The Tortoise and His Sunrise | ✓

14. Arcade

"That looks nice," I had said.

Nolan had nodded and then fed the coin slot with the required tokens.

Conscious of the unspoken distance between us that had bloomed in rapid acceleration during the last few weeks, I was too on edge to even try to pretend I was excited about it.

"No way," I said. "I'm so happy to see you guys. Why would I be bored?"

"Yeah, me too," Nolan said. "I've just never been in an arcade before."

"For real?" Melissa said, looking startled.

"Yeah," he said.

Shrugging, Nolan took a step closer to me. I braced myself.

It was fine, I told myself. There were a lot of people around in this arcade, sure, but it was so crowded and dim. Apart from our friends, no one would pay us any attention. Nobody would think we were weird. It was fine.

I was expecting him to drape an arm over my shoulders or put his arm around my waist or lean against me or something, but none of that happened.

All he did was slide his hands into the large pocket of his pullover hoodie.

I didn't know if I was disappointed or relieved.

"Do you want to try something else?" Derek looked around as he spoke. Something to his left must have caught his attention because his eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Since when does Ashley like that kind of thing?" Melissa demanded, tucking her new plushie under her arm.

I followed his gaze to see Ashley and Cody sitting in a racing game machine that allowed for up to four players. Ashley turned her head and craned her neck, ostensibly looking for us. When she seemed to finally spot us, she raised an arm and waved for us to come over.

"Challenge accepted," Melissa said, looping her arm through Derek's. "Let's go!"

Despite my dark mood, it made me smile. When I stole a surreptitious glance at him, I saw the corners of Nolan's mouth twitch upwards too.

"Some things never change," I said, shaking my head.

"Babe," Derek said, letting her march him along, "you failed your driving exam. Twice."

I winced. "Really?"

"Arcade racing isn't anything like real driving," Melissa said. "I'm great at these."

"We know," I said solemnly. "You always beat me in them."

Ashley and Cody were already in a game when we got to the machine. As her car swerved to the left, Ashley squealed.

"Guys, join us in the next round," she said, taking her eyes off the large screen to look at us.

"Yeah, you know I will," Melissa said, walking over to the vacant seat beside Ashley's.

"I'm going to pass on this one." Derek tugged the plushie out of Melissa's arm. "I need water. I'll hold that for you."

"Thanks," she said, beaming at him.

"Do you want to play?" I asked Nolan. "It's pretty fun."

"Yeah, sure," he said, staring at the busy screen full of competing cars. "I'll try."

Nolan settled down into the last unoccupied seat. Since I wasn't playing anything, I offered to help Derek carry the teddy bear while he went to buy his bottled water.

In the end, Cody won, narrowly beating Melissa by a couple of seconds. Nolan was in third place and Ashley came in last. Melissa took the loss graciously, exclaiming that Cody was really good at this. He explained that he and his friends used to frequent arcades a lot, so he got familiar with a lot of games.