Nathan

Chapter 9

She opened the door and sat in the seat beside me, then looked at me. "Now what?" she asked.

"I apologized a lot, and I'm gonna do it again. I'm terribly sorry for hurting you multiple times. And this time I'm willing to do absolutely anything to get you to truly forgive me," I said and hoped that she would believe me this time.

"How am I supposed to believe that?" she asked and scoffed.

"Try me."

She hisitated for a while. "Are you sure it's not like the last time?" she asked and I nodded.

"I promise."

"Well, you're very lucky because I'm in a very good mood since I got back to work." I smiled at her words as she continued. "But, you do realize it's your fault that I got fired. So you have to take me somewhere I can celebrate. Or at least have fun and enjoy my time," she said and my heart ached. Why did she always have to make such hard requests? It's not that I didn't want to be with her, but I couldn't. Like I had said before: I had my reasons.

"Fine. Where do you want to go?" I gave in and saw her eyes widen.

"Wait, you really won't protest this time?" she asked and I chuckled. I shook my head as a smile played on her lips. "Well..." She thought for a second, then said, "Let's go play some bowling". I nodded and started the car, driving to the bowling centre that was about four blocks away.

Both of us stayed slient through the drive, only soft music filled the silence that took over. But before I could think about anything else, I was parking in the bowling centre's parking lot. I stopped the engine and we both got out of the car. We entered the place and immediately the loud music, which blasted through the huge speakers that were set everywhere, filled my ears.

We walked to the front desk to get some shoes and a place to play. "Two people please," I said to the guy behind the counter and he nodded.

"That should be fourteen dollars," the guy said and I got the money out of my pocket, but I noticed Natalie taking money out of her wallet.

"You can't be serious," I told her and gave the guy the money.

"No! I want to pay for myself," she insisted and stretched out her hand that was carrying the money toward the guy.

"Look, I already paid. Besides, it should be on me since I'm the one who got you fired from the first place," I said, not letting her say anything else. The guy gave me and Natalie our shoes after we told him our sizes, then we walked to the alley we rented.

We took our shoes off and put the new ones, then I asked, "Do you wanna go first?"

"No, you go," she said and I nodded. I chose a black ball and stood behind the line, then bent my knees and threw the ball in the lane. It kept rolling until it knocked down five pins.

I heard Natalie clapping and I smiled at her. I only knocked down five pins, but I felt like I had won an entire championship because of the way Natalie cheered for me.

I took another ball and threw it, but it didn't hit anything. I backed away and Natalie stood in my place. "Now you'll see how professionals really play," she commented and I chuckled. She took a smaller ball than the ones I chose, and then stood beside the line. She threw the ball so high that it flew to the lane beside her, and I immediately stood up. Her hands went up to cover her mouth and her eyes almost popped out of her head.

"What the hell was that?" the girl that was at the lane beside us shrieked.

"Sorry," Natalie apologized. Then, her wide eyes met mine.