Endless GMs, Day 1: Prelude

This is the story of the best week of my life--of both our lives. I still have a hard time understanding how anyone could like me this much.

This is going to be a six-part series, one thread for each day of my Gencon vacation. Each one will be rather long and I'm taking great care to alter all names and details, so I'm not sure how long it'll take to finish--probably at least a week. This first one is kinda slow, but trust me... they'll get interesting.

Questions and comments are welcome, though not required--I'm doing this for myself more than anything else. However, there is an... idea I would like to pose at the end of the series that directly affects the future of our relationship, and this I would greatly appreciate feedback on. It's a very stupid idea... but then again, that's the same thing I said about this trip.

Anyway, without further adieu...
*****

Every time I see her, its like the first time weve met.

Ive got far, FAR too much shit with me. All of my RPG books, my entire wardrobe, laptop with all the accessories, at least a thousand hours of anime Christ, what was I thinking? Theres only one real suitcase in our house and I swear, it could hold a mini-fridge and still have plenty of room to spare. I figured I might as well fill it up and if I have a sudden urge to, say, whip out my police scanner in the middle of a battle with an ancient red dragon, I can.

Dragging this fully loaded behemoth up to the doorstep through the pouring rain, though, Im beginning to see the flaw in my plan. Oh well; its a little late now.

Jenny answers the door with her usual coy smile. I didnt think it was physically possible for someone to look so much like an anime character come to life until I met Jennifer Kay and her huge, soft eyes. I still cant decide whether theyre hazel or green or blue?

She turns away and leads me into the living room before I have a chance to look at them closer. I stumble around and shiver and mumble incoherently about the weather and flight schedules and the peculiar absence of dogs barking their heads off.

Theyre staying with my grandparents, she tells me. Ah, that explains it.

We lapse into a stupefying long silence. All of my energy has been shot from running around all day, doing things that should have been done weeks ago yet can no longer be procrastinated due to the impending trip. I cant understand, though, why it is that things are always so awkward at first. Her dad isnt even in the room. Well ok, maybe it has something to do with that guy.

We met a couple days ago, though I can no longer remember his name. Hell, I cant even remember what he looks like anymore save the fact that he had brown hair. Hes the newest member of our little group, brought in by Joel? I wouldnt know, because Im not invited to the major get-togethers anymore and even when I am, I dont pay attention to the vast majority of the conversations. I did remember, though, that this guy was supposed to drive us to the airport and therefore I should be nice to him.

I think that this consisted of me saying thanks at some point. Seriously, I could count the number of words I said to this guy on one hand. Who the hell was he? Who the hell was I, for that matter? Im the guy that occasionally hangs around after work to watch movies or play videogames with Jennifer and her little sister (and their father, when hes in the mood.) I dont have lunch with them or stay up until 5 AM chatting hell, we dont even play D&D together anymore. Just why exactly am I going to the largest gaming convention in the world with these guys?

I look over at Jenny.

Oh yeah. But why are they letting me come?

Mark, Jennifers father, wanders in before I can figure out an answer. Mark is the archetypical gamersmart, competitive, logical, somewhat perverted and extremely famine-resistant. Hes the only one who ever notices when Jennifer and I are flirtingwell, let me qualify that. He is the only one who ever lets me see that he notices us. Im sure that Jennys mother has a few worries too, though I think shes willing to keep them bottled up and repressed until the day they can no longer be ignored. When that day comes, I just hope I remember to wear body armor.

She, along with the rest of our group, should be in Indianapolis by now. Various snafus prevented all of us from taking the same flight, though it was no accident that I happened to end up on the later flight with Jen.

The drive to the airport was largely uneventful, though I did get to hear about Jennys first few days of junior high. It sounds like she really likes it, which saddened me just a bit, because eh, well, Ill talk about that more a little later.

As we pulled up to the terminal, Jennifer was pretty much vibrating in place. I didnt think it was possible, but shes even cuter when shes nervous. She explains to me that shes never flown on a jet, never been out of the state, never even ridden on an escalator before today. I want to comfort her somehow, but Im currently checking my bags (and trying to figure out if theyre going to charge me extra for the weight) while simultaneously trying to convince Mark to give me my ticket.

