Maple (in the last chapter) ^
Misty and Rhett.
I crossed off the names on my list I had. There were still several people I needed to pair together. And I still have to see to it that the couples I choose get together. I would have to work my magic at the party tomorrow. It was already after school on Friday. I was meeting Ian later for laser tag. I dressed myself in black (so I could blend in as much as possible) and headed out to the Game Center we would be using.
"Laser tag, laser tag, laser tag!" I chanted as Ian approached when he finally showed up. "Come on, come on! Let's gooo," I dragged out. Could one say that I was excited? Maybe just a little.
He laughed, a brilliant smile lighting his face. Wait, what? Stop it, I demanded myself.
"Stop what?" Ian asked. "You're the one being crazy." Ut oh.
"Did I say that out loud?" He just nodded with a slightly amused look on his face. "Oh."
"Well let's go, Miss Hyperactive. We can play as many times as you want, let's smash some people." I cheered as we burst into the building. After a debrief by the staff, they finally let us get into gear. Ian and I were both on the green team. There were three other girls with us, and four boys on a red team. A small group of adults were adorned in yellow, and what looked to be middle schoolers made up the blue team.
"Be safe, and complete the missions!" the peppy worker encouraged as the different groups surged forward into the dark room containing a maze of sorts. There was an upstairs area, but the access platforms were completely uncovered. I would need back up to stay un-hit.
Turning to Ian, I pulled him with me away to a hidden corner. "Okay, I want you to stay with me. Alliance?" I held out my hand. He shook it. "I've seen your shot for paint ball, I hope your lasers are just as good. Let's kick some red, yellow and blue butt!" He nodded in agreement and we began our stalk around the perimeter. I wasn't sure how good we were compared to other scores, but very seldom did either of us get hit, what with the watching each other's backs. We went up to the lofty part twice and hit the jack pot the second time with unsuspecting middle schoolers.
By the time we were walking out back to the lobby, we were both laughing. "Let's see who got the highest score," he suggested. We walked over to the tv with the leaderboard. "What was your name on the gun?"
"Falcon," I answered. My eyes grew wide.
"You're at the top! You won that, Thera," he said, holding his hand up for a high five. I gave him one enthusiastically, then jumped into a hug. When I let go, I felt myself blush for probably the first time ever.
"I–I'm sorry, I was just super excited," I stuttered, trying to explain what happened.
"Hey," Ian said placing a hand on my shoulder, "don't worry about it. You did great in there."
"Can we go again?" This was going to be one of my new favorite things to do. Laser tag is so much fun! So that's where we stayed until dinner time, competing against any new people that entered and even some redos for another chance at them to win. (Spoilers: they didn't.)
When we left, we ended up just getting drive-through, not caring that it probably wasn't that healthy for us. Things were becoming more natural between us again, and little details didn't matter as much anymore.
•~•
It was around noon on Saturday when the doorbell rang. My mom, per usual, rushed to the front of the house. "Oh you're so cute! We've met before right? Please, come in dear."
That's odd. Who would my mom be calling cute? I shuddered at the thought. I crept into our kitchen to see none other than Rye, sitting at the counter and having a conversation with my mom.
"What are you doing here?" I blurted before thinking. He turned towards me.
"Can't a guy visit his friend's mother? Is that weird?" I was flabbergasted. He was here to see mom?
"Wha–?" was all that left my mouth.
"Good one, Rye. I've been trying to get her to stop talking for years," mom chuckled.
He gave a friendly punch to my arm. "You goof," he teased. "I'm here to see if you wanted to hang out today before the party for the Stage Three."
I squinted my eyes. "Where would we be going?" He shrugged.
"My house. Or we could stay here. Either way." Looking over at my mom, I could see that though her back was mostly turned to the food she was making, she was still smirking.
"What's so funny, ma?" I asked with an accusing tone. I didn't like it when she smirked, it usually meant bad things.
She feigned innocence when he looked over, saying "Oh, nothing dear," and a few other things that I didn't actually believe.
"Your house?" I whispered. "Or we'll have to go to my room if we stay."
"Oo, your room? That's a bit fast, don't ya think?" I slapped his arm as he laughed.
"Not like that, doofus," I hissed, "it's just to get away from prying ears." I tilted my head towards mom, hoping he would get the message. His eyes widened slightly in recognition as he nodded.
"Your room?" he asked standing up. As he made his way towards the stairs, something pulled me back.
"I have ears, Thera," my mother told me.
"Really? You better get that checked out, that's quite the anomaly—" Mom's glare stopped me. "Would we really do anything up there mom? Do you even know who you're talking to?"
"Oh, that's not what I'm talking about," she waved her spatula as she spoke. "I just wanted you to know that even whispering doesn't help when the person is three feet away from you. As you were."
She is so weird, I thought. Here I was thinking that I was going to be in trouble for suggesting that Rye come into my bedroom, and she just didn't like the fact that I attempted to whisper. Shaking my head, I headed to the stairs. Rye was waiting at the bottom of them, presumably so I could show him the correct way.
"Right this way sir," I announced like a tour guide.
"Ah, very well madam. Yes, thank you." We both sat down on top of my bed. He had tried to sit on the floor, but I insisted he moved up here. There was no reason we wouldn't keep it 'professional', for lack of a better term.
"So what did you want to do?" My question was directed towards him. He did, after all, insinuate this whole thing by showing up at my front door.
"Talk I guess," was Rye's reply. "I kind of liked when we did that at my house."
"Wanna play a card game too?" In a closet somewhere we had all kinda of things like Skip-Bo, Phase Ten and Rummikub. We tried out different games until we found ourselves just sitting there on my bed together, the topic switching over to The Boyfriend Games.
"Any expectations on how you want things to end?" I leaned into his side briefly before sitting back up.
"A few, maybe," I replied with a small half smile. Just a few.
YOU ARE READING
The Boyfriend Games {Complete | Book One}
Humor"You signed me up for what?" I shrieked at her. My best friend, who had volunteered me to test a new game that she wanted to make videos out of. A game that took ten girls and ten guys and forced them to become a couple. But the guys had to go aroun...
