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“Can we please just be normal for once?!” Roman’s wail probably made it to the other side of the state.
Mr. D looked up from his hiding place and shook his head at Roman’s fantasies, what a dream it would be to be normal just for once. He sniffed slightly at the thought. It would be so nice. Patton wasn’t answering from where he was staring intently at the cards on the table in front of him. Logan glanced up but made no comment as he really had no clue what this ‘normal’ thing was. Remus and Remy were too caught up in what they were doing to even hear the question. Virgil, well, his music was keeping him safe from reality at the moment.
It wasn’t until the checkerboard went flying over Virgil’s head that he noticed how bad things had gotten. Even then, he was only aware of it because of the shower of checker pieces that landed on him. He pulled one headphone out and surveyed the chaos around him. Mr. D was huddled in a corner, probably crying, Roman was yelling the rules to Uno as loud as he could, Patton and Logan were engaged in an intense game of Slap Jack, and Remus was sliding cards from his fingers while Remy was doing some kind of dance to entice Remus to continue ‘making it rain’. The evening had started out with Patton innocently suggesting that they all play a board game or two, but no one had expected the soft, kindhearted man to be so extremely competitive.
So, when Roman had beat Patton at Monopoly, Patton had demanded a rematch but everyone had wanted to play something else. Remus suggested "Sorry" but that ended rather quickly when he decided to eat three of the playing pieces. Mr. D had suggested ‘Go Fish’ but that had to stop after Virgil accused Remy of cheating and had almost tackled the boy. They’d tried charades next but Remus wouldn’t keep things PG. In the end, they’d all sort of branched off into their own separate divisions but somehow ended up with the mayhem that was their reality at the moment. Virgil wondered how long he was obligated to attend this chaotic get together while he dodged a handful of chess pieces that Remy decided to toss in his general direction.
“Virgil!” Patton shouted, “Come here and tell us which one gets the pile!” Logan looked like he was willing to just give up the game at this point. Virgil wandered over and glanced at the tangle of fingers on top of the winning pile of cards. It wasn’t easy to tell but Virgil had to admit that it seemed like Logan had more claim on the pile.
He shot a look towards his brother. Logan’s eyes and manner held communication that only he could read. He raised an eyebrow, asking Logan what verdict he wanted. He knew that Logan had determined that he was the rightful winner of the pile. A subtle shake of the head directed Virgil to let Patton have the win. Virgil would’ve rolled his eyes at the childness of the adults around him.
“Sorry, L, I’d say Patton gets this one.”
“YES!” Patton’s shout of triumph brought the entire room to a standstill.
“Cool. Are we done?” Logan asked. But Patton seemed ready to take on someone else. The landlord turned determined eyes on Roman,
“I challenge you again!” Mr. D groaned and hit his head against his knees softly.
“You’ve played against him and lost five times!” Virgil tried to protest but Patton heard none of it. Roman, for his part, seemed delighted to take up Patton’s challenge and they began the most hardcore game of Uno Virgil ever had the misfortune of being dragged into.
By the time the game was nearly over, Roman had several papercuts from cards that had been thrown and Patton’s glasses were cracked. Virgil had been given a good hand but was desperately trying to lose. Fate, however, wasn’t kind to him so when Patton triumphantly changed the color to red, Virgil was forced to lay down his last card and call victor over the other two. Patton’s eyes sparked as they landed on his new opponent. Virgil shrunk back,
“How about chess?” He tried, hoping that the calm game would at least slow down Patton’s unpredictable need to win.
“You’re on.”
How Patton turned chess violent was something that remained a mystery until the end of time for Virgil. He wasn’t even sure how Patton won or how the board ended up broken into five different pieces, but he was mostly just grateful to be out of the mess. Remy was Patton’s next victim, but it took five rounds of poker before Patton was satisfied with his title over Remy. The last person he could possibly challenge was Remus, since Mr. D had been last place in Monopoly and posed no real threat to the normally peaceful man.
Getting Remus to play something with following the rules was something that no one had ever accomplished. However, Patton seemed to understand Remus’ rules to Go Fish and the two were battling it out. Remus giggled and licked a card before tucking it into his shirt. Patton countered by slipping a card under the watchband on his wrist. Remus frowned, seemingly perplexed by this move but quickly tossed a handful of dried glue into the air and asked for all four of Patton’s hearts. Patton handed over a four of hearts with a frown. He then demanded the spade that buried seven victims and Remus handed over his seven of spades.
The game continued like this for another thirty minutes but was brought to an abrupt end when Logan slipped on a stray card and slammed his head into the coffee table. Patton’s ambitious determination to win suddenly vanished and he was back to normal. He rushed to Logan and helped him up, checking his head for injuries. Logan, seeming to realize that he was now the key to ending the weird evening and began to use everything Roman had taught him. If there was anything stranger than watching Patton become completely self-oriented, it was watching Logan be dramatic. He clung to Patton and wouldn’t let the man go, forcing him to sit on the sofa with him. Mr. D jumped at the opportunity to quickly throw games into their proper boxes and Virgil quickly moved to join him. Before Patton could comprehend what was happening outside of his concern for his baby, the room was completely cleared of clutter.
Roman darted to the kitchen and grabbed several cartons of ice cream to continue the family friendly feeling and scrambled to turn on a movie. When Logan deemed the situation settled, he relinquished his grip and accepted the cold pack for his head. It wasn’t a bad injury but every bit of the little pain was worth it to bring peace back into the household.