I was feeling refreshed when I woke up this morning, something about the bright sun flooding my room had put me into a good mood. By the time I made it to English class, my happiness had not diminished despite the homework I got in chemistry this morning.
Striding into my English class, I paused in the entrance surprised to see Greg and Honey. I didn’t know that they had been in this class yesterday. They waved me over, when they spotted me still standing there and I took a seat next to Honey.
“Hey didn’t know you were in this class?” Honey squealed excitedly focusing her attention on me, “We’re going to have so much fun, isn’t this great sweetie?” she directed the last part to Greg. Greg merely nuzzled his face in her neck causing Honey to blush. They were honestly adorable together.
The teacher called for the class’s attention and started discussing the book she handed out yesterday, and some themes we should be looking for. She told us to turn to the people around us and discuss our thoughts on the first chapter that we were supposed to read last night.
Facing the couple next to me, I shared my thoughts about the relationship between the Old Man and the boy in the first chapter. I don’t think they were paying any attention to me, and I felt like an awkward third wheel sitting next to them. They were holding hands, and playing footsie underneath the desk. Don’t get me wrong it was sweet that they cared about each other this much, but it was a lot to handle being so close to them. I think that maybe next time I’ll sit somewhere else.
The period finally ended, and I was desperate to escape the loving duet in favour for company that was in the single variety. I ran into Lucy and we both joined the line together for food, today she was wearing black shorts with layered tank tops, and a studded belt around her waist.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked as we waited patiently in line.
“Ugh, I just sat next to Honey and Greg in English. It’s painful how much they like each other. I felt like I was constantly intruding on a moment that they were sharing,” I explained with a slight frown on my face causing Lucy to laugh at my misery.
“It’s okay, it happens to all of us. They’ve been dating for two years now but they both look at each like it’s the first day they’ve fallen in-love. I’m a little jealous of that though, and it can be pretty intimidating when you compare it your own love life,” she sighed wistfully at the end probably imagining a prince charming of her own sweeping her off her feet. We joined the others at the table, and chatted about random things.
“My parents are going out of town this weekend and I was thinking we could have a movie-marathon at my house,” Christine suggested tucking a strand of her curly auburn hair behind her ear, “and we could have a bonfire with marshmallows and everything”. The idea sounded great and it was the perfect excuse to avoid my house over the weekend. There were murmurs of agreement from all sides of the table and it looked like it would be a full house at Christine’s.
“Okay let’s meet at my place on Saturday, bring your swimsuits because we might go to the beach,” she continued. Plans were forming for the rest of the lunch as we fought over what movies to watch, who would bring the popcorn, and what else we wanted to do. I mostly just agreed with what everyone was saying not caring about the specifics.
The rest of the week passed and I fell into a familiar routine. Wake up, go to school, eat lunch with the gang, more school, go to the beach to read, make dinner, force my mom to eat, bed, and then repeat. I was getting comfortable in the groove, and things were looking good. Matt and I were spending a lot of time together joking around and goofing off. He was a really sweet guy and he knows just what to say to make me laugh. I’ve become closer to him than anyone in the group and it was nice being able to call him a friend.
On Friday, the day seemed normal until I reached my drama class. Ms. Burene was nowhere in sight, so we were all waiting on the black laminate flooring. At first I just thought she was running late, but it’s been fifteen minutes and it didn’t look like she was going to show up at all. A couple of students got up to leave, and I wondered if I should too. I mean what’s the point of sitting in an empty room for the next hour and a half.
“Come on, let’s get of here,” Matt said, “There’s a school rule that if the teacher doesn’t show up after fifteen minutes, then everyone can leave”. I nodded my head in agreement, following Matt out of the room and towards the parking lot. It was weird leaving school property so early, and I knew if I looked over my shoulder I would see other students stuck inside their classrooms learning.
Even though I wanted to bail on school, I didn’t want to go home just yet. It was a Friday afternoon after all, “Are you heading home, or do you want to do something fun?” I asked.
“Sure, what do you have in mind?” his deep voice replied. I wasn’t entirely familiar with the area so I just shrugged my shoulders in response. The only places I had been to were the beach and the mall, but neither of them sounded like a lot of fun at this point.
“Okay, how about we go to the vintage arcade a couple blocks east of the beach, and maybe get some fake tattoos of each other’s names to scare our parents?” I couldn’t help but laugh at his outrageous statement. Only this idiot would think that was a good idea. But surprisingly, it sounded like fun.
“Do you want to lead the way and I’ll follow in my car?” I asked. It would be dumb to leave one of our cars here, especially overnight if we stayed out too long and they closed the gates. Matt nervously rubbed his neck with one hand, and shifted his gaze away from my face.
“Umm actually I don’t have car,” he mumbled embarrassed. There was nothing for him to be ashamed of; a lot of kids don’t have cars. So what. I threw him an easy smile, and unlocked the doors to my Toyota.
