From A to Z

S

Since their trip to the amusement park, it became a habit of Adam to hear the Sunday morning Mass in St. Jude with Zach and, after attending the Holy Communion, the two of them would head to the café to talk about how their week went, the status of their school projects or their other endeavors, maybe some random stories or facts about themselves, or some post they encountered in social media.

Adam continued to avoid Zach in the halls of their school as a precaution. He was still caught up with that incident in the library a couple of months ago. And although in none of their conversations has Zach raised a concern about this action of his, Adam thought of doing this weekly catch-up to compensate for it. He did not want to lose his dear friend, especially now with the good state of their relationship.

At least there in St. Jude and in the café across it, he was secured; he was free from the judging eyes of the people from his school and of his friends. There, he was at liberty to enjoy Zach's company.

However, while he always has a pleasant time being with his friend, hearing his calming voice when he talks and his laugh whenever Adam makes a joke, he was somehow getting tired of spending it in the same place. They have explored almost all of the food items in the café's menu. More so, he was afraid that they were close to exhausting their stories. That would be awful!

He had to think of something to make their get-together more exciting for both of them.

One Sunday, he brought a card game with him which they played in Zach's room. Zach wondered why they needed to do it there in his room and not in the café, to which Adam answered that they needed the privacy which only his room could provide.

"This card game is called 'Twenty Questions,'" Adam introduced the game. He laid two stacks of black and white cards in the middle of Zach's bed. "These," he said as he raised the deck of white cards, "are the Q cards. Each of these contains a question. The first twenty cards will be distributed among the players and the person who received the twentieth card will start the game. He, or she, will ask any participant of the game any of the questions in his or her deck. If that person refuses to answer the question, he or she will pick from the X cards." He raised the deck of black cards. "The X cards contain numerous consequences such as 'no one can ask you a question for two cycles,' 'draw five more Q cards,' 'draw two more X cards,' etc. The last person to finish all the cards in his or her deck will be punished by the first person who finished his or her deck. Got it?"

Zach nodded. "The game sounds interesting. It's like 'Truth or Dare' but in card form."

The comparison made Adam chuckle. "Do you want to shuffle the cards?"

Zach refused with a shake of his head. "You can do the shuffling."

Adam rearranged the deck of white cards first and then the black ones, showing off the skills he learned from his fraternity brothers. Zach giggled as he watched, much to Adam's delight that his friend was amused with his show-off.

After shuffling both decks, Adam started distributing the Q cards, first to Zach and then to him, alternately, until the twentieth card landed on his deck. It was a deliberate act. He knew that the last card would be his since only the two of them were playing the game. Zach was quick to notice this and shot him a questioning look.

"Don't worry, I'll be kind," Adam said with a playful wink.

Zach shook his head and started to arrange his cards in his slim hands.

When his friend has finished fixing his deck, Adam asked, "Ready?"

"You said you'll be kind," Zach said, reminding Adam of his promise a while ago.