It really didnt matter; he was probably less likely to lose it anyhow. Yet, I couldnt shake this feeling that I might do something unbelievably stupid in the coming days and when I did, it would be a very good thing if I was in control of the little slip of paper that guaranteed me a return flight. I thought about it for a moment before I realized that ticket or no ticket, this would be a hopeless situation. If he was really that pissed off at me, I would not want to share a plane with him let alone sit in the same row of seats.

Dont worry Jenny, they inspect these things after every flight. We probably stood a much greater chance of getting in a car accident on the way here.

It was of no use, though. I realized that logic was of no use to her now; she was simply overwhelmed.

But time and the tedium of walking around and waiting have a way of killing apprehension, and after a while we were at the gate with everyone else, being bored, waiting for our flightwhich wasnt due for an hour and a half. At some point I told her that takeoff was pretty awesome, though maybe a little intense at first.

Like a roller coaster?

Ummmmm well, you see have you ever ridden in a really fast sports car before? Oh. Uh well, its pretty cool; youll see.

Time passed, and I let her play with my laptop for a bit. I have this strange desire not to play XPs pinball anymore, lest I accidentally bump her name off the high score list.

Im going to go find some food. Off I trotted down to the concession stand. A quick peek reveals that Im being followed.

Yes!!!

This is the first sign, the first confirmation that we are actually friends, that she likes hanging out with me. Well, the first sign since the last time Ive seen her, anyway. No matter how much weve flirted, no matter how much shes confided in me, no matter how many times Ive hugged her or played with her hair or caressed her face, I still worry that Im nothing more than a nuisance to her.

Every time I see her, I wait for this moment, this sign. Without it I can only wonder if these past three years have been a dream. Without it, I dont know if shes my friend anymore.

I have issues.

Theres a food court in the distance, but for some idiotic reason I felt compelled to use the snack bar instead. Their selection is quite abysmal, but thats nothing compared to the prices. I think Jennifer and I chatted for a few minutes while I decided, though I dont remember about what. The important thing was, she was here, standing next to me, completely of her own free will, without any irritating parents or friends around. I felt a warmth and tranquility I hadnt felt in months.

On a hunch, I pick up some nachos. Im not a huge fan of nachos, but Jenny is, and I let her steal quite a few. I had to reassure her that it was ok to take the last of the cheese.

Boarding time came, and I nearly amazed myself with my cunning nonchalance. I said early on that I didnt care where I sat, though I would prefer not to sit by the aisle. I figured that Jennifer would want the window seat (and she did), and so by process of elimination I wound up sitting between her and her father.

Of course, this was still an airplane, so we were still far too close to Mark for my liking. Jenny was extremely nervous during takeoffthis time I was actually afraid she might freak out. I turned and tried to comfort her the best I could, but I could feel him staring at my back. It made my leg twitch.

A couple times I made a half-hearted grab for her hand and wound up brushing her arm or leg instead. She nearly yelled when the plane made an unexpected noise oh man, fuck it. I rubbed her back until the plane stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing. She seemed to do fine after that.

Her father didnt seem to care one way or the other.

Things only got more and more monotonous after this. Conversation was sparse, and Jenny seemed to do fine on the landing. I didnt get to sit next to her in the limo, but it was a pretty short drive anyway. The hotel was awesome, but the hour was late and despite all my nonchalant cunning, it didnt appear as though Jenny and I would be sleeping in the same room. ;-)

Very few times in ones life does one go to sleep with almost no idea what the new day will bring. I knew that I was scheduled to go to a gaming event with Jenny (alone) early in the morning and I thought, quite wrongly, that this would be the highlight of my dayperhaps even the highlight of my trip. After that, I was just going to wing it.

As it is, I was only able to grab about 4 or 5 hours of sleep. If I had known what was in store for mefor us, I wouldnt have slept at all.