"Choose," Andrew said, extending both hands with his fists closed.
Paige watched in silence for a few seconds. Finally, she raised her index finger and touched the knuckle of Andrew's left hand.
Andrew opened his hand. In his palm was a white pawn.
"Great," Paige said, taking the piece with a small smile. "White always wins."
Everyone looked at her strangely.
Howard arched an eyebrow. "Do you mean that the white pieces have a slight statistical advantage and therefore tend to get better results?"
Paige made her first move, pressed the clock to formally start the game, and then looked at Howard with complete naturalness. "Yes. Of course that's what I mean."
In chess, the white pieces did have a small statistical advantage. By moving first, they could occupy the center earlier, set the rhythm of the opening, and force the opponent to respond.
The data usually showed that White achieved better results, with slightly higher win percentages or overall scores.
But that did not mean victory was guaranteed.
It was only a minimal advantage.
That was why Paige's statement had sounded far too absolute, if that was what she meant.
Or she was probably referring to another, much more delicate topic. A dark humor joke.
Andrew could not help but smile as he made his move.
Just like the previous time, it was a very even duel.
During the first few moves, both of them took only a few seconds to decide. The pieces came out quickly, but little by little, the pace began to slow.
Each move demanded more attention, and every exchange could leave behind a weakness.
Monica, Leonard, and Howard watched the board in silence, following the game with growing interest.
Andrew rested his elbow on his knee and watched as Paige studied her next move.
"You're good," he commented with a small smile. "Have you played before?"
"Not much," Paige answered honestly, without taking her eyes off the board.
Andrew seemed to have been expecting exactly that answer.
He widened his eyes slightly, with surprise that was far too calculated. "Wow. Then maybe you're some kind of hidden genius."
The sentence had a clear double meaning for him, while remaining invisible to everyone else.
Paige, who had her arm resting beside the board, slowly lifted her gaze, "I'm not a genius," she said almost immediately.
She did not try to sound defensive, but she did.
Leonard, Monica, and Howard did not seem to notice anything strange. To them, it was probably just a modest response or an awkward reaction to a compliment.
Andrew, on the other hand, did notice, and he knew why Paige was hiding her genius status, similar to Sheldon's.
"Mm..." he murmured, pretending to weigh it while looking at the board. "I don't know. You probably are."
Paige narrowed her eyes. "Why would I be?"
"Because you beat Howard pretty decisively, and he has an IQ of 140; Alex, who has 135; and Leonard, who has 173. And I'm not talking about weird internet tests. They all took the WAIS-IV. Verified results," Andrew replied.
Paige recognized that name.
The WAIS-IV, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, was one of the most widely used and respected psychometric tests for evaluating cognitive ability in people from sixteen to ninety years old.
It was not a quick, random internet quiz.
It was an in-person assessment, administered by a qualified professional, that could last nearly two hours and measured different cognitive areas: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.
It carried real weight.
According to its classification, a score between 90 and 109 was considered average. Between 110 and 119, high average. Between 120 and 129, superior. And from 130 onward, very superior.
That last group represented only a small fraction of the population.
That was why Paige defeating three people in that category at chess was not exactly a minor detail.
Paige held Andrew's gaze, not caring that the chess clock was still eating away at her seconds.
"An IQ test isn't everything," she finally said, moving a piece and pressing the clock.
"I agree," Andrew said, looking at the board.
"But if someone who says she hasn't played much chess beats three people with very superior IQs, and does it without looking especially pressured, it stands out," he added, making his move.
"You beat them too, and I'm sure your IQ is lower than Leonard's," Paige replied.
When she had first met the group, Steve and Andrew had mentioned Leonard's IQ almost as if it were a family trophy. Because of that, even though Andrew struck Paige as clearly intelligent, it was almost impossible for her to imagine him surpassing a number like that.
After all, what were the odds of finding two people with such a high IQ in the same group?
"Besides, Leonard sucks at chess," she added mercilessly. "He lost to everyone. Having a high IQ doesn't automatically make you a good player."
