Daydream Believer

xcviii. pizza and breakups

xcviii. pizza and breakups

The only reason Aaron was still coming to our bowling practices was for the pizza. Aaron and I had developed a habit of having one snack from the vending machine during lunch at school on bowling days and then consuming huge amounts of pizza after school. At least it was better than eating school pizza.

The odd thing was that Michelle and Aaron rarely, if ever, talked to each other. Occasionally they would disappear into the arcade together for a few minutes, but it seemed like they barely knew each other sometimes. They were more like acquaintances than boyfriend and girlfriend.

As usual, Michelle was already at the bowling alley when we arrived. Obnoxious pop music was blaring from the speakers, which were undoubtedly connected to some upperclassman's phone. Michelle and I were among the more senior members of the team now. Maybe someday we would get to control that.

"Hey McKenna!" Michelle said. "Ready to go crush some little kids?"

"Yep," I said. "Aaron's here, by the way."

Michelle frowned. "Okay," she said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," Michelle said. "Let's just play."

I found my lucky ball and we started playing. Aaron cheered us on, but he seemed rather unenthusiastic today. Something was obviously up with Aaron and Michelle.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Michelle at one point.

"I'm fine!" Michelle shouted.

She didn't seem fine, but I really didn't want to bother her. We kept playing and won easily. At that point, I was starving. I went over to Aaron and took a slice of pizza.

"Is everything okay with Michelle?" I asked him.

Aaron shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I kind of broke up with her."

"How do you kind of break up with someone?" I asked.

"You know what I mean," he replied.

"When did this happen?"

"Last week."

"Why did you break up with her?"

"Stop with the questions!" Aaron shouted. He really was acting weird. I shrugged and took another slice of pizza. This didn't really matter anyways.