Finding Home || bxb

31

"Can't believe my baby's 18 now," Roman said jokingly. "He's all grown up."

"You're the baby," I responded.

"How am I the baby?"

"You're the one with your head in my lap like one." He pouted and tried to sit up, but I didn't let him and held him down. "Doesn't mean you get to get up."

"You guys are sickening," Dahlia commented before telling us we should head out in an hour for the arcade.

In that time as we waited, I let Roman paint my nails and Dahlia put some makeup on me. It was like I was getting professionally styled but these were definitely not professionals. Dahlia was amazing at my makeup giving me a small but there enough eyeliner that I would like it and feel confident and pretty and she knew how much I'd been liking a subtle highlight, so my cheeks glowed softly at just the right angles. She was only unprofessional with all the crude innuendos she kept making. I'd already done my hair, so I didn't have to worry about that, but I did need to worry about my nails. Roman did his best, but his unprofessionalism showed in his technique where he managed to get nail polish on my skin. I cleaned up  the edges with some nail polish remover though, and it was all okay.

Finally, it became time to leave.

We stopped at a fast-food place on the way for a quick lunch as I'd gotten hungry again, and I made sure to buy it for Roman. He tried his best to not let me, but he'd bought my food on the date we'd gone on and I just wanted to return the favour. He acted like a little pouty baby, but I ignored him until he started eating at which point, I was willing to give him my attention again.

"Seriously, you guys are gonna make me sick," Dahlia commented again making me laugh. I knew she was happy for me though. She told me as such when Roman went to the bathroom quickly before we got back in the car.

"I really like seeing you with him, you know," she said. "It's so sweet the way he looks at you."

"How does he look at me?" I asked.

"Just... like if he looks away you might disappear."

"I'm trying not to," I said. "It's scary, but I think I trust him."

"I know. I'm proud of you."

"I... don't tell him I said this, but I think I might be falling for him. I know how I can get, but this time it's for real. It doesn't feel anything like anyone else I thought I loved. Roman makes me feel like... like. I don't know how to explain it."

"That's great though Alden. It really is. I can tell it's not like the others don't worry."

"Don't worry about what?" Roman asked when he came back without any of us noticing.

"I was just telling him we should have enough time to try everything there," Dahlia said quickly. I'd frozen worried that he'd heard me say I was falling for him. I didn't want to freak him out.

"Oh, yeah, course we will," Roman said enthusiastically. "We have plenty of time."

And we did actually.

We got to the arcade about 20 minutes later and Roman immediately bought me tickets which would have been a waste of his money if I didn't use them, so I ignored him again for about 5 minutes before I missed him too much. Then, the three of us went on every free machine we could find. They had some older vintage games, but that section was packed with people, and we'd wondered round to almost all the other machines until Roman spotted a couple leaving one of the games in that section and ran over to it.

It was an old version of Pac man, a classic, and we spent the next half an hour, all three of us, trying to beat each other's scores. In the end, I came out on top of course, to the annoyance of my best friend and my boyfriend. I mean, not my boyfriend, just...my Roman.