"Hey," Leonard muttered, crossing his arms. "I don't suck that much..."
Howard let out a small laugh. "Yes, you do, man."
Leonard looked at him, offended. "You lost to her too."
"But I lost with more dignity," Howard said with a shrug.
Paige's point was correct.
General intelligence did not automatically make anyone good at chess. A brilliant physicist who had never studied openings, tactical patterns, or pawn structures could overlook a basic threat in a single move.
Talent, memory, and calculation ability helped, but without practice, none of that worked magic.
That was exactly why Andrew could beat all of them, and even lose to Paige by almost nothing, despite all of them having a higher IQ than his.
Andrew had played quite a lot of chess over the years, especially with Manny. Besides, memory was one of his strongest points. If he could memorize a Pro-Style playbook full of complex terminology, reading books on chess openings did not represent much difficulty.
"It's true, I beat Leonard, and my IQ is much lower than his. The difference is that I have studied chess a bit more. I read books on openings, played for years, and have plenty of practice," Andrew said, resting his fingers on a piece and moving it. "That's why my case has an explanation. Yours, not so much."
As he tapped the clock, he looked at her.
"And that's why I made that comment: either you're a possible hidden chess genius, or you're lying when you say you haven't played much."
Paige and Andrew stayed looking at each other in silence for a few seconds.
Monica, sitting off to the side with the bowl of snacks in her hands, watched them with an increasingly confused expression.
'What kind of conversation is this?' she thought.
Paige finally looked away first, "I'm not lying," she said, turning her eyes back to the board. "I haven't played much. I just read a few books out of curiosity years ago, and I have a good memory. I guess it's that, and maybe some natural talent."
Andrew nodded slightly and left the subject there. He believed her in part.
Paige probably did not play that much.
But he also found it quite amusing that she was trying so insistently to hide her status as a genius. If she really did have an IQ even higher than Leonard's, then it was not strange that she had found it easy to absorb patterns, openings, and general chess concepts just by reading a few books or watching a few videos.
For someone like that, what took others months of practice could become fairly manageable in a short amount of time.
The game continued, and little by little, Andrew began to gain the advantage.
Partly because of experience, and also because that conversation had achieved exactly the goal he had been aiming for from the start: distracting Paige enough to break her rhythm.
A few minutes later, Andrew moved his final piece, "Checkmate," he said with a faint smile.
Paige looked at the board and then huffed through her nose, "You win," she muttered reluctantly.
Andrew stretched with a carefree expression, "Of course. Now all that's left is Nebraska."
Paige looked at him with growing annoyance, "Don't get so full of yourself. We're 1-1. Let's play the final tiebreaker."
Without waiting for an answer, she had already started setting the pieces back in their initial positions.
"No, thanks," Andrew said, with absolutely no intention of playing another game tonight.
Paige looked up, "What's wrong? Are you scared now? You know you won't be able to repeat it?"
She was using exactly the same arguments Andrew had used earlier to provoke her into accepting the rematch.
But he only shrugged, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. I'm scared. Oh, and hungry."
He said it so lightly that Paige immediately understood it did not matter how much she tried to provoke him: Andrew was not going to bite.
'He's so insufferable...' Paige thought.
Still, a tiny, almost imperceptible smile appeared on her lips.
Insufferable, but not like her old acquaintance: Sheldon Cooper.
A different kind. Sheldon was irritating in a rigid and exhausting way.
Andrew, on the other hand, was provocative and annoying, but also very entertaining.
"I'm hungry too," Howard cut in, placing a hand on his stomach. "Let's order food before chess turns into a civil war."
As everyone began getting up and discussing what to order, they noticed that Sam had already arrived.
She was standing a little away from the living room, beside Steve, speaking to him in a low voice.
"Isn't Willa coming?" Leonard asked. It was already pretty late, and she had said she would come for dinner.
Haley, who heard the question, shook her head, "She told me something came up at the last minute and she can't."
