Lazer Tag Life

10

It was 9am. A really cloudy day, put it was still nice. Aesthetic days, I like to call them.

I found myself repeating history again by waiting in my car in front of my ex-workplace, my three...loud...best friends arguing about something in the back.

"I'm not gay...but Michael Phelps is the hottest swimmer ever. Period," Alex was stating.

"You don't even have to be gay!" Nick hissed. "Katie Ladecky is adorable! And in our age range!"

"This is stupid. I'm just sitting here rooting for the South African Men's team," Bob sighed, sipping his coffee in the corner. "The Olympics are, like, five months from now anyway."

"Meet me then." Alex pointed at Bob. "We'll see who's really the hottest."

"Oh look! It's Paige!" I exclaimed. Thank God for her. I couldn't listen to this conversation anymore.

I rolled down the window so I could talk to her. "Hey! How's it going? It's been a while."

"I've been okay." She slightly cringed. "Rocky didn't want me to come, so we kinda got into a little fight last night. No big deal, it'll be okay once we settle this and get your jobs back."

I frowned. I didn't want Paige and Rocky to fight over us, it was stupid. We needed to settle this as soon as we could.

"So," I started awkwardly. "The plan that the four of us has thought of is that you act as our coach and we act as four soccer players who want to do lazer tag. We play and see how the girls work together and you sit on the couch, waiting."

"Sounds good." Paige nodded, a determined look on her face. "Let's do it."

The five of us walked in, acting out the "loud team and fed up coach" stereotype perfectly. It was kind of hard for me to act and NOT be distracted by the absolutely horrible country music that was blasting from the speakers. 

There were two girls at the desk, both looking at their phones. 

Now, I never understood why old people got so mad at teenagers enjoying a product form their generation, but you always have to be on the lookout at work. And still, we have our own conversations with each other at work. If someone is texting someone else when I try to talk to them or show them something, I get pissed. I roast them in front of my other co-workers and they join in. This was the first sign.

When we walked up, it took a while to get their attention. The whole game registration was awkward. Even though these girls have been working for almost two weeks, they acted like strangers, running into each other, saying 'excuse me' often, and just those blank expressions. My eye twitched without me even realizing.

A third girl with extremely curly hair and a really nice tan came up, seeming a little more energetic. "Hey guys! Ready to play? You guys have to set up teams, so it'll be two on two." She pointed at Bob and I, and we stepped to the side, separating us from Alex and Nick. "Who wants to be red, and who wants to be blue?"

If this girl was Alex on his first week, he would have been letting this kids choose ridiculous names. That wasn't a new thing with him. It was stressing me out how much I missed working here. 

We were blue, and Nilex got red. She led us to the back, while I bombarded her with questions.

"So, is there team captains between you guys?"

"No, we kinda just let the kids run themselves. We don't like to get involved. It's a hassle."

I almost choked right there. A hassle? I mean, you have to work here, why not make it enjoyable? God.