"So why Dave & Busters?" I asked, glancing up at Isaac, a small, white skee ball in the palm of my hand. Isaac tossed his up the ramp, landing it in the 4,000 ring before glancing over at me as he grabbed another ball. Beside him, Andie yelped as her ball came ricocheting back down the ramp towards her, Connor laughing by her side.
"It's a tradition, I guess," He shrugged, tossing the ball in his hand before he ran it up the ramp, dropping it into the same value. "We all used to come here a lot as kids, and we swore that this was the best place for birthdays We were somewhere around eleven years old, I think, and we made this ridiculous pack that at least once a year on somebody's birthday."
"And you were the lucky winner this year?" I teased, tossing my last ball, landing a measly 1,000 points. I frowned at the game, my score considerably lower than Isaacs, and he still had two balls left to throw.
"I guess so."
"Why not go tomorrow though? I mean, it's your 21st. You could be out bar hopping right now like any normal twenty-one-year-old." I turned and leaned back against the wall the last skee ball machine was pushed up against, watching as Isaac tossed another ball up the ramp, scoring much lower this time, to my pleasure.
"Not all of my friends are twenty-one," Isaac responded, throwing his last ball haphazardly, but still managing to make 5,000 points off of it. He grinned at the screen at the end of the machine that told him how many tickets were being added to his card, than nodded back in the direction of the seating area. We hadn't eaten yet, ordering a round of drinks before venturing off to the arcade before we ordered, and everyone had started to make their way back to the table we had reserved. I fell into step beside Isaac, Andie and Connor just ahead of us, glancing up at him, curiously. The only one of our friends who didn't seem to be of age, based off of what I knew about them and who had ordered a drink, seemed to be Izzy, and she was noticeably, and thankfully, absent tonight. The thought started to cross through my mind that I was the one Isaac had built his plans around, until my attention was drawn by a machine we were walking past, just before we reentered the seating area.
"Oh, wait!" I called, reaching forward to grab Isaac's arm and pull him backwards. He stumbled slightly, bumping into to me as I turned towards the crane machine, the glass box filled with various colored and patterned rubber ducks.
"I want one," I grinned at him, swiping my card through the reader as Isaac walked closer to me, crossing his arms loosely over his chest as he watched me start to navigate the crane over the rubber toys.
"Are you serious?" He laughed, giving me a disbelieving look as I dropped the crane down over a blue duck with white clouds painted on it. "With the rubber ducks and the melty ice cream. Are you really sure you're not five?"
"They're cute," I frowned at him, pushing him away slightly before I turned back to the game, watching as the metal claw enclosed around the duck, lifting it through the machine before dropping it into the shoot, sending the duck tumbling down. "Look!" I held it in my flat palm up towards Isaac's face, watching a he leaned back, shaking his head, even though his eyes were shining, and when they landed back on me, they were intense. I lowered my hand and my gaze.
"Whatever makes you happy, Lor," Isaac said gently, taking a step back. "But everyone's waiting on us to order."
"Wait, wait. One more?" I pleaded as I grabbed for his arm again to pull him back, raising my eyes at him slightly, jutting out my lower lip, satisfaction running through me and threatening to turn my pout into a smile as I watched Isaac reach up and run a hand through his hair, knowing he was giving in.
"One." He held up his finger, warning me, but despite the stern expression he was trying to take with me, there was a light of amusement and happiness in his brown eyes, the smallest of smiles pulling his lips as he watched me. I beamed at him.
"Okay, you pick," I instructed, turning back to the game, rocking back and forth slightly on my feet as Isaac stepped back next to him. I folded my hands together in front of me watching trough the faint reflection of the glass as his eyes poured over the options, until he finally pointed at one in the back, calling out a green duck with money symbols painted over it.
"Really?" I frowned at him, scrunching my nose slightly at his choice.
"Well, since someone didn't get me a birthday present, you can make it up for me with this duck."
"Well it's not my fault someone didn't tell me it was their birthday," I shot back at him, swiping my card through the reader again.
"Just get the damn duck, Loren," Isaac laughed, "I'm starving." I rolled my eyes at him, turning back to the machine. In only a few seconds, the crane was dropping Isaac's choice down into the shoot. I reached down to grab it, holding it out to him.
"Happy birthday." I presented the duck to him with both of my hands, mine tucked underneath my arm with my phone. Isaac smiled softly, his eyes meeting mine intently as he reached forward, carefully taking the rubber duck from my hands.