A little later, they ordered delivery.
By then, Rachel finally came out of her room and joined the group, though she maintained a clear cold war against Haley.
Haley, sitting at the end of the couch, looked like a wet puppy abandoned in the rain.
Every time Rachel spoke to someone else, she looked up hopefully.
And every time Rachel ignored her, she sank a little deeper into the seat.
Monica sighed at the sight.
They ate scattered around the living room, most of them on the couches, while Howard, instead of taking a normal chair, preferred to sit cross-legged on the floor.
The television was on, though more as background noise than out of any real interest.
Howard left his plate on the coffee table and rubbed his hands together, "All right, what do we do? Watch a movie or play something?"
He thought there would be at least a few seconds of silence, then a debate.
There were not.
"Movie!" Sam answered with immediate enthusiasm, almost jumping up from the couch.
Howard looked at her, surprised by the speed of her answer, "That was quick. I assume, judging by your enthusiasm, you already have something in mind."
"Yes," Sam said, smiling.
"Please tell me you didn't bring a three-hour historical movie about a trial, a revolution, or some dead philosopher," Paige said, already getting to know Sam's boring taste in movies and shows more and more.
Sam looked at her with some offense, "Nothing like that."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," Sam replied, shaking her head. "You made me a connoisseur of popular culture, remember? And today I brought something almost everyone has seen, but Steve told me you guys haven't."
Andrew, Leonard, and Howard looked at one another.
Until just a few weeks ago, Sam had been practically ignorant of pop culture. Since joining the group and officially starting to date Steve, they had all taken part in her emergency cultural education.
They had made her watch Rocky, some of Star Wars, Marvel movies, among other must-sees.
Now she caught references that used to fly completely over her head. But saying she was now a connoisseur of popular culture seemed like a very generous exaggeration.
She still had a very long way to go.
"Wait," Rachel said, looking first at Monica and then at the others. "There's something they haven't seen?"
Andrew, Leonard, and Howard seemed to have consumed almost everything capable of fueling a nerdy conversation.
"That doesn't seem possible," Monica said.
Everyone looked at Sam as she walked over to her bag, pulled out a Blu-ray case, and returned to the center of the living room.
Then she held it up so everyone could see it.
"This one."
All eyes went to the cover.
Andrew narrowed his eyes, "Twilight..." he read aloud, recognizing the title.
A peculiar silence fell over the group.
"Now it does seem possible," Haley murmured with a small smile, seeing the expressions on Andrew, Leonard, and Howard's faces.
Paige, for her part, made an almost imperceptible grimace when she read the title.
"You haven't seen it, right?" Sam asked, not fully understanding the silence. "Steve told me."
Andrew slowly turned his head toward Steve, "You watched Twilight?"
Steve nodded, sinking a little deeper into the couch as if he wanted to reduce his physical presence.
"The whole saga," Sam clarified enthusiastically. "We did a marathon. I've already seen it twice, so this would be my third time. And I have to say, now I understand when you guys talk about rewatching movies you like. Before, I thought it was a waste of time, but with Twilight, I understood it."
She smiled, clearly excited.
"Well, we still have to complete the saga. Breaking Dawn Part 2 comes out in November. I'm very excited."
Paige and Andrew glanced at each other from the corners of their eyes.
Then they both looked back at Steve with small smiles, dangerously teasing.
"Steve-bun," Paige said in a sweet tone that did not hide the mockery at all. "How does it feel to have tried to turn your girlfriend into a connoisseur of pop culture, only for her to end up forcing you to watch the entire Twilight saga?"
"And now you'll have to go to the movies in November to watch the grand finale," Andrew added, holding back his laughter. "What a journey."
Leonard, Howard, and Monica watched them in silence.
'These two have no tact,' they thought almost at the same time.
Sam, however, noticed the tone perfectly and frowned slightly, "Have you seen it?"
"No," Paige replied.
Andrew shook his head.
