One Step at a Time

As Jake and Will entered the building they were immediately greeted by the loud noises and bright lights of the bowling alley. Something that wouldn’t help Jake’s impending headache, but he could live through it. It was bowling after all and half of that involves sitting he thought. He could just rest his eye between turns. Looking over at Will it seemed that he was slightly distracted as if this was his first time here and the concept was foreign to him.

Being slightly taller than Jake he had to look up a bit to catch his expressions, watching his jet-black hair flip around in front of his eyes until they fixed on something and he gave a small grin. Jake tried to follow his gaze, but couldn’t pick out what he was looking at, only a large mess of people on the other end of the alley.

Jake opened his mouth about to ask when Will interrupted his thought with an answer. “There they are.”

“There they are who?” Jake asked giving him a suspicious look.

“Our dates.” He replied ecstatically.

Suddenly everything came together at once, though too late for Jake. “Oh my God… this is a fix up! Damn it, why didn’t you tell me on the phone?” He scolded.

“Because you wouldn’t have come. Besides, you need this. You haven’t been out with anyone since high school.” He said, looking over to the same place as before.

Jake looked over again, but still couldn’t find where Will was staring. “Bowling.” He muttered. “I should have known that was a load of bull. When do you ever go bowling?”

Finally he spotted who he assumed Will was looking at, two girls sitting on a bench against the wall by the opposite entrance. One of them had curly red hair that fell below her shoulders and wore faded jeans with a blue top. The other had hair as dark as Will’s that went past the shoulders as well and was wearing a long black skirt with a denim jacket. He couldn’t guess which one was ‘his,’ however.

“Come on, I don’t think they noticed us. Let’s see if we can surprise them.” Will suggested as he started off for the other end. Surprised is right if they pulled the same stunt Will did, Jake thought as he followed along side him reluctantly.

***
“Oh, there they are.” Heather said as she stood up. Liz was still sitting with her legs and arms crossed, wondering how she got dragged into this situation yet again. She hesitated for a moment before standing up as well and focusing on where Heather was pointing. “The one on the right with the black hair is Will. He’s the one I told you I met at the record store. The other is his friend, Jake, your future lover.” This earned her a small jab in the side.

“Don’t you ever think of anything other than getting me laid?” She asked with a whine.

“Of course. I think of me getting laid too.” Heather replied with a smirk. This drew a small laugh that untied a bit of the knot in Liz’s stomach. “Anyway, I don’t know much about him other than that he doesn’t date much either.”

“You probably hooked me up with a serial killer.” Liz joked. “If we end up dead tonight I’m going to kill you.”

When the guys got a little closer Liz was able to get a better look at them. Will was wearing a blue button up shirt, awkwardly similar to Heather, tucked into a pair of black pants. Jake, however, wasn’t fixed up as nicely. He had short, messy brown hair and was unshaven, wearing dark green cargo pants with a tan jacket over a gray t-shirt. Still, he didn’t look like a complete lost cause she thought to herself.

Finally, or unfortunately, they met up with each other. Will was the first one to step forward and greeted Heather with a short hug, leaving Jake with his answer of who his date was tonight. “Well, here we are.” Will started, standing behind Heather with his hands on her shoulders. “Jake, this is Heather and her friend Liz.”

Jake nodded with a forced smile towards Liz and she responded with a shy “hi” before he looked back at Will. Heather spoke up next. “We already rented a lane before you got here. I guess all we need now are shoes and food.”

“Ok, then. How about you girls take care of the food and we’ll get the shoes. What sizes?” Will asked.

“Just a seven.” Heather answered. “Liz doesn’t have socks, so I doubt she’d dip her feet in those with no protection.”

“I don’t even like my socks going in there without protection.” Will responded with a chuckle. “We’ll be right back.”

The two guys headed to the front desk to rent the shoes. As they were waiting for the employee to return with them when Will leaned over to Jake. “Five minutes into this and you haven’t said a single thing to her. The poor girl’s going to think you don’t like her.”


