Chapter 131 – Career
The three girls looked at him weirdly, with a hint of amazement. Soon, Azariah declared.
"That was really effective. I guess it's true that you can take care of yourself."
He thought she was referring to the incident that happened at the villa's party, where he affirmed that he didn't need anyone to protect him. Braelyn added her thoughts.
"I can see why you are so confident now. It helps to have a police officer as a mother."
"Ah, she's not. My mother is a financial consultant."
"What?"
The three girls stared at him, surprised.
"You mean... This was all a bluff?"
"Yup."
His impish smile at that time stirred their hearts pretty badly but they tried hard not to show it on their faces.
"Huh... How can you think of something like this on the spot?"
"It wasn't on the spot. It's a countermeasure I prepared in advance in case something like this happened. It was more effective than I thought."
"I think it's because you were so confident about it. You even managed to make us believe it too, after all."
"Ahah, perhaps I should try to become an actor after I graduate."
He said this as a joke but the three girls nodded very seriously in agreement, with Waverly declaring.
"Yes, I am sure you would do great. You can speak well, you can act well even in a tense situation like this and you are, um, not bad looking too."
"Thanks but I was just kidding. I am not interested in acting."
"Oh... That's a shame. I think that would suit you perfectly."
"Enough with the flattery, let's continue the game, okay? I have to go home soon."
"It wasn't flattery but... fine."
They resumed their interrupted game and everyone took turns, sometimes working toward the goal, at other times working toward their own objectives. And, as expected, the end of the game was pretty brutal. Due to everyone not contributing enough, they only had sufficient resources to save two people. Eventually, Waverly put some snake poison into Braelyn's food and the girl died on the spot. Benjamin was the next to play and avenged her with his sharp rock. The game concluded with Azariah and Benjamin agreeing to end the bloodbath here and escape the island together since they had enough to sustain themselves. The two enemies in the previous game now became allies and the winners of this game, a fact that made them smile.
After that, they discussed the game for a while, each of them explaining what they had tried to do. They talked about what they could have done better and if it was possible to have everyone survive. Soon enough, it was time to leave and they reluctantly tidied up the game and put it back where it was previously. They had a lot of fun today, the girls being happy to get to try new games that they have been interested in and Benjamin getting his first experience with board games aimed at older people. He went to pay the bill and the owner congratulated him for handling the previous situation nicely.
The four of them exited the shop and Benjamin turned toward the girls.
"Thank you for inviting me today, I had a lot of fun."
Azariah answered him back with a grin.
"You're welcome. Or more like, we ended up discovering this place and you treated us on top of it so we should be the ones to thank you."
The two others nodded and Braelyn continued.
"We didn't expect you to accept at all, but you were more approachable than we thought. Say, are you interested in having another session like this in the future?"
"Sure, why not? I won't be doing this every day but I can join from time to time."
The girls cheered and Waverly concluded.
"Great! I will ask you when we plan to play again."
"Alright, I look forward to it. I have to go now so I will see you tomorrow at school."
"See you!"
He left and moved toward home, reaching the place fifteen minutes later. He still had a little bit of time before he needed to prepare dinner and went to relax in his room. There was indeed nothing better than relaxing after having fun, a concept that a lot of people successfully implemented in both worlds. A while later, he went down to prepare the meal and the rest of the evening was spent having a peaceful time within the family, with the usual verbal and physical banters.
On the next day, Friday, nothing very special happened at school. Nathan and Noemi's relationship seemed to be going well, and the two looked happy, often glancing at each other during classes. Benjamin now added the group of three girls to his morning greetings and they responded to him shyly but joyfully, the other girls looking at them with some envy.
After school, Benjamin went for a run. He didn't have any strict training schedule and with his days being so busy, it had been a while since the last time he ran. After a good hour of jogging, he went home and took a shower to get rid of the sweat. Then, he went to his room to study. Seeing how things were going today, he almost felt like a normal high school student. This gave him a weird feeling and he wondered if there was anything he could do about it. Soon enough, a good idea came to his mind and he exited his room to head to his mother's office.
He put his ear to the door and could hear her voice as well as a few other voices, all barely audible due to the soundproofing. She was probably having a conference call at the moment and he thought about the situation. According to the clock on his phone, it was close to her time to finish work but she still had a little to go until the end of her day.