Smitten Anyway

Chapter 26: Crazy Is The New Normal

We all turn to look at Noah. When we finally reached the city center, everyone started fighting again.

"We ate pizza one hour ago." Asher says astonished.

"Yes, we did. Your point? Noah asks making me chuckle. I think the rest of them are used to him by now.

"We can all go for bowling. There are concession stands outside." I offer.

"Sounds cool," Katie shrugs and everyone else finally relents. Sunshine lays her head on shoulder leaning into me so I put an arm around her shoulder.

"Thank god! I thought they would never come to a conclusion." She mutters burying her head against my side.

"Why are you thanking god when I did all the work?" I ask, faking an offended look.

"He did give you that brain right?" She retorts.

"You do have a point." We take two lanes so that everyone gets more chances. Chris, Dylan, Noah, Sunshine and I take a lane and the rest head towards the other one. Noah quickly takes his turn getting a spare and then runs off to the concession stands.

"I will go next." Dylan says, picking up the ball. He bends down to aim a shot but I don't he needs to bend that low. I feel Sunshine elbowing me, when I turn she points towards Chris. He stares at Dylan's ass, gets embarrassed, looks everywhere except at Dylan then repeats the process again and again.

"You can shoot; this is not a professional game." Noah says, making his way towards us while munching on a pretzel. Dylan gets a bit embarrassed as Sunshine and I hold back our laughter. He aims a ball for real this time and gets a strike. At least now he can say he was really aiming a shot.

Chris takes the ball next and even if he is not trying, Dylan is shamelessly staring at his ass. But oblivious to his stare he takes a shot scoring six points. By the time the ball comes back he notices Dylan staring. When he takes his second shot he fumbles with the ball getting only two points this time. He starts cussing under his breath that he could have gotten a spare if it was not the fault of a certain someone. Noah is frowning at his now empty pretzel bag shaking it upside down. This is going to be a long day...

"I will go next!" Sunshine takes the ball and passes it between her hands. I think she is examining its weight. She just bends down at the line and then stares at the ball and the pins. Suddenly she takes a swing getting a strike. When I look over at her, she just has a satisfied smile. I am taking that she has played this game a lot...

You need to get a strike!

Why?

If you don't, then you will be a looser in her eyes and she will leave you like...

Shut up!

My inner thoughts bring out a rage within me and I take my anger out on the ball. I don't even look back but the noise of the pins blowing and music of strike reach my ear.

"That was cool but you don't have to destroy the pins." Noah says, taking the ball but I ignore him. I focus on calming myself down.

"We will be right back." Sunshine says, grabbing my hand and then drags me out of the arena. When she turned to look at me, I expected confusion or even anger but not concern in her eyes.

"What happened?" She asks softly.

"Nothing," I say, looking away from her. She puts a hand on my face gently and turns it towards herself.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to but you know you can tell me anything right?" She asks. I just nod not being able to think of something to say.