In a lifetime

Chapter 40: Eli Bennet

It's been a pretty stressful week and what I'm thinking to cheer everyone up is to have a fun day all together with everyone.

I've actually been thinking of this for a while but I just never really saw the right time to mention it until now.

I mean who wouldn't want to relax with everyone we all know and have fun after having some traumatic experiences, not me. I mean with loss we all need to take a step back before diving too deep and hurting ourselves.

I text everyone to meet at Joseph's house, I never realized how much we use his house for meet-ups, and with a surprise at hand.

Before I head out my dads stop me, calling me into the kitchen they say, "we know you're friends with that kid Joseph and I want you to look after him and if you see signs of him breaking down I want you to call me, okay?" I nod in agreement and head out.

It's sweet that they care about Joseph and a long time ago I would've hated to admit that I cared about him too.

Okay I texted everyone and I mean everyone, Veronica, Nessa, Natalie, Max, Tristan, we are all going to have a great day today and I really feel like it's hard to keep up with relationships so this is also a way of making those up.

Before I walk in I can hear the chatter and once I walk in everyone turns their head towards me. I take a moment to collect my thoughts before saying, "I know I texted all of you out of the blue but I think we could as use this day to really de-stress and why not do it all together" standing here everyone looks at each other and I begin to doubt my idea.

"Sure sounds fun, what you got planned," Joseph says smiling, it really helped bring back my confidence and say, "well I got the whole day planned and we're starting off with the arcade area they just built" everyone jumps at the word "arcade" and even though it is a few miles out it'll be worth it.

We split up for cars since there are too many of us so me, Joseph, Natalie, and Tristan ride with Daniel and the rest with Nessa. Driving there Joseph and Natalie fight over who puts the music and they both agree in sharing it and put on "Ojitos Lindos" by Bad Bunny and carry on the vibe the entire way there.

Once we get there, we get our cards to use the arcade, I also signed us up for some laser tag. Everyone splits in duo's and I made sure they know to meet back in time for laser tag.

Me and Tristan take a look around before we play any games. We started with skeeball and stayed there for a while as we both got competitive with each other, I of course won.

After playing a few of the games, Tristan has his eyes set on the claw machine and looks at me with the face that says "I will win you one of the plushies" I laugh as we head over and to my surprise, Joseph is sitting at the table next to it.

"I'm guessing Daniel is trying to win you something too," I say and he looks over at Tristan taking the machine next to Daniel, he laughs and says, "my money is that none of them get anything" I'm not taking that bet, I know how difficult these claw machines can be.

Natalie joins us at the table and we both laugh as we realize that Max is doing the exact same thing as well. We watch for I'd say a good fifteen minutes before they run out of points and not win anything.

At least it was a kind gesture and they aren't dramatic they didn't win anything.

It's time for laser tag.

We need to break into two groups, I suggest how we should group up and Natalie says, "against our partners of course, me, Eli, Joseph, and Veronica against the four of you" we're all in agreement and head inside to get ready.

The instructor tells us the rules and how the game works and we are set into the "battle arena" with walls everywhere. I turn around and to my surprise I'm alone.

Before we all split we actually made a deal that whatever side loses has to pay for the dinner so I'm pretty sure everyone will take this seriously.

I'm hit twice by Nessa and Daniel before I can find a good hiding spot. Crouched down I run into Joseph on the floor, "what are you doing?" I ask and he looks up laughing, "I don't think I put the vest on right give me a sec," he says before getting up.

He's ready and we head out together, for a while we're doing good not getting hit and getting some points.

Before we know it the game ends and we anxiously await our scores. Looking up at the screen our team won and we gloat in front of everyone.

We head out to our dinner reservation and take a breather after our successful win. Everyone talks about their weekend and makes small talk.

Our food gets handed out and we all dig in. Judging by the looks of everyone's plate I'd say we were all pretty hungry.

After we finish dinner we walk around town as we don't want to head home yet. Natalie and Joseph spot a bar hosting karaoke and we head in.

We take a seat at one of the tables and watch the singers and after they would finish we would judge them in our group.

Everyone makes song requests and heads up, one by one it gets to Joseph's turn. He's nervous cause he admits to not being a good singer at all but he puts "As it was" by Harry Styles and even though he has the voice playing along we can still hear him and he isn't too bad.

After he's done he heads back to us but then it's Natalie's turn who drags him back for a duo. Putting "MAMII" by Becky G she hands him a microphone and we can hear him say "I'm going to kill you after"

Since their not that great of singers, they match almost perfectly and their performance was pretty good considering that their laughing half the time.

After everyone has gone up we head out. Natalie takes a bottle from her purse and tells us she took it from the bartender. We all shake it off and take a drink, Joseph, and Natalie, ended up getting drunk although Joseph is soberer than Natalie is right now.

We drop her home but we help her sneak in to avoid getting caught by her parents. After we put her to bed we all go out separate ways back home and Tristan walks me home and gives me a kiss goodbye as he walks off.

I think today was a success and I'm glad it was, that's a win against Laurel in my book.