“Perfect. That way you can give me directions and I won’t get lost”. I slid into my seat, and Matt opened the passenger’s side climbing in. The uneasiness he was feeling moments ago was washed away from his face as I turned the car on and Linkin Park blasted from my speakers. Smiling sheepishly, I turned the volume down so it was only in the background and we could hear one another.
“Nice taste in music, I didn’t figure you for a rock girl. I thought you’d be into pop music like Christine and Iris,” he complimented me.
“People surprise you all the time, and you’ve only known me for a week. There are a lot of things you don’t know,” I teased him. It only took us ten minutes to get to the arcade. Most kids were still in school, so the place was practically empty. Pulling into a spot by the front, I gazed up at the neon sign that spelled out “Evangeline’s” which was a curious name for an arcade.
Matt held the door open for me, gesturing for me to head inside. The booming music evaded my eardrums along with the sounds of toy guns being shot. The floor was covered in a black carpet with swirls of neon colours on top, which popped out due to the dim lighting in the room. We both put five dollars into a machine, and got a cup full of coins. There were so many games to choose from, I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to do first.
“You want to go shoot some zombie heads?” Matt shouted into my ear. I nodded my head, figuring he wouldn’t hear me if I said yes. We made our way over to the machine and inserted a couple coins. The game came to life before my eyes, and we each picked up our prospective guns before us. The words ready were printed across the screen and I clicked the only button on the game, starting it.
The zombies appeared slowly at first, and weren’t that hard to miss. They dragged their limbs around, as if it was excess weight that they didn’t want to carry. After a while more zombies were showing up and it was taking more concentration to shoot them all. I was becoming more frenzied when they began to get closer.
“DIE ZOMBIES, DIE!!!!!” I was screaming at the machine, causing Matt to laugh at me but it didn’t stop the obscene words from falling out of my mouth. The zombies were about to eat us, and we couldn’t hold them off for much longer, and then they got me. ‘Game Over’ flashed across the screen, but all I could do was giggle innocently when I turned and saw Matt smirking at me in amusement. I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and tried to play it off like it was nothing.
Dragging him over to the next game, I saw it was a racing game. However, this time I wasn’t the only one to get lost in it, and by the time we had played Pac man, DDR, and air hockey we were both grinning from all the excitement. We had just let go of all our inhibitions and simply enjoyed each other’s company.
Matt led me over to a counter in the corner that sold food. He ordered us some fries and a couple of milkshakes. I couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto my face; it was the perfect food to eat at an arcade, an old fashioned retro meal to accompany this vintage place.
Snacking on the fries, we didn’t talk much because we had to scream to be heard over the loud music. Instead we listened and bobbed our heads to our favourite songs, and at one point we even broke out some air guitar using the fry as a pick. After we finished eating, we left the arcade, regaining our hearing once again.
“So I take it from all the screaming you enjoyed yourself?” Matt teased me.
“And I take it from your girly screams joining mine that you did too?” I retorted back, adding a smirk for emphasis. Matt put his arm around my shoulder bringing me closer to him as we walked along the sidewalk passing little stores. The sun was still up in the sky, making the day feel like it could never end.
“You know I only joined in, because I didn’t want you to feel bad,” he lied arrogantly.
“Uh-huh,” was the only sarcastic remark fitting for that lousy explanation. “So where are we headed now, you know I’m just following you blindly here,” I told him. Matt’s eye lit up in excitement at the unknown secret about our destination.
“You’ll see soon enough, we’re almost there,” was the only thing I got out of him. I didn’t push him any further because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. My gold flip flops, smacked against the pavement as we kept walking forward. There weren’t that many stores left, and soon we’d hit the beach. I was about to ask if that’s where we were heading when Matt stopped suddenly in front of a little store with an open front. They had a sign that said ‘Piercings and Henna Tattoos” in big cursive letters. I quirked an eyebrow at Matt in a questioning manner, wondering what the hell we could be doing here.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said we should get fake tattoos. Imagine everyone’s faces tomorrow when they see our names branded on each other,” he suggested mischievously. I couldn’t help the obnoxious laugh that bubbled in my throat, at the idea of my name in a heart on Matt’s arm.
“Okay let’s do this,” I stated with conviction already thinking about where to get mine. There was a nice woman in her late twenties working the place. She had an eyebrow piercing and a stud in her nose. It didn’t make her seem gaudy or anything because she was wearing a pink skirt with a tank top. It only made her seem edgier.
We both looked through some designs and I decided to get Matt’s name in a heart on my lower back right where a tramp stamp would be. It would definitely be seen tomorrow when we ended up at the beach. I was definitely going to play it up and pretend I was in-love and that Matt was the only one for me. It’d be hilarious if I could manage to keep me face straight, after all falling in-love after only a week is just ridiculous.