The movie ends in a haze. Liam realizes that for the last bit of it he was focusing more on the whispered conversations around him instead of the movie.
"I didn't realize you two were so close." Izzy whispers to Ember. Liam thinks it's pretty obvious that it's him she's talking about but he doesn't move.
"Yeah, I guess. He's just like Paige to me. They've got really similar personalities so I guess that's what does it." Ember says back, her voice extremely quiet.
"Oh." Izzy nods.
Then a little later Lucas and Chris start whispering about anime. They were talking about how a scene reminded them of an anime. Then Chris said something about a hot character with big tits and Lucas calls him a pig.
When the movie ended Liam hadn't really been paying attention for the last five minutes. H e smiles anyway. It's nice. Being here is nice.
"Let's ride fourwheelers!" Izzy breaks the soft silence and bounces up off the couch. Her hand is still intertwined with Ember's so the brunette girl just has her arm raised to reach out to Izzy's.
Liam sits up off Emmy's thighs so she can stand up like her crush. They stand side by side holding hands and Izzy glares at everyone else.
"Fine, fine." Javi rolls his eyes and stands up as well. Everyone else just follows after them.
They bound out the front door and Liam realizes that everyone here seems to know their way around. They all walk around the house and skip through the backyard gate like it's something they've done a thousand times before.
He's the only one that doesn't know his way around.
Then they're standing back there with two fourwheelers and three dirt bikes and he realizes that's probably another thing he doesn't know. Something they all do know.
Well, shit.
"You know how to ride one of them?" Paige asks. That's when he realizes her and Ian are standing by him, while everyone else is arguing over who gets what to ride on.
"Not a clue. Never even been on one." Liam mumbles back.
"We'll teach you." Iam smiles and cuts in to their conversation. "It's really not all that difficult once you figure it out."
"Hey!" Javi calls at the three of them. "Ian, are you taking a bike?"
"Nah, I get the orange fourwheeler with these two." Ian points his thumb at Paige and Liam.
"Oh sweet." Javi grins. "This one's mine then."
Chris is on one of the dirt bikes and Javi is holding another one. Ember and Izzy are climbing on a big dark green ATV and Lucas is glancing between them and the third dirt bike. Finally he sighs and gets on the ATV with them.
"Poor Lucas. The third bike is off limits because it's Chris's dad's so that means he's stuck with the love birds." Ian chuckles and starts to walk over to the orange ATV. "I'll show you how to drive Li, you'll be a pro in no time."
They get situated on the vehicle. Paige is on the back gripping the bars and Liam is sat on the seat between her and Ian. "Is it even safe to have three people on these things?"
"Probably not." Ian hums. "We do it anyway. Its just like how you're supposed to wear helmets. We go without those too. "
"Of course you do." Liam whispers but Ian hears him and chuckles.
"Okay, once I start this thing you're gonna have to either scream or talk right in my ear because I won't be able to hear a thing." Ian says and then he's twisting the key and the ATV is roaring to life.
Ian shifts gears and they start backing out of the yard. Liam, unsure where else to put his hands, wraps his arms around Ian's waist. He makes sure they're just loosely sitting there but he's still hanging on.
They get across the road and into a patch of woods that has trails through it. Liam holds on a little tighter. Ian doesn't seemed bothered by it so he doesn't overthink it. He just doesn't want to die.
After they go around the trail a few times Ian slows to a stop. "You wanna try Li?"
"Um- sure." Liam slowly nods and his arms fall from around Ian's torso.
Ian moves and Liam shuffles to the front. The brown eyed boy leans over and starts showing him things. "These are the breaks. They're just like a bike's breaks so just squeeze them and it stops." He demonstrates how to do it. "Then this is the gas. Push down on it a little to go and hold it to keep going. Then you just pull the handle bars to turn. Don't worry too much about gears and shifting yet, just break it when you want to stop and Paige or I will take over."
"Okay." Liam nods a little, trying to understand how it works.
Ian moves back on the fourwheeler and Paige moves up so she's sitting in Liam's old spot. Her hands place themselves on top of Liam's shoulders and she grips there instead of around his waist. Once Ian is fully on the back and holding onto the handlebars, Liam attempts to go.
