A Simple Game of Hearts
by RaspSun

{Note: This is the product of my crazy mind and also that of my friend, who is, essentially, the “Jane” in the story. I won’t tell her real name, because she has no idea I’m sending this to be posted for the world to see in cyberspace. Just to avoid any confusion, I suppose it would be useful to tell you that “pop” is what people of “my area” call soda or cola. Oh, and a “gumband” (more regional slang) is a rubber band, or, in this case, a ponytail holder. Um. I don’t know any of these people (Oh, man, I WISH!) I’m just borrowing them for a quick card game in my imagination. Tobey is adorable, Elijah is cute, and Hayden’s the dumb blonde. Sorry. I needed someone to be the comedic relief. And, oh, Tobey will henceforth be
referred to as “Tobes” because I decided that if I ever met the boy in real life, he would definitely be cool enough to let me call him Tobes.}

Madison read the note that had been slipped under her door. On a plain sheet of paper from a yellow legal pad, there were four words in a sloppy, practically illegible blue scrawl,

Hearts. Tonight. 11:00. Tobes’.

She understood exactly what it meant.

It was only noon, and she waited through the rest of the day with much anticipation, watching the hands on the clock tick by and occupying her time with idle activities, watching a movie, listening to a CD, twisting her hair into different shapes with multi-colored gumbands, talking on the phone to
Jane. She relayed the info to her friend, hoping Jane would drop by Tobes’ for a “random” visit.

Madison thought of the game. Tobes would play tonight, obviously. And she supposed Elijah would have to be there, too, considering he was Tobes’ best friend. The fourth player was as of now unidentified. At the last game, at Elijah’s house, the fourth had been Orlando. The game before that had been at her own house, and she’d invited John Mayer.

Madison waited until 10:30 to leave. It was a forty-minute drive to Tobes’ house, but Madison believed in the principle of being fashionably late. She slid behind the wheel of her dark red Subaru Forester, affectionately dubbed “Sube,” and cranked the radio. Rapping along with Eminem, she ignored speed
limits and barely stopped at those pesky red octagonal-shaped signs. She reached Tobes’ gate at 11:12. He, along with the two other players, would be waiting impatiently inside.

The wrought-iron gates were locked, as she expected. Tobes liked to keep out intruders. Madison tapped in the code; she was one of five people who knew it. Tobes, Elijah, Jane, and Tobes’ mom were the other four. The fourth player would have to have buzzed himself in.

Madison had no doubt it was a he. The game always worked like that; it was an unspoken rule. Three guys and a girl. Usually Madison, although Jane had been known to sit in on quite a few games. Usually, though, Jane was infamous for “randomly dropping by” in the middle of games. She’d help herself to pretzels and tofu and pop and sit back and watch the game, making cute little comments.

Madison pulled Sube up Tobes’ long, winding driveway and parked behind Elijah’s black BMW Beemer and a cherry red ’77 Chevy that she didn’t recognize.

She checked her reflection in the rearview mirror; her hair was still meticulously in place, held by the long silver clip (the last of her afternoon, wasting-time hair creations), and her lips were still the glossy
pink of the strawberry LipSmackers she had applied moments before at a red light.

She climbed out of the car and smoothed the imaginary wrinkles out of her black shirt and made sure her khakis looked “just right.”

She clutched the deck of cards in her left hand and approached Tobes’ front door. She knocked three times and then rang the bell, her usual signal. It occurred to her how much of their nights were the same, out of habit, or ritual perhaps.

Moments later, Tobes pulled the door open and beamed at her.

She smiled down at him (darn those pesky three-inch heels) and gave him a quick hug. She managed to keep it chaste, although the blue sweater and dark jeans made Tobes look particularly irresistible that evening.

“We thought you’d never make it,” Tobes said.

“Oh, come on, Tobey,” she said, for some odd reason using his real name, “you know me better than that. I never miss these.”

“Don’t you remember two months ago…?”

“I had a date, Tobes. With Ewan. I wasn’t about to cancel on him; he’s quite the attractive man.”

“He’s also married.”

“Okay, so, it wasn’t technically a date. It was just a get-together. And his wife happened to be there. Potato, poh-tah-toe!” She grinned at him, but he merely rolled his eyes.

“Come on, everyone’s already set up.”

“Who’s our fourth tonight?” Madison asked as she followed him down his hallway to his kitchen with adjoining breakfast nook. At the table in the nook was where the games at Tobes’ house were always played.

”A bit of a surprise. I talked to Leo, who talked to Natalie, who convinced me this kid was a great lover of cards. I invited him along.”

”And a lot of help would be the name,” Madison said, gently prodding his shoulder.

“Madison!” If Tobes were actually going to answer, he was interrupted by his best friend. Elijah came bounding out of the kitchen area. He flung himself at Madison, who, again, found herself taller than her male company. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly before letting go.

“Elijah, my dear, it has been much too long.”

”Three weeks.”

”Long enough,” she shrugged. “Oh,” she said, examining his clothes. “I feel overdressed.” Elijah wore a blue sweater and jeans, like Tobes.

“Naw,” Elijah shrugged. “You look fab. Let’s go start, you’re already late.”

”Who’s our fourth?”

“You’ll see! We’re only three feet away from the kitchen,” Tobes replied.

Madison followed the two boys into the kitchen and crossed through to the nook. Madison got a glimpse of the back of a blonde head. This boy also wore a sweater, although his was dark green, and he wore dark-colored khakis, which relieved Madison to an extent.

