We pull up to the Lucky Lanes bowling alley. A few cars were scattered over the parking lot, mostly the employees. The daylight was burning, the sun was setting over the western edge of the sky. My eyes glance over to the sun as I rip the helmet off of my head and correcting the pieces of my hair that decided to be crazy and uncontrollable.
Oh, the irony!
"What town is this?" I ask, looking over at Scott as he fixed his own hair. My curiosity was going strong because I feel like I've seen this place before...like on TV.
"Riverview," Scott responds, setting his helmet on the seat of the bike, a little against his own will to answer.
Riverview. This place was on the news before. I remember this place. This was the town with the double homicide that was plastered over the TV weeks before. Is that why this place is almost abandoned? Did the double murder change the works of the town? People moved away to get away from the pain and loss. If I remember correctly, they never caught the murderer.
"Ready to go in?" Scott asks me, and I snap back to reality. The realization that I'm in a town with a recluse murderer. Great.
"Yeah," I nod as he takes the helmet out of my grasp. We head into the bowling alley that smells vaguely of smoke and old beer. The doors open to the sound of bowling balls knocking down pins.
"Fuck yeah!" a deep man's voice echoes throughout the room. He must've got a strike.
Smoke drifts over the bowling area, a couple of lanes occupied by heavy built men. The place looked kind of aged, but it looked original. The small diner space was set up for people who wanted something to eat was cleaned, but looked worn down and old. As I glance over my shoulder at the trophy case, I could tell this place was a hot spot in its day.
"Scott? Hey! Haven't seen you in here in a while," a woman's voice brings me to the front desk where Scott is leaning against it.
"Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?" Scott asks, taking twenty dollars out of his wallet.
"Who did you bring with you?" the girl with dark red hair shines me a glance. Her nose and lower lip were pierced. As she reaches across the counter to grab the money, a full arm of tattoos were visible. Her eyes were insanely green, shadowed by dark make-up and red lips.
"Raine," I respond, standing beside Scott.
The girl raises her eyebrows in a way I would describe it as shocked. She shakes her head, throwing her hands up in the air as if she just surrendered. "Well...you two have fun."
Scott glances over at me with a smile on his face as he reaches and grabs my hand. "C'mon." I was confused as to why he was holding my hand, but I was okay with it. He guides me over to where the bowling balls are, a wide variety of sizes, weights, and colors.
He lets go of my hand, reaching down to pick up a bowling ball. "Try this." He places it in my hands, and I struggle to keep the weight up. "Okay, not that one."
He laughs as he scoops it up from my arms. He chooses a pink bowling ball, placing it in my hands. I could actually handle the weight. He then shows me how to properly hold the bowling ball, which isn't all that difficult to understand. He picks up a bowling ball for himself, directing us to an open alleyway.
"Alright," he sighs, settling behind the little monitor to enter our names onto the screen above. "Do you want to go first?"
"Um...it doesn't really matter," I shrug, knowing that either way, it was going to be a disaster in the making.
"Okay," Scott stands up. "You're first." he shines me a smile with an awkward eyebrow wiggle. I go over to the bowling ball dispenser, grabbing my insanely pink bowling ball. I hold it the way Scott instructed me. I stand before the lane, glancing over my shoulder. What the hell am I doing?
"So...do I just....roll it down the alley?" I ask, shyly.
Scott laughs a little. "Yeah. Go for it!"
"Okay," I murmur to myself, "here goes nothing."
I swing my arm back messily, releasing it into the alley with what strength I had. It rolls slowly to the gutter, giving me a wave of disappointment. I look back at Scott, who's almost trying to keep his laughter inside. I could see it in his eyes the enjoyment he is experiencing.
"Hey!" I walk over to him, slapping his shoulder. "Don't laugh."
"I'm not laughing, am I?" he looks at me with an innocent look masked by his amusement.
"On the inside," I mumble.
Scott can't take it anymore. He bursts out laughing. "That was..." he wipes his brow. "That was something else."
"That was something terrible," I correct him as I take a seat on the bench.
"Yeah. No, no, no. Don't sit down. You have another try," Scott looks at me.
"Another try to fail miserably?" I look up at him.
"Here, I'll help you," he offers, picking up my bowling ball out of the dispenser. Against my better judgment, I stand up, walking over to where he stood before the lane. "It's all about the form and where you imagine the ball to go. If you imagine it to be in the gutter, it will end up in the gutter," he looks at me, handing me the bowling ball. I adjust it to the proper form, feeling his hands gently brush against my arms. He grabs ahold of my wrists, taking his hand around my waist. The feeling of his hands running along the bare and exposed skin of my waist sent chills down my spine.
Maybe it was a bad idea to wear this shirt...
I feel his breath whisper into my ear. "Just follow my lead. Take a few steps forward."
I do.
I feel his grasp tug my arm with the bowling ball back, forcing it forward in a straight motion. I watch the bowling ball released down the alley, heading quickly down to the pins. It strikes a total of four pins. I look at them in surprise.
"See," Scott releases his grip from me with a smile on his face.
"Damn," I breathe, walking back to the bench. I watch as Scott picks up his own bowling ball, heading up to the alleyway.
I was impressed at how he stood before the alley for a moment, taking a deep breath. He extends his arm back, revealing the muscle in his t-shirt. He walks forward in a quick motion, releasing the ball down the alley impressively. I watch as it strikes every pin. He got a strike! Scott fist pumps, turning to look back at me.