It takes him a minute to learn how to go at a consistent speed but once he gets it he feels more confident. He turns around random paths that all lead in circles for a while. Sometimes they pass a dirt bike or another ATV with Ember, Izzy, and Lucas on it. Ember always waves enthusiastally and gives Liam a thumbs up when they pass each other.
Eventually he comes to a stop when they reach the same spot Ian had stopped it. He looks back. "Alright, someone else can drive now."
Paige gives his shoulder a small squeeze. "Move and I'll do it."
Liam gets off and Paige scoots forward. Ian scoots up and smiles as he motions for Liam to get behind him. "The bars hurt my ass, so it's your turn to sit back there."
Liam doesn't object. He climb on the back and gets his legs on either side of the seat, running them up the back of Ian's. He holds onto the bars behind him up until Paige presses on the gas. As he's jerked forward his hands fly almost instinctly to wrap around Ian again, which feels much more secure.
Ian chuckles when Paige starts speeding up and Liam's arms tighten a little around him. One hand moves to pat Liam's arm and then his hand move back to hold onto the first bar running along the back. The position means he's leaning back into Liam a bit but Liam has no complaints about this because it makes him easier to hold onto.
Liam learns then that Paige is a speed demon. She was going way too fast. She even hits a few bumps in the paths and laughs loudly when their ATV goes up in the air as if they went over a ramp.
"I shouldn't have let her drive." Liam says, moving his mouth a bit closer to Ian's ear. Ian laughs loudly at this and he leans his head to the side to lightly bonk against Liam's. It's almost endearing.
"No, probably not." He chuckles and Liam finds himself smiling again even though he's fearful for his life.
Some time later they're driving up a path on the outside of the woods and next to the road. A dirt bike pulls up the road next to him and it's Javi. They slow to a stop and so does he.
"Time to go." He yells over the rev of the motors and Paige nods once. They then both drive back to Chris's house and park in the backyard where they were before. Lucas, Ember, Izzy, and Chris are already there.
"Was it fun? Are you a pro at driving now?" Ember quizzes the second Liam steps back on the ground.
"Definitely not a pro and Paige tried to kill me." Liam says with a slow nod.
Ember laughs. "She gets adrenaline driving those things."
"Oh shush." Paige waves them off. Then her hand reaches up to ruffle Liam's hair. She doesn't have to reach far considering he's only a few centimeters taller than her. "Sorry if I really did scare you though."
"No it's okay. It was fun."
They then all share matching grins. Liam's having fun. They're all having fun.
"C'mon, same seating for the cars as the ride over here." Ian declares, walking over to join their group.
He swings an arm over Liam's shoulder and directs the other boy towards the backyard gate. Liam walks into step with him but the boy doesn't unwrap his arm from his shoulders until they're standing by the cars again.
Chris pokes his head in the door of his house to scream that they're leaving and then shuts it quickly. He jogs back over and hops in the driver's seat of his car. Paige gets in the passenger seat automatically and Ian leads Liam over to the back door.
Liam scoots in and then Ian slides in after him. After they're all in Chris starts to pull out of the driveway. Javi's car follows after them with the Mexican boy in the driver's sear and Lucas in the passenger seat, which leaves Ember and Izzy in the back.
"You ever been to an arcade Liam?" Chris breaks the quiet that had settled in the car.
"Uh- no..." Liam shakes his head a little.
"That's alright." Chris grins. "Izzy hasn't either. They're really cool. We've never had one in town before, we used to have to go bowling and use their arcade so this is kinda new for all of us."
"Oh." Liam smiles at Chris's attempt to make him feel like less of an outsider. It didn't work well, but it did help a little bit so he smiles anyway.
"Isn't that it?" Paige points out a building and Chris nods. He turns into the parking lot of the building and finds a parking spot. The place seems a bit busy.
Javi parks next to him and slowly they all get out of the cars to cluster together in the parking lot.
"Let's go!" Izzy tugs Ember by the hand and soon enough they're all walking up to the place.
It's the grand opening so it's half off. Liam follows Ian and Paige up to the counter. Everyone separately buys their own tokens but in a moment of impulsiveness Liam steps up before Ian can order and just orders a bunch.
