After Kenny’s parents divorced, he had to get used to a new life. Most of the time, he lived with his mother, a high school English teacher who most of her students considered “cool”. She wasn’t too strict, but Kenny wasn’t the kind of kid who got into much trouble anyway. He was a quiet, book-reading, video game-playing nerd, except for the two weeks each summer that he lived with his father, George. He was everything that Kenny’s mother wasn’t - a hard-drinking, gambling, party animal, even in his late 40s. Kenny didn’t even understand how two so different people had ended up together. The one time he mentioned it to his dad, the only answer he got was, “Love does funny things to people.”

After the divorce, George had moved to Las Vegas. That seemed to be a perfect fit for his dad’s wild side. It was drastically different from the sedate, small town where he and his mother lived. It took Kenny a couple of summers with his dad to get used to the frenetic 24-hour-a-day Vegas lifestyle. George worked as a technician at one of the casinos, maintaining the slot machines and other electronic games that were replacing the older, human-interface games.

The first summer Kenny spent with his dad, he took him on a behind-the-scenes tour of the casino where he worked, which was very cool. George even introduced him to some of the statuesque showgirls waiting to go on stage. One of them called him “cute” and rubbed his head, as he tried not to stare as her almost totally exposed breasts. If she hadn’t looked uncomfortably like his mother, it might have been a cool moment. The next summer, his dad rented a camper van, and they went on a trip that included descending into the Grand Canyon and rafting down the Colorado River. This year, Kenny had no idea what his dad had planned, but George told him it would be something special.

On the third night of his visit, George told him he was going out with friends. Kenny didn’t mind being by himself. It was how he lived when he was home with his mom anyway. After his dad left, Kenny settled into the large bedroom that was his when he visited. It had a large-screen TV with all the cable channels. There was a PlayStation 5 hooked up to it also, which made it a perfect place for him to hibernate.

He watched a couple of movies on HBO, then started playing “The Last of Us” on his PlayStation. He was just getting into it again from where he had left off earlier in the day when he heard the door to the apartment open. It was a little early for George to return, then Kenny heard a woman’s voice and knew his dad had “got lucky”, as he called it. Kenny put his headphones on and turned the lights in his bedroom off, hoping to ignore whatever was going on in the rest of the apartment.

He thought he was getting away with it when the door to his room opened and his dad stood there, with a stupid grin on his face. “Hey buddy,” George said, “I brought you some company.” He stepped aside, and Kenny saw a girl about his age standing behind his dad. She smiled at him and gave a quick little wave. “This is Gina,” George said. “Why don’t you guys hang out here while Pam and I have a little party.”

Kenny could tell that his dad was more than a little drunk, and whatever party he was talking about with the mysterious Pam wasn’t a birthday party. “Sure,” he said, as he turned on the lamp next to his bed. That’s when he got his first good look at Gina. She had a long, blonde ponytail, with bangs, a very good look for her. She was wearing a short pair of cut-off jeans, which displayed her tanned, well-formed thighs, and a loose-fitting top that left her midriff exposed. There was something about seeing that part of her body, nothing special in itself, that Kenny found intriguing. It was like a preview of coming attractions to the increasingly excited teen.

Gina gave her ponytail a flip to one side and said, “You must be Kenny. Whatcha doin’?”

“Uh, just playing a video game,” he said, thinking it must be obvious. The phrase “dumb blonde” came to mind, but she was cute, so he quickly dropped that thought.

Without asking, Gina sat down on his bed next to him, forcing him to slide over a bit. “Which one?” she asked.

“The Last of Us,” he told her.

“Ohh, I love that show. I didn’t know it was a game, too.”

“The game came first. The TV show was made from it.” God, how could she not know that?

“Is that a PS5?” she asked, looking at his console.

“Yeah,” Kenny told her. At least she knew something about gaming hardware, so maybe she wasn’t as dumb as he thought.

She turned her attention to the device on the table next to his bed. “What’s that?” she asked.

“Nintendo Switch.”

“Cool. A PS5 and a Switch. You’re kinda spoiled, ain’t ya?”

“I guess so,” Kenny admitted.

“How old are you ... like thirteen maybe?”

“I just turned fourteen.”

“You look younger.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. How about you?”

“Oh, I’m fifteen going on thirty, according to my mother,” Gina told him. “Go ahead and play, I’ll just watch.”

They were lying side-by-side on his bed, leaning back against the headboard. He tried to get back into the game, but his eyes kept wandering to the girl lying next to him. He had never been this close to a girl as cute as Gina, or any girl for that matter. For a moment, he wondered if he had fallen asleep and this was all a dream.

“I need to tinkle,” Gina said. “Where’s the bathroom?”

He went to the door and opened it. He didn’t see George and his guest in the living room, so he figured the ‘party’ must have already moved to his dad’s bedroom. “Down the hall to the left,” he told Gina.

She headed down the hall, and Kenny settled back down on his bed. He didn’t think it was worth trying to get back into his game again; it seemed like Gina was getting bored with just watching him play. He was right.