Chapter 9: The Arcade

We said our good-byes and I walked home a little giddy that evening. The week went about as uneventfully as I expected it to. The exams were long and tedious and made me want to give up on school entirely but I knew my parents would have something to say about that if I didn’t at least try. So, I tried.

Eventually the week, and my exams, had ended but I was still more-than-just-a-little bit nervous about the date I’d spontaneously set up with Sam. Life at home was starting to become more routine. Naturite was gone so Wendy assumed he’d gone home, wherever that was. Danny and I started going for jogs in the mornings when it was cooler, then we played video-games and watched movies in the daytime. Sometimes at sunset I’d carry Wendy to the roof and we’d watch the sunset while eating ice cream.

Samantha and I texted a lot over that week, deciding which movie we were going to watch, the cost of the movie and the time we were going to see it, among other things. Sam was a big fan of emojis and was just a little more sassy when on the phone than in person. I really enjoyed talking to her late at night and, of course, waking up to jog with Danny the next day was always a struggle because of that, but it seemed worth it to me. It was subconscious at first but I found myself actively trying to make her laugh or, at the very least, smile.

Eventually, Saturday, the day we’d picked to go, came around and we met each other at the bus stop to head over to the theater. She was wearing a lovely flowered sundress with a golden bracelet around her wrist and brown sandals with the straps that went up to the knees. I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans because I hadn’t really gone shopping for any new clothes at that time. We talked for a little bit while waiting for the bus to arrive and I could still hear Danny’s well-wishes echoing in my mind. We mostly talked about our favourite kinds of music and we both really enjoyed jazz music because of how soothing it was. Apparently what got her interested in jazz in the first place was waking up to a podcast by jazz musicians, when she’d fallen asleep with her earphones in.

The bus came and she grabbed my hand and led me toward the bus, where I paid for the both of us. She sat and patted the seat beside her, the window seat. In all the time I’d known Samantha, she always took the window seat, but here she was offering it to me. I gave her a smile and took the seat beside her. The bus was more empty than I was anticipating so it reduced the pressure of being looked at by random strangers. Though it didn’t get any better because of the simple fact that I didn’t know what to talk about and I also didn’t have the strength to speak. Samantha was scrolling through her phone, looking for music it seemed and her hand was on the chair. I noticed her white and green polished nails and took a little time to admire them. Before long I realized I was staring and averted my eyes toward the window. I could see the trees and buildings and people passing by us and I could feel a soft wind blowing into my face and through my hair, but I hardly paid attention to those details. I placed my hand in the space between my leg and her hand and I checked the corner of my eye to see if she had any sort of reaction, which she didn’t, until her pinky finger touched mine.

I hadn’t expected it, so that feeling sent shockwaves through my entire body. I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept my gaze focused on the outside of the window. I didn’t think about it very hard because I would've probably pulled my hand away if I started over-thinking. I moved my hand further onto hers and I could feel her flinch when I did, but she didn’t look away from the phone. Then, like magnets, our hands latched onto each other but we still didn’t look in the other’s direction. We just sat there, holding hands. Sam put her phone down after a little bit, still gripping my hand tightly, and put one of her earphones in my ear. The fancy-sounding saxophone and the underlying piano music calmed my nerves even though we didn’t say anything for the rest of the ride.

Eventually, we got to the area of Chudence that the theater was in. It was the premier of “The Archive of Broken Worlds” and we’d wanted to see it ever since the trailer had been recommended to us. Apparently the movie follows a time traveller who travels back in time with an interdimensional traveller to attempt to create a nearly full explanation of the universe and its origin, but they get split up through time and space and have to use their powers to find out where the other is before the universe collapses in on itself. It was a sci-fi romance movie and, since I liked sci-fi and Sam liked romance, we thought it would be a really good movie to watch. However, it seemed as if it wasn’t meant to be because there was hardly anyone else at the theater, which was fair because it was closed.

Sam walked up to one of the people standing by the locked door, pulling me along with her, and asked him what had happened. The young looking dude was about to light his cigarette before pausing to answer her question. He said the theater was closed for the next couple of weeks because of a fire that broke out in the kitchen. I was a little concerned with why he knew so much about the incident but I noticed that under the hoodie he was wearing was an employee shirt for the Starlight Theater, so it made a lot more sense.