The man grins and pulls out a large bag. It's got more than Liam can ever use but based off the heart eyes Ember and Paige are giving it on the sidelines, it was a good buy. He gets another one just for whatever and pays for both.
"Holy fuck." Chris murmurs as Liam drags Ian over to where the group is. "You must really like to game."
"Nah, they're for all of us." He hands Ember a bag. "Just like, if you run out of tokens or something. We won't have to go back up there."
"You paid with a credit card, will they even be able to refund it if we don't use them all?" Paige looks concerned. She's never had a credit card she wouldn't know how these things work. Then again, Liam's never refunded anything he buys so neither would he.
"Better just make sure to use them all so I don't have to get a refund then, huh?" Liam raises his eyebrows in a challenge.
Ember grins. "You're literally the best Liam. I love you."
Then the girl was grabbing Izzy's hand and the two ran off. Liam chuckles as they go and hands the other bag he has to Chris who was looking at it with googly eyes. He takes the smaller bag Chris had purchased intead.
"Ember's right, you're really cool man." Chris grins and then turns to look at Javi. "Wanna see if they have Galaga?"
"Fuck yes I do." Javi gives him a shit eating grin and the two are bounding away.
"Don't spend all of those I wanna play Pac-Man!" Lucas calls after them. He spares Liam a glance and gives him a small smile. "Thanks man, for real." Then he goes after Chris and Lucas.
"I have a race car game to win." Paige smiles. "And it's the first thing I saw when I came in."
She turns to Liam and raises her eyebrows. He waves her off. "I'll be okay, go ahead."
With the confirmation she happily goes up to a race car game by the entrance and waits for her turn. With everyone else away Liam turns to Ian.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now." Awkwardness starts to slowly bubble in his chest.
Ian laughs. "It's okay man, don't sweat it. C'mon, you can follow me. I won't say anything if you stick to me like a lost puppy."
Liam accepts that and follows the brunet boy into the room. It's got a black carpet and is dimly lit. There's LED lights everywhere, around the walls, on the gaming consoles, and some people have even got glow stick bracelets and necklaces to match the mood. There's kids scrambling from game to game with excited smiles and teenagers laughing easily with their friends.
It's nice.
"This one's cool." Ian stops at an old arcade machine. He puts some tokens in and Liam watches over his shoulder as he starts the battle game. He wins one round and dies the other. "Try it."
When he steps out of the way his hand reaches up to softly nudge Liam towards the game. He steps up and starts playing. Expectantly, he dies immediately.
"Just keep going, you'll get the hang of it."
Liam doesn't believe him but he plays another round anyway. He actually won then. He got two more rounds before dying and Ian put some more tokens in the machine so he could play a few more before they traded places.
That's how it went. Ian would walk and Liam would trail behind until they find a game that would catch Ian's interest. Then they would stop and he would play first to show Liam how to do it before stepping to the side. He always let Liam play for however long he wanted before Ian would get a real turn that wasn't just an example.
They played a lot of old classic games in old arcade boxes and some newer ones. At some point Ian tries to drag Liam into Just Dance but there was no way in hell he was doing that. Javi and Chris ended up coming over and Javi danced. The boy had a lot of energy to him and won easily. Chris and Liam stood to the side and either laughed at their dance moves or Chris would tell them how sexual something looked which resulted in him getting flipped off multiple times.
Liam also got to try Paige's racing game. He placed fifth, which wasn't too bad for him. Paige got first and set the record for the game though. She was very proud of that fact.
Javi taught him how to play Galaga so he could play against Ian. Then later on they found Lucas by Pac-Man and watched in awe. The boy was really good. Ian made Liam try Ms. Pac-Man since, according to him, was the next best thing.
It was fun. Really fun.
At the end of the night all the tokens got used up and everyone had big grins. Even Liam, which felt foreign to his face. He had laughed more that day than ever before.
Ember got a stuffed animal that Izzy won her in the claw machine and Chris gathered up everybody's tickets to get himself like 43 plastic spider rings and a plastic robot toy that didn't work.
Overall, it was a really fun night. Liam felt ecstatic when they dropped him off that night. Not even stepping in his house could drop his mood. It really helped that his parents had already went to bed too.
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I haven't been to an arcade in years :(
Love you ♡
- Z