Page 44 of The Player Next Door

Clare

Everything’s great, I promise

Clare put her phone away, feeling somehow worse than before.

Chapter Twenty-two

“Explain the part about spell slots to me again,” Logan said as they approached Devi’s front door.

“You don’t have to have this stuff memorized,” Clare said, but he did not feel nearly as chill as Clare wanted him to be. He was normally all confidence when it came to meeting new people, but he was now seized with an unfamiliar bout of nervousness. He wanted Clare’s friends to like him, and he wasn’t used to needing that sort of approval.

Also, he liked Clare. Everything was terrible.

“There’s no time limit on this,” Clare continued. “And we’ll all talk you through any questions you have. We were all newbies, once. And the goal of every Sulzurian is to get other people to love the game as much as we do.”

“They won’t get annoyed? I could still fuck this up, you know,” he said, taking the tote bag of brownies from her hands as she opened the door.

“There’s no real way to fuck it up, that’s the whole point of this game,” Clare replied reassuringly. “Hey, we’re here!” she called into Devi’s kitchen.

“Bitch better have my brownies,” Devi called back as she emerged. “Oh, hey Logan, you ready?”

Logan held up his character sheet with what he hoped was a charming smile. “As ready as I can be. Clare keeps promising I can’t like, lose this for you guys, but there’s alotof rules.”

“So many rules,” Devi agreed. “But Clare’s right, we’ll help you out. And I’m the Game Master, so a lot of it is on me. I promise not to kill you.”

“What if I accidentally die?”

Devi grinned and handed him a bowl of chips. “We’ll figure something out,” she promised. “This is a universe with magic. You might end up a zombie, but we’ll make it work.”

Clare had told him roughly the same thing, but it helped to have Devi repeat it.

Toni, Chase, and Annie arrived at the same time in a cacophony of noise. Toni had beer that needed to go in the fridge, Chase was busy telling Annie some story from work, and Annie kept tripping on the shoes by the door and swearing loudly.

Annie noticed Logan first. “Oh, you must be—the neighbor,” she said, awkwardly catching herself when Clare bugged her eyes out at her.

Neighborwas definitely notboyfriend, so clearly he had his work cut out for him. “I’m Logan, yeah. And you are—?”

Annie introduced herself, followed by Toni, and then Chase took his seat across from Logan with a nod. Logan shifted a little and sat up straighter just as Devi sat down at the head. “As we all know, this is a special one-shot campaign, as a thank you to Logan for taking care of our Clare,” Devi started, and Logan’s stomach bloomed with warmth.OurClare. Like he was included in that group.

Devi called up his character sheet that he and Clare had created. They had worked on it for two solid evenings to figure out his character because he was leaving nothing to chance. He was taking this very seriously. They were doing a whole special one-off storyline just for him, with everyone playing their regular characters but on a hiatus from the main story. That way, he could join in for the day without derailing their current campaign.

Devi looked up at the group, eyes dancing. “Everyone, please welcome Keith the Ogre.”

Well, maybe notthatseriously.

Annie broke first and snorted. “Keith?”

“It’s not a name you hear often,” Logan countered with a grin.

Toni laughed and Chase smiled, shaking his head. Devi launched into more of Keith’s backstory, and introduced their event for the day. The party had wandered into a tavern while Ildash was off consulting with some sorcerers, and an old woman told them there was treasure buried under the mountain above the village, and offered to split it with them if they’d go retrieve it. From what he could tell it was much more low key than their current storyline, featuring wars and the end of the world and all that, but Clare assured him they all loved these sorts of silly one-shots just as much as the big ones. It gave them a chance to explore the world and goof around, she said, and it would be a good introduction for him.

Devi turned to Logan. “Keith, it’s up to you. Do you accept the quest on behalf of the group?”

Logan looked around. “Yes?” he asked everyone. “Is that—that’s the point, right? We want to do this?”

“We do,” Clare assured him.

“Then yes, I accept,” he said, and the campaign began in earnest.