Family

Ten-pin Bowling

Ali's pov

"Two, sized two and a half, an eight and an eight and a half" I smile at the employee as I tell them our shoe sizes

"Lily you will look stunning in these" Grace giggles, standing on her tiptoes and grabbing onto their bowling shoes

"Shut up" Lily complains, snatching them off Grace and handing me her small black converse

"Here Em" I smile, handing her the sized 8 1/2 shoes

Our shoes are nicer than Lily and Grace's blue and red velcro shoes; and by nicer I mean that they are completely black with bright yellow laces which could be seen from the moon. Lily and Grace laugh as our laces glow in the darkness of the bowling alley

"What size of shoe is Emerson?" Grace asks

"Oh, Emerson can't wear shoes yet"

"But he had shoes on this morning when Nana picked him up?" Lily questions

"They aren't proper shoes, they are just socks that look like shoes for...decoration" I explain

"Do you want the bumpers?"

"No Mom, we are nine not three" Grace blushes with embarrassment

"Girls use the bumpers. Mommy used bumpers until she was twenty" I laugh, remembering the time that we went bowling for Celeb's Birthday and Emily used the bumpers- not surprisingly she won the game

Emily keys our names into the iPad before they are projected onto the screen that hovers over the alley. I'm up first. I rummage through the balls trying to find the perfect weight; picking up a bright yellow ball which matches my shoelaces, I throw it down the alley knocking down two pins

"Better luck next time" Emily sniggers

I look over to Lily and Grace making sure they are not looking before giving her the middle finger and picking up my ball again. This time I knock down 8 pins giving me a spare on my first turn, I balance on my heels as I twist around to stick my tongue out at Emily.

"Gray it's your turn" Emily smiles, standing up to help find the lightest ball we can

Hitting the bumpers the whole way down Grace's ball collides into 7 pins, on her second shot the ball rolls right down the middle hitting nothing. Lily uses the same ball as Grace however, her's bounces off the bumpers slightly less and she ends up getting a strike.

Emily's pov

We have all bowled 4 times and only Lily has gotten a strike. Alison is sitting across from me, her black leather jacket thrown into the corner like a crumpled piece of paper. Her silky blonde hair stands out from her red t-shirt which has a small stitched rose on it's pocket. Her blue eyes look away from me and the corners of her lips twitch into a smile as she watched our daughters bowl. The lights of the ten-pin bowling alley shine across her face; the colors deepening as the lights skim across the dimple in her chin. My eyes fix onto Alison's deep red lips desperate to kiss them, my vision goes blurry from not blinking before they refocus on Alison's lips. Suddenly her lips begin to move and I am snapped out my daze by Alison shouting my name

"Emily! Em it's your turn"

My cheeks turn bright red and I stumble to my feet pretending I wasn't staring at her. I shuffle over to the balls trying not to collapse into my self like a love sick teenager. I am too busy worrying that Alison realised I was staring to look for my ball and instead grab the first one I see; my fingers almost get stuck inside the small pink ball that Lily and Grace were using as it falls onto the alley and rolls straight into the gutter

"Fuck" I mutter under my breath

My embarrassment increases as I hear my three blondes giggle at me

"What happened there?" Alison laughs while stroking my arm

"I picked up the wrong ball" I admit before running to the booth and taking a large drink of my Diet Coke in hope that Alison won't ask any more questions

As my cheeks become cold again and return to my normal skin tone, I continue to look at Alison and realise just how stupid it was of me to become that embarrassed. I am not a 15 year old girl who was caught staring at her crush, I am a 30 year old woman who was admiring her wife's beauty; however despite having three children with her I still blush whenever our eyes meet and butterflies still appear in my stomach whenever our hands touch. Despite now being in a serious relationship with Alison for almost 10 years, I still feel the same as I did when we kissed in the library.

Ali's pov

I pick up the yellow bowling ball and throw it down the alley. Instead of watching my ball I look around to Emily as the blushing embarrassment melts off her face and her eyes revert back to me, there is a misty glaze over her eyes as she is so deep in thought that she doesn't even notice that I'm staring back. My eyes are snapped off Emily by the cheers of my daughters

"Mom you got a strike" Grace sings

"Really?"  I ask with excitement, turning back around to see the words 'strike' dance around the screen

Emily smiles at me before bouncing out the booth and wrapping her arms around me. I hug Emily back for as long as I can- before it becomes more than a celebratory hug.

"Last shot" Lily smiles as Grace places her ball onto the black ramp that is used to help children

Once the game has finished the computer counts up the total scores; I win followed by Lily, Emily and then Grace. Grace is upset yet polite about her loss so in order to cheer her up we take the girls to get ice-cream. I wrap my arm around Lily as Grace walks hand in hand with Emily, my eyes shift from the car park ahead of me to Emily's hand which simultaneously swings near mine, I splay my fingers out until they stroke against the back of her hand. The sense of my touch forces Emily's eyes down to her hand, she looks back up to me with a sweet grin before weaving her fingers between mine and returning to her conversation with Grace.

We arrive at the car and Emily slides her hand out of mine, maintain her grip of Grace's hand. Lily ducks out from under my arm and wraps her hand around the door handle waiting for Em to unlock the car.

We end the perfect family day by picking Emerson up at Pam's and watching 'Snow White' together as Emerson's light blue eyes bounce around the screen in an attempt to watch the colorful animals on the screen.

Today is the last day of my marathon. I hope you guys have enjoyed the chapters. (12th June 2018)
The next chapter will be on Thursday and then I will be back to my usual uploads of every Tuesday and Thursday xx