i've been thinking about you. || egobang

5

Arin looked around at the large mall. Why would Dan pick a place like this? This is California, after all - a place like this would be crawling with people. The worst part was that it was.

Still no sign of Danny. He was looking for someone with seriously curly hair. Maybe a little shorter than himself, but not by much.

He looked at his phone for the time. Maybe Dan was caught up in traffic. Maybe he forgot. Maybe he was catfi—

"Hiya Arin."
That's the voice he was looking for.

Arin quickly turned around to see the man wearing a brown colored shirt and jeans, and of course, the wildly curly hair. An anxious smile was written across his face. He looked just as relieved to not be catfished or tricked.

"Holy shit, Dan. You look great." Arin smiled too.

"You too! I mean, not like you don't always look great." He held out his hand, waiting for a handshake. It was too formal of a greeting, but that was better than an unexpected hug.

Arin took the offer and gently shook his hand with a small nod. "So where are we off to?"

"The arcade! Let's see if you're better at Guitar Hero than me." He winked before hurrying towards the room through all the crowded people.

Arin followed but occasionally lost his close friend in the crowds. Dan noticed a couple of times and stopped for him.

They went up the escalator, took a left, then walked a little while until they encountered the arcade. Purple lights shone down on the carpet decorated with different colored shapes. There wasn't any music playing inside with the exception of the sounds from the games. Kids were playing inside, as were a couple adults and teenagers. No matter the different locations, arcades manage to always look the same. They loved this about arcades like these.

There were two Guitar Hero machines inside - one of them was open for use.

They both walked towards it and dug through their pockets or wallets. They both had plenty of enough out before realizing arcades slightly changed. Now you needed tokens, and to do that, you had to pay the guy at the counter. Disappointing, but still easy to take care of.

With their tokens now in their pockets alongside the quarters, the two were ready to play.

"Whoever gets the most points win!" Arin challenged.

"Wins what?"

"Uh...a kiss?"

The two laughed.

"How about whoever wins gets to pick the next place to go to. Whether it be in the mall or not."

"You got yourself a deal!" Arin winked and put his token in the slot. He picked up the guitar and chose the song to play. Eventually, he decided to simply go randomly since he couldn't decide.

The colored blocks on the screen fell slowly at first, then the pace started to get faster. This caught him by surprise, which led to panic, which led to missing quite a few and Danny laughing at him as he freaked out.