Living With Boys

Chapter Eighty: Good Riddance

Chapter Eighty: "Good Riddance."

"CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN to me why my face looks like this?" Carly frowns, pulling her cheeks and nose in all kids of directions.

"Because you were born with it?" Johnny says slowly, a vague look on his face.

She scowls at him. "I know that."

He shrugs, throwing his arms up in surrender. "Hey, you asked."

"It was a rhetorical question!" she snaps.

"Guys." I interfere, chuckling at my friends' nonsense. "This is our last day in Vancouver, let's not ruin it by fighting."

"He called me ugly!" Carly protests, but before she can continue, Johnny cuts her excuse short.

"I did not!" he exclaims. "You asked a question and I answered."

"That question wasn't supposed to have an answer!" Carly retorts.

"Apologize already!" Lacey hisses, and glares at Johnny. "Just apologize and shut up."

Lace definitely isn't a girl to mess with, I think to myself.

"Let's go bowling!" Becca suddenly says, her voice giddy from excitement.

"I don't think coach will let us go bowling without the team." I frown, suddenly feeling in the mood to bowl. I never really go bowling, but when I do I suck very bad.

"Then we'll ask!" she churns chirps back. "Come on, Brooklyn, I've never been bowling and I really want to go!"

I sigh. Why is everything always up to me?

"That sounds marvellous." Selena smiles. "Please, J.R., can we go?"

Justin groans. He hates being put on the spot. "I'd love to, but we're here to visit and it wouldn't be fair to everyone else." Always the sweetheart.

"I'll go talk to coach." I mutter, standing up from my seat–Landon's lap–and brushing fake dust off my pants.

Landon stops his conversation with his brothers and Casey. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Going to talk to coach if we can go bowling."

"Seriously?" he asks in bemusement.

I shrug and walk out the door.

***

"Coach?"

"Coach!"

I've been knocking on the door for a solid minute with no response. I'm about to leave when the door is suddenly thrown open. "Coach?"

"Hi, Brooklyn!" Coach replies quizzically. "What can I do for you? Is everything alright?"

"Hi! Sorry, yes, everything is fine. I don't mean to interrupt but I just wanted to know if my friends and I could go bowling tonight, since it's our last day in B.C. and such."

"You'd like to go bowling?" He laughs in amusement.

"Yeah, I know it's ridiculous but the girls have been nagging me about it so I figured I would just ask even though I know it'll be a no–"

"Sure." Coach shrugs.

"Because we're minors and–wait what?" I stop, wondering if I heard him right. Did he actually...

"Sure." He shrugs again. "Go bowling, just be back here by midnight because our flight leaves at 9:00AM sharp."

"Wait, we can?" I'm still in shock.