Bad Idea (Salvis)

Arcades. (6)

Travis Cautiously stepped into the brightly lit Building, Scattered around in aisles were claw machines and games.

Travis couldn't properly look up because of the lights, So he'd stare down at his bandaged knees and bright green shoes that appeared brown in the purple lighting of the entire building.

Travis was well— a bit overwhelmed, with all the noise, And all the lights, It was super unusual for his little mundane life.

Travis was way more used to warm tones, not these outrageous colors that made horrendous shades when their spotlights pointed at each other.

But All these disturbances seemed to at least fade when Sal held his hand (and Larry's) So they won't get lost (Or go gambling on claw machines).

" Travis? Ya doin' great? " Sal yelled, because of the absurdly loud music in this Arcade. You could hear the claw machines' music play with the Arcade music, making the music from the Claw machine distorted.

" N- No, I don't think. " Travis bent down slightly to mumble to Sal, letting go of Sal's hand.

" Well, you could sit in the car for a bit, it'll be quieter in there. " Sal let go of Larry's Hand, Giving him five dollars for the tokens and Hugging Travis' arm to lead him back to the main Entrance.

Travis sat in the back of the car, listening as the music muffled as Sal walked away, thankfully, he brought his phone.

He could text Sal if he needed, but he could handle himself in this horrid Car, it still smelled like cigarettes and McDonald's fries. Even some rust which was concerning.

Travis leaned into the front seat to turn on the air conditioning, so he could have a decent nap in this car.

Larry was going out on claw machines over and over, and aggressively fighting kids on shooter games over popcorn. You could hear the little kids crying over losing to Larry, who was LITERALLY 18.

Larry laughed in their face as Sal walked in, shaking his head disapprovingly.

Sal and Larry proceeded to go back to the token machine to spend more than half their change up for enough tokens to play on the DDR machine.

Larry already ran off while Sal was chasing by, bags full of tokens for a little bit too many rounds of Dance Dance Revolution.

Travis was too scared of the arcade building itself, he can't even dance so he can't join in.

" NO WAY IT'S A SINGLE-PERSON MACHINE DUDE WE'LL HAVE TO TAKE TURNS!! " Larry cried, this man is a teenager and he's sobbing over an arcade machine.

" NOO! " Sal cried as well, crying over the machine with Larry as if they banned metal music from Nockfell.

Sal grabbed Larry's arm, Stomping around to look for another DDR machine.

" It's impossible that single machine is the only one they have, There's gotta be a double out here somewhere! " Sal hopefully cheered to himself, With Larry pointing and stopping Sal from stomping any further.

The machine lit up with white like it was the golden gates of heaven, A DDR machine for TRIOS... Larry immediately dragged Sal to it.

" Dude, we GOTTA play on this one! We could beat a kid on it!!! " Larry grabbed a bag of Tokens from Sal and grabbed a handful of the little branded coins.

" ... Fine. " Sal was defeated, sighing while he watched Larry drop the handful of Tokens into the slot. " What song do you want? And do not pick the hardest one I beg you. "

Larry stepped back from the token slot and put his arms on the back support as the machine announced its own name.

Sal stood in the center of the pad, waiting for Larry to finish picking the song.

Larry aggressively picked the hardest song, ON THE HARDEST SETTING.

" DUDE NOT THAT ONE!! You're literally going to torture our lungs. " Sal whined, scratching his neck before tightly tying his hair in a bun, and stepping on the button for player 2 to be ready.

" Pfft- so what? It gives us a shit ton of tickets anyways. " Larry laughed as the song started playing, absolutely shocked about how fast it was.

THE SONG WAS ABSOLUTE TORTURE.

Sal and Larry started jumping around on the DDR machine at this point, just trying to get through the song instead of perfecting every note.

Sal got through with the highest score out of the two, and Larry was coughing and panting and in need of water.

" Dude- COUGHING -We need to get back to the car real quick my legs are- cough cough -BURNING " Larry stumbled to the car outside, Sal following, stumbling too.

Sal and Larry sat in the front seat of the car, Sal and Larry didn't notice how hot it was in the arcade until they felt the temperature difference in the car and the arcade, Larry dramatically sighed in the front seat as Sal looked behind him, to see Travis laying down in the backseat.

... That explains why the AC was on.

" Dude, Let's probably go to someplace with a card reader or something, you keep losing the tokens. " Sal paused, remembering that Travis didn't like this place with all the tokens. " Also Because maybe I can beat Travis in the arcade shooter games. "

" I think I know one somewhat around the corner, But it's kind of far so Travis should text his dad where he's goin'. " Larry looked at Travis in the backseat, then looked at Sal.

" .. Nah, if his knees were all fucked up and he was still denying help, I think he really shouldn't. " Sal sat back in his seat, stretching out his arms while Larry started driving to the other arcade.

" You should wake him up though if he's still asleep he'll fall off the seat, " Larry warned as he held onto the steering wheel, " or you can attempt to put the seat belts on him. " Larry continued.

" Damn, those are my only options? .. Fiiine. You really can't let a guy sleep in peace. " Sally grumbled as he put a seat belt on himself.

" Yo, what did you say? " Larry glanced at Travis as he turned to look at Sal.

" Your mom. I'm kidding I didn't say anything. " Sal chuckled to themself as they looked to the backseat to call out to Travis, who was still laying down in the backseat. " Trav! Wake up so we can start moving. "

Sal heard brief grumbling before Travis got up, albeit a little bit angry.

" What now, flamers. " Travis sat up, a bit angry he got woken up by a stupid hot- HOMO guy with his brother.

" Uhh, nothing. You wanna fall off the seats while sleeping peacefully, church boy? " Larry turned to look at Travis, and by this point Sal and Larry and looking at Travis in the backseat (Both were pretty annoyed.)

" Shit, am I stuck in a car with hot guys? Damn. " Travis thought to himself, flustering up in embarrassment.

" ... Nope, Stoner. " Travis shook off the thought as he glared at Larry, Glancing at Sally, who looked a bit disappointed.

Sally leaned into their seat, turning away from Travis and Texting Larry as he turned up the music.

Sally Johnson: yo what's up with Trav?
Sally Johnson: should we just get him 2 his home before we go?

Larry would respond to the texts, starting to drive out of the arcade parking lot.

Lar Fisher replied: Idek man, hez kinda out of it.
Lar Fisher replied: nahh, he getz to school with bruises all the damn time, u should ask whatz up with his dad lolz

Larry drives to the other arcade, Looking at Travis in the rearview mirror.

After 30 minutes of driving, they got there, The arcade place with card readers instead of token slots.

Travis knew Sal and Larry had the time of their life but it was a blur from there.