of the Rule of Threes. He switches to a yellow three and then plays a yellow two before yelling "BRUNO!"
Everyone leans in and we mentally strategize without knowing anything about what the other players are holding.
Rhys is next.
"Okay, so I have a yellow two here," he plays it, "and that means I laid down a double so I get to play two more cards."
We all watch as he lays down a wild card and says, "Green and BRUNO!"
Then he triumphantly drops a green six onto the pile and stands with his hands over his head.
My cards get tossed into the air as I jump up to hug him. Everyone folds and begrudgingly congratulates Rhys.
"Beginners' luck." Emmett grumbles. "We'll get you next time."