"Then why that critical and condescending tone?" Sam asked. "Have you already decided it's bad without watching it?"
Paige crossed her legs and looked at her calmly, "Sam, I don't want to sound cruel, but I don't need to watch all of Twilight to know more or less what to expect. I've seen random scenes, read critiques, reviews, summaries, and comments from the general audience, and except for its target audience, almost everyone reaches the same consensus."
She paused briefly before concluding, "It doesn't have a good reputation. And from what I know, the saga gets worse with every installment."
Andrew nodded, "Those are facts. Sorry, Sam."
The first movie, released in 2008, had already received mixed reviews leaning negative, though many considered it the most tolerable of the entire saga.
After that, with each new installment, specialized criticism and general opinion outside the fandom seemed to become harsher and harsher.
Of course, that had not stopped the saga from becoming a phenomenon.
Its target audience was enormous, and it had a passionate fandom. That was what allowed every installment to have a massive box office.
But outside that circle, Twilight had become one of the favorite targets of memes and jokes.
Paige was not someone who criticized a movie just out of malice. She loved cinema and was usually quite demanding with everything she watched. But between the scenes she had found online, the reviews, and the general conversation surrounding the saga, she had already formed a fairly clear opinion.
Sam looked at both of them, still annoyed, "You made me watch movies I never criticized before seeing them. I didn't think you were hypocritical enough to judge something only because of other people's opinions."
Paige was about to justify herself, because in her case she was not being hypocritical, but Leonard spoke up, trying to ease the atmosphere.
"I'm fine with watching it," he said. "I don't have high expectations, but I've never seen it. I guess the fair thing is to give it a chance."
Howard, sitting on the floor, nodded, "Yeah. Let's watch it. I've seen bad movies girls like just to flirt before. This will be similar."
"That doesn't help," Monica said with a sigh.
Then she smiled at Sam, trying to sound kind, "But I agree. You shouldn't take something for granted just because of other people's opinions."
"I've always wanted to watch it," Haley said, raising her hand with some interest.
She did not care too much about reviews. In fact, she probably fit quite well within the saga's target audience. She had simply never found the time to watch it.
Rachel also nodded from her place, a little intrigued. She had always had it on her to-do list, but had never seen them.
Then every gaze turned toward Andrew and Paige.
The two tactless critics.
"Well?" Sam asked, crossing her arms.
"Fine, put it on," Andrew said.
"You're seriously agreeing?" Paige asked, not having expected it.
"I'm being an open-minded and democratic person," Andrew replied, shrugging.
The only thing he knew for sure was that, after watching it, any criticism he made about the movie could no longer be considered hypocritical, as Sam had said.
Paige ended up accepting too. She did not have many options if everyone else agreed.
Sam smiled in satisfaction and walked over to the television to put in the Blu-ray.
Monica turned off the living room lights.
Steve, still sunk into his spot on the couch, let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
'Again...' he thought with resignation.
He would have to watch a movie that was very far from his tastes all over again. In fact, he also had plenty of criticisms toward the saga. The difference was that, with Sam, he did not like tearing apart something she had enjoyed so much.
The movie began.
For two hours and two minutes, the apartment was trapped in the strange world of sparkling vampires, intense stares, and overly long dramatic silences.
When the credits appeared, Monica turned the living room lights back on.
Sam turned toward everyone with an expectant smile, "What did you think?"
Howard slowly turned his head toward Leonard with an almost grim expression, as if he had just survived a near-death experience.
Haley was the first to speak, "I liked it," she said. "It's super dramatic, yeah, but I like that kind of intense romance. And Edward is really handsome."
Rachel nodded, "I don't think it's as bad as the reviews say. I understand why so many people like it."
Sam accepted those answers as a partial victory and then looked at Monica.
Monica, who had just sat back down, smiled carefully, "It was... nice."
Howard and Leonard nodded almost at the same time, "Yeah, nice," they both said.
Neither of them wanted to be cruel.
