Holiday Camp Romance

Chapter 9

Luckily for me, the day continued with zero crashes. Luke's conversation seemed to pick up throughout the day too and he actually started taking an interest in my life. This was when the queues were slow, people would come in bursts and I remembered someone warning me about how it would be like this for the first few days of the season.

When it hit 2 O'clock, Jason popped by and we went for lunch together at the pub on the resort and shared a bowl of chips. I was weirdly relieved to have an hour away from Luke, having a conversation with him was like pulling teeth after spending 4 solid hours with him. Jason asked all about my first shift and how I found it, I did the same. The hour we spent together whizzed by and before I knew it, we were both heading off to finish the next 4 hours of our shifts.

The fairground got sparser throughout the afternoon, the entertainment in the pavilion tent was drawing the few customers in the resort towards the center stage. The sunlight gradually began to fade and by the time it hit 6 O'clock the sun had set.

"All done?" Jason's head popped up from behind the fence.

"Hey! Erm..." I turned to Luke, giving him a questioning look.

"Yeah, I'll lock up, you guys go." He gave a dismissive wave and before he could fully finish, I was off.

My first proper day was finished! It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, I was more excited for the shifts coming up with Jason as I could only imagine the banter we would have back and forth between rides.

"Thanks, Luke!" I shouted over the gate as Jason and I walked away.

"All okay?" Jason bumped my hip as we walked.

"Yeah, better than expected!" I bumped him back.

"First day complete, I think that calls for a drink to celebrate!" Jason walked ahead of me and spun around, walking in front of me but backwards.

"I'm not arguing!" I laughed at him as he nearly tripped over.

We decided to head back through the fairground, back to our rooms to get changed out of the work uniform so guests wouldn't think we were still on duty. I met Jason back outside his room when I was ready and we headed into the pavilion tent, I'd noticed not a lot had changed inside since I'd last visited apart from the addition of more arcade slot machines.

"Wanna play snooker?" Jason paused as we passed the entrance of the pub styled bar with bowling, snooker and an arcade inside.

I screwed my face up in distaste "I don't know how to play."

"How about bowling then? You must know how to play that." He smirked.

"Now bowling I could give you a run for your money on." I mirrored his smirk.

"Well, that sounds like a threat." Jason circled me.

"I'll make it a promise." I dodged past him and went straight through the entrance.

The area was a lot more adult-friendly than the rest of the pavilion, there was an over 18 only section of the arcade containing slot machines and other gambling type games I'd never seen before. The pub section had a few older, balding men sat there having a pint and watching a football game on the projector screen. I frowned in bewilderment and wondered what they were doing in the resort at all.

"You'd be surprised to know they're regulars here." I jumped in shock as Jason's lips whispered into my ear.

I gave him a surprised look.

"Weird, I know. Now C'mon!" He grabbed my hand and led me to the bowling alley counter.

A guy who looked a few years older than us was stood on the opposite side, dressed in all black as we had been, but instead of a red windbreaker, he was wearing a Butlins lanyard and name tag.

"Ben!" Jason fist pumped the guy from across the counter, it looked like they knew each other well.

"Jason, it's been what, a week? Usually, you're in here all the time. I've missed you, man!" Ben looked between me and Jason as he spoke.

"Yeah, well, Luke's no competition anymore, I beat him one too many times. This is Lottie, my new competitor and she's one of the new rides girls." Jason put his arm around me as he spoke about me. I automatically nudged closer into the embrace.

"Lottie! Nice to meet you, welcome to the team!" Ben stuck his hand out and shook it.

"Likewise!" I gave him a genuine smile.

"Right so a size 10 and?" Ben grabbed a pair of bowling shoes from under the counter, passed them to Jason then looked at me expectantly.

"Oh, a 7 please." I thanked him for the shoes after he gave them to me.

"Let's go, loser." Jason patted me on the head as he walked passed me and up the platform to where the bowling alley was.

"Hey!" I complained while catching up to him.

"You set the screen up, I'll go get the drinks." Jason jogged back down the platform and over to the bar area.

I set up the screen and added both our names to the board, I then tried to pick out a ball to use but couldn't quite find one that was light enough with the right sized holes. I gave up and just picked one that was light enough for me to actually hold. Jason came back with two large, fruity looking drinks in his hand.

"I already picked up that cider is your choice of drink on the first night." Jason handed me the drink and I nodded in approval.

"You have a good memory!" I was genuinely impressed he'd bothered to pick up on such a small detail, he actually cared which was sweet. I clinked my glass against his in cheers.

"Yeah, yeah." His cheeks tinted pink and he looked down at his shoes "You ready to lose?" He looked back up and our eyes met, the cheeky grin on his face was instant.

I rolled my eyes playfully and put my drink on the table surface by the chairs dividing each bowling lane. I picked up the ball I had chosen earlier and turned to face him.

"Watch this!" I spun around and swung the ball as hard as I could, it went flying down the lane, hitting all 10 pins.

I slowly turned around with a huge smirk plastered to my face. Jason's eyes were wide in shock.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that!" He high fived me as I walked back down to him.

The rest of the evening was spent with us hanging out in the pub area, we finished 3 games of bowling, I won 2 and Jason won 1. He demanded a rematch another day as soon as we had finished. I agreed.

We were going through the pints of cider throughout the evening, I'd had enough to finally let Jason teach me how to play snooker. I was doing terribly but enjoyed making Jason laugh with my crap techniques more than I was playing the actual game. We had missed dinner at the staff canteen hours ago so decided to share some nachos from the pub instead. It was an added bonus when the bill came and I discovered staff got 50% off food and drink. By the time the bill come it had hit 10.30pm. The time had flown by, we'd been here for hours and I hadn't even realized because we'd been having so much fun.

We both mutually decided we should head back to our rooms, after all, we did have work in the morning. On the walk back I found myself already becoming sad that the night had come to an end, Jason was really growing on me and we were getting closer and closer every day. I'd never been friends properly with a guy before, but it was really nice.

We reached the corridor housing both our rooms and like he always did, Jason walked me to my door. He wrapped his arms around me, his head resting above my own.

"Night, Lottie." He whispered I felt his head move and his lips kissed the top of my head. My eyes widened in surprise.

"Night," I whispered back, unsure how to react.

He pulled back and smiled, giving me a wink as he turned around and walked back down the corridor into his room. I let out a breath of air I didn't realize I had been holding until he was out of sight. I leaned back into my door until it gave way with the pressure, opening it and walking over to my bed, falling onto it.

As confused as I was about what Jason just did, I kind of liked it...