"Best one yet," he winked at me, raising the duck slightly before depositing it in the pocket of his jeans. "Now seriously, let's go." The warnings in the back of my head started to fire off again as I found myself unable to stop smiling at him, looking down again at the duck in my hand as I walked next to him.
As we neared our table, Andie shot me another one of her suspecting looks, her eyes dancing between Isaac and me as we took our seats back at the table, across from one another. I narrowed my eyes at her briefly, warning her to stop as the waitress neared our table, taking orders for numerous appetizers and entrees. When she disappeared, Andie leaned across the table from her seat next to Isaac to offer me some of her drink, for which I was immensely grateful after realizing I left my sister's ID, my key to ordering from the bar, stashed safely in one of my drawers at home.
When the waitress returned with our food and a third round of drinks, Mac pulled two nips of whiskey from his pockets, dumping them into the ciders he and Isaac had ordered. I watched as they chugged their beers, shaking my head along with Andie at their antics.
It was only a few moments later that Isaac excused himself from the table under the premise of using the bathroom, but as everyone else started to finish their meals, Isaac still hadn't returned.
"Shouldn't someone go find him?" I asked, looking across the table at Andie. She glanced up at me from signing her check, sharing a suspicious glance with Conner before her eyes fell back to me.
"I wouldn't worry about it. He'll be back," she assured me, and mere seconds later Isaac rounded the corner, grinning happily to himself as he returned to his seat across from me, a Styrofoam take-out container in his hands, despite the remnants of food still on his plate in front of him.
"What's in the box?" I asked, but Isaac only pulled it towards him, shaking his head and insisting that he wasn't going to tell me. Instead, he held the box tightly in his hand as the rest of the table started to stand, pushing in their chairs and heading towards the exit. I watched him as he walked next to Lee, talking to him about something I couldn't catch, distracted by Andie chatting next to me about something I was only half paying attention to. She must have sensed it, because she quieted as she neared the door, slipping past me to join Connor, her eyes flashing over Isaac's face as she moved ahead of is through the doorway. I started to follow behind her.
"Ride with me." Isaac whispered to me as I passed him through the exit, his arm extended to hold the door open as we all filed through it. I stopped, shifting so that Diego and Sasha could pass behind me. Isaac was leaning towards me slightly, a small smile on his lips as his eyes swept slowly over my face.
"What?" I had heard him, but wasn't sure if he was serious, or if he was even talking to me.
"Ride with me."
"I think you've had too much to drink and not enough to eat," I laughed, watching as Isaac shifting, digging his hand into his pocket to retrieve his keys, holding them out to me. "Are you serious?"
"It is my birthday."
"Oh my god, okay," I laughed, taking a step back from him and shaking my head as I reached for his hand to take his keys from him and then starting pushing on his side to get him out the door. "Let's go."
"Are you coming?" Andie called to me, standing behind her open car door, Connor already in the passenger seat. I glanced at her and my hands on Isaac's back, still pushing him forward.
"Uhm, no, I'm gonna take this one home." I patted Isaac on his back, watching as Sasha started to close the back door of Isaac's Jeep, walking around the other side to grab Diego, taking his hand and pulling him towards Andie's car, an unspoken agreement passing between them that the carpool dynamics would change. As I pushed Isaac towards the passenger side, walking around to the driver's seat, I shot Sasha and Andie a glare as they both smiled mischievously at me. I waved them off, lifting myself into Isaac's Jeep, adjusting the seats and the mirrors as he settled beside me in the passenger seat, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.
"Are you gonna tell me what's in the box?" I asked him again, pulling onto the main road, my eyes flashing between the GPS on my phone, the road in front of me, and Isaac's face. He turned his head towards me, a lopsided grin on his face as he gazed at me.
"Nope," he popped his letters, tiling the box side to side in his hands. "It's a surprise." I rolled my eyes at him as he leaned his head back again and closed his eyes, settling on letting silence fall between us for the duration it took us to get back to Isaac's house. When I pulled up in front of his front door, he opened his eyes, staring up at his house for a moment before turning to look at me. I was about to tell him that I would drive his Jeep back to Leighton's house, since it was too late for me to call Dan or Leighton to pick me up, and we could work out how he would get it back in the morning, but Isaac beat me to speaking.
"Do you wanna come in?"