The Ribbon Campaign

nine || of late night texts and monopoly

By the time we've dropped Bryce back at his apartment and finally get home, Fiona is tucked away in bed while my mother and father are sitting at the dining room table, sipping tea and waiting for our arrival. When we come upstairs, my mother's face explodes in a grin as she comes to embrace me. "Well? How'd it go?"

"She was amazing," Ryan beams and I can't help but feel slightly giddy at the praise. He kisses the top of my head and says, "I'm so proud of you, Ellie."

"Are they going to introduce the campaign to others schools?" my father asks.

"I don't know," I admit. "Mrs. Vries says that she's going to tell me the verdict on Monday. I had to leave right after the speech."

"I'm so proud of you," my mother says, kissing the top of my head. "We're going to go to sleep now. Don't stay up too late." My mother ruffles Caiden's hair fondly and my father pats Ryan on the back and then they're both heading up. I feel kind of bad for making them stay up, even though it's not even that late but I know that nothing I would've said would have made them go to sleep anyway. They're just supportive that way.

Caiden, Ryan and I are left standing in the middle of the dining room in silence. Finally, Ryan speaks up. "Monopoly, anyone?"

So that's how we end up sitting on blankets strewn down on the floor with a Monopoly board in the middle of us. Ryan and Caiden sit on one side while I sit on the other, my leg spread out on one side of me. "I want to be the dog," Caiden says quickly, grabbing the game piece. "No wait, I want to be the truck."

Once we sort out our game pieces, Ryan finds the instructions to see who goes first. Caiden and I high-five when we find out that the order is youngest to oldest, so since Ryan is a couple of months older than Caiden, he goes last. It's a well known fact that Ryan hates going last for anything- no one really knows why, but they just stopped questioning it after a while- so when Ryan's last in order, he huffs.

"Of course I'm last," he grumbles. "The universe hates me."

"It's not the end of the world," I snort.

"Yes it is," Ryan argues. "Switch with me."

"Ryan, you're last. Deal with it," Caiden tells him in an amused voice. Ryan falls silent with a huff after that, wrapping an arm around Caiden's shoulders.

Thirty minutes later Caiden is winning, Bon Jovi  is playing in the background and I've brought down my giant teddy bear from my room to cuddle with. Ryan is rolling his die and Caiden is holding his face close to Ryan's hand, waiting to see the result.

"Six," Ryan says smugly.

"No!" Caiden exclaims. He moves around the dice in Ryan's hand. "Four."

"Six," Ryan corrects, moving his piece so that he's now ahead of Caiden.

Caiden moves his piece back two spots. "Four."

"Caiden-"

"Ryan, I'm your boyfriend and if you don't let me win I swear I'm never talking to you again." Ryan bursts out laughing and fondly kisses Caiden's hair but still moves his piece back.

"Fine," Caiden says. He takes the die from Ryan's hand and gives them to me. "Ellie, let's team up and make Ryan lose."

"I'm literally right here," Ryan says.

"I'm in," I tell Caiden, making Ryan scoff.

Caiden and I end up making Ryan lose, which I must admit, I'm kind of proud of. None of us are tired by the time we finish so we turn on a movie to watch. Thirty minutes in, Caiden falls asleep so Ryan turns it down to keep from waking him up. The movie is boring anyway so I toss in some pizza pockets into the oven.