After all, they had been the ones who had introduced Sam to pop culture. And although it was hard for them to admit, with the fame Twilight had, the saga was also part of that culture.
They did not want to harshly destroy the first franchise Sam had discovered on her own and become a fan of.
Finally, every gaze turned toward Andrew and Paige.
Andrew remained with his arms crossed, leaning against the back of the couch.
Paige, sitting with her legs crossed, had an expression that was rather difficult to read.
Throughout the entire movie, neither of them had made a single mocking comment.
Not one criticism.
Not one misplaced laugh.
Nothing.
Andrew merely shrugged slightly, without saying too much. He did have tact.
Paige seemed to think the same.
Sam narrowed her eyes.
"Come on, be honest," she said. "Otherwise, I'm going to assume I was right and that you were hypocrites who let yourselves be carried away by outside criticism, but now that you've seen true cinema, you have nothing to say."
She said it in a half-joking tone, but it was enough.
Andrew and Paige exchanged a look.
That small challenge had just opened the door they had kept closed for two hours out of pure courtesy.
Paige was the first to speak, "Watching the movie only confirmed what I said before," she said calmly. "It's bad. And worse than I thought."
Sam arched an eyebrow.
"First, the plot makes no sense," Paige continued. "Vampires who go to high school forever? Why? If your goal is to go unnoticed, why would you put yourself over and over again in an institution full of hormonal teenagers, constant rumors, and teachers who record your attendance?"
Andrew nodded, "Yeah, that doesn't make much sense. Besides, it completely ruins the figure of the vampire. It takes away the danger, the monstrosity, the feeling of threat, and turns them into boys who act like mysterious teenagers."
"And the action is pushed into the background," Andrew added. "Everything revolves around teenage drama and a toxic romance that, depending on how you look at it, is also pretty illegal."
Monica blinked, "Illegal?"
"Edward is over a hundred years old, and Bella is seventeen," Andrew replied.
"Oh. Right. I think I forgot because he acts like he's seventeen too," Monica murmured.
From that point on, all restraint disappeared completely.
Paige and Andrew began listing criticisms one after another, now with the moral peace of mind that came from having watched the entire movie and not just speaking based on third-party references.
The plot was not the only problem.
The acting was very bad.
And the film's direction was terrible too: silences and stares that lasted far too long, strange cuts to other scenes, chaotic camera movements during the little action there was...
The visual effects looked fake, especially every time a vampire ran at great speed or jumped through the trees.
And then there was the sparkling skin.
"Where did that even come from?" Paige asked, visibly offended as a viewer. "Since when do vampires sparkle in the sun? Who looked at centuries of vampire mythology and thought, 'Yes, this is an excellent idea'?"
Howard covered his mouth with one hand so he would not laugh too loudly.
Leonard, Steve, Monica, and he agreed with most of the criticisms. They simply had not wanted to say it to Sam with such brutality.
Rachel and Haley, on the other hand, thought Andrew and Paige were being too harsh.
Sam listened to them in silence, not seeming especially hurt.
Rather, she seemed to be analyzing whether it was worth answering point by point or just letting them finish.
"But hey, it did have something good," Paige added, raising one finger.
Sam arched an eyebrow, "Oh, what?"
Paige smiled, "It was an involuntary comedy."
Andrew let out a laugh, "Absolutely. I think that was the only way I managed to finish watching it."
He leaned forward a little and added, "'You better hold on tight, spider monkey.' What the hell is that line? You can't take it seriously."
Sam huffed, though she did not seem truly upset, "You two have no taste. Your loss."
Her confidence in her own tastes was too solid to be brought down by a couple of criticisms, even if some of them were fairly well-founded.
She could tell that Andrew and Paige were not hating the movie just for the sake of hating it. Their criticisms had logic, they were specific, and, on several points, difficult to refute.
But that did not change what mattered.
She liked it.
"That's respectable," Paige said, seeing that Sam was not taking the criticism as a personal attack.
She had not gotten angry, nor was she trying to defend the movie tooth and nail or convince them that it was a misunderstood masterpiece.
