Cage My Heart (Perfect #.5)

•|ғᴏᴜʀ|•

"You cheated," I huff, arms loaded full with tickets.

I lead us over to the machine to count all of our tickets, one more thing I really love about this place. They still keep to the past, not modernizing things the way so many other arcades are, with plastic little cards you swipe on machines to play them and to receive your tickets.

"Tell yourself I cheated all you want, won't change the fact I won." Rory reaches, patting me on the cheek, the gesture slightly  mocking.

I drop the tickets on the ground, they roll to the left a bit and I slide my foot forward to stop it from rolling farther away. Then I twist to face her. "You pretended to sprain your ankle," I reply, deadpan.

"Huh." Rory tilts her head to the side, corner of her mouth ticking up in a smirk. "In the list of rules they never mentioned anything about false injuries being against the stated rules. There was only a side warning that they weren't legally responsible for any injuries sustained, that you are solely responsible. It was war Mr. Trevor and all is fair, any action can be taken to ensure victory, and that's exactly what I did. It is not my fault you came rushing over to your fallen enemies side, you could have shot me first and won the battle."

I shake my head, crouching down to start untangling our tickets to feed them to the machine. "It was laser tag, Rory." I loosen some tickets and hand them off to her.

"Eh, I still won."

"Yeah, yeah. You fought a great battle soldier." I mock salute her, handing off more tickets like it was some metal of honor.

Giggling, she feeds the machine.

Rory plucks the ticket receipt from the machine once all the tickets were counted. She tilts the paper to me so I can read the number, one thousand three hundred and eighty-four.

Pretty good for only two hours worth of gameplay.

Twenty of which was for laser tag where Rory proceeded to own me, if I believed in recarnation I would think she was some sort of military sniper in a past life.

We walk over to the prize counter. Where a pimply faced teenage boy sits in a bar stool, face buried in his phone. Dark hair acts like a curtain shading us from his view, I clear my throat to get his attention. He jerks his head to the side to get his hair out of his face, eyes filled with annoyance, and a fake customer support smile tilting his lips up into something that's supposed to be welcoming.

"Ticket? He asks, tone impatient.

"Here, Seth." Rory hands the the small slip of paper to the boy with a friendly smile.

Seth takes it from her glancing at her briefly, before looking at the ticket for a second, then his gaze snaps back up. A blush colors his cheeks, as he takes her in.

Chestnut hair cascades over her shoulders, the natural waves frizzy from the night, sugar eyes bright with happiness, and lips shiny from her watermelon chapstick. Cheeks flushed from the summer heat, and her pale skin  glistening, with a slight sheen of sweat.

She's beautiful, it's hard to look away from her, especially when she's smiling.

She has one of those smiles that you would purposely do something to embarrass yourself just to see it.

The same with her laugh.

If she finds something really funny, she'll make this cute little choking snort sound.

"Aurora, y-you know my name?"

Amusement flashes in her eyes, lips pursing to stop her laugh.

"It's on your name tag, but I did a project with your sister Morgan our junior year." Rory points to said name tag pinned into his purple and black shirt that all of the arcade employees wear.