Nobody Likes Megan McGowen

17. Drew's Deal

Friday after school, Megan found herself at the mall with her friends again. Danielle was really excited about getting more outfits for Megan, and they'd already been in two stores. It hadn't been easy, but Megan had managed to get out of buying two shirts, a skirt and a neon green scarf that Danielle was somehow incredibly fond of. She never would have thought there'd come a point where she'd actually go to the mall more than once a month. At least, not to any of the clothes stores. But that's where her friends seemed to like to go, so Megan didn't argue.

She glanced at the arcade as they walked by, silently wishing she had the nerve to say something. She sighed to herself, trying to contain her disappointment. Well, if nothing else, maybe Ben would go with her this weekend. It'd be nice to hang out with him again anyway – her life had been incredibly weird lately, and she kind of missed how things used to be.

"What're you looking at?" Stacey asked, staring past Megan's shoulder to follow her line of sight.

"What?" Megan jerked away, looking quickly in the opposite direction from the arcade. "Oh, nothing." she shrugged, hopping she'd succeeded in looking casual.

"You ever been in there?" Stacey asked, nodding towards the arcade. Obviously, Megan hadn't done as well as she'd hoped.

"Not in a long time." Megan said slowly. A week and a half was a long time, right?

"I can't believe we used to go there every weekend." Danielle rolled her eyes. "It was so stupid."

"Really?" Megan asked.

She didn't know if she was more surprised that her friends used to come here or disappointed that they'd think it was stupid. Well, she already knew they probably didn't like it; she was just kind of disappointed to hear it out loud.

"It was only stupid 'cause I beat you every time." Stacey cut in, grinning impishly.

"You wish." Danielle rolled her eyes. "I let you win."

"Yeah, you're so kind like that."

"Thanks – glad you noticed." Danielle beamed like Stacey had actually paid her a compliment. But her eyes were shining in a way that said she knew better.

"I beat you and you know it." Stacey told her. "And I could do it again easy."

"Prove it." Danielle told her, refusing to budge.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah – right now. Let's go."

The two headed towards the arcade and Megan followed close on their heels. She couldn't believe that they used to come here – they must have been pretty little. Megan didn't remember seeing either of them since she started high school. Stacey and Danielle headed to the racing games, but Megan went straight to the air hockey.

"You any good?" Tara asked from behind her. Megan turned around; she hadn't even realized that everyone else had followed them in.

"I'm not bad."

Tara put her money in the machine, and Megan heard the whir of air pushing its way through the table.

"Ready?" Tara asked, pulling the puck out of the slat on her side of the table.

"Ready." Megan grinned, leaning down in anticipation.

Tara was actually pretty good, which annoyed Megan more than she wanted to admit. She didn't want to completely crush her friend, but she did think she deserved to win. After all, Megan had played this game almost every week for the last three years. When was the last time Tara had ever played?

Tara liked to bounce the puck all over the table, making it a little hard for Megan to follow. Still, Megan managed to block everything Tara shot at her. She launched the puck as fast as she could across the table towards Tara. It missed and bounced back – straight into Megan's goal. Megan heard the loud clunk as the puck fell down the chute.