As Amanda’s knuckles knocked on the wood, there was a moment of hesitance before the game paused and the boys turned around in their seats boredly, as if expecting a business person to walk in, but nope. Their eyes widened with shock and fright to see two teenage girls standing there. They stood up, almost prepared like we were going to attack them, but we stood there, just as frightened as they were. As always, Amanda was first to speak.
She cleared her throat quietly and I practically watched the courage drain from her face as the boys turned to look at her. “Um… I…” and for the first time Amanda Bishop went shy. I realized she’d bailed me out a thousand times in moments like these, I guess I kinda owed her.
"We’re locked in the park. Any way we could get out?" I asked cooly, when butterflies were overpopulating in my flipping stomach.
They glanced at each other briefly before Michael shrugged.
"We don’t really have a key, but we could talk to our manager. I’m sure he’ll help you out," the boy said, running a hand through his dyed hair. I nodded lightly.
"That’d be great," I said and watched as the boys walked toward us in the doorway. We made room for them to walk out and they did so, walking down the hall quietly and turning into a room and disappearing.
"Thanks," Amanda mumbled. "I have no clue what happened." Her pouty lips frowned and she raised her hand to her teeth to bite on her nails, but knowing she was trying to stop the habit, I gently placed my hand on her raised arm and pushed it back in place by her side. "Thanks again," she mumbled with a little smirk.
Suddenly a loud outburst broke out from down the hall, and I knew it was an older gentleman’s voice. From down the hall, a round man walked down the hall towards us, a phone raised to his jaw as the boys trailed behind him like lost puppies.
"How DARE you risk the lives of my boys like this! If these two girls are in the park, who knows who else is? And these are teenage girls? What if there was a murderer here? It would be your fault," the man growled into the phone before pulling it away from his face and ending the call as he neared us. "How did you get in here? Tell the truth or I’ll call security," he threatened.
Amanda opened her lips to speak, but she was still tongue tied. “We stayed here until around closing time waiting for traffic to die out, then we went to the bathroom. When we tried to get out, it was locked, so we used a bobby pin. Now we’re here,” I explained and the man glanced between us. Eventually, he decided that we were telling the truth and nodded.
"Alright then. Well the only time the gates are allowed to open and close are when the boys leave in their limo for their hotel, so until then just hang about. And if you get any ideas of sneaking a peak of the boys, keep in mind that Arlow here," the man said, and pointed to a man in the room across the hall. He had a large form and muscly features. "Will be keeping an eye on you." By the time he finished the boys had caught up with him and were now awkwardly staring at their feet.
"I’ll be back to tell Arlow about you. Go stand by the soda and ice machine," the man said before going to the room.
I glanced at Amanda. “Where’s that?” I mumbled.
"O-over there," Luke said. I took in note he seemed kinda shy. He was glancing between me and his shoes as he spoke. "Just… go down the hall. First door on the left,"he said and I glanced behind us.
"Oh…" I said, not really expecting them to help us. "Thanks," I said and then turned on my heels as Amanda and I walked into the room. It was a small room, with a box of ice cubes to the left of a tall soda machine. There were two cold, metal fold up chairs across from it and the room had no door. We took a seat in the chairs and not too much later, Arlow stepped in.
