Who She Is

~59~

Alyx's POV

I wait outside the women's restroom for Amaya after I come out of the men's. The door suddenly pushes open and out she slips. I smile at her, and she returns it. We walk beside each other to the concession stand. We pay for an hour in the bowling alley, and we go ahead and buy a game card for the arcade.

"What size shoes?" The guy running the register asks.

"Oh, twelve," I reply.

"Seven," comes from Amaya.

The dude goes and grabs the two pairs of shoes and places them on the counter. We grab our pair and head over to a bowling lane. We sit in the booth and take our shoes off, slipping on the bowling shoes.

"These are so ugly," Amaya groans.

I glance down toward the two toned pair of bowling shoes. They actually don't look half bad on her. "You pull them off," I let slip out.

She looks surprised with me. "Wow, are you trying to flirt with me, Alyx?"

"I was just telling the truth," I mumble.

"Thanks, I'll take that compliment. Even though, these things are hideous. So, uh, what do we do with our shoes?" she asks.

Oh, yeah. I forgot she's never been bowling. "You just slide them under your seat." She does exactly that and sits back up. "I'm going to set the game up on the computer screen, okay?" Once I program our names and set the game up, I take Amaya to the rack of balls and tell her to pick one that's comfortable for her to hold, not too heavy and not too light.

She picks up a purple one and almost drops it, her eyes growing wide. She places it back on the rack and grabs a blue one and places that one back, too. She finally decides on the pink one. I grab my usual yellow one. We place two of each in the machine. I hit the button, starting the game. Amaya insisted I go first, so she could watch how it's done. I grab my ball and reel my arm back, shooting the ball forward. I managed to knock a few pins down first try. Thank goodness. It would have been embarrassing to get a gutter ball right off the bat.

I grab my other ball and knock more of the pins down but not all of them. The pins get reset for Amaya's turn. She stands and grabs the ball she picked out.

"So, how exactly do I hold it?"

I come up behind her and show her which fingers to use. I grab her wrist and show her how to reel her arm back and swing. I realize how close we are and step back. "Y-yeah, that's how you do it. Just aim toward the middle and use enough force for the ball to make it all the way down the lane."

"Okay. Thanks." She glances at me with this look I can't describe. Like she's in awe? Amazed? Infatuated? I'm not sure. She turns away, and I step back to give her space. She adjusts her stance before stepping forward and throwing the ball down the lane, knocking only one pin down. That's not bad for her first shot. She grabs her other ball and throws again, getting a gutter ball.

She spins around with pink cheeks. "Don't laugh at me!" Aw, she's embarrassed. She whipped around so fast, her hair flew in her face. I let a laugh slip out. "I said 'don't'!"

"I wasn't going to, but you're reaction made me." She comes back over and plops down beside me, pouting. "Aww, c'mon. Don't be embarrassed. It wasn't bad for your first try. You got one pin."

"I don't know what happened. I aimed toward the middle like you said, and it just drifted to the side."

"It happens."

"Says the guy that knocked almost all the pins down first try."

"I was honestly surprised I didn't get a gutter ball, too. I haven't played in two years or so."