Andrew nodded, "Yeah. Bad taste, but with conviction."
Sam threw a cushion at him.
Andrew caught it before it hit him in the face, "See," he said, lifting it up as evidence. "That had more action than the entire movie."
Everyone laughed.
Even Sam ended up laughing, though not without throwing Andrew a warning look, as if making it clear that her patience had limits.
Paige, still smiling, settled more comfortably on the couch, "Well, at least now we can say we're speaking from experience."
"Exactly," Andrew added. "We're not hypocrites anymore. Just informed critics."
Sam shook her head, amused, "Insufferable critics."
The night continued moving forward.
At some point, they decided to play Pictionary.
The classic board game in which different teams competed to guess words through drawings made against the clock.
Haley tried to approach Rachel almost immediately, "Team?"
Rachel, however, looked directly at Monica, "Mon, are we together?"
Haley froze for a second, as if she had just received another silent blow.
Monica noticed the scene instantly and cleared her throat.
"There's an odd number of us," she suggested quickly. "We can make a team of three."
Rachel hesitated for just an instant. Then she accepted with a slight nod.
Haley joined the team.
On the other side, Leonard looked at Howard.
Howard looked back at him.
Nothing needed to be said.
Team closed.
Steve and Sam exchanged a brief look and reached the same conclusion.
Andrew watched as his friends formed teams and opened his arms, offended, "Are you just leaving me out like that?"
Leonard scratched his head, somewhat uncomfortable, "Uh... you always team up with Steve."
That was true.
Andrew and Steve usually paired up in almost every two-player game.
And although Andrew was competitive in practically anything, having him as a teammate almost always increased the chances of winning quite a bit. He was not the kind of competitive person who ruined the fun by turning every game into a championship final.
That kind of competitive was more Monica.
She could actually end up scolding her own team for missing an obvious answer or drawing something terribly.
Andrew, on the other hand, treated games as what they were: games. He tried to win, but also to have fun, without making them unbearable or turning against his own team.
But this time, Steve was already with Sam, holding her with one arm and looking like he had no intention of changing teams.
"The girlfriend before a lifelong friend," Andrew said, looking at him.
Howard seized the opportunity immediately.
He raised one hand, made the motion of cracking a whip in the air, and let out a loud, "Wapish!"
Everyone laughed.
Steve did not even try to defend himself, "Sorry, man," he said, though his tone did not carry much guilt.
Paige looked at Sam, clicked her tongue, and shook her head in feigned disappointment, "The betrayal."
Sam shrugged with absolute calm, "You deserve it for criticizing my favorite movie so harshly."
Paige arched an eyebrow, 'It's already her favorite movie?'
She decided to leave that detail for another time. Then she turned her head and found Andrew already looking at her.
"I guess we're together," Andrew said.
"Yes..." Paige said.
Sam watched the new team with a slow smile, "Hey, do you want to make a bet?"
Steve turned toward her immediately, alarmed.
It was the face of someone who had just seen his girlfriend voluntarily walk into a minefield.
He did not know Paige that well yet, but it was already obvious that she was smart, competitive, and quite dangerous when someone provoked her.
And Andrew, he knew all too well.
"Only with us?" Paige asked, curious.
"Yes," Sam replied, without losing her smile. "For being so critical of Twilight. If we beat you, as a penalty, you'll have to watch the entire saga. And you'll also come with us to the movies to see the last film in November."
Silence fell over Andrew and Paige.
"Let us discuss it," Paige said.
Without waiting for an answer, she and Andrew moved off to a corner of the living room and began speaking in low voices.
Neither of them was that easy to drag into a bet like that.
Pictionary did not depend only on skill. It also mattered to know how your partner thought, to interpret bad drawings under a time limit, and to have luck with the words, since some could be harder than others.
They had never played together before.
They did not know how the other drew.
"They're taking this way too seriously," Steve murmured, shaking his head.
Sam let out a small laugh.