Sam and I were devastated. We sat on the stairs of the building and I’d noticed Sam pouting a little bit.

“I guess we should do something else today?” I offered. “I mean, we came all this way right?”

She sighed and nodded. There was a map on the theater wall, so I led her to it. We stared at it for a few minutes looking for somewhere that was close enough for us to wait for the evening bus to take us back home, but also a place that had stuff to do so we wouldn’t be sitting awkwardly beside each other for a couple of hours.

“Hey Sam,” I turned toward her. “How do you feel about games?”

She raised her eyebrow. “Games? I guess it depends on the type of game, or as long as it’s fun? I don’t know.”

“Ah alright then, how do you feel about going to this arcade then?”

She seemed to be contemplating it for a second so I egged her on.

“It could be a lot of fun and we could kill a lot of time there,” I pleaded.

She conceded, “Alright, alright. We’ll go.”

She punched me on the arm before grabbing my hand and heading off toward the arcade.

It had been a while since I’d been to the arcade with anyone so I was a little excited. When we got inside the place was dark and the lights from the games felt like neon rays shining into our faces, advertising themselves to us. Sam seemed fascinated, saying “I can’t believe I’ve never been here before” under her breath as she walked past the games.

“Which one do you wanna play first?” I asked.

She took a little while to contemplate, “That motorcycle one looks really cool, but so does that little fighting one over there.”

“We could play both,” I offered.

She gave me a brighter smile than all the lights combined and pulled me to the motorcycling game. She asked me how to play and I reminded her of the tokens we’d bought when we got inside and pointed to the little opening labeled “token.”

After a while we played a few matches and, even though she didn't win a single time, she seemed to enjoy herself. We walked around the arcade, listening to the sounds of people agonizing over their losses and celebrating their wins. The smell of various junk food items filled the room and helped us realize how hungry we were. We approached the sidebar and I ordered burgers, fries and sodas for us.

I noticed Sam poking around with her fries and I asked her if she didn’t like the food here, since I didn’t even ask what she wanted.

“No, no. It’s just...” She pouted. “Am I a bother to you?”

I asked what she meant by that and she explained further.

“Well I’m not good at any of the games we played and, I don't know,” She knocked over a fry with the one in her hand. “Maybe it’s not as fun for you when you don’t have a challenge?”

I didn’t really know how to respond. Just saying that I was having fun because she was having fun would feel like I was only saying it to make her feel better. Without thinking about it too hard, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close to me.

“Sam,” I said with a sigh. “I’m having more fun playing these games with you than I would be playing by myself, if that makes sense.”

She ate the fry and hugged me back for a second, “I guess I was overthinking it, huh.”

“A little bit yeah,” I patted her hair.

“We’re almost out of tokens though,” She looked up at me. “Do we buy more or do we have to leave now?”

I brought her over to the air hockey table and added my last token into the slot.

“We’ll have a best of three,” I smiled at her.

“So whoever wins two then?” She picked up the handle.

“Exactly,” I said as the table lit up and started humming.

I let her start and she shot straight toward my goal but that was predictable so I shot it at an angle so it bounced twice before entering her goal. She started to look moody again for a second but bit her lip and took the puck from its holding area and retaliated with a shot of her own.

We got tied up at one win each and Samantha had a certain determination in her eyes that made me scared that I could actually lose that set. She’d scored another shot on me and whoever won the next interaction would win the set. While I wasn’t particularly nervous, I could hear her heartbeat from across the table. She wanted to win more than anything and I didn’t know how I could tell. I had the puck on my side so I shot it in the same double-bounce angle as the first game but she reacted and sent it back to me with confidence. I sent it in a straight line back to her goal but she reacted again at speeds Daniel would probably be jealous of. At this point I began to get the butterflies in my stomach. I sent the puck back with a single-bounce and she barely got it away but I over-extended my arm and the puck bounced on the side of my hand and into my own goal.

I laughed out loud and Samantha looked at me with a puzzled look on her face.

“Congrats Sam,” I smiled at her warmly. “You beat me at my own game.”