When I finally choose to look at my texts, I only see one from Vinny that was sent while I was at the aquarium and two from the person who birthed me.
Mother
We need to talk.
Why aren’t you responding? You better not be at the pathetic excuse for a sea tank.
There’s not enough time in the world for me to reach back to Teresa Shentu. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t even be here. With her, the bad always outweighs the good.
Vinny pats my shoulder. “You okay? You seem tense.”
His question brings me back to the reality of fried food, loud music, and even louder families. We had arrived at Bowl Star about ten minutes ago, and we’ve been waiting for the girls since then.
Bowl Star is in a somewhat sketchy part of Los Angeles, but they have discounts on Fridays. Being the broke college students that we are, it seemed better than just going to the mall. The place is pretty retro, as far as bowling alleys go. The rugs are a deep gray with neon, zig-zag stripes that cut off as soon as you reach the small staircase leading to the lanes, and maple wood flooring.
Flooring that I’m fixating on at the moment.
“Where are the girls?” I ask, trying to take my mind off my messed-up family.
“They needed to make a stop on the way over, so they’ll be here in about a minute.”
By minute, he must mean about ten nanoseconds because as soon as Vinny’s done talking, we spot the girls entering the building, searching for the lane. Carly finds us first, and she nudges Ali, grabbing her attention to our lane. They both wave.
Carly makes her way over first, with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder, while Ali heads over to the desk for bowling shoes.
“Sorry, we’re late, guys,” Carly apologizes with a soft smile on her face as she sits down on the couch. Film-affiliated or not, I can’t argue about how bright her smile is. I can almost argue it’s contagious. Almost, because you don’t see me smiling along.
“Did you bring your stuff, Carly?” Vinny chuckles.
If Carly’s embarrassed, she doesn’t show it. “Can’t let it go to waste,Vinny.”
A small smile breaks through, knowing that I’m not the only one who uses that nickname to annoy him.
“Laugh all you want, now,” she continues. “But, sure enough, you’ll be crying when I win the whole thing.”
He scoffs, game face on and ready for more smack-talk. “Possible, but not probable, Ryder. Crew could easily kick your ass.”
Why did I, of my own volition, surround myself with extremely competitive people? Sure, put me in the spotlight—who cares if I hate it?
She glances at me with a challenging gleam in her bright blue eyes. “I’d like to see you try.”
Ali takes the steps down and plops herself on the couch next to Carly and switches her shoes out. “You guys ready? What are the stakes for this game?”
I shrug. “Loser has to pay for drinks?”
Everyone agrees. Once all of us except for Carly choose our bowling balls—she brought her own, which explains the dufflebag—we input our names into the system, and Vinny goes first. He misses a few pins the first time, but manages to hit two more the second time.
Ali’s next, and she doesn’t hit any of them in the first frame but does pretty well in the second.
Carly heads up before me, and her turn catches me by surprise. I watch her throw the orange bowling ball almost directly near the gutter, but before it can fall, it curves away and knocks down all ten pins.
Maybe I underestimated that smack talk from earlier—she will easily kick our asses. There’s no way she’s paying for drinks tonight.
Finally, it’s my turn. I grab the bright blue bowling ball that I picked as Carly still stands by the lane, watching the machinery reset for my turn. Once it’s ready, I throw the ball onto the lane, watching it roll at a high speed and hit eight pins in the first frame.
“Impressive,” she hums. “Looks like I’ll have my work cut out for me.”
I grab my ball from the conveyor and try to focus on the lane ahead, but I turn back around to glance at the happy couple before turning back as quickly as I can, hoping Carly doesn’t notice because I plan to take this secret to my grave. “I aim to win.”
