Secret // Zach Herron

eleven

Like from stranger things^^ haha

The bowling ally was cold and loud, and was lit up by colorful lights. We all payed for our shoes and tickets to bowl.

Jack and Zach took forever to get the right size shoe. Zach ordered an 11 and Jack got 11 1/2, but they decided to wear one of each. I don't even know what to say about them anymore I've given up all hope of them ever acting normal.

On top of that all the boys came up with their own weird names to be projected on the score screen. They also gave Rita, Lexi, and me weird names, too.

Yay.

The names were as follows:
Daniel: Gap Tooth
Corbyn: Chev
Jack: Noodle
Zach: Zombly
Jonah: Hot One
Lexi: aggressive
Rita: Sane one
Holly: pickles

Zach obviously came up with my name. I'm not sure I could tell you why the boys' names are like they are. I'm still not in all the inside jokes.

I grab a light ball that I can use because I'm #weak, and I walk towards the others at the lane we rented.

"Are you ready to lose, Pickles?" Jonah asks while everyone else goes to find a ball. I haven't really talked to Jonah much since I've met him. He's a pretty quiet guy. A little mysterious. A lotta hot.

After really looking at these guys a lot, I've realized they're all extremely attractive with really good personalities. I mean Zach could work on his a little, but it's weird because he's the one I want to be around the most, even though I'd never say that out loud.

"Oh there's no way I don't lose. The last time I went bowling I only managed to hit 3 pins the whole game," I look around to make sure just Jonah heard that. If the others found that out, it would just be downhill from there.

He begins laughing. "Oh my God are you serious?"

"Yes I'm serious, but don't tell the others," I beg him until Zach and Corbyn walk over and ask what we're talking about. This is the ultimate trust test for Jonah. What he says could determine our friendship.

"It's none of y'alls concern," he states, but he looks over and laughs again. I don't even care that he's still laughing at me, because he didn't tell the others about it and he gained my trust. Plus I don't think I could bare it if Zach knew that. That's worse than his cramp problems.

"Everything is my concern when it comes to Holly, Jonah," Zack says matter of factly.

"Um, and what is that supposed to mean?" I ask, tilting my head, waiting for his response.

"Yeah, what does that mean, Zach?" Corbyn says. Him and Johan cross their arms and look at him too.

They all just stare at each other until Corbyn declares he was going to go talk to Lexi. After that, Jonah walks away, too, leaving Zach and me by ourselves. Zach fills the awkward void by putting his arm around me and walking us over to the bench.

"You like my name for you?" He asks.

"Shouldn't I be the one calling you Pickles? I mean I'm not the one that carries them around in my backpack." He moves his arm and stands directly in front of me, arms crossed.

"Yeah, but I needed a nickname for you," Zach defends himself.

"You're gonna have to come up with another one because from now on I'm calling YOU pickles," I'm nervous to see how this turns out, but also excited.

"Okay, how about I call you Princess and together we can be Pickles and Princess."

This makes me laugh out loud. He's so proud of it, too. His smile widens, which is absolutely adorable.

"Yeah and we can make a YouTube channel and call it Pickles and Princess too," I jokingly say, but I wouldn't mind if it actually became real.

"I'd actually love that, we should," he says before gasping really dramatically and saying, "Oh my Gosh our couple name would be Princkles!"

I stop breathing and just look at him.

"I took it too far didn't I?" He says a little concerned.

I punch him in the arm lightly and laugh.

"Yeah but it was kinda funny I guess," I say. When I turn around to walk towards the other boys, Zach catches up to me and puts his arm around my shoulders. I look at him again, but as soon as I do and I see that grin on his face I immediately turn pink and look away again.

After the first round, take a guess as to who was in last place. Me. Guess how many points I have. None. To make it better Zach is wining. He got a spare... of course. This is about to be a bad night. Every single person hit a pin but me. I'm so disappointed.

I keep trying for the next few rounds but every single one of my balls goes into the gutter. I'm utterly embarrassed. Every single person is laughing at me. Well surprisingly except for Zach. He comes over to me by the bench and sits next to me.

"Have you never bowled before?" He asks me, not laughing, not making fun, but genuinely asking.

"This is my third time bowling, and if you can't tell, I'm very bad at it," I reply and roll my eyes, even though I didn't want to be petty to him. I'm just embarrassed.

"Do you want me to help?" He nudges my shoulder playfully.

Duh.

I look at him with my famous puppy dog eyes. "Would you please?"

"With that face I can't resist," he pokes my cheek and gets up. God, why's he gotta do me like that using all this flirty little stuff, but we're also like mean to each other, and I'm just so confused.

He offers his hand to me and pulls me up out of the chair. Since it's his turn to bowl, he demands that I watch his demonstration. He hits 7 pins, which is way better than I will ever get. I don't go for 2 more turns so he takes the time showing me how to hold and throw the ball. Yeah I've been doing this completely wrong my whole life.

"I feel it, Princess, you're gonna hit them this time," Zach says as he sends me off on my own for my dreadful journey. I look back at him one more time, and he holds a thumbs up for me.

The first one guttered, but the good news is, the second ball didn't roll straight to the gutter. As I watched the ball draw nearer and nearer to the pins I began gnawing on my fingernails.

4 pins.

Oh my God it hit 4 pins. I immediately start jumping up and down and turn to see everyone's reaction. What I didn't know is that Zach was coming up to congratulate me and I ran smack into him. After awkwardly looking into his eyes for a few seconds, something that happens way too often, I decided to wrap my arms around his torso and hug him. His arms made their way around my shoulders, and I was engulfed with warmth. For a few seconds it felt like the world has slowed down and it was just the two of us, but then Jonah ran up to us and reminded me that we weren't alone.

"You beat your record!" Jonah said, giving me a side hug. As I made my walk of glory past everyone, I got so many congratulations. In a way I felt super stupid because I only hit four pins, but I felt accepted. I know that they never mean any harm when they're picking with me, and it's only because they're friends with me, but them cheering me on makes me feel so amazing and so supported by all of them. I look over a Zach, and he is looking right back at me grinning from ear to ear. I have this boy to thank for my amazing bowling skills, and my friendship with these boys.

When I got home that night, I opened Instagram on my phone and finally decided to follow the boys.