“Hey,” Tobes called out, and the boy turned.

Hayden Christensen. Their fourth was Hayden Christensen. Their fourth was freakin’ Darth Vader! Madison suppressed a squeal; by now, she was used to the familiar (read: celebrity) faces she saw at these games, but still…this boy was…Hayden-flippin’-Christensen.

“Hello,” she said, barely managing to keep her voice natural. “I’m Madison. Sorry I’m late, it’s just…”

“She’s never on time,” Tobes finished for her.

Hayden laughed, a deep, rich sound. “That’s okay. I’m Hayden.”

“I know!” she blurted; Elijah and Tobes smothered laughter, and she glared at them.

She coughed and suggested they begin the game. She slid into the seat across from Hayden. Madison always sat across from the new fourth. Tobes sat to her left, as always, and Elijah took his designated seat to her right.

Tobes pulled out the deck of cards and started shuffling.

“I have mine,” Madison said, holding out her deck of cards.

“You don’t trust me?” Tobes asked, mock-hurt.

”Can I be frank?” Madison asked.

“Sure,” Hayden interrupted. “If I can still be Hayden.”

The three others shot him a weird look.

”Uh, sure,” Madison said. “Tobes, no. I don’t trust you, not when it comes to high-stakes cards games.”

“Madison, I am surprised by you. I am a completely upstanding citizen!”

“Fine. We’ll use your deck, but I’m cutting it every time.”

”I have my Swiss Army knife, if you need it,” Hayden said. Madison looked at him questioningly. “You know, if you need to cut the deck.”

Madison couldn’t decide if he was joking or not, so she ignored the comment and watched Tobes shuffle the deck. Both she and Elijah cut; they didn’t dare offer the deck to Hayden, for fear he’d pull out his knife.

Tobes dealt, and Madison watched with great interest, not only because she wanted to make sure he wouldn’t do anything sneaky, but also because she had a mad crush on Tobes and it was becoming increasingly harder for her to tear her eyes away from him for even one moment. Pitiful, yes, but, really now, it was TOBES!

“What’s on the agenda for dinner tonight?” Madison asked as she arranged her cards in order of suit. It was very late for dinner, but everyone always made it a point not to eat, so they’d all be starving and could have a small meal before munching on snacks all night; it helped them to feel a little less guilty about the junk food.

”I have spaghetti warm in the pot,” Tobes pointed to his stove. His huge pot – a cauldron almost – sat on a burner left on simmer, half-covered with the lid. “Sauce in the pan next to it. And we have garlic bread in the oven.”

“No meatballs?” Elijah asked as a joke; Tobes, the ever-so-stout vegetarian, glared at him and ignored the question.

“Spaghetti? Really? Tobes, I’m going to marry you,” Madison said. “Start without me, I don’t have the two of clubs, I’ll fix everyone a plate and be back in an instant.”

“I’ll help you!” Elijah offered immediately, but Madison declined, and he looked a little dejected as he sat back down. “I have the two anyway.”

And he threw the card down, and so a rousing game of Hearts began. Of course, Madison was to his left and was therefore the next play. So the rousing game of Hearts was immediately stopped as Madison fixed everyone a plate.

She balanced the four plates, one on each arm and one in each hand, and carefully walked back to the table. She dashed to the fridge and grabbed a can of Pepsi, a can of Diet Pepsi, a bottle of water and…”Hayden, what do you drink?”

“A buncha things.”

”Well, what would you like to drink right now?”

“Lemonade sounds great right now.”

“Tobes…?” Madison turned to him.

“I have some made,” he said before she could finish the question. “Blue pitcher.”

Madison tossed Elijah the Pepsi for him, the Diet for herself, and the bottle of water for Tobes. She poured Hayden his lemonade and carried the glass back to the table.

“Ooh, my turn. Sorry I stalled.”

”It’s okay,” Elijah said, taking a huge bit of his meal. “You more than made up for it.”

She smiled at him and tossed the Queen of Clubs.

“You know,” Tobes said thoughtfully, as he got rid of his Ace of Clubs,

“spaghetti is actually an interesting word…did you know that it has its origins in, not Italian as one would expect, given the nature of the food, or even Chinese, which, did you know is actually where noodles
began…Italians just added the sauce…anyway, the word has its origins in the Latin language…”

”Oh, here we go again,” Elijah muttered, but Madison leaned forward in interest.

“Oh, really?” She asked as Hayden tossed a nine, and Tobes swept up the cards. He led with a three of diamonds. “I’ve always thought the term originated in the Gaelic language.”

”See, the doubling of the “t”s followed by an “i” is very confusing, because those letters together are often used in Gaelic words, but, really, it’s not.”

Madison had no diamonds, so she broke hearts and watched Hayden frown as he surveyed the cards laid out in front of him.

“They’re yours,” she told him, and he smiled cluelessly, albeit adorably, as he reached out to sweep up the cards.

“Origins or not, spaghetti is one of my favorite foods,” Madison said. Now Elijah was the one leaning forward in interest.

”Oh, really?” he asked. “Hmm…Spaghetti…favorite…” she thought she heard him mutter, but as she swept up the four spades, she thought maybe she was just hearing things.

“I like spaghetti!” Hayden said, twirling his food around his fork. He lifted it to his mouth, but suddenly, the noodles spooled off his utensil and puddled back on his plate. He frowned in frustration and tried again;
the same thing happened. “It’s spinny!” he exclaimed and watched it twirl around and around. Again, he tried to lift it to his mouth and it slid off.