"Hey, Lauren!" Jordan waved to get my attention as I marched out of my class in a crowd of college students. I instantly beamed upon seeing him, and we walked out of the traffic, standing in an unoccupied corner.
"How have you been? It's good to see you!" I brushed my hair out of my face and adjusted my backpack on my shoulders. He stuck his hands into his pockets and shrugged a bit.
"Pretty good. I would ask you the same question, but you kind of had a dramatic weekend," he chuckled. "So I think we all know the answer. I came by yesterday to check up on you, but you weren't in class!" I tilted my head, still smiling.
"How'd you get my schedule?"
"Oh, I probably look kind of creepy," his face flushed and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I asked the main office. Did Alex talk to you after Friday night? Are you doing alright?"
I smiled sheepishly at how thoughtful he was being and nodded my head, skipping awkwardly over his first question. "Yeah I'm good. Thanks for checking up on me. And thanks for listening me blab on about Alex on Friday. You've been a really good friend."
"Do you kiss all of your friends?" he raised his eyebrow teasingly. I bit my lip.
"No, could we just forget about that detail? It's not one of my proudest moments."
Jordan's face scrunched in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" My eyes widened in realization of what I had jut said.
"No! No, I mean I used you as a rebound, and it was inconsiderate of me."
"Oh." Jordan replied, looking down at the floor. "Well, I thought maybe it was a bit more than that."
I titled my head to the side, "I told you it wasn't going to lead anywhere."
"Yeah, you did. I guess I don't really have anyone to blame but myself then. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry," I sighed and leaned my back against the wall. "You know what, maybe you were a bit more than a rebound. I don't know. You're a really cool guy Jordan, and you really know how to make a girl feel special. I just kissed you in the moment, and I was in pain. I'll make it up to you."
"How about you make it up to me, by letting me take you to dinner?"
My brain froze. "Dinner?" I inhaled sharply. He looked at me nervously, like a middle school boy asking a girl to dance. I looked around for a second and then met his gaze. When I spoke, my voice registered higher. "Listen, Jordan-"
He sighed and waved my rejection away. "I get it. Take your time healing from his rejection. I'll be here if you need my empathy, or someone to vent to. Just know that I think you deserve someone that doesn't treat you like he did. I'll text you later." He smiled warmly and patted me on the shoulder, before turning and quickly walking away. I exhaled, releasing the breath I had been holding.
Jordan just asked me out.
My face flushed again, thinking about how gentlemanly he had been, how politely he had took me turning him down. How well he understood, yet everything he understood was a lie.
How could someone so good at seeing through people, be so bad at filtering out the truth? I felt guilt settle into my heart, but reminded myself that he had to believe I was single. For the sake of my relationship with Alex, no one I wasn't close with could know we were still seeing each other, except of course Alyssa. At this point, how could she not know. I fought to keep down the bulge that had formed in my throat. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out.
Alex: Two words, Mario Kart. Meet me down outside once your class is over. I'm going to demolish you in all of the arcade games. I hope you've had a good day :)
A smile sprouted onto my lips and I looked up at Jordan dissolving into the crowd, before pulling my backpack tighter onto my shoulders and walking quickly out into the fresh, cool air. Down the brick steps I went, and then out to where Alex was leaning on a cab, his baseball hat pushed down onto his head and sunglasses covering is eyes, grinning at me.
"Perfect timing, my class just finished." I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, after looking around for any photographers.
We got into the taxi and were off.
<====><====>
I peeled fluffy layers of hot pink cotton candy off of a white paper cone and stuffed them into my mouth, leaning against a claw machine. Alex pressed his forehead to the glass in concentration, slowly moving the dial around, trying to pull out a stuffed panda.
"You don't have to get it for me you know. I said I forgave you for the mess of miscommunication last week," I laughed, licking my sticky fingers, which made them even stickier. He smiled, not breaking his focus.
"Maybe I just want to give you a stuffed panda for the sake of giving you a stuffed panda."
"Well whatever the reason, you've wasted quite a lot of money on it."
He threw his hands up angrily when the claw closed and moved back up, and in red letters, the words 'Uh Oh!' appeared on a screen in the machine. "I could go get a stuffed animal from the store across the street for two dollars!" He fumbled over his words, his eyebrows furrowed.
I chuckled and pulled him away from the box. "That's what makes it fun, and that's how they make money. You have to really work to earn it. It takes luck and concentration. The reward is much more satisfying. Let me try." I gave him my cotton candy cone, and he began eating it right off of the stick, not as graceful as my pulling and stuffing strategy.
I fished around in my pocket for fifty cents, and pulled out two quarters, sliding them into the payment slot. The machine made a sound effect, and then a whirring noise, and everything on the control panel lit up in neon colors. Alex observed excessively, soaking in my posture and strategy.
I moved the claw around, positioning it a little farther back than I thought the panda appeared, and then I pressed the enormous red button that had "GO!" written on it in white puffy letters. The claw sank down into the depths of the animal pit, and I watched as it latched onto the panda's head, and pulled it up soundly, bringing it over to the chute, and dropping it in.
I turned to Alex proudly, and held up my new stuffed animal. He stared in shock for a second, and then it transformed into admiration. "How are you so good at that?"
"My brother worked in an arcade in high school. I got a lot of free tokens and practice," I shrugged. I felt a sinking sensation in my chest, and then shook it off, stuffing the animal into my backpack.
"That was incredible! but now I feel bad, because I didn't get it for you."
"If it means that much to you, I'll pretend you got it for me yourself. You almost did once or twice. It's the thought that counts," I laughed. He smirked and snatched up my tacky hand to hold and we walked through the noisy and dimly lit arcade with the outer space carpeting.
"I think I warmed up the machine for you, or maybe it was your sticky fingers."
I laughed, let go of his hand and rubbed mine on my jeans. "Yeah, cotton candy is the worst."
He threw away the now empty cone in a trash can as we neared it. Then he turned and smiled at me excitedly. "Let's go play whack-a-mole!" We raced around the colorful maze of machines and the kids shouting and lugging bucketfuls of tickets. Whack-a-mole had a much longer line than anticipated, so we settled for the one next to it, Dance Dance Revolution.
"Alright, so controlled movements." I advised. He nodded solemnly, rolling up his navy blue shirt sleeves.
"Control."
The game started and whatever I had just said flew out of both of our minds. We danced like lunatics, our feet flying around like helicopter blades. Sweat ran down the sides of our heads and the backs of our necks. The music blasted from the speakers, and the screen lit up with arrows directing us to place our feet on different colored squares on the ground.
We lasted for quite a long time. We go to level 12 in the game, and then finally all of our strikes had been used. The machine shut down and faded red tickets began pouring out of the slot. My eyes widened at the sight. They weren't stopping. Piles and piles of tickets continued to slide out, and our score flashed across the game screen.
"1456" along with the words "New record!" I turned to Alex excitedly, and he gave me an exhausted high five. He leaned against the silver railing behind us, breathing heavily.
"Good job, Laurie."
"You too." I couldn't wipe the big smile off of my face. The tickets finally stopped coming out, and so I ripped them off of the machine, and held them like an armful of blankets. They poured over and piled so high I could rest my chin on the stack. Alex helped me carry them over to the counting machine, where we began to feed them in.
"What are we going to get at the prize counter?" He inquired. I shrugged.
"Well I got a panda, so I think that it's your turn to pick something out."
We left the arcade at eleven o'clock in a bumble bee yellow taxi. My panda stuffed into my backpack, his Jimmy Neutron, ladybug red watch strapped around his wrist, and a Lego Batmobile set under his arm.