"Damn..." I breathe again, very impressed. "Okay, obviously this is a little unfair."
He merely laughs. "Your turn."
I laugh a little in embarassment, heading up to the bowling ball dispenser to grab my girly bowling ball. Scott is beside me, preparing to guide me through the steps again. I walk up to the alley, feeling his grasp go around my wrist yet again. The feeling when his hand ran down to my wrist sent the same chills down my spine. His hand brushed against my waist, but this time, he tugs me closer to him. I laugh a little as I glance at him, a smile on his face.
His eyes are directly upon mine, this look of enjoyment soaring through his eyes. I can't help feel this urge to press my lips to his. I feel his arms wrap around me, but my eyes go back to the alley. He guides my arm back, letting me release it down the lane. It got a total of five pins knocked down. Yay me!
"Better," Scott says.
"How about I try this by myself?" I ask, retrieving the ball from the dispenser.
"Yeah, go for it!" Scott says, gesturing me to the alley. Apart of me missed the feeling of Scott draping his arms around me, but I know that I should try this by myself...to see if I'm really bad or not.
I stop in the spot where Scott and I always started from. I look down the alleyway, watching as a heavy set man heads toward the alley. He releases the ball down with intenese speed, I would've thought that it break every pin. But no. He merely got a strike. I blink my eyes in amazement, looking down at my pins. Okay...just imagine them all knocked over. A strike!
I take a misguided step forward, throwing my arm back, then releasing it down the slick alley. The ball travels with some speed, crashing into three of the remaining pins knocked down. As I was about to turn around and look at Scott, a loud voice yells to him.
"Yo! Scott!" the voice echoes throughout the room. I turn over my shoulder, glancing at three guys jumping down the steps and rushing towards Scott.
"Hey!" Scott greets them with a stereotypical handshake...more or less a slap of the hand. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Stopping by like always," a guy states, fixing his hat so it is tilted up, revealing his chiseled face. Semi-long dark brown hair hung in his eyes, shadowing the brown hues of his irises. He smirks at me, showing me the lip ring that hung on his small pink lips. "Who's she?"
I shyly make my way over, looking at the other two guys that found their glance upon me. One slightly scared me. His chiseled face sculpted out his jaw, creating a hollow look to him. His green eyes pierced me as I walked over. He looked like he wanted to rip someone's head off. Gulp. The other guy was more or less out of it. His blonde hair was a disaster upon his head, his green/blue eyes were drowsy. I watched as he stumbled to keep his balance, leaning against a chair for support.
Who are these guys?
"This is Raine," Scott introduced me while I glanced upon the guys.
"Oh, so this is Adam's sister," the guy with the hat on.
"You mean the one that was kidnapped when she was five," the drowsy guy stepped in, glancing at me as if I was a road map.
Scott looked at me, a worried look on his face.
"I guess you could put it that way," I respond, brushing it off of my shoulder because I knew it was completely true. I wasn't about to loose my cool over a few true words.
"Raine, this is Sam," Scott gestures towards the guy with the cap on. He gives me a smirk filled with a nod. "This is Topher...he's a little drunk." Scott lands his hand on the drowsy guy's shoulder. He stumbles a bit, putting on a tired and interesting smile on his face. It was so pathetic that it kind of made me laugh. "And this is Cam." Scott looks over at the last guy, standing in the back of the little crowd. The angry facial expression was plainly visible.
"Who's winning?" Sam asks.
"Not me," I sigh.
"Scott's kicking your ass?" Topher asks, looking at the score board. Yeah, like he can comprehend half of the information on the monitor.
"A little bit," I respond, looking at Topher crashing into the seat that I was previously sitting in. He slouches in his seat, breathing as if he'd run a marathon. He flings his had back, laughing. "What's he laughing about?" I whisper to Scott.
"Anything and everything," he responds, laughing as well. I cock my eyebrow in thought, watching as Cam doesn't join Sam and Topher on the chair. He simply stays leaning against the counters a little ways away from all of us. His glance finds mine and chills soar up my spine. The guy creeps me out beyond belief.
My glance follows Scott who takes his turn at the alley. This just turned from a maybe "date" to a guy's night out. My luck.
"So...Raine?" I hear my name called behind me. "How's life treating you?"
I bite my lip, wishing I didn't have to answer a question that was so negative. "Um...I've definitely seen better days," I sigh taking a seat across from him. He leans forward.
"Definitely," he nods his head. "I mean...your mom lied to you for, what? Thirteen years maybe?"
Ouch. Yeah, I knew that was true, but I didn't know other people's words hurt so much to be actually heard. I cringed at the statement, simply nodding my head with a clenched jaw.
"You know what? Fuck her. Fuck everyone," he leans back in his chair, bouncing his legs. Yeah, he's definitely on something...and by that, I mean drugs.
"Right," I look at Scott as he retrieves his bowling ball to go for another try to knock down the last remaining pins. He doesn't look over, which disappoints me a bit. "So...you're Scott's friends?"
"Yeah."
"How long have you known each other?"
"A little while. He moved here not to long ago," Sam responds.
"And he told you about Adam's long lost little sister?" I ask.
"Yeah. Is that a problem?" Topher steps in, slurring his words as he spoke.
I shake my head. "Not if you want there to be a problem."
"Damn. Feisty, isn't she, Scott?" Sam turns his attention to Scott approaching us.
"Huh?" Scott wrinkles his forehead, confused. He takes a spot beside me, which only makes this a little more awkward.
Great...