“Eyes on the prize,” my boyfriend instructed.
“There are prizes?” Bowling just got even better.
“I’ll get you a prize afterward,” Luke promised. Yay! “Focus,” he ordered a moment later, knowing prizes were dancing around behind my eyes. “Don’t let your guard down, they could strike at any moment.”
“What? I can’t even get a strike yet.” I glared at Alicia and Lydia.
“No, strike as in make their move, action,” he clarified. He did a karate chop for effect.
“Actually, we’ve agreed on a decidedlackof action,” Lydia clarified even more with a little smirk while Alicia nodded. Because asexual and action and Alicia and maybe other A words. Maybe not.
“Good one,” I acknowledged while holding my fist towards Luke’s spiritual sister for a fist-bump. We were doing sports. We were bros. This felt like the time for fist-bumping.
Luke swatted my hand away. “Hey, that’s the enemy!” Man, he was into this. I wanted to jump on him.
“Gotta give credit where credits due,” I told him. I deserved so many prizes for not jumping on him. Prizes I gotin additionto the prizes for winning.
“Come on,” Luke said, getting his face closer to my face and looking to my eyes. My prize count? So went up for not joining our mouths together. “Game face.”
As tempted as I was to make a silly face, I had a taste for victory and we couldn’t stop now. I made a game face, which still might have been silly, but it was the face Luke had asked for.
“More,” he instructed.
My face went more scowly. “Let’s do this.” I nodded while adding the appropriate amount of rawr into my voice.
“What are you going to do?” His eyes blazed with fierceness. He was a commander, readying his troops for war.
“Knock down all the pins!” And not knock myself down in the process! Hopefully! “Beat the girls!” But not physically, because that would be wrong!
“Yeah, more,” Luke encouraged. “What else?”
“We’re gonna destroy them and eat their bones!” I’m Ryan, hear me roar.
“Too much,” Luke said. “Love the energy but dial it back.”
I raised the fist not holding the ball in the air, looked towards the pins I was going to murder—pins were better for murdering than humans because of laws and stuff—and gave my best war cry. “Wooo!” I ignored how girly that war cry was.
Luke nodded, smacked me on the ass, and sent me off to war. Bowling.
I marched up, squared my shoulders, let the ball fly and—
I knocked them all down.
I hit all the pins! On the first try! I did the thing! Strike! I punched my fist out in front of me, like I was going to strike. No, that was what it was called. That was the first strike I had ever bowled because this was the first time I had ever bowled.
I stood there looking at the pins, wondering if they were going to pop up and say just kidding.
Luke Chambers screamed in the background. Hollering for me. Excited for me. “YAY, RYAN, YOU DID IT!”
I turned around in a daze and there he was, jumping out of his seat. Face alit with excitement and caught up in the moment. He was beautiful. Always was, but now he was beautiful for me, because I did the thing.
“MY BOYFRIEND GOT A STRIKE!” He hollered and Lydia snickered. “CRAP,” he yelled a moment later. “SHOULD I HAVE YELLED THAT?” Did he know he was still yelling? “OH WELL, WOOHOOO. GO RYAN!”
I went. Flinging myself into Luke and he was there and ready to catch me and we jumped up and down together, celebrating like lunatics, big grins on both our faces.
When I saw Lydia, she rolled her eyes, so that was great too, but it looked like Alicia was fighting a grin. Aww, my bestie was proud of me even though the cruel world separated us and we were on different sides. Except then Alicia nudged her girlfriend and Lydia smiled. Wait, what?
For someone who rarely smiled anyway, this really didn’t seem like the time for it. The girls saw me looking. Alicia went back to looking all defeated and pissed just like she should, but she was an actress. Lydia couldn’t pull off the transition as seamlessly.
