A brunette girl wearing a lace white tank and dark black shorts approaches me, handing me the perfect sized blue ball that I grab onto tightly. I glance up at Josh as I position myself - bending, ready to swing the huge ball- when I feel a hard surface behind me.
I twist my head around to notice Josh as he asks, " Are you sure you can do this alone?"
I stare deep into his eyes as I say with conjecture, " Oh, yes I can."
He raises his eyebrows as if astounded by my shining confidence.
I position myself again as he stumbles backwards, providing me enough space to swing the blue ball.
I bent down and swing the ball a 90° angle as I throw it down the lane making it jump high in the mid-way. I wait impatiently as the ball tumbles down and scores a strike. Slowly, a sound of claps fill the aisle beside me, encouraging me. Little do they know that this has been a firsthand job for me, being the bowling team captain in all years of school that we'd ever had a bowling team.
I step backwards besides Josh as he wows at me, completely astonished.
"Have been a bowling team captain." I say, matter-of-factly.
He has no time for any reaction as the same brunette hands him a purple ball, being much heavier judging by his muscles. He grasps on the ball while he positions himself and the ball accelerates through the lane like water as it drops down all the pins at once, causing me to gawk at it.
Another round of claps vibrate through the room as he bows in acceptance.
"Haven't been a bowling team captain" He says, emphasizing the "haven't".
This boy sure was something different. One second, he's all tumultuous and mysterious and the other second, a complete sweetheart with a quite interesting humor.
I smirk at him as he raises his eyebrows with a tight smile on his face as he escorts me towards the waiting seats that astoundingly, are empty, considering the amount of teens surrounding this and the neighbouring alley.
"That was awesome." I remark.
He smiles while saying, "Weren't expecting that, were you?"
I nod as I say, "Just like you weren't."
He laughs melodically as I watch him in excitement.
"Wanna get something to eat?" He asks, hope in his voice.
"Wouldn't mind" I remark.
We laugh as in unison before he walks away towards the counter, knowing exactly what to buy because we both know, pizza is the only thing worth swallowing down our throats in this place.
" hey, wanna play?" A messy haired guy that I recognize to be from the teen group that we played with, asks.
"Uh...That's okay. Sorry. I'm eating right now." I decline, while motioning my hand towards Josh.
"Oh no, you can eat later. This is an awesome game. You'll shine." He insists.
"No, really. That's okay. Thanks." I say.
"Really? Is food more important than shinin..." He is cut of when Josh grips on his shoulders.
"When the lady says "no", it means "no"." He says, sounding as harsh as he possibly could.
"What the f*** man? What's the damn problem in asking her to play?" The group member insists.
Josh's grip tightens as he pulls our group member out of his seat causing him to punch Josh on his left cheek, leaving a nasty dark mark. It doesn't take any longer, before Josh slaps him hard on his face. All of a sudden, people start glancing at us, clearly causing chaos.
I instantly stumble towards Josh, when I realize this is all happening because of one thing; because of one simple reason - me. I pull Josh away before he attempts to cause any further injury.
"Josh! What's wrong with you?!" I screech in anger, still pulling onto Josh's muscled hand.
"I'm so sorry." I apologize to our group member, while giving him a nasty look when he walks away. Clearly losing all meaning behind that apology.
"What the heck is wrong with you?!" I snap at him.
Glancing at the mop around us, I force him to sit down.
" Everything's alright guys." I say, to the anxious, very cliché of a crowd.
They all huddle down their own aisles as I look at Josh, the same nasty mark making me cringe.
"Look, that guy was clearly obnoxious." He says, still catching breaths.
"I know, I know. But that doesn't mean you can hit him so badly." I say, trying very hard to loosen him up.
" I tried." He says, staring right into my eyes as I realize I've grasped his hand, unfocused throughout this whole incident on something like that.
I don't look at our this connection. I just feel it and for some reason, I don't pull it away.
~~~~~~~~~~
A.N: This chapter was dedicated to my very good friend - Rachel- sweeterthanficti0n- for being such an awesome friend. I have learned so much from her about this whole writing industry and I am so thankful. Thank you so much. :)
