Alex

Chapter Eighteen

Alex

"What's a strike?"

"It's when you hit every pin on the first go." She explained again. "A turkey is when you get three strikes right after each other, and a spare is when you knock out the remaining pins in your second go. Make sense?"

"No, I'm gonna suck at this, aren't I?"

She shook her head and swung our hands back and forth as we walked inside the bowling alley.

"No, you won't. It'll be fun. Come on, we have to buy the shoes for it."

After buying the shoes and putting them on, I bought us some drinks while Rosie put our names on the screen. The alley wasn't packed since it was a weekday, but there were a few other couples playing and laughing.

We were in lane seven and they had some pop music playing in the background and it smelled like buttered popcorn and cheap beer. They had paint on the walls, an arcade inside with a restaurant, and a cinema all in the same building.

I looked at the blue screen and saw our names take up half the screen with ten rows.

"Okay, so you just grab the bowling ball from here." She grabbed one from the rack overflowing with different colors and weighted bowling balls.

It had three holes in it, and I saw her place her pointer and middle finger on the top and her thumb in the bottom one.

"Pick one that has the weight you're comfortable with swinging." She explained. "And then you just..."

She took the steps toward the lane, swung her arm back, then forward. The ball rolled down on the floor loudly and I saw it roll down the lane and hit the pins.

"Did you see that? I just knocked down eight of them!" She shouted, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. "

I get another chance to see if I can knock the other two pins down." She grabbed another bowl and repeated the action, but she didn't knock them down. "That's fine. Okay, it's your turn."

She ushered me over and I grabbed a bowling ball and she stood beside me as she watched me. I reared my arm back and swung the ball and it went fast and before it could hit any of them it rolled to the side.

"What the fuck was that?" I exclaimed.

"It's fine, Alex, it happens. Try again."

I reached for another ball, and she cheered me on as I took my second chance to knock them down. The ball rolled and only knocked down one.

"Good job!"

I gave her a dry look. "Don't cheer. You got eight on the first try."

"Babe, it's your first time. You're doing good. It just takes practice."

I went and grabbed my beer and came back to watch her take her turn. She cheered loudly when the pins clattered loudly, every single one of them falling with her first hit.

"Strike!" She squealed. "Your turn."

I gave her the beer and she took a sip as I grabbed a ball.

"If I don't hit any of these bitches, we're leaving."

She cackled and shook her head at me. "I didn't know you were such a sore loser Alex."

I rolled the ball, and my eyes watched the little bowling ball of shit roll down the lane and swore under my breath when I only hit one pin.

I grabbed another bowling ball, and this time threw it with more anger, and when it didn't hit any I looked to see Rosie holding back a laugh.

"This lane is fucking rigged."