Secrets Are

Book 1: Secrets Are Deadly | Chapter 9

When I heard his car unlock as he was walking over, I opened up the passenger door and then got inside. I closed the door once I was all the way in Ben's car and then set my small light gray purse on the floor of the car as Ben's door on his side of the car opened up. I put on my seatbelt as Ben got into his car and shut his door. He put on his seatbelt and then put the key to his car into the ignition.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked him as he started up his car. We had never decided on what we were actually going to do so I had told him that I'd leave the decision up to him. He hadn't told me yet what he had decided on for us to do today.

"How does bowling sound?" Ben asked glancing at me for a second and then looking behind him as he started backing out of the driveway.

"That sounds good to me. I'll probably kick your ass though," I said.

"Oh no you're not. If I remember right, you were really bad at bowling," Ben replied looking over at me and winking.

I smiled and laughed as I felt my heart beat faster and I tried to ignore it. It hadn't even been ten minutes since I had started hanging out with Ben and I was already getting butterflies in my stomach just from him winking at me. I didn't need my heart distracting me and changing the tone of my voice. That wasn't going to be good for me if the tone of my voice changed because Ben would most definitely know that something was up with me. I wasn't going to give away my crush to the very person I had a crush on. He'd probably wouldn't want to hang out with me if he found out I had a crush on him because that would just be awkward.

Even though it would be hard to keep my true feelings for Ben hidden from him, I was actually starting to like the idea of hanging out with him more. It was nice to hang out with someone different, someone new.

"How do you know I haven't gotten better?" I said smiling at him when he looked over at me again as I watched him. He smiled back at me before looking back at the road.

"Have you gone bowling since the last time we went with our families?" Ben asked. Our families hadn't bowled together since I was about ten since we usually just now had dinner with each other at someone's house, but I had been bowling since then with my friends.

"Yes I've gone with my friends a couple times since we last went with our families and I think I've gotten a lot better since we last played together," I replied as I looked away from him and looked out the window to see how far away from the bowling alley we were. I looked back at him though when he started speaking again.

"I guess I'll just have to see for myself if you're any better," Ben said looking over again and smiling at me. I smiled back before he looked back at the road.

The bowling alley was only ten minutes from the neighborhood we lived in, so it wasn't too much longer before Ben was pulling into the parking lot for the bowling alley. He found a parking spot easily and turned off the car. We got out of his car and then headed over to the front door to the bowling alley as I heard Ben's car lock. Ben beat me to the front door, I could tell he was trying to walk faster than me, so he could open up the door for me, which made me feel like this was a date and he was trying to impress me.

But I needed to remember that we were just two friends hanging out and this wasn't a date. He was probably just being nice. I told him thanks as I passed by him and walked into the building. He followed in after me and we walked over to the counter.

When Ben offered to pay, I didn't object this time. I told him I would pay for myself next time we hung out. It seemed like a better idea to just let him pay for me this time, so we weren't spending any of our time together fighting. And anyways, I figured I could switch off between paying for myself and letting him pay for me instead of fighting about it with him every time we hung out with each other.