A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 3)

Chapter Eleven

"Don't worry, you'll have an Annabel free zone for the night," she says as she pulls a face. "Trust me, I'm not getting myself involved in the cringe fest that's about to happen."

What an absolute star. I shoot her a wink and blow her a kiss as Carmen and I leave the room. Carmen waits by the front door as I scramble my stuff together, and it occurs to me I have no idea what we're even heading out to do.

"What's your big plan?" I ask Carmen as I'm pulling on my shoes.

She grins, a proud look on her face. "Bowling!"

I raise my eyebrows. "Huh, weird. I forgot we're thirteen."

She smacks my arm. She does that a lot, doesn't she? Is this an abusive relationship? I rub the spot she hit, and frown as if she just karate chopped me.

"Keep saying shit like that and I won't take you out for dinner afterwards."

Before we leave, I head into the kitchen to grab one of Chiku's anaesthetizers, but hesitate as I go to unscrew the lid. The voices are okay at the moment, and I've gotten to the point where I can sort of keep them at bay if I want to, especially if I'm in a good headspace. Maybe I don't need it. I hesitate some more. I won't drink it now, but I best bring a bottle, just in case.

When we arrive at the bowling alley, it's impossible not to notice we're surrounded by children. Even the guy at the shoe counter looks prepubescent. I comment on this to Carmen, which gets me another threat of no dinner, so I shut up.

The sound of bowling balls crashing into pins echoes around us, and there's a familiar smell of popcorn and plastic that takes me back to the bowling parties everyone and their dog had when I was a kid. Okay, fine, this was a good idea. Once we've got our bowling shoes on, Carmen practically sprints to our assigned lane.

"Just a heads up," I say as she's inputting our names onto the screen. "My wrist is still kind of gammy from when I saved Ava's life a few weeks back, so if I lose, that's why."

"Even if that was true--which it's definitely not, by the way--you're left-handed. You hurt your right wrist," Carmen says with a roll of her eyes. "Not sure stopping Ava from falling a few feet onto grass counts as saving her life, by the way."

I frown at her and lift my eyes up to the score screen. She's entered my player name as 'Gammy Wrist'.

I'm about as shit at bowling as I am at everything else. I stop myself. Lina keeps telling me to check myself with thought processes like that, even if I'm half kidding. I am shit at bowling, though. No denying that. Thankfully for me, Carmen is even more shit. We're both awful. Absolutely horrific. The literal eight-year-old child in the lane next to us is better at it than we are.

I use my telekinesis to knock down some remaining pins during one of my gos, but Carmen catches on, and snaps at me for trying to cheat. I argue it's an inborn ability beyond my control, so I'm simply being strategic, but she doesn't entertain it.

We have to call one of the staff members over at one point because Carmen lobbed a ball so hard into one of the lane barriers that it broke. It was fine. Just needed a harsh shove in the opposite direction to straighten it up. The fact we both need the barriers up in the first place is bad enough. Neither one of us has reached one-hundred points by the time the game is over.

"Y'know, when you suggested bowling, I assumed you weren't, y'know, shit at it," I say in a casual tone as we're strolling out of the bowling alley, hand in hand.

Carmen pulls away from me, and gives me a soft shove. I think she means to give me a hard one, but I've gained enough of my strength back to barely be fazed by it. As I stumble slightly, she makes a break for it out of the building. I jog after her, and catch her before she can get far. I wrap my arms around her, forcing her to stop on the spot as she squirms and laughs, and spin her around. I press my lips against hers, and then we're standing outside the bowling alley kissing until I start getting lightheaded.