Want to Make a Bet?

<sup>Lewis got out of the car and carefully hung outside the door while he spoke to her. "I really don't want to date anyone's sister and things get a bit weird with friends of friends. Jealousy and what not. Plus, I wanted to do this all on my own. It should be obvious," he rubbed his arm and looked down towards his feet a bit ashamed, "But I've never asked a girl out before." Not really.

He shrugged and gave a nod of his head. "I just didn't really know how until today, n-not that I'm looking to ask you out still. Just friends. If you say yes. Friends. If not.. that's fine. I won't mind acting like everything was normal. We do hardly know each other. No need to pretend that we do." He didn't mind what happened to their friendship. Winnie was cool and all, like really interesting with all the stuff he found out about her so far, but after the dance it was all just going to end anyway.</sup>

^{"A lot of girls don't like to be associated with somebody that plays Magic the Gathering or LARPs." Or watches My Little Pony. But oh gosh he said LARPing. Stupid. Lewis swallowed hard and started walking in the direction of the game shop. Subject change. "Let's just head to the game shop." He waved his hand at the though of holding her up at the search for imaginary applications. "I'll do work stuff some other time. Who knows, next time you stop by the game store, you might see me standing behind the counter." How totally uncool. But it seemed like Lewis was lacking in the wealth that a lot of the other students in the school had.}

^{"Pfft hah. Did I say LARP?" Lewis laughed awkwardly. "Yes," he admitted. "I haven't played it in a while and I could probably use some work. I just don't really have the time with everything else I have going. I've turned to some shorter term games. Like Ascension and Settlers of Catan" At least most of this seemed to be making sense to her. That was a good sign. He was surprised that she actually seemed to be enjoying it and not running for the hills just yet. "I can't promise you any discounts. I would get fired for that. Espeically just starting off." Even though he knew the owners of the game shop very, very well after all the time that he spent there.}

^{Oh. Lewis felt a bit sad for a moment. He really hoped that she wouldn't say no to him. This whole trip. The whole mock friendship felt meaningless. His pace slowed down while he watched Winnie head into the mall and over to the store. All because he wouldn't give her a discount to a store that he didn't work in. That was a stupid reason for her to say no. It was also a stupid reason for Lewis to give up. He picked up his pace and followed after her. "Wait! Maybe I would give you a discount if I was working there. I'm sure we get some kind of employee discount." Heck if this was all hypothetical. He might as well impress her and use it on her. "Probably like what, 25 off. I bet I could use it with you too."}

^{"Oh. Haha," Lewis forced. Even if it was a joke, it still hurt him for that split second. "I'll make sure to grab myself an app later." Maybe. Lewis lifted his hands behind his head and stretched out lazily walking towards the store. The closer they got, the more excited Lewis was slowly becoming until the game store was before them, displays of the latest deck hung in the window. He excitedly rushed inside, leaving Winnie behind him while he geeked out over the new art on the cards and even some of the new items in the sets. "Winona," he called to her, turning to look where she had gone, "Do you want to learn?"}

^{Lewis really wanted to sit down at a table, crack open a few packs and begin a sealed draft. Winona didn't seem to be enjoying herself, however. Inwardly, Lewis sighed. He grabbed up one of the boxes to save for when he got back to his dorm. The thing was for her to have fun. Part of Lewis' promise was that she would have the best night ever on the night of the dance. It didn't show much promise if he paid little attention to what she might have wanted. "So you like Dungeons and Dragons," he said. He began thumbing through the books. They meant very little to him. He just played a few times with his friends. "I'll play with you next time around, I guess. I have a token for my human sorceress. She's not great or anything and I'm not the most crafty with painting."}

^{"Video games in general?" Lewis offered with a shrug. There were all the classics that everyone played. Like Mario and Pokemon. Those could have been a thing. He continued to thumb through the books until one caught his interest. "What about these?" he asked while holding up a rather old looking book. "It's a Fighting Fantasy book. Forest of Doom." The roleplay game book was something Lewis loved to do when he was a kid. He probably knew the best way to get through the Forest by heart, but that all depended on his luck as well and if he was willing to cheat or not.}

^{"Yeah. You should try it out." Lewis didn't have much money to shell out for the book, but luckily it wasn't too costly. There were tons of the books in the series still floating around out there. "I guess this is how I'll pay you back for the gas." So it was the book and the cards, unless she objected strongly to it. It took him a while to finally respond to the initial question. "Elder Scrolls," he finally said. "I really love Skyrim. I choose to play on the PC over all the other systems simply because I love mods. There is nothing quite like a giant Thomas the Train flying around in the place of a dragon. Of course, Vanilla is good too. It's great." Lewis really liked fantasy.}

<sup>"No I will," he told her while he handed over the book to her. He'd get the money after he won the bet. A small investment to make a greater sum. "I just hope you work your way through it. It's even more fun if you try to craft the map along the way or draw pictures of your adventures." He laughed at that statement. It made Lewis sound a lot like a little kid. To be fair, he hadn't done the book in ages. That was just what he used to do.

"That's great though. Something else in common," he smiled. "And we both watch video game footage on youtube, so that's another thing. I'm all for watching game reviews, speedruns and even podcasts. There was once a point where I wanted to make my own youtube channel even." But Lewis didn't have the software or equipment to start one up on his own. He probably couldn't even get the viewers needed to effectively monetize the account.</sup>