Rachel, on the other hand, looked at Monica with her eyes slightly widened.
She did not like what she was seeing.
This could end up turning into some kind of accidental date between Andrew and Paige.
A double date with Sam and Steve.
Why had she not teamed up with Andrew herself?
The answer was fairly obvious: she had not had the courage to ask him naturally in front of everyone.
Monica noticed her expression and shot her a quick look.
One of those looks that clearly meant: don't be so obvious.
Rachel straightened her posture instantly.
Finally, Andrew and Paige returned.
Andrew nodded, "All right. We accept."
Sam smiled, satisfied, "Perfect."
"And what will you make us do if we lose?" Steve asked, still somewhat cautious.
Paige looked at him calmly, "There will be plenty of time to think about that," she replied.
"When we win," Andrew completed.
"Such confidence," Sam said with a grimace.
"Realism," Paige said.
"Arrogance," Sam corrected.
And so the game began.
The match was long. Almost an hour.
In the end, out of the four teams, neither Andrew's nor Steve's team finished first.
First place went to Rachel, Monica, and Haley.
Second, to Steve and Sam.
Third, to Paige and Andrew.
And last, to Leonard and Howard.
"Well... almost," Andrew said, shaking his head without much annoyance.
Paige, sitting beside him, said, "Yes. We lost the statistical part."
When Andrew and Paige had stepped aside to debate whether to accept the bet, they had made a quick analysis of the situation.
First, they evaluated their drawing skills.
Both of them were average, leaning toward bad. Nothing catastrophic, but not exactly reliable either.
However, Andrew knew Steve was more or less on the same level. And Paige, for her part, knew Sam was not exactly strong at drawing either.
The only real advantage Steve and Sam had was that, since they were a couple, they might understand each other better. And even that was not certain.
So, in terms of pure skill, neither side was at a disadvantage, and Andrew and Paige might even be slightly above them.
Refusing the bet with that data would have sounded cowardly.
So they accepted.
But they lost, mainly because luck decided to punish them with more complicated words at key moments.
"Aw, poor things, making excuses," Sam said, clearly satisfied with the victory. "Where did all that confidence from before go?"
Steve, who finally had a chance to return some of the teasing he had endured throughout the night, leaned forward with a smile.
"Sorry, Andrew-bun and Paige-bun. You're going to have to watch the entire Twilight saga, and also come with us to the movies to see the last film in a theater full of crazy fangirls."
"You won. Congratulations," Paige replied, without the slightest trace of annoyance. "Mock us all you want."
Andrew clapped a couple of times with exaggerated courtesy, "Well done. Clean victory. We accept defeat."
Steve made a face. This was not as satisfying as he had expected.
How was it possible that it was so hard to make them angry?
When they teased him, he ended up escaping to the kitchen, showing them the middle finger, or sinking into the couch.
But when he finally had the chance to strike back, Andrew and Paige simply accepted defeat with unbearable calm.
"No matter how much you try to act dignified, you're going to have to watch four Twilight movies. That's a lot of hours," Sam said, letting out a laugh.
Andrew sighed. That was true.
He would have to find a gap in his already strict routine to sit down and watch several movies that, by all indications, were going to test his patience.
Paige clicked her tongue in annoyance. Sam was not going to forget the bet. She would probably make sure personally that both of them served every minute of that cinematic sentence.
Steve smiled a little more when he saw their reactions. Now, yes. That was more satisfying.
Finally, the night came to an end.
The next day, Saturday, Andrew woke up with a strange feeling.
For the first time in seven weeks, he did not have a game.
After so much time living every Saturday around the NCAA, around travel, team meetings, packed stadiums, and the pressure of leading UCLA, having a free day felt almost unnatural.
None of that routine was there, just an entire Saturday ahead of him.
He and Steve had invited several guys from the team over to the apartment to watch the full day of college football.
The biggest games of the day, and among them, of course, their rival USC Trojans, who were facing the Colorado Buffaloes.
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