Jake turned around and leaned against the counter to take in his surroundings. “Kind of hard to like people I’m forced with on zero notice.” He turned around again and placed his elbows on the counter with a sigh. “Still, I can’t really blame her for this.”

“That’s a start I guess.” Will said, receiving the three pairs of shoes. “A better start is actually talking, though.”

Back at the lane the two girls had already gotten the food and Heather was setting up the score screen. Liz was just sitting there sipping her soda and looking around, waiting for the guys to return. “Don’t worry, he’s probably shy too.” Heather said out of the blue. Liz turned to her quizzically before she continued. “Like I said, I don’t know much about him. He just must be shy.”

“He looked more disappointed to me.” Liz said timidly.

Heather bumped into her playfully. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure once things get going he’ll warm up to you. And you to him.”

Liz sighed with discontent and thought that she’d rather not; wishing this evening was already over. She lazily rested her head on her hand and watched the characters that Heather was typing in show up on the screen above. She would just go through the motions like she usually did, get through the night and never see the guy again. That’s the way it was with the others and there was no reason why it would be different this time.

“So, how are we going to play this? Couple versus couple?” A loud voice came from behind, startling the girls a bit. It was Will.

“Battle of the sexes!” Heather shouted as she jumped to her feet to claim her shoes.

As the two of them clowned around Liz kept an eye on Jake, looking for anything she could strike up a conversation about if she was forced to. He wandered around the lane a bit and didn’t appear to be paying attention to her. She grabbed a fry from the meal tray and began nibbling on it out of anxiousness until he finally made his way towards her.

He plopped down next to her with a slight groan and rested his temple against his fingers. “Is something the matter?” Liz choked out quietly.

“No, just have a bit of a headache.” He shifted in his seat slightly to untie his shoes. Placing them under his seat and putting on the rented ones, tapping them on the floor to make sure they fit well.

“Do you want an aspirin?” She asked, starting to reach for her small handbag resting on the floor beside her.

Jake shook his head. “I’m fine. I usually just let them go away on their own.”

Liz pulled a drink from the paper cup holders and placed it on his side of the small table as a way of condolence. Jake thanked her for the soda and took a sip from it. “I guess we’re doing this on the wrong night then.” She commented. Suddenly there was a high-pitched screech that echoed from the arcade area and Jake cringed as it priced his ears. Liz had to stifle a small giggle after seeing his reaction. She thought it was horrible of her to want to laugh about his discomfort, but when she heard him chuckle a bit she allowed it to escape from her lips.

The rest of the night wasn’t as bad as they expected it to be, but it was hardly a success. Jake and Liz didn’t talk much and rather watched Will and Heather goofing off. All together they rolled more gutter balls than they knocked down pins, but they appeared to be having fun anyway, though for some reason Heather wanted a print off of her score of ninety-three.

Everyone decided to call it a night and left the noisy building for the quiet parking lot. A sigh of relief came from Jake as he felt the cool night air ease his pounding head. Will and Heather parted from them as they headed for his car to say their good nights and Jake decided to take Liz to hers. She leaned against the car and stared off into the distance, really giving Jake no mind.

“Listen…” Jake began, breaking the nerve-racking silence. “Tonight really wasn’t the greatest… for several reasons.” Liz only nodded in agreement. “But, some of it was my doing and that wasn’t very fair to you.”

Liz looked up at him a little surprised and felt a bit guilty that he was taking the blame for the night.” Well… I could have been better, too.” She confessed shyly.

“Well, it still wasn’t fair.” Jake pulled a piece of paper and a pen from one of his pants pockets and started writing something down. “I’d like to make it up. Maybe something quieter, something planned.” He finished writing and handed her the sip with his phone number on it. “If you want to take me up on the offer, just give me a call. If not, then… I guess this is it.”

Liz couldn’t think of anything to say at that moment and luckily she didn’t have to. Will had whistled across the parking lot to let him know he was ready and saw Heather already on her way back. Jake looked back once more at Liz and gave a small wave as he walked away.