Joneses – 9.5 Finally

Finally, the girl of his dreams wanted to spend time with him. It was unreal, and he didn’t want anyone pinching him. If it was a dream, he wanted to sleep for as long as he could. They arrived at Windenburg Arcade in Oasis Springs, and he strutted confidently through the door like he owned the place. For once in his life, everything was going his way. He was in his favorite place with his favorite girl. What could go wrong?

Shea was also impressed by the locale. She insisted it wasn’t a date and was hoping he wasn’t going to take her anywhere romantic. Although she wasn’t much of a gamer, she found the arcade to be the perfect place to hangout…as friends.

They walked past the bar, card tables, and Don’t Wake the Llama tables and stopped at the arcades. Without missing a beat, and without a word, he put money in the machine and began to set it up. Shea noticed how serious he was. That part of his personality was foreign to her, but she liked it. However, she didn’t go the arcade much and was unfamiliar with the game. She was hoping for some instructions.

“So, like, what do we do in this game?”

“When you play against me…” he started the game, “you DIE!”

His aircraft began unleashing a fury of fire power upon her aircraft.

“HEY! That’s not fair!”

He laughed maniacally.

She wasn’t going down without a fight. It took her about 30 seconds to learn which keys controlled the aircraft and which ones controlled the gun. When she was mildly confident with the controls, she fought back with a vengeance. Even though it was just beginner’s luck, she was not the first one to die.

“Is this what dying is supposed to look like? Ha ha ha!”

“UUUUGGGGHHHH!”

Lester tried to redeem himself for a few more rounds, but beginner’s luck reigned, and he stayed dead. When his pride couldn’t take anymore losses, he suggested a new activity and they headed to the bar. “You want a drink?”

“Nah. Too many wannabe bears in here.”

“Hey! I heard that,” said the bear behind her.

“See?”

“A walk then?” Lester suggested.

“That sounds good. People in bear suits give me the creeps.”

They went across the street and walked along the beach. Lester paused to check out the view. He had never been in that spot at that time before and thought it was incredible. “Dude! We should come here for all our dates.”

“Uhh, we’re not on a date.”

He was still feeling the confidence he felt when they first arrived and decided he needed to confront her and stop this nonchalant behavior. “What did you ask me out for? We haven’t seen in each in like three weeks, you don’t call, and then you show up to my house to ask me out? What am I supposed to think?”

“Ok, so like, first of all, I didn’t ask you out. I asked you to hangout. There’s a difference,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Oh puh-leeease. There’s no difference! You like me, don’t you?” His voice was two steps below what it usually was. He figured he’d try his sexy voice on for size.

“No!” She recoiled like she was trying to escape cooties.

“Whatever,” he said and walked away.

When she used to reject him in school, it didn’t phase him. He thought she was out of his league and just needed to be convinced. But now that they were finally hanging out, and he potentially could have what he always wanted, her two letter rejection hurt more than the sum of all the letters she ever put together to reject him throughout his lifetime.

She didn’t think he had the guts to walk away. “Lester, wait!” She ran after him. She always played hard to get, and in the past, that seemed to fuel his fire for her. But he was different now and was done taking it. “I didn’t mean it.”

He stopped. “You didn’t mean what?”

“I missed you, ok? There! I said it.”

He turned around with a sly look on his face. “Oh did you now? How interesting.” He turned around and kept walking.

“Lester! Come back!”

He only went to sit on a bench and reveled in her desperation. It felt good to get back at her–even better to know she was interested.

She joined him on the bench.

“You were saying?” he said.

She was exasperated. Talking about feelings and such wasn’t her thing. “Look… Can we just hangout and have fun without all the mushy, cheesy stuff? I mean, yeah, ok, I like you and you like me, but can we not…just…I just wanna hangout and let things happen without trying to label everything! So can you just stop with the pet names and the ‘date’ and ‘asking out’ stuff?”

Lester felt oddly accomplished. For a moment, he thought he had lost her again, but it looked like he would walk away with his kitten anyway. And, the “things” she wanted to “just happen” excited him very much. Perhaps Gunther was right about life’s mysteries. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Thank you.”

There was an appropriate silence before Lester attempted to push the envelope.

*yawn*

“Seriously, Lester? The oldest trick in the book?”

“What? I’m just so tired. And all this walking and standing…I just need a good stretch!

“But, I guess while I’m over here I may as well give you a little squeeze.”

She snorted. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Yeah, I heard it, buuuuut I changed my mind.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“Yeah. I might be.” He pulled away from her and looked deeply into her eyes. It was the strangest experience. He was sitting there with his arm around Shea Aldrich! He could feel her warm body and smell the floral scent of her shampoo. Yet, he wasn’t there. It was like he was watching himself from the outside. He felt like a different person and didn’t recognize himself at all. Who was this awkward but fly guy with the million dollar smile and twinkle in his eye? Where did he come from? Was he inside the whole time? Where was he weeks ago?

He took note of all the signs. She gave him grief about making a move, yet she didn’t budge. Her smiles were the most pleasant they had been all night. She batted her eyes slowly. They were giving him a message, and he happily received it. He leaned in a bit closer to let her know the message had been received.

She too leaned in a bit further to receive his reply. She had no idea who this new guy was and halfway expected him not to understand what the message meant. It seemed too easy, but she was pleased it was received so quickly. He had changed so much since they were in high school and wondered why couldn’t he have been that guy then. However, it didn’t matter. They were having a moment. No time for regrets.

As Lester was preparing to claim his prize for the evening and reply to her message, he suddenly felt present–like he was back inside his own body. He wasn’t sure where fly guy went or why he left, but he was definitely gone. Lester had no clue what he was doing and chickened out. The moment was gone.