My lighthouse

Closed Arcade

Conrad's POV..~

I'm brushing my teeth when I hear a notification on my phone on my bed. I go to see who texted me, and find out it's Ryle. Weird. He rarely texts me, everytime I see him, he's always spacing out and he mostly talks directly to Amira unless I ask him something directly. Then he just gives the vaguest response.

R: You free today?

R: Me and Amira are going out of town. Wanna join us?

I read the texts and respond.

C: Yea I'm free, where do you wanna meet?

R: At the mall we went to last week.

C: I'll be there.

I plug my phone in because I need it to be fully charged when I leave, and go downstairs.

I find my mom in the kitchen, feeding Jacob some kind of baby food.

I tried tasting it once. Not doing it again. That shit is horrible, I don't know how babies like it.

I sneak up on her from behind and hug her.

"Oh finally, you're awake!" she says.

"Stop giving me a hard time," I answer, "is there anything I can eat?"

"You can make yourself a sandwich Conrad, it's not that hard."

"Whatever. Where's dad?"

"He went out to get some groceries," she says, making train sounds to get my brother to eat.

I look through the cabinets until I find the peanut butter and jam and start making my sandwich. I can't help it, I like things most people grow out of when they reach middle school, but I will always love Fruit Loops and PB&J and apple juice. My dad always makes fun of me, but it's good natured, so I just laugh and ignore him.

I'm also short so people tend to make surprised faces when I tell them I'm 18.

When I finish my sandwich, I grab a napkin and turn to my mom.

"I'm going out with my friends okay?" I ask, though I know she probably won't mind.

"Alright but don't come back too late."

"I'll try not to, I promise."

I kiss my brother on the head and then get my keys and leave.

I pull out of my driveway and go where Ryle told me to meet them. When we were there last time, we kind of just went through each store and we bought some cool clothes and we all got these matching light blue Nike Airforces. It was a fun day except for the part where I found this really cool shirt and tried it out for them. As soon as I came out of the dressing room, Ryle took one look at me and said he needed to use the bathroom. I didn't know I looked that bad, but Amira said it looked great and that I should definitely buy it and I agreed with her so I bought. Screw Ryle. He doesn't have to like what I wear. And... that's why I'm wearing it right now. He's just going to have to deal.

It's a black short-sleeve shirt that shows off my biceps and is tight around the waist so it also shows off my abs. Even I gotta admit I look hot in it. I'm wearing that with white ripped jeans and black checkered Vans. I get there and see an old red Mercedes that I know belongs to Ryle's dad. I heard him mention it to Amira. I park a few cars down and get out. I lock my car and make my way to him. He's leaning against his car, talking to someone on the phone. He looked a little pissed.

I hear him say bye as I come closer.

"Who was that?" I ask.

He looks up and his jaw drops for a second before he regains his sensing. What's up with him?

"Sorry I was just surprised, I didn't see you," he says clearing his throat, "that was Amira, she says she can't make it."

"Oh umm, do you wanna reschedule this?"

"No it's fine. Me and you will go," he answers, before locking his car and walks to mine.

"Where are we going anyways?" I ask, realizing I have no idea what we were going to do.

"Come on and you'll see," he answers, already a couple feet ahead of me.

I follow him to my car and get in the driver's seat. He can just tell me the directions later. I wait for him to get in and put on his seatbelt before turning to him.

"Ok. Where do I go?"

"Hold on lemme search up the address real quick. I see him copy a link and paste it in google maps. The lady's voice immediately starts talking. "Turn left."

"Alright," I say, putting on my own seatbelt, "it's a 3 hour drive. This better be good."

"It is, I promise," he answers immediately.

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Ryle's POV..~

You've gotta be kidding me.
We just got to the arcade me and Amira go to and it's out of business.

"I swear it was open last week," I say to Conrad, who's banging his head against the wheel.

"Well what do we do now?"

"Umm, would your parents be fine if you spent the night away?" I ask.

"I don't know, why?"

"Well. There's a really nice breakfast place here and it's already 11:43 PM. We'll be back at like 3 and then the breakfast place closes at 12 PM so we won't be able to make it."

A lot of time has passed since we stopped for gas and after that at Chick-fil-A, 'cause we were starving."

"Okay let me ask my mom," he says, biting his lip nervously as the phone rings.

His mom answers and he walks away for little bit to talk to her. I wait until he's done and run to him.

"So?" I ask excitedly, "what did she say?"

"She said ok!" He says jumping up and down like a little kid. He's too adorable.
Wait...what? He's not adorable. Shut up brain.

I laugh at him and then we get back in the car, this time me racing him to the driver's seat.

"You've been driving for 3 hours. It's my turn," I say when he starts protesting.

After I convinced him to let me, he walked to the passenger seat and buckled himself in. I start following the google map directions and 5 minutes later, I hear him snoring gently. He must've been exhausted. There's still 30 minutes left so I let him sleep and focus on the road.

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Yayyyy, another chapter. 🙈
Enjoyyy 🫶🏼