I love you, Ian Somerhalder

Twenty Five

The car ride to the laser tag arena was longer than it should've been. It took around forty minutes of loud, terrible singing and traffic before we finally reached it. We all hurried inside and up to the receptionist.

"Hi there! group of six for laser tag."Ian stated to the receptionist.

Without looking up, she replied "Yes, you'll have to wait because the last group only just went in-" she looked up halfway through and stared in shock.

"Y-you're Ian Somerhalder!" she gasped, "and you! You're Paul and Kat and Candice!" 

Jesus, this girl had a worse fan girl mode than Amy!

Everyone just smiled, clearly used to this by now. They went through the usual procedures. Take pictures. Sign t-shirts. Hug. Like her Instagram pictures. Etc etc.

It took at least another twenty minutes before she finished fan girling.

"So, uh, when is the next session?" Paul asked.

"Oh! Oops, I got sidetracked." she replied, scurrying back to her computer. She quickly checked the timetable. "There's an opening right now. Just go through that door and turn to the right."

"Thank you so much." Paul smiled and led the way. We ended up in a small room with benches around the edges and a set of laser guns set up on a table. A young man walked in, carrying a box of red vests and placing them down on the table.

"My name is Peter. I am your instructor today. You will do exactly what I say when I say it and by no means will you disobey me! Am I clear?" 

Peter was terrifying! He had shoulder length black hair, MASSIVE muscles and his face was formed into a grim frown. He looked each of us up and down before repeating himself.

"AM I CLEAR?" he boomed. 

All of us nodded in unison, petrified of this man. I scooted closer to Ian and he squeezed my hand in reassurance.

Peter scanned our faces with his dark eyes one last time before bursting into laughter.

"I- get people- all the- time- with that!" he gasped between laughter.

In shock, I stared at him. Ian started laughing. As did I. Everyone seemed to be in fits of laughter when he signaled for us to calm down.

"Okay, okay. All of those rules still apply. But I want you to know that this is all about fun and I'm not really that scary." he chuckled, before continuing, "you are the red team. There are blue, yellow and green teams all entering from separate corners of the arena. Your job is to shoot as many people as you can in thirty minutes. Everyone starts with two hundred points. Every time you get hit, you lose five points. The colored vests are the targets. The aim is to be the team with the most remaining points by the end."

Everyone grinned and got suited up. We agreed on a game plan which was to split off into pairs and hide. If someone found us, we'd shoot the heck out of them and run to find another hiding spot. This was mainly so that the other teams would shoot each other and they wouldn't shoot us because we were hidden. 

When we were all ready, a countdown appeared on a screen above the door. As it reached zero, Peter flung open the door and we rushed into the arena. I ran to the left with Ian, Amy to the right with Paul and Kat went straight ahead with Candice. As I followed Ian through the corridors I took a look around me. The arena was dark with flashing, strobe lights everywhere. There were barrels and crates to hide behind but the walls were the main hiding strategies. Anything white was illuminated brightly by the lights. Luckily for me, I only had white socks. Ian, however, was wearing a white t-shirt and trainers. Hopefully we'd be able to conceal it while hiding though. 

Eventually, we found a spot with a large crate and several barrels scattered about.

"Come on." Ian said, heading towards them. He began forming a wall, around the crate, with the barrels. I hurried forwards to help but he told me to keep lookout so I went to peak around the corner. No one came and Ian and I crouched behind the crate, both of our bodies thoroughly hidden by the barrels surrounding us. Ian had left space for our guns to shoot through. It was quiet for a few minutes but soon a boy turned the corner. Unlucky for him he had very bleached hair so it lit up in the lighting, only heightening our already high advantage. He looked around sixteen, maybe slightly younger. I felt slightly bad as I aimed my laser at his chest. The emotion didn't last long though, as I fired my weapon, causing his point count to lower massively. He couldn't see me, so made no attempt to fire back. It was extremely satisfying. He just ran back in the opposite direction, probably to find his friends.

Ian chuckled and high-fived me. "Well done." he remarked.

I smirked and kissed his cheek.

"I know."

"Wow, you're so modest." he said, sarcastically.

I giggled and pecked his lips. "Always."

"We should find a new hiding spot now." he said.